Page 58 of Tears of the Wolf
Perhaps it was safe to get his hopes up. Perhaps his new wife really was as remarkable as she seemed.
He opened the door to find the room dark and empty. Brynn’s chests were there from where they had been placed yesterday, but his wife was missing. “It’s late. She should be here.”
Snapper looked up to Cenric, tail wagging slowly.Brynn?
Cenric glanced down to the dog. “I suppose we’ll have to go find her.”
Snapper’s tail wagged faster, probably just happy to be included.Find Brynn?
Find Brynn.
Snapper scampered off, sniffing the floor, searching for her scent.
The main hall was dark and Cenric couldn’t tell which pallet belonged to Brynn’s handmaiden. He remembered the basket for her puppy was empty, so she must be outside with it.
Brynn!
Cenric followed Snapper back outside the longhouse. The air was crisp with the chill of late autumn, his breath creating little clouds in the moonlight. The sky was clear tonight, displaying the stars like a canopy of gems.
The household and the village were mostly quiet. A few horses whickered and geese honked softly. His home was drifting off to sleep. So where was Brynn?
As if in answer to his question, Snapper bounded ahead, tail wagging. Cenric followed, the late autumn grass rustling underfoot.
Brynn!Snapper rounded the longhouse and stopped before a crouched shape, tail wagging.Puppy!He woofed happily and raced back to Cenric, bouncing and hopping the whole way.
“Brynn?” Cenric patted Snapper’s head in thanks.
“Here.” Brynn’s voice came soft. She crouched on the stoop of one of the side doors, a grey shape sniffing in the grass at her feet. “I was just taking Guin out one last time.”
“Guin?”
“It’s what I named the puppy.” Brynn reached down to pet the small grey shape as she said it. A strip of linen had been tied around the puppy’s neck in a loose collar. Cenric noted with satisfaction that Brynn truly seemed to have claimed the puppy as hers.
The puppy growled at Snapper, and he knocked her over easily, tail wagging as he did. Guin snarled, a sound that was comical in her squeaking tones. Snapper woofed and knocked her over again.
Brynn didn’t interfere, letting the older dog teach the puppy manners.
Cenric leaned against the wall, watching the dogs play. Or rather, Snapper was playing and Guin tried to fight.
“I’m sorry I had to leave yesterday,” Cenric began.
“You look after your family,” Brynn said quietly. “There is no need to apologize for that.” She sounded sincere, but also sad. She still watched the dogs.
“I heard you’ve met Rowan.”
Brynn flinched, looking up to him. He couldn’t see her expression in the dark, but she shifted on the stoop. Maybe this wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have, either. “I found her comb in your room. I returned it.” She drew her mantle closer around her shoulders, like it was ringmail that could protect her. “Her father was ill, and their goat had a broken leg, so I visited them a second time.”
Cenric wasn’t sure what to make of that. He’d expected accusation or anger, not this unspoken…pain. “Are you upset?”
“I have no reason to be upset.” Brynn inhaled a deep breath. “You’ve lived your life as I have lived mine.”
That was eerily like the defense he had prepared for himself. Hearing her speak it first was oddly disarming. “Are you jealous?”
Brynn shook her head. “I have no right to be.”
Cenric studied her for a long time, not sure what to say.
Brynn went back to watching the dogs, now chasing each other in small circles.
