Page 50 of Tarnished Crown
“Well, it was pointless, anyway. Evander knows now.”
Davin made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat, laying out his bedroll in the middle of the tent.
“So...do you two share sleeping quarters often?” The complete lack of judgment in his tone was one of the many, many reasons I loved my cousin.
“No,” I sighed. “Not often.”
He pursed his lips, nodding. “Something you’d like to share, Row?”
“That would be another no.”
“All right, then. Would shared sleeping quarters also have something to do with how you became engaged to Theodore? Because you know, that’s really not a reason to get married.”
I laughed out loud at the ridiculous name. “Youwouldsay that, but still no. I’ll admit, it started as a necessity,” I paused, realizing what that likely meant if Iiro had been plotting this entire thing.
Did it change anything? My feelings for Theo were the same, but would I have considered marrying him if I hadn’t been forced into it, staying here in Socair amongst people who hated me, cut off from my family for half the year?
“But then?” Davin prodded, laying back on his blankets.
“But then,” I thought back, remembering the way he had begrudgingly softened over time. How he had held my hand every night until I fell asleep, fought for me at the Summit. “But then I realized I like him. A lot.” I leveled a look at Davin. “The question is, why don’t you?”
“I don’tdislikehim.” He shrugged. “It’s his brother I don’t like.”
A common sentiment, it seemed. Though Iiro hadn’t been all bad in the end, I knew he loved his brother and his wife.
“Stars,” Davin interrupted my line of thought, running a hand through his hair. “I just don’t like anything about this place. The food or the weather or the strangely proper women.”
I laughed again. “Oh, I see what this is about. Did your lady friend have enough of you?”
Davin put a hand on his heart in mock offense. “Take that back at once. You know that never has, nor ever shall happen to me.”
I shook my head, sitting down on my bedroll next to him. “Indeed. What is it, then?”
His features morphed into something more serious. “Honestly, it isn’t any one thing. I just...miss Lochlann. Don’t you?”
“Yes.” The word was barely a whisper. “I can’t believe we’re about to be gone for another festival.” I had never missed one in my life before all of this, but now I will have missed both Autumn’s and Winter’s. Maybe Spring’s as well.
“And the epic snowball fights.” He chuckled. “Even if Gwyn does hit way too hard. I think I still have a welt she left from last year’s battle.”
“I miss...” I paused, about to say something funny when the truth came rushing out instead. “I miss our family.”
Davin scooted closer to me, putting an arm around me. “So do I, Row. So do I. But--” He cut off abruptly, shaking his head.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s clearly something.”
“Just.” He sighed. “What if you do marry Theodore. Will you even be going home then?”
“Of course. I...” I trailed off. I doubted, somehow, that Socairan ideals allowed for women travelling without their husbands, but surely that would be the exception. It would have to be. “Of course,” I said again.
“Have you even considered what situation you might be marrying into? That you might be playing right into their hands?” Davin paused, meeting my eyes before continuing like he wanted to gauge my reaction. “That it would be better to be free, to get to go home, with a certainty, even if that meant...leaving Theodore here.”
I sat up a little straighter. “You want me to let Lord Arseling tell me who I can and can’t marry?”
“Stars, Row. Of course, I don’t, but I want you to think seriously about our options here and what’s most important to you.”