Christopher Stasheff - Rogue Wizard 05 by A Wizard In Chaos

Author:A Wizard In Chaos
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

She stared back at him, paling, frozen for a moment.

Then she turned away, blushing. “I wish you joy of your search, sir. My own is done, my goal both gained and failed.”

Dirk realized he was being given a warning. He sat beside her, asking, “How could it be both?”

“I’m a widow,” she said simply. “You are quite valiant to seek my company, sir.”

“When the widow is as beautiful as yourself, there’s no valor about it, only self-indulgence.” She smiled, lips trembling, and her eyes glistened with moisture as she leaned toward him. For a moment, he hoped those lips would part for a kiss-but she only said, her voice low, “My husband died without an heir. I hadn’t borne him a baby, and wasn’t with child, either.”

She said it with such a tragic tone that Dirk’s heart went out to her; he had to stifle the impulse to take her in his arms and comfort her. “How desolate! To have nothing left of him!”

“Yes,” she said slowly, but frowned a little, searching his face. “This is another one of our ways that you don’t know, I see. Learn, sir, that by the customs of our people, I can’t remarry.”

“What?” Dirk exclaimed, then bit his tongue. “You’re a foreigner,” she said gently, “from very far away. You don’t understand our ways.”

“No, not at all,” Dirk said, frowning, “and this one seems quite wrong.”

“Wrong or right, it’s the custom,” Magda said, her voice hard. “I didn’t have children, so I can’t have children, so no man will want to marry meand I’m not about to become any man’s concubine, either, so I came home. If motherhood is denied me, I can at least devote myself to my people, to those among whom I grew up-but you’ll see now, sir, why I don’t mind risking my life in battle.”

Dirk caught the note of despair in her voice, and had to stifle the impulse to reach out to her again-but he did take her hand, and she seemed not at all reluctant. “Forgive me,” Dirk said, “but there’s no sense in that custom. Maybe for a woman who’d been married ten years or so, and still hadn’t borne a child, but certainly not for a lady who’d only been with her mate for a few weeks. You probably are very likely to have a child, my lady, if you’re only given enough time with another husband.” Then he realized how he had sounded, and dropped her hands. “Forgive me … I hadn’t meant…”

But her eyes filled with tears, and she said only, “You meant well, sir, very well, and have given me more hope in a few minutes than all my people in four years.” She leaned closer, eyes bright and lips parting.

Heart hammering, Dirk took his courage in both hands and her in his arms, kissing her lips, and never in his life had anything felt so wonderful or tasted so sweet.

He came back to the bedchamber he shared with Gar perhaps an hour later, though to him it might have been only minutes.

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