“Did he.” Elrion nodded. “That is something, I suppose, not that it matters anymore.” He started to walk again. “But this only makes it worse, Aerhril, because you knowingly sent a pregnant woman across that pass, to a world she did not know, and I cannot understand why you would do such a thing.”
She walked, too. She tried to think of a lie. “She… displeased me. We had a quarrel over…”
“Quarrel?” He looked at her. “When have you had a conversation long enough to quarrel? You are never with her.”
She could not think of anything plausible, nothing at all. Her brain was entirely blank, and she was panicked and ashamed and she did not know what to do. If Flaihir was still there, perhaps she could have said to him that she must speak to him later and consulted the other elf, but Flaihir would have been horrified to learn that she had done this thing in a fit of jealousy over an orc.
“Here it is, then,” he said, his voice hard. “I need to understand why if I am to marry you. Because, when we are married, you will be my responsibility, and I must bear the consequences for your actions. If I do not understand why you have done this, I do not know how to determine if I will be able to do so. I cannot have a wife who is cruel in this way. You must tell me why, or the marriage is off.”
She stopped walking. What would become of her if he did not marry her? She had broken all ties with the steward andCeledin, choosing to go with Elrion instead of with them. They would throw her out of Foxglove Peak, she thought, and she would have nowhere to go.
Dathor was going to be incredibly angry with her. He would… could she even count on his help, not that he could provide much help, anyway?
Elrion stopped, several paces ahead. He turned back to her, but he did not close the distance between them. “As I say, Aerhril, I can be a forgiving man. If I can understand it, I can… well, perhaps you need some sort of gentle correction from a husband, perhaps if you have certain flaws, I can help you to redress them. Tell me. There is one chance the marriage goes forward, and it is that you tell me.”
She started to shake. But what choice did she have now? Everything was ruined no matter what. Could he forgive her this? Oh, but even if he did, what then became of Dathor? Maybe she could conceal the full extent of it. “I was jealous.”
He took a step towards her. “Jealous?”
“I… Dathor is an orc, obviously, so it is all just a strange and idiotic fantasy on my part, for he does not return any of my admirations. I only did not like him having been with Nathre.”
“A fantasy?” He stepped even closer. “A fantasy of what?”
She looked at him in horror. “Well, you know what I mean.”
His lips parted. “Your desire is for… that.”
“He was kind to me when I was a girl. He has always been kind to me. There was a long period of time when he was the only person who was kind to me. I suppose I felt like Nathre had taken him from me.”
“You sentenced a pregnant woman to a long march across Rathog Pass because you had a fantasy?” he said, his voice hard.
“Yes,” she said.
He turned away, rubbing his forehead. “He came, did he not? With Celedin, the day that Celedin was rude. I thoughtit was strange, a servant coming after an elf lady, but I brushed it aside, I suppose. It was the first thing you said, after I asked you to marry him, the very first thing. That we must bring him to Thelandel Chapel. That’s not a fantasy, Aerhril. And he…” He turned back around. “Igbar says he entirely abandoned Nathre, and she would not reveal why, but she said there was another woman.” He gestured at her.
She swallowed.
He stepped closer. “How far has it gone?”
She shook her head. “It is only in my mind, I assure you.”
“Have you lain with that orc?”
“No,” she said. “No, I swear to you, I am intact. I am still a maiden.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“He is insistent that he will never sire another half-breed like himself, so you can be assured—”
“So, everything except that, then, is what I might imagine.” He looked her up and down. “Because that sort of jealousy, between the two of you, his taking Nathre in response to your agreeing to marry me, and then your sending her off like that? That jealous behavior is borne of having possessive feelings over the other’sbody.”
She did not say anything.
“It’s grotesque,” he said with a shrug. “That Dathor exists at all is grotesque. We are different species. We are not meant for… that.”
She had not expected that from him. She had expected him to be open minded, the revolutionary who had marched with orcs. Grotesque? Truly?
“You’re entirely tainted,” he said with a sigh. “The marriage clearly can’t go forward.”
