Page 26 of Sweetling
Orek, who had mated a horse trainer named Sorcha and begun this small migration of otherly folk to the Darrowlands, offered a wary nod but Hakon, the new lord consort of the Darrowlands, was looking up at the roof from where he’d leapt, tracing his quick path down to the ground. He shook his head absently.
“What occasion brings the lord consort to my door?”
Hakon finally looked at him and sighed. “You know why, Allarion.”
“You’ve come to congratulate me.”
“No.”
A visible shudder ran through both large males, and they turned to watch warily as Bellarand emerged from the forest. The unicorn made a show of slowly, deliberately circling their horse and cart.
They are very rude for males quaking in their boots.
Bellarand, try to behave.
Why?
Allarion waited to give an answer, considering the men. They hadn’t come down off their cart. There were no congratulatory slaps on his shoulder or handshakes as he’d seen given to Hakon when he wed Lady Aislinn.
His annoyance bled through his tone. “Why are you here?”
“Mayor Doherty came to Aislinn yesterday,” Hakon explained. “He was worried that you forced the hand of a barmaid, Molly Dunne.”
His face cracked with a frown, and the house behind him creaked with foreboding.
“You think I’ve stolen the woman.”
So what if I had?
He wanted her more fiercely than he had anything before, even keeping Ravenna safe. He had yet to find a limit to what he’d do for her.
Allarion would have liked to ask Molly directly, of course, but he respected tradition. And, he couldn’t believe her uncle wouldforceher. Her coming to him, going through with the handfasting, had to mean she wanted this, at least in some small way.
Orek held up his big hands. “We aren’t accusing you of anything, Allarion. We just wanted to get to the bottom of this and assure Lady Aislinn and the mayor.”
“Everything we did was legal. The mayor performed the handfast himself. It was all by human tradition, and she came willingly.”
“Willingly and enthusiastically are two different things,” Hakon said.
Allarion turned a withering glare on the lord consort. He liked the halfling, they were friends, but the reminder was an arrow to Allarion’s pride. He was painfully aware of the difference—and the lack of enthusiasm Molly had thus far shown. His mind filled with the image of her closed, locked door.
Bellarand pawed the earth, feeling Allarion’s growing frustration.
Shall I run them off?
I’m not sure we have to start a war yet.
Oh, please? It will be fun.
You already have your war with the squirrels and badgers.
The house creaked again and then—a new noise. Allarion looked up as a third-floor window opened, and out leaned Molly herself.
“Hello!” she called down.
All of them stared at her in surprise.
“Are you Molly Dunne?” Orek eventually called out.
