In Which Falidor Calls at a Girl's House

February 2, 1156

So this is her house, Falidor thought to himself as he took a minute to observe the building. It didn't look too different from his own--only a little smaller, and with fewer windows. Of course, three people didn't need a big house, especially if one was only a baby; they were probably more comfortable than his own household of seven.

Oh, but he was being an idiot, thinking himself less fortunate than Thetis. It was Thetis, after all, who was only fourteen and married to an abusive man more than twice her age, as well as the mother of a pair of separated twins. Falidor had his own share of tragedies--his father had died not too long ago, and his mother was gravely ill herself--but at the end of the day, he could rest assured that all his family loved him; Thetis barely had any family at all.

He couldn't help but feel a little foolish as he approached the door. Sure, his lord had told him to do this, but all the same, it felt weird; he'd never called at a girl's house before. He barely even knew Thetis. She had lived with Lord Severin and Lady Alina for most of the time he had been Lord Severin's steward, but he'd only really ever passed her in the halls, spoken maybe a dozen words to her at most--would she even remember him?

Biting his tongue, he rapped his knuckles against the door.

"Come in," came the girl's voice from inside.

Well, that's definitely better than 'Get lost', he admitted inwardly as he opened the door.

He stepped into the house, closed the door behind him, and caught sight of Thetis standing only a few feet away, her back toward him, Byrn in her arms.

"Good morning, Thetis," he greeted her.

She turned around and grinned. "Hello, Falidor."

So she did remember him; that was a good sign.

"Hello, little Byrn," Falidor addressed the baby. "You've gotten big since I last saw you. How does your little mama carry you around?"

"Oh, he's no trouble," Thetis insisted. "Anyway, why are you here, Falidor?"

"Lord Severin sent me," he answered, trying hard not to meet those wide teal eyes; they made him feel rather nervous. "He thought you might want to visit your daughter today, so he sent me to escort you, and a woman should be along fairly soon to look after Byrn."

Thetis gave a small nod. "Well, that's very kind of him."

"He thought you would appreciate it," agreed Falidor.

"Yes, well... I'm just going to put Byrn down for his nap, all right?"

He couldn't help but watch her as she made her way to the cradle, a slight sway in her hips; giving birth, Falidor decided, had done wonders for her previously boyish, boxy figure. Now, though still thin, she did have a woman's curves--had she had this body before her marriage, she would have surely caught a better man than Norwan.

She placed the baby in his bed, then looked up at Falidor and smiled. "So, how are you, Falidor?"

"Me? I'm fine, I guess," he replied sheepishly. "How about you?"

"Not too bad, considering my husband's gone for a few days," she told him.

Falidor raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"He has some business back in Dovia. Probably went to buy a potion from some witch--see if it will make his hair grow back."

"I wonder where else he doesn't have hair," he joked--then he remembered he was talking to an innocent little girl, barely older than his sister Nora.

However, Thetis laughed. "Oh, there's hair there! He's lucky that way--it makes it look bigger than it actually is!"

"Maybe that's what the growth potion is for, then!"

Her laughter continued. Falidor had never made such jokes with a girl before, or at least never had amused her with them; it felt oddly good. Still, he never would have expected this dirty streak from sweet little Thetis.

"But seriously, though," she countered him, one eyebrow cocked. "I don't think any amount of potion can do anything about that."

If he'd been joking with some village whore, his immediate reply would have been "Well, you would know", but he didn't think Thetis deserved that sort of accusation; it wasn't her fault she had to sleep with the man. "He's just kidding himself, then," Falidor finished lamely.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Well, that'll be the woman Lord Severin sent, I guess," Thetis mused aloud. "Ready to go, Falidor?"

"Sure," he answered dully, suddenly distracted by a spider on the ground. "Whatever you want, Thetis."

NEXT CHAPTER:

In Which Norwan Takes Back His Own

January 7, 1156

"So you're back," Norwan sneered between gritted teeth. "Now I won't have to clean my own house anymore."

Thetis didn't reply. Stupid as always, she stood between the two men, her dull eyes cast upon the baby she held. It was a boy, Norwan had been told, named Byrn after his mother's father--it seemed as though Norwan had wasted wishes by hoping the boy wouldn't take after her. This little thing was just as ugly as his mother, and probably one hell of a lot noisier too. But he would grow to be much tougher than she, that Norwan would make sure of.

