AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lio hadn’t used such words with her before. They meant something entirely different coming from him than from the men who said crude things about women’s’ bodies. She put her hands to her flaming cheeks, but she smiled.
The teasing light in his eyes gave way to gentleness. “You know you can talk with me about anything. Nothing you choose to say is outside the scope of our Oath of honesty. Our promise takes precedence over all Tenebran strictures, as we’ve often agreed.”
“Yes.”
He grew more serious. “If you needed a healer, I hope you would mention it. You could see a proper physician in the Healing Sanctuary. You don’t have to make do with mortal medicine.”
“What are you worried about, my champion? No enemy mages have tried to poison me this week.”
“Thank the Goddess,” he said gravely. “But I wasn’t referring to that. There are more usual reasons to need a healer, and if you did, it would be nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“So far, frosty Orthros agrees with me exceedingly. I’m not going to catch cold.” She pulled her feet up onto her chair, sipping her coffee again.
He was quiet a moment, but the furrow in his brow told her he was not satisfied. He took a swallow of coffee before speaking again. “You’ve been here longer than twenty-eight days.”
“That’s right, the month of Daedala is about to end, isn’t it?” she was able to say without looking at the Hesperine calendar in the back of her dictionary. “We’re almost to the month of Anastasios, so important to your bloodline.”
“There’s something that hasn’t happened since you arrived. My understanding is that it’s usually every twenty-eight days, but I know it can sometimes vary. Is that usual for you? Is there any reason to be concerned?”
Oh.Oh.He was not referring to colds or the Orthros calendar. He was, in his well-reasoned and meticulously respectful way, referring tothat.
She shouldn’t be surprised. This was Lio. Concerned, protective, and utterly free from shame. He would think of it, even before she did. Even though, as a Hesperine, he couldn’t sire children and needn’t pay attention to whether her courses came.
She had no words for this occasion. She seldom spoke of the matter with other women. She had no idea how to broach the subject with a man.
Not a man—a Hesperine. Lio. But for once, his Hesperine nature made it more difficult to talk with him. Or did it?
Although her embarrassment was spiraling downward into the deepest mortification, she made a jest. “No, don’t worry. I’m not with child.”
Lio laughed, a surprised, affectionate sound. “Thank you so much for setting my mind at ease. I was beside myself. I’m not usually so irresponsible, you know.”
“We really must stop forgetting to hang the barrenness charm over the bed.”
Their laughter began to unravel the mess of humiliation within her and to banish the voices of generations of Tenebran mothers reciting superstitions in her head. Her time with Lio had long since drowned out the contemptuous words of men.
She shook her head in wonderment. “You, a Hesperine, are more aware about mortal females than most mortal men.”
“It would ill behoove us to be insensitive to the needs of humans. Especially those upon whom we depend. Also, we’re not squeamish about blood.”
This time she choked on a laugh. “The mere mention of this subject is enough to send most hardened Tenebran warriors running in terror.”
“I did notice Tenebrans seem to have an irrational fear of females in general.”
“I’m glad you’re not frightened of me, dangerous as I am.”
“How could I be uncomfortable with anything about you, from your head to your toes? Need I say this is also something you needn’t feel any embarrassment about?”
With all her might, Cassia pushed away her memories of apologizing on her knees before her father that her monthly courses had arrived at the wrong time. Of carefully counting how many days it had been since she had last used feminine weakness as an excuse.
She looked into Lio’s tender, dark blue eyes. “I’m not—that is, I don’t…” She took a deep breath, then sighed, then got stuck on the knot in her throat.
Lio wouldn’t care.
The beginning and end of his interest in the matter was to make sure she was in good health. Beyond that…no judgment. No pity. No consequences.
“I’m barren,” she said. “I don’t have monthly courses.”
And she found herself able to shrug about the lack of that bane, which was in itself a bane of her existence.
