In Which Nearina Isn't Enough

November 17, 1188

It was a dreadful thing for a mother to think, but Nearina's daughter-in-law had deserved a much longer widowhood.

Her firstborn had been dead for a year and month now. She'd never figured out where she and Tertius had gone wrong with that boy, or whether he'd simply been born horrid, but--again, dreadful--it had been such a relief when she'd woken up one morning and learned he was dead. In her darkest moments, she recalled when she'd been a neurotic, borderline disturbed young mother and Felron had been a spiteful, screaming demon of an infant, and how it had crossed her mind more than once to smother the damn thing and fake a crib death. Perhaps that did make her a terrible person for considering such a thing, but maybe it would have been for the best.

Poor Xetrica had always been meek and passive and fragile--an easy victim for the Felrons of the world.

Nearina ought to have done more. She and Tertius should have disinherited Felron when he'd skinned Valira's cat alive, named Garrett the heir. Sent the boy off somewhere relatively secluded. Xetrica may still have had a short life, but she would have certainly had a better husband. At least none of the children seemed to have inherited Felron's worst, so far as she could tell.

Too young. Far too young, far too little good in her life.

Xetrica's mother had made it in time to say her goodbyes, as had her two older children. They'd sit with her again when they'd rested up from their journey, but Nearina was all Xetrica had for the moment. That about summed up life since Tertius had passed, with Arkon and Rina away and the other children too young and terrified to stand up to their father.

She hadn't been enough.

"I'm so sorry, dear."

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In Which Riona Contemplates the Logical End

August 11, 1184

Riona doubted she'd heard more than four words out of her twin since the funeral. Xetrica had always been the quiet one, especially after she'd married Felron, but the past while had been silent even by her standards.

She couldn't say she blamed her. Her father-in-law, the most reliable buffer against her husband, prey to an apoplexy and now dead after his months-long suffering. Her daughter--her only daughter--practically expelled from the family. And if Riona knew anything about Felron, she'd eat her shoe if his newfound countship hadn't gone to his head.

But Felron wasn't her concern. Not her immediate one, anyway. "Mother said to tell you that her invitation is still open."

Not surprisingly, Xetrica shook her head. "Felron wouldn't allow it."

Of course he wouldn't. Not for the first time, Riona regretted not talking to her mother about Xetrica's future when she'd had the chance, back when they were girls. Their father hadn't been the worst sort of man, but he'd still been... well, a man. He'd assumed that he was doing his daughters a favor by finding them husbands. Ever the obedient daughter, Xetrica wouldn't have dreamed of telling him otherwise, but she'd confided in Riona more than once that she would have preferred joining a convent--she'd always been the most pious of them, after all. At the time, Riona had thought it better to allow Xetrica to approach their parents herself, but that had never happened. And sure, their father might have taken it as pre-wedding jitters, but their mother would have listened...

Now, after all these years of Felron, Riona had to wonder if her sister was still on decent terms with God.

"Mother will fight him, and so will Nearina. Marsden and I will join in too."

"No, none of you should have to."

"Of course we shouldn't have to--but that's because Felron shouldn't be such an ass in the first place." What sort of man kept his wife from her own mother? Not to mention, her daughter. "Look, if you want to spend some time away without leaving the country, you're also welcome to--"

"No."

It was the same answer every time. And every time she heard it--no matter how happy she was with Marsden--that old guilty ember flared within Riona's heart. She had been the one to pick between the two prospective husbands, and she'd done so selfishly. A gentle soul like Marsden would have been the husband her sister needed, if she had to have a husband at all. The logical end to Riona and Felron would have been one of them strangling the other in their sleep, but she might have done the world a service if she'd been the one to act first. "Xee..."

Her sister sighed. Before Felron, that would have been a rarity. "I can't leave.

"Leaving would only make things worse."

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