Connor leaned up next to her. He was so quiet she didn�t notice. �Too much rouge, love,� he responded.
Cahira laughed. �My mother�s work. I�m sure it will attract the Chief Commander in Arms attention,� she huffed.
�we can only hope,� he said.
Cahira turned to him viciously. �Not this again,� she hissed.
Connor feigned fear. �I have a favor of you to ask,� he said.
�I�m not sleeping with him,� she snapped.
Connor laughed. �Now what would I be getting out of that favor? I think the ones getting the most of it would be you and the Chief Commander,� he said.
�Laugh all you
want. I won�t play a whore,� she said.
�This isn�t a play, dear. Although, it may all seem like a fantasy in a child�s mind, eh? No. I want you to listen. One God�s men like to talk, as all men do, but they seem to forgotten that ladies have worth above those heaving bosoms,� he said.
�I will listen and then what?� she demanded.
�Tell me where to meet you to listen,� he said and handed her a slip of paper. �Better be secretive girl, don�t want the young Chief to think we are sweethearts.� He winked and left her to stare at the paper.
Nerys picked up the set of onyx long curved daggers sitting on the mantle of Caden�s fireplace. They were of Many Gods design, obviously made to fit a more slender and delicate female form. They were also light-weight and made to be quick not powerful. They were for a female warrior.
�Nerys, are you almost ready to go to the tavern?� asked Caden nervously. Nerys had been cold to him ever since the left the execution and she asked about that girl. The damn girl. Caden walked into the bedroom to find her playing with the daggers. His face reddened and she noticed. She knew him too well. What had his father warned him? Never let a female get inside your head, once they get in there they can�t get out, and then its like a trapped wasp flying around your brain.
�Will you be returning these? They are fairly expensive� for a commoner, even ones whose parents own a successful tavern,� she said almost cattily.
�Nerys. Stop now,� he warned.
She looked at him startled. She looked at the blades and imagined their owner to be as small, cold, dark and beautiful as the weapons she owned. Once again she was reminded of the fact of her own plainness and she sighed unhappily to herself. She tried to graceful swing the daggers around like she knew what she was doing but instead she clumsily dropped them to the floor.
Caden rushed to their rescue picking them up and checking for dents. He had cleaned them and polished them after the raid. The one was easily found as he had it in his hand. The other he had found lying on the ground amongst the carnage in the clearing and had too retrieved. �She is just a girl. A curiosity is all. I met her in battle and know no other with eyes like that. You are my friend and
dear wife. You know my love for you is pure untainted by sexual and romantic desire. It is stronger and truer then all other love as it will always be. She is a commoner and a pagan. She stirs me in only one way. She is nothing compared to you. Fear not of a seductive child, you will always be my first wife in the highest honor of my house,� he said. He placed the daggers back onto the mantle display.
Nerys bowed her head in acceptance. It was her duty as wife to obey. It was his choice to whether he should look for another mate. As his friend, she should rejoice in his choices.
Caden sighed wondering what words had hurt her so. He came to her and gave her a comforting hug and a kiss on the top of her perfumed head. �You are my dearest true friend. I love you, Nerys, my first wife.� He said.
She smiled softly. �I know. I know. Let us go to this tavern and hope Xandra�s humor is at its best,� she said.
Xandra had first been taken back by the disgustingly crude surroundings. The tavern owner had merely draped a dyed green bed cloth over the wooden table for them and had placed bee�s wax candles in blue tinted shot glasses for decoration. His wife had picked a bouquet of wild flowers and had adorned the center of the table with it. They had been roped off from the other tavern guests by used bailing twine braided together and woven occasionally and irregularly with flowers. The dining ware was disturbing made from ugly metal blends and well worn. The glasses were better, although, only marginally for they only were male glasses wide and stout instead of tall and slender. The bar wenches were the worse she had seen in a long time. Crude attempts at One God�s commoner�s clothes dirty and reeking of days of wear clothed the ugly chubby faced frizzy haired women. Except one, who none could not notice caught the Chief Commander in Arms attention.
The girl, even to Xandra, was pretty. Not nearly as pretty as herself or even most court girls but surely the most
beautiful Many God�s hag she had seen. She had none of their childish feature�s in her face. She looked so much in fact like a One God�s child that if she hadn�t been wearing the revealing uncivilized garb of a pagan she would blend into a city street with ease. Xandra guessed her to be a half breed. Her hair was glorious and shiny in its dreads, the hairstyle obviously done to bring out her pleasing features of sharp cheekbones and delicate chin.
�Tell me wenchie-woo,� Xandra said in false friendly tone, �Who art thou father?�
Cahira use to such statements didn�t even blink as she continued to pour the wine for the princess. �My father owns this bar,� she said.
Xandra smiled unpleased with the response. She noticed Caden�s agitated state and smiled even wider. �You have such a pretty face. Such lovely features, wouldn�t you agree Chief Commander in Arms?� she asked.
�Yes, I do. One should take great compliment in that, for Xandra is hard to please in manners of beauty,� said Caden.
�I am grateful for both of your statements. However, beauty is not the quality I find myself favoring,� she said.
�For wit, perhaps?� jumped in Nerys.
Cahira looked up at the Chief Commander in Arm�s wife and smiled. �Wit is one of the many qualities that I embrace,� she said.