Scowling, Lord Severin leaned toward him, his eyes two mahogany daggers. "I'm warning you, if you hurt either of them in any way, I won't hesitate to take action."

"Forgive me, my lord, but you have no power here," hissed Norwan in reply. "This is King Roderick's shire, and you can't get to me without going through him."

The other man seemed quite unfazed. "Believe me, Goodman Ciramel; King Roderick will be no trouble."

Norwan knew how to pick his battles--he was in need of a less formidable foe. "Thetis!" he addressed his wife.

"Bring him inside, then make me some lunch!"

"Not even a friendly 'hello'," sighed the stranger who had accompanied them. "You were right, Severin; his soul is an appalling dump heap with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable."

"Mangled up in tangled up knots," Lord Severin added. "Thetis, it isn't too late to take up my offer, you realize."

"Thetis, if you don't get inside the house right this minute, the king will know about this!" barked Norwan. "And you don't want to cause any trouble for this nice lord, do you?"

Thetis shook her head weakly. "No..."

"Good! Now get in the damn house, slut!"

Little Byrn looked up at his father, out of those same scared teal eyes Norwan saw every time he looked at Thetis.

His tiny lip quivered, just as hers often did; the resemblence was uncanny. He would need to somehow find some assurance that this was actually his child.

Nodding, Thetis slowly filed past him and toward the front door. Norwan glared at Lord Severin and his companion. "I understand that you're the lord of the next shire, but since we're in this one, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"You be good to her," the noble warned him. "You'd better treat her like a goddess."

"That's a sin."

"So is treating her like an animal."

Animal, Norwan thought bitterly to himself as the two men started down the road. I sure as hell don't treat her like an animal. No... I treat her like a woman.

Angrily, he burst through the door and shoved past Thetis, who had been mindlessly loitering just inside.

"Why the hell are you just standing there?" he demanded of her. "Useless woman!"

He could see a tear welling up in her eye, but once again, she kept her mouth shut.

"Put him to bed, Thetis."

"Yes, Norwan," she whimpered in reply.

She glanced down at Byrn, the two identical pairs of eyes locking. Two of those eyes were bad enough--now there would be four. At least there would never be six, he could assure himself; now that she had born him a male heir, he wouldn't bother to force her. The local whores, he was sure, would be much more fun.

He watched her as she placed the infant in his crib. She had retained very little of the baby weight, he noticed; if anything, she looked thinner. Surely that lord had fed her well; how was it that she was still as bony as ever?

"You, uh... wanted lunch?" she asked him timidly as she emerged from behind the baby's curtains.

He couldn't help but bare his teeth as he looked at her. She was a mother and a wife, but she looked like a common tramp. No half-respectable woman would walk around looking like that.

"First, I want you to do something about your hair."

Thetis gaped at him. "Sorry?"

"Your hair, idiot girl!" he snapped. "You look like a harlot with it hanging down like that all the time. Now that you're a mother, I expect you to start looking like one, so go put your goddamn hair up or I'll tear it all out!"

"Oh... oh please, N-norwan," she stuttered, placing her face in her hands in a vain attempt to hide her tears. "My m-mother wore h-hers like I d-do..."

"Your mother was a filthy whore, just like you!" roared Norwan. "Now go and do as I said, you insufferable wench!"

Defeated, Thetis trudged into the bedroom, sulking all the while. She would no longer be sleeping in that room, he had decided months earlier. No, she could sleep at the table, on the floor, in the field... he didn't care. As long as she was on his property and out of his bed, he didn't give a damn about where she slept.

Since she was now out of his sight, he now felt free to take a good look at the baby--as annoying as two of those eyes were, four were much worse.

"You better pray you're mine, brat," Norwan muttered darkly to the infant. "You got no idea what I'm gonna do to that mother of yours if you're not."

That lip quivered once more; it would be a challenge, making a man out of this boy.

But it didn't matter. He had an heir now. He had a son to help him in the field and to pass on the house to when he died. He'd make a man out of Byrn even if he'd been born a mouse.

Norwan took a seat at the kitchen table; he was getting hungry, and Thetis owed him the best lunch she'd ever made in her whole pathetic life.

