Chapter 119

"You should know," Yuta said to Noriko as they prepared to leave, "that you can hide nothing from either of Renko-san's parents and her father, at least, likes to meddle."

"It would be through him that they all knew about us?" Noriko spoke evenly but did not like one bit the idea of dragons knowing all her business. Privacy was hard to come by normally and a veneer of courtesy customarily overlaid one's personal feelings as did an overriding desire for social harmony. Noriko was accustomed to an inner privacy, a personal world in which her own feelings and opinions flourished without restraint.

"That would be my guess." He gestured at Noriko to precede him out the front door of the inn. She was the one who knew where they were going, though as a man and her husband he would normally precede her.