That word resounded for a long time in his head, as impossible. Lucia was
standing at the door of the small room and for the first time in many years I did not feel that she had been cornered.
She looked at Nantan and tried to understand how it had happened that the man everyone called a cruel savage turned out to be the only one who gave him the right to decide for herself.
That night he didn't sleep for a long time. He heard the wind in the hills, the slight crackling of the fire and the footsteps of Nantan outside. He had really stayed there, as he had said. She did not try to enter, did not demand anything, did not remind her that according to the laws of the people she already belonged to him.
At dawn Lucia went out into the courtyard. Nantan was sitting by the fire, quietly sharpening a knife. Seeing her, she only nodded, as if her silent agreement was the most natural thing in the world.