He turned to look as the bedroom door creaked open and she emerged. Those eyes seemed even more prominent now that all that hair was out of them, and he didn't like the look of her cheek bones, as well as her large ears. Oh well; an ugly, respectable wife was better than a slightly less ugly wife who looked like a whore.

"Better," he assured her. "Now get to work on that lunch!"

NEXT CHAPTER:

In Which Honora Has a Stroke of Genius

December 3, 1155

"So this tiny little thing really did have twins," mused Honora as she stared at young Evera and Byrn Ciramel lying on the wool rug. "And such large twins, at that--why, they're not yet a month old and just as big as young Raia here!"

"Oh, they were fairly small when they were born," Alina assured her. "They grew rather quickly, though. Regardless, I didn't envy Thetis on the day they came into the world."

With her own baby due in less than a month's time, Honora was in no state to leave her own house; needless to say, she had been pleasantly surprised when her company had arrived. She had seen neither Alina nor Thetis since Raia's birth, and she quite liked the idea of having babies in the house every once in a while, seeing as there would soon be one living in it.

"You must have been terribly frightened, dear," soothed Honora, taking note of the girl's withdrawn expression; her eyes were not unlike many of those in Honora's war-torn homeland, those who had witnessed unspeakable brutalities and remained forever haunted by them. Giving birth, of course, was nothing in comparison to such things, but to a fourteen-year-old girl, the terror of the process must have been magnified tenfold.

"Oh, not to give birth to them," Thetis mumbled in reply. "I just dread taking them back to Norwan. Lord Severin has someone checking up on him--apparently he's growing suspicious and might go to the king to get me back."

"Oh."

Alina sent a reassuring smile Thetis's way. "You can stay with us as long as you like, Thetis. Even if Norwan goes to the king and demands your return, you could leave the babies with Severin and I if you feel the need."

Unchanged, Thetis shook her head. "Thank you, Lady Alina, but I'm not sure if that could work. Lord Severin made the same offer, but he said that Norwan might demand that I can't visit you any longer, and I don't like the thought of not being able to see Evera and Byrn. Besides, Norwan expects me to return with at least one baby."

"True," sighed Alina. "I was talking with Severin, and we agreed that if either baby should return to Norwan, it should be Byrn--Norwan might be as brutish to a little girl as he is to Thetis, but he isn't likely to lay a hand on his heir."

Honora nodded. "So arrangements for Evera need to be made, then."

"If Thetis agrees to that, yes."

She sank back in her chair and placed one hand on her pregnant belly. There were a few villages sprouting in Naroni now, and chances are there would be a willing nurse nearby wherever they chose to put Evera. However, as for actually taking care of Evera, most young mothers were busy enough with their own babies. What they needed was someone who had no other children, or maybe older children. An older couple, perhaps, or a couple struggling to conceive, or...

Suddenly, the face of a woman she had met briefly when she and Adonis had accompanied Severin and Alina to see the baron several months earlier came to mind.

"Alina, I know just the woman to care for her."

Before Alina could reply, Adonis strolled in from outside. He had been tending the animals all morning; Honora really wished he'd hire a farmhand. "I thought I recognized those horses tethered outside. Good morning, Lady Alina, Mistress Thetis."

"Good morning, Adonis," Alina greeted him; Thetis merely smiled half-heartedly.

Honora did not even look at him; she would not look at him until he looked at her.

Ever since they had started sleeping together, their relationship had changed drastically. Before, they had been strangers, but it had been a comfortable sort of bond, with no particularly strong feelings from either party. But then, something must have happened; suddenly, they became awkward.

They were still strangers. They still barely knew each other at all--but he loved her. He loved her, and had no idea what she thought of him, this she knew.

It didn't help that she loved him too. It wasn't fair to him, really; Adonis was more than worthy of the love of women worth a thousand Honoras. Because she loved him, she knew that he would never know her now--she would never wound the man she loved with the horrors of her past.

"Hello, Honora."

"Hello, Adonis," she answered in barely more than a whisper.

They exchanged a tentative smile, then Adonis spoke once more as he settled himself on the couch. "Would you ladies mind if I took a nap on this couch? It's more comfortable than the bed. I promise I'll fall asleep instantly and not overhear a word of your mysterious female conversations."

