Quoted By:
“Ellyn… I will not suggest you bed Vaaro,” you tell her, already regretting your words as her smile returns.
“But you won’t forbid me from it,” she finishes. A queer thought. You really could forbid her if you wanted to. You never had such sway until now.
“I will only say that I do not wish to see you sold to a brothel or mistreated…” you sigh. You left the rest unsaid. The thought of what you are all but condoning is absolutely vile, but these are vile times. If it could spare her from worse…
“Do you think he would? Mistreat me I mean?” she curiously asks.
“He never struck me… and Joslyn said he treated her well,” you start, then see her far too pleased for your liking, “but you must remember he is still a slaver and a sellsword. You told me yourself he killed his own men.”
“You fret too much, cousin. I will have him eating out of my palm,” Ellyn assures.
“We will speak more on this later,” you say, urging her to move along with a glance about to ensure you haven’t been overheard. If you ever chance upon a sept in these foreign lands, you will need to light a candle for your uncle and seek his forgiveness. That Ellyn is still very much unchanged from her trials in captivity is as much a relief as it is disconcerting.
You are still reeling with the wickedness of what you set in motion when you spot the squire by happenstance near the rear of the ship. A welcome distraction from your fresh worries. And he is peeing off the ship. Lovely. Just lovely. You take a moment to stare at nothing in particular on the horizon, pondering how you came to be degraded to this even as your own standing within your father’s household is so supposedly elevated, then you gather your composure with one heaving deep breath and turn to approach him with your very best smile. Which is to say, you do not frown at him. Your lady mother always said you could stand to be a little more welcoming, but you never could place the implied deficiency.
“Pleasant morrow is it not?” you offer the squire, a fair boy on the cusp of reaching towards manhood. He startles at your greeting and awkwardly faces you. “Or is this a bad time?” you suggest.
