Page 96 of The Boy Bride

“I’m glad your interpreter saw sense,” Davanu said later. “I thought for a little while there he was going to cause trouble. But he seems to have come round quite quickly.”

Vanu, who knew Darma better, wasn’t so sure that’s what it was, but he said nothing.

* * *

Lill slept late the next morning, and he did it in his own bed. Vanu peeked in at him, saw him sleeping soundly, and closed the shutters so the sun wouldn’t stream in on the bed and wake him before he wanted to be up.

He missed Lill’s company as he went out to milk the goats, which seemed silly since they’d only been doing it together for a week and a half. But as he was finishing the chore he saw Gurti collecting eggs from the ducks that roamed around the village, and he was glad of the opportunity to speak to her.

“Good morning, Lord Vanu,” she said.

“Did the men fare all right last night?”

“I believe so, my lord. I persuaded them all to go sleep at Tirtu’s house, and I have just been over and left them a tonic for their heads, though they’re all still asleep. How is Lill?”

“Fine. He drank much less than the others.”

She nodded. “He’s a sensible boy.”

Vanu had set down the buckets of milk to sign, and he was about to pick them up, but he hesitated. “We had a … sort of a fight last night.”

She made no particular reaction. “Your first?”

“I suppose. Yes.” If you weren’t counting their very first interaction, which had involved Vanu slamming Lill against a tree.

“About the drinking?” Gurti’s expression was wary now.

“No! I’m happy for him to go out and enjoy himself. Makes me feel less bad about having him live penned in here with me.”

Gurti nodded, looking relieved. “Do you want to tell me what you fought about?” she prompted.

Vanu thought about that. He didn’t, really. It would feel like a betrayal to reveal that Lill was sneaking around the place at night. He wanted Lill to have Gurti’s good opinion.

“I just wanted to ask your advice about talking to him this morning,” he said.

“I see. Are you still angry?”

“No!”

“Do you think he is?”

“No … ”

He was about to say that Lill had never been angry, but then he thought that—without explaining about the sneaking and the breaking locks—would make it sound like he was a bad husband, picking one-sided fights. Besides, he wasn’t sure it was true. It was often hard to tell what Lill was feeling.

“Do you think I should bring it up again,” he said, “or act as if nothing happened?” That got at the heart of the question.

Gurti looked at the ground for a moment. “I would say bringing it up and acting as if it didn’t happen are not the only two options,” she said finally.

“That sounds like a riddle.”

She gave a laugh that sounded like a sigh. “I suppose I mean you could treat him with a little extra affection this morning. I’m sure you would do it naturally, my lord. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.” And she added, signing, “I don’t know much about happy marriages.”

Vanu froze. She’d never said anything like that to him before, in all the three years they’d been living here. It wasn’t that he’d thought she and Faru were happy—obviously they weren’t—but she was much too dutiful to say anything about it.

“If there’s ever anything I can do,” he signed.

She looked startled and flustered, gathering up the eggs in her apron hastily. “I can’t think that there would be, my lord.”