Alina laughed. "Feel free; it's your house, after all."

"Thank you, milady," he acknowledged her.

Adonis was true to his word; not a minute went by between the time he had received Alina's permission and the time he began to snore.

"Anyway, Mistress Indruion," Thetis addressed Honora, "who were you talking about?"

"Do tell, Honora," urged Alina. "The sooner we find someone suitable, the better, so don't waste any time telling us who she is."

"Well, Thetis may already know her, or at least know of her," Honora began. "She and her husband came with King Roderick and his party from Dovia, like Thetis did. Her name is Electra, and she lives in Tetranshire. She has no children because her husband is quite ill--it's doubtful that he'll last another year."

"So she'd be more than happy to have a little baby to care for," surmised Alina, "and Evera could keep her company when her husband passes. Thetis, what do you think?"

Thetis closed her eyes. "I remember her, I think. She and her husband kept to themselves, mostly, since he was so ill. The woman with the long blond hair, right?"

Honora nodded. "Yes, with the long blond hair. She seemed to be a very kind woman, and quite lonely."

She heard a yawn from the couch behind her, then some faint rustling sounds; Honora was suddenly very aware of her husband's presence. "Of course, with Electra's husband gone, your baby wouldn't have a father-figure present," she added grimly, "but I suppose he'll be gone before she can become too attached to him."

The girl took a minute to consider. Then--

"I'll do it!" Thetis exclaimed leaping to her feet and throwing her arms around Honora. "Oh, Mistress Indruion, you're a genius! Thank you so much!"

Honora shook her head. "Oh, please don't flatter me, Thetis; I daresay Alina or Severin would have thought of Electra if I hadn't."

"Oh, not likely!" Alina protested as she took her turn to embrace her hostess. "Apart from our own kinsmen, neither I nor Severin know anyone who came with Roderick; we never would have even heard her name if not for you, Honora."

"Well, you're welcome," muttered Honora gently. "Just glad I could help."

Alina smiled. "I'll send a message to this Electra woman as soon as I get home--come to think about it, it might not be a bad idea to head home now, so Thetis and I can tell Severin the good news. Thank you so much, Honora, both for having us and for your suggestion."

"Oh, no trouble at all, Alina," she assured the lady.

With some difficulty, Alina and Thetis gathered up their three combined babies, then headed out the door with a brief "Good day" to Honora and Adonis. Honora watched through the window as they rode off, then gestured to the empty side of the couch.

"Do you mind?" she asked her husband.

"Not at all," he answered quickly, avoiding eye contact with her.

"So," he began as soon as she had settled, "what was all the fuss about just now?"

He turned his head to face her. He was eight or nine years older than she was, and had a certain maturity about him that she found both attractive and intimidating at the same time. A man her age would have pressed at the first sight of her hesitation, but Adonis merely waited patiently for her reply.

"Oh. Well, to make a long story short, it's almost inevitable that Thetis and her son will have to return to Norwan's house, but she was hoping that her daughter could live elsewhere; I don't think her husband knows she had twins."

Adonis nodded. "So you solved her problem for her?"

"Well, possibly," admitted Honora. "I know of a couple of Tetranshire who might take little Evera in. The man is dying, and the woman will need someone to comfort her when he's gone; they have no children of their own."

She shivered; she did not want to think about what she would do if her own husband died, even if she barely knew him at all.

"Are you cold?" he asked her.

Honora merely stared at the opposite wall. "Maybe a little."

"Come here."

Tentatively, she edged toward him, not noticing that he was drawing nearer to her as well. A sudden sense of comfort came over her as he slung his arm over her shoulders and held her close; for the first time in a long time, she was safe.

"I still can't believe we'll have one of our own soon," he whispered gently, a note of reverence in his voice.

"Just remember our deal," she told him. "If it's a girl, you're hiring a farmhand. I don't care how much it costs--you work too much."

He grinned. She took this as a sign to continue. "And if it's a boy... you're still hiring a farmhand. He won't be able to help you much until he's ten or so."

"Honora?" he addressed her; she wondered why he was changing the subject.

She smiled. "Yes, Adonis?"

As his face drew nearer, she realized that he hadn't really wanted to say anything at all.

NEXT CHAPTER: