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How many of those questions did she expect him to answer? He swayed in time to the motion of the boat. Exhaustion was beginning to seep into his muscles, resting heavy and gritty on his eyelids. It had been an early morning and a long day. How did she have so much energy this late into the evening?
She sighed and sagged against the rail, her smile dimming. “Never mind. Guess I’ll find out myself.”
What had he done to make her stop smiling? And what did he have to do to bring her smile back?
“We have trains.” Everything in him wanted to turn and run. Why could he not say something intelligent when he was around her?
“Oh, good. That will make things easier.” She yawned, covering her mouth with a hand.
So she was tired. Was all this chatter her way of hiding her tiredness?
His own tiredness weighed on his shoulders and eyelids. In normal circumstances, he would have retired for the night long before this.
“You can call me Essie, by the way. I like it so much better than Elspeth. But Elspeth was my grandmother’s name, and I heard she was a nice person, so I am honored to carry her name, even if I prefer my nickname.” Somehow she managed to say all that even while yawning yet again.
The shortened name Essie did seem to suit her better than Elspeth did. Yet he struggled to get his mind around the concept of shortening names like that. Did it not diminish the meaning behind it? As his name meant fair one or, more properly translated, he of the fair hair, shortening his name to Farren would be like calling him just by his hair color. He was not sure of the Escarlish equivalent, but it would be something like Blondie. Or calling her Red.
Her gaze flicked to him before focusing on the nearing trees. Her mouth pressed into a thin line, the smile disappearing from her eyes.
Right. He had been too busy thinking to manage a response to her. What was she expecting him to say?
The ship eased against the wharf. The gangplank was lowered, and Farrendel held out his arm for Princess Elspeth. She once again gripped his elbow instead of resting her hand on the top of his forearm, but he was far too tired to attempt to explain.
He led the princess on the short walk from the wharf to the train. A few servants passed them going the other direction to gather the things from the ship to load onto the train. Farrendel stopped one of them and asked the servant to load Princess Elspeth’s things into Farrendel’s train car.
To give the servants time to load the car, Farrendel led Princess Elspeth to the seating car. She climbed inside, gazing about with wide eyes and a smile in place. When she spotted the benches, she plopped onto one and stretched out. “Wake me up when we get there.”
Wait, what? Farrendel stared at her as she curled onto the bench. Did she intend to sleep there? He was supposed to be the one sleeping on a bench, not her.
He had planned to show her to his sleeping car and give her the bed. The car had locking doors, so she would have felt safe while he slept out here.
And yet, here she was, curling up on a bench without even waiting to be shown around. Did humans not have sleeping cars and proper beds on their trains? Rather barbaric, if that was the case.
Her shoulders already rose and fell in sleep. How did she manage to go from chattering nonstop to asleep within moments?
She was so innocently naïve. She did not fear what would happen if she slept with enemies around her. She was not afraid of waking up alone in the dark with stone threaded beneath her skin, pinned to the floor and helpless.
She was trusting, so very trusting. Without a fear that she could be hurt as she slept.
Should Farrendel carry her to the sleeping car? It would be more comfortable for her, yet he did not wish to touch her without her permission, not even for something as innocent as that.
Weylind entered the train, then glanced down at Princess Elspeth, raising an eyebrow.
Farrendel shifted. “She seemed to wish to sleep here.”
Weylind gave a small shrug. “Then let her. You should get a good night of rest. It will be a long day tomorrow as well.”
Another long day, when he got married yet again.
He hesitated. There were few others on the train. She was safe.
Yet he could not leave her alone. It was still his job to make sure she was safe. He might not be able to gift her with his heart as ought to be the case in a marriage, but he could gift her this. While she was in Tarenhiel, she would never, ever have to fear for her safety. Not from him, not from any elf.
Farrendel eased onto the bench across from Princess Elspeth. “I will stay here.”
Weylind shook his head and huffed, as if he wanted to mutter under his breath about not getting attached to tricky, short-lived humans. He left the seating car, headed for his private train car.
Farrendel stretched out on the bench, though he avoided looking at Princess Elspeth. She did not need him to stare at her while she slept.
