Chapter Thirteen
The following two weeks were rife with tension… but not the type that Thalia might have expected.
This tension was brought about by a shared awareness from herself and Caspian that the ‘one month’ date they had both agreed upon was fast approaching. Rather than this tension being awkward, however, it carried with it something that Thalia had not expected but was quickly coming accustomed to.
That ‘something’ was excitement.
At least that is how I am choosing to interpret it. We might not be where I want. We might still have so far to go. But we are getting there, day by day, and with each step taken, I can feel Caspian slowly changing.
Or perhaps it was Thalia who was changing? Now that she understood her husband better, she was no longer trying to change him so that he would fit her idea of what she wanted in ahusband. Instead, she was happy to exist with him, able to read his moods and changes in temperament in ways that she never thought possible.
What was more, Caspian not only seemed aware of this, but open to it. Again… that was how she chose to interpret it, anyhow.
Did he also want them to grow closer? Did he want more from this marriage than he had originally? Thalia could not say for sure, nor would she ask him. What she could say was that the two weeks leading up to the one month anniversary were as close to companionable and even happy as she had ever experienced before.
“What are your plans today?” Thalia asked Caspian as they broke their fast together.
It was common now for them to break their fast of a morning together. Not something that they agreed upon, but a natural consequence of how their marriage was progressing.
“Working,” Caspian said simply.
“Oh?” She looked up from her plate. “Anything interesting?”
“Not particularly.”
“If you need any help, I am here for you,” she said with a soft smirk.
Caspian looked at her with a frown, no doubt confused as to why she would think it was appropriate for her to offer him help. But he saw the smirk she wore, and his face dropped. “A joke?”
“That depends, did you find it funny?”
He rolled his eyes and went back to his plate. She watched him, still grinning to herself, having no doubt that he did find her joke amusing, but he was just too stubborn to say.
“And what will you be doing?” he asked her.
She smiled, because she was expecting the question. He always asked her about her day now, almost as if he cared… “Nothing exciting. I won’t bore you with the details.”
His head was bent over his plate, but she could have sworn that she saw him smile. “Have you heard from Lady Rosaline yet?”
“Not yet,” she said.
“You will,” he assured her. “Once she and Laurent are settled.”
He asked her every day if she had heard from them. In truth, Thalia did not think that he cared either way, but she did not expect him to. What mattered was that he understood how much she cared, and he knew that it was important for him to ask.
One month ago, had he shown any indication that he cared about me, I might have fallen out of my chair in shock. Now, it is as natural a thing as breathing.
They went about their days separately, which did not bother Thalia as it might have done once. She no longer got the sense that he was avoiding her on purpose, just that he was busy. She even liked to think that if he had the time, he would have happily spent it with her.
Maybe not happily… but he would not abhor the idea either. And that is what matters.
But that did not mean they never spent time together. More than once, as Thalia was reading or sewing or simply sitting in the sunshine in the back garden, Caspian would appear suddenly. And when he did, he always asked after her.
“Are you well?” he would say.
“I am, thank you,” she would respond simply. “And you?”
“Very,” would often be his response. He was not one to elaborate, nor was he one to belabor a point. But when he spoke, he was sure to look at her, those cool eyes of his studying and assessing as if he was trying to figure her out.
