Bloody hell! I tease you enough in your head. You want more than that?
“What I started to say, Esme, was that, yea, you should try the Witan, and you should amass a troop for Evergreen, and do everything in your power through diplomatic means, but there may be one thing extra you should keep in mind as a back-up plan,” Alinor said.
Blah, blah, blah. Women loved to blah, blah, blah. Why did they not leave man’s work to men?
“And that would be?” Esme asked hesitantly.
“Marriage,” Alinor and Eadyth announced at the same time.
Whoo-ee, you weren’t expecting that, were you, big brother?
Esme rose indignantly. “I have not spent eleven years in a convent, avoiding marriage, just to give in now.”
“Nay, nay, nay!” Toste stood, as well. “Are you two demented? What would marriage solve for Esme?” For some odd reason, the prospect of Esme being married filled him with horror.
A bit of dog in the manger, don’t you think?
“Shut up!”
“Who are you telling to shut up?” Esme asked with even more indignation.
He must have spoken aloud. By thunder, my brain is splintering apart.
“Sit down, you two,” Alinor said, waving a hand toward them. “Give us a chance to explain.”
They both sat, hesitantly.
“Esme, we are not saying that you must wed. We are saying you should consider it,” Eadyth elaborated. “And it would be different from what you have been offered in the past by your father. This would be your choice.”
You are not picking some lecherous lout for a husband, I am warning you right now, Esme. Not even a non-lecherous lout. Toste put his fingertips to his mouth just to make sure he wasn’t speaking his thoughts again.
“You could pick a man who would be as much a puppet under your control as your father’s choices would be under his,” Alinor said.
Oh, that is just wonderful. Encourage her to get a milksop for her lifemate. Do this, do that. Hell!
“You could make a list of all the qualities you want in a husband—a good leader to work for you with the king and his court, a good fighter to work for you against the king and his court, a good farmer or man familiar with the land to turn Evergreen prosperous again, a good principled man.” Alinor was on a real roll, or so she thought.
“A good lover,” Tykir interjected with a wink at his wife.
“That, too,” Alinor said.
Toste closed his eyes and swore he saw balls of fire. Esme is definitely not picking a good lover for a husband. Not while I am around.
“Do not discard the idea out of hand,” Eadyth advised Esme.
Do discard the idea out of hand, Esme.
“Think about it,” Eadyth concluded.
“I must admit, you ladies make some good points,” Eirik said.
I… do… not… think… so.
Eadyth fairly beamed at her husband.
“Well, it is not going to happen,” Toste said firmly, standing once again. “Do not listen to them, Esme. You will not wed, and that is that. I forbid it.”
Everyone, including Esme, went wide-eyed at his vehement words.
Uh-oh! Perchance I went a bit too far.
Like ten hectares too far? Tact, my brother… where is the tact I taught you so well?
“What right have you to forbid me anything?” Esme said, standing to glare up at him.
“I have the right because… because I choose to have the right,” he argued nose to nose with her in utter illogic.
Toste could swear he heard laughter in his head.
Bolthor murmured something about green-eyed monsters, whatever that meant, and everyone else in the room nodded with odd little smirks on their faces. He did not care. They were speaking of marrying Esme off, and he could not allow it. He had lost one person he loved and—
Toste stopped himself short.
Now we are getting somewhere.
It could not be.
Wouldst like to wager on that?
It was impossible.
Dumber than a Danish door hinge!
“Dumb dolt! Awk! Awk!” said Abdul.
Grabbing Esme’s hand and ignoring the snickers behind him, he began to pull her out into the corridor. “I must needs speak to you in private,” he choked out.