“Do you want anything to eat?” I ask. “Or maybe some tea?”
“Not yet.” She turns her attention to the fire, her fingers absently tracing the edge of her shawl. “You asked me something yesterday,” she says finally. “About marriage.”
I lean forward slightly, resting my forearms on my knees. “I did.”
Silence stretches between us before she lifts her gaze back to mine. “I told you part of the reason I didn’t want to marry, but not all of it,” she says, voice quiet but steady.
I study her lovely face in the dim light, noting the faint crease between her brows. “What is the rest of it?”
She hesitates. And for the first time since I’ve known her, she doesn’t answer immediately. “I wanted to see more of the world.” She lifts her gaze to the tree line. “I’ve never left Aryndale before this journey. My parents traveled constantly when we were young, and they would always take us with them. Short trips within the kingdom, but still… I treasured them.”
Vivienne swallows hard. “But then my mother died in childbirth. I was eight and Aldric was eleven.” She looks down at her hands. “My father didn’t withdraw from us. Instead, he loved us more… watched us more. And he made sure to keep us close.”
She shakes her head. “Aldric and I became deathly ill on one of our trips.” She sighs. “When you lose someone you love, there is always a before and after.”
I understand that truth more intimately than I wish to.
Vivienne continues. “And because he’d so recently lost Mother, he was terrified when he nearly lost us as well.”
“Aldric had to travel with him, since he’d be king someday, but I wasn’t allowed to come along anymore. He insisted I remain at the castle to protect me.” She gives a quiet, humorless breath of laughter. “And he gilded my cage so beautifully I almost forgot it was one.”
Cage.The word settles in my chest like a heavy stone.
“I didn’t want to trade one prison for another. That’s why I rejected every suitor that sought my hand.”
And there is the truth of it. She didn’t refuse the idea of marriage because of vanity or cruelty, but because she feared control and confinement. “I see,” I murmur.
She studies me a moment before continuing. “If my own father, who has loved me unconditionally since I was born, could restrict my freedoms, what might a husband do?”
I’ve never wanted anything as much as I desire her. But I want her to choose me freely. And to do that, I must give her something her father never did. I must give her the freedom to choose.
I meet her gaze evenly so she can see the truth of my words. “I will not cage you, Vivienne. And I will not touch you unless you ask. I only ask that you give me thirty days to prove myself to you. If after that time, you wish to annul our marriage, I will accept your choice.”
Even if she decides to dissolve our marriage, I will do whatever it takes to keep her from the Goblin King’s bargain. Even if she never gives me her heart, I will not see her forced into that fate.
She looks back toward the trees. “What is expected of a Dark Elf wife?”
“Dark Elf women have the same freedoms as men,” I say. “They train. They travel. Some fight. Some study. Some rule beside their mates.”
Her eyes flick back to mine.
“They are not confined to stone walls unless they choose to be.”
“And a soldier’s wife?” she presses.
“As I mentioned before, most live either in special family barracks at their husband’s post, or they choose a home in the nearby villages. Others may choose to live elsewhere, and they visit each other as time permits. But the choice is theirs to make.”
Something akin to hope reflects in her eyes. She exhales slowly, shoulders lowering. “That sounds… different,” she admits.
“Different in a good way?” I ask curiously. “Or bad?”
Her small brow furrows. “I’ll let you know after I’ve given it more thought.”
More thought.The fact that she’s even considering any of this at all is encouraging.
Even as I think this, guilt begins to creep in.I should tell her who I really am. The truth sits on the tip of my tongue, but if I speak it now, she may pull away before she understands the danger still hanging over her… before she understands that the Goblin King’s bargain may not be so easily escaped. And I’m not ready to risk driving her back toward a fate she never wanted.
The sky beyond the trees begins to pale with the promise of dawn. Vaelen emerges from the woods and after greeting me with a gentle snout nudge, he settles next to Vivienne.
