"I'll speak one to you. If I let you read a word, you'll read the whole letter," Goneril replied. She frowned, and shut her eyes for a moment, before leaning in close to him, even as she let herself be pressed against the wall. "How's this?" she asked, whispering in his ear. "Bruising."

He propped a hand against the wall and leaned his weight on it. "'Bruising'? That wasn't quite I was expecting." As a precaution he glance quickly over both sides of her neck, but he hadn't left any marks so that avenue didn't seem to be correct.

She smirked at him, and bit her lip. "Creeping. Vivid. Certainty. Fantastical. Now you've gotten five words, and you weren't meant to get any until you got back home, you naughty man."

A slow, wolfish grin spread over his face. "And here I was expecting poetry."

"Poetry?" Goneril asked, looking confounded. "I'm terrible at poetry." She relaxed a little, lowering the hand with the letters to her side. "I'm probably terrible at this, too, but it doesn't have to scan, at least." She tilted her head. "I thought it was obvious what they were."

"The other night you were asking me to write and tell you what I was having for breakfast." He moved his arm and stood back so she could escape. "Well. Now you have made it very hard not to peek. On my honor I will not so much as break a seal until we reach Knockma. We can go put them at the bottom of my trunk right now, so I won't even be able to get at them until I'm in my own room and unpacked."

"Well, yes," Goneril replied, clutching the letters between both hands. "And I want you to write me about breakfast. And I'll write you about breakfast. But I can't very well write about breakfast when we've been spending nearly every minute together, can I? Anyhow, Fiona knows you're not allowed them until you reach home. I trust her, if not you."

"You've got the Queen safeguarding them? Don't you trust me?" He frowned, his eyebrows bending together; even the tips of his ears drooped downward.

Goneril giggled at him. "You're a horrible person," she informed him. "I trust you with them. I don't trust them with you."

"If I'm a horrible person then there is nothing those letters could possibly do to me. I'll be immune, like an adder to its own bite." He heaved a deep sigh. "All right. If you insist. If you give them to Fiona you may as well seal them up in a block of ice and let me wait for the spring thaw. The woman is absolutely impervious."