In Stone

23: "Stay away from me!"

23: “Stay away from me!”

“Good morning, Caspian,” Garrik smiled at his nephew as he walked into the dining room. Unlike dinner where they all sat together, breakfast was eaten as they woke up and came down. Garrik was usually gone by the time Caspian woke up because working in the temple required that he be there early to light the holy fire and begin setting up for the day.

Except for this morning. Caspian had found it incredibly difficult to sleep. It was made only that much more difficult by seeing Caia resting peacefully, a smile on her face even in sleep, as she snuggled in close to his warmth in her bed.

“What's put that look on your face?” Garrik asked, grabbing a biscuit and sitting down across from him. “You look like you're feeling guilty about something. What did you do?”

“Uncle,” Caspian started then hesitated. As temple keeper, anyone could trust Garrik to be their secret keeper. However, no one else had the distinction of being his nephew. Caspian thought of him first as family and only secondly as temple keeper.

As though he could see that in his eyes, Garrik smiled. “You can consider this conversation private, boyo. Though if this is about what you were doing with Caia last night, I'm pretty sure the entire town knows about it by now.”

Caspian felt his back going straighter. “What? You told...”

“I didn't have to,” Garrik promised, smearing jam onto the biscuit. “You were very loud, and you know Elanil will take any chance to complain. She's been bemoaning the entire night and morning about how she'll have to take care of babies now.”

Caspian groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “I didn't mean to do it.”

“From what I heard, you did it at least three times,” Garrik said calmly. “That's a bit too often to be called accidental, boyo.”

“It wasn't three times,” Caspian grumbled. It wasn't less than that either, but he saw no reason why his uncle needed to know that. The look Garrik gave him told he did anyway.

“Anyway, that's not the point.”

“What is the point? You made love to a sweet woman, I see no problems with that.”

“The problem is that I don't have the time for children!” Caspian snapped. “Rowan is still out there, and I can't just allow her to live after everything she did.”

“Do you ever think that you might be a bit caught up in your revenge?” Garrik asked softly. “I know my brother wouldn't want you to waste your life away in bitterness. If you have a chance to be happy with Caia, they would want that for you, and you know they would.”

“I can't,” he protested, sitting back. “Caia needs someone that can devote their whole heart to her. I can't so long as Rowan still lives. Oh, goddess, what have I done? There's no way she's not pregnant. I even told her that we couldn't for that very reason.”

Garrik laughed, “And she ignored you anyway. She seems to be a woman that knows exactly what she wants. Though if you do have a child together, I may have to insist on a marriage. That might just be the temple keeper in me though. I don't mind if you want to delay it awhile.”

“Not helping, uncle,” Caspian dropped his head back. He highly doubted that Garrik would be singing the same tune if he knew what Caia was. “She doesn't even belong here.”

“What are you saying? Of course she belongs here. I've even offered her the stoneworker position. She's agreed with the condition that she might need to leave someday. I agreed because we need a stoneworker. Well, I guess she'll need a break anyway if she has a newborn, but-”