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I had nothing left to say to my husband, I told myself. And I didn’t care if he had anything to say to me—I wasn’t listening.
20
Dinner in the Banquet Hall that night was a silent affair. I sat at Liath’s right hand as always with his Great Aunt Acosta on my other side. The food was delicious and plentiful as always, but I found I had no appetite.
After trying several more times to speak to me, Liath seemed to have given up. He was brooding in silence, his face like a thundercloud, and I was keeping quiet as well.
I couldn’t get over what I had learned. I kept picturing Liath looking into the Pool of Seeing, watching me be tormented by my cousins and feeling sorry for me. And then telling himself it was his duty to marry me and watch out for me, since I was his best friend’s little sister. Poor little thing with no magic and no beauty and no way to protect herself—how sad. How pitiful.
How pathetic.
“Well, you’re certainly not eating much tonight, dearie,” Liath’s Great Aunt Acosta remarked, breaking into my dark thoughts.
“Oh, er—I’m not very hungry,” I mumbled. Making small talk with Liath’s mad Great Aunt was the last thing I wanted to be doing, but of course I couldn’t be rude to her either.
“Well, more for me!” she exclaimed, taking a large helping of venison from the steaming platter in front of us and grinning at me with her white, stolen teeth.
“I wish you the joy of it,” I said coolly. “I have no appetite myself.”
“Mayhap you’re pregnant, then!” she said brightly. “Having a baby in your belly can often make you sick to your stomach, you know my dear.”
“No,” I said shortly. “I’m certain it’s not that.”
“No?” She looked disappointed. “What a shame! And you so ripe for childbearing, with those nice wide hips of yours!”
I bit my lip. I would never tell her, of course, that there was no way I could be pregnant since Liath and I hadn’t actually consummated our marriage yet. When I asked about it—timidly, since he was so very large—Liath always said there was no hurry. He told me he wanted to take his time, learning my body, helping me grow my magic, bringing me along slowly because “some things just can’t be rushed, little bird.”
Now I wondered if he was making excuses not to take me. What had seemed like a kindness before seemed suspicious to me now. Was he planning to get rid of me? Until our Joining was consummated, it wasn’t fully legal. He could simply say I was still a virgin—which I was—and throw me over the moment he got bored of me.
Such awful thoughts were filling my mind and distracting me that I hardly noticed when Great Aunt Acosta asked me if I would like to try some of the “special wine” she had brought. I simply nodded my head, and when she poured it into my glass and urged me to try it, I lifted the goblet to my lips and drained it, scarcely tasting the bitter flavor that lingered on the back of my tongue.
“Good, good—you drank it all!” Great Aunt Acosta clapped her withered hands in apparent delight. “That will take care of any problems you have conceiving, I’m sure of it, dearie!”
I had no idea what she was talking about—I thought her words were simply the ravings of the mad. So I only smiled as well as I was able and thanked her for the wine.
It wasn’t until later, when I was getting ready for bed, that I felt the effects…
21
“I’ll sleep on one of the couches—you can have the bed,” Liath growled at me, the moment we entered our bed chamber.
My stomach knotted unhappily. I didn’t actually want to sleep away from him. From the very first night I had slept in his arms, curled up against his muscular side and breathing in his warm, spicy scent. I didn’t like the idea of spending the night alone in the big, empty bed.
It was on the tip of my tongue to apologize and say I didn’t want to sleep apart…but he had already turned his back to me and was heading to the living area.
Head drooping, I made my way to the bathing chamber. I would take a long soak in the tub, I told myself—just as I had on my first night here. I would pamper myself and use the bath salts and the special hair ointment which was meant to make my long, midnight blue tresses shine like glass.
Then I remembered that it was Liath who had given me the ointment as a present and frowned. Perhaps I wouldn’t use it after all. Maybe I would use something else—or else not bother with washing my hair. It didn’t really need to be washed since Liath had done that for me, just the other night when we had taken a bath together.
