“Horrid!” said Flaihir. “Whatever the case, we mustcollect your trunk and be on our way, I think, and—”
“Would you sit here and sob?” said Celedin, leering at her. “I think you would. I remember the way you cry, little yellow pale thing.”
Aerhril did not react to this but Flaihir was all astonishment.
The next day, as they settled down for their lesson—they were learning about the ins and outs of throwing a dinner party, and today was focusing on the way to seat people to ensure good conversation—Flaihir said to her as she opened the book they were using, an elvish book of manners, “Is your future husband that way with you often?”
“What way?” said Aerhril, truly confused.
“His voice was so ugly,” said Flaihir. “And the way he looked at you, my lady, it was as if he despised you.” She was already called my lady, even though she was not yet the stewardess, because she was engaged to be married, and it was a courtesy given to her during the engagement period. “You seemed not to register it, which tells me it is often that way with him.”
Aerhril lifted a shoulder. “Oh, it’s nothing. We were children together, as you know. You know the way children can call each other names.”
“Perhaps,” said Flaihir, “when they are children. He is grown or nearly. He should not be treating you that way.”
Aerhril did not know what to say to that.
Flaihir looked into the pages of her book. “If you tell anyone that I said this to you, I will deny having said it, do you understand?”
Aerhril’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I think your best course of action is to be so charming at the local dances that you snag the eye of some other elf lord.”
“But I am already engaged, and anyone who wished to marry me would have to pay Celedin a bride price to break our engagement.”
“Oh, that would excite the right sort of man,” Flaihir said. “There are men out there who would be eager for you. Youmust choose wisely. Someone a bit older, I think, someone who would be flattered by your attentions, someone who would regard you as a prize. If you wish it, we can switch our strategy entirely to the art of successful flirtation with the intent to snag a man.”
“That’s something that can be studied?”
Flaihir smirked. “But of course.”
“Then… why…?” Aerhril shut her eyes, shaking her head. “Oh, apologies, that was rude.”
Flaihir looked confused for a moment and then the corners of her mouth tugged up in a tight smile. “You mean, if it’s something that can be studied and learned, then why did I not find myself a husband? You mean, you would rather not learn from someone who could not manage it herself?”
“It was rude,” said Aerhril. “Truthfully what I mean is that it is impossible to control others in that way. If a man wants you, he wants you, but he cannot be made to want you if he does not want you. I don’t think it’s possible.”
“I am not saying that you can engineer true and lasting love,” said Flaihir. “But obsession? Brief and intense desire? Make him unable to think of anything besides you long enough to make sure that he does anything and everything to have you, including taking you from Celedin? That I think we have a better chance of achieving. Do you wish to learn? Perhaps you are happy enough with this match you have made.”
“I want him to be very, very rich,” said Aerhril fiercely. “I want to be taken away from this dirty place to somewhere civilized.”
Flaihir smirked. “You are a little southern snob in the end, are you not?”
Aerhril tucked down her head, ashamed of herself.
“No, no, of course you want a rich man,” said Flaihir, closing her book. “All right, here is the first lesson. Men want to feel necessary. They want to feel as if you need them and you’d be lost without them. This is why so many women pretend to be helpless around men and why it worksso very well.”
“Pretend to be helpless,” murmured Aerhril, getting out a piece of paper and beginning to take notes. “Got it. Next?”
“No, no,” said Flaihir. “I am not advising you to pretend to be helpless. That’s not going to make a man fight for you. It will flatter him in the short term, but he needs to also feel as if you are worthy of him, that he earns you.”
“Be helpless and aloof?”
Flaihir laughed. “No, no, better. We get to know whoever the man is who we want to target and we find out what it is that he’s good at, and then we manufacture a need for his best and most important talent, so that he feels as if he’s rescuing you by doing something he would do for fun.”
Aerhril nodded slowly. “I see. That’s… that’s very good, Flaihir.” She paused. “How is it that you do not come to have a husband?”
Flaihir shrugged. “I’m ruined, of course.”
