The Warrior and Calissande

Chapter 18: A Very Versatile Piece

My question hung between us, turning my lady wife's eyes round with surprise. I should not have asked her, nor should I demand an answer, but I found I could wait no longer.

I knew how I wanted her to answer. I knew how I thought she would answer. But the important thing was to have her give me an answer. I needed her to decide if she would prefer a life away from me...or not.

"Carrick, you must know how badly you hurt me."

"I do know, Calissande. And it grieves me to my bones." 

"You have apologized to me, and even though you are an impatient man, and felt that I should get over it, you still showed me that you had also changed. Even though it went against your tradition, you sent her back, and when she came back...you dispatched her for her lies and disrespect. You made everything new in your chambers so there would be no sign of her; nothing that she had ever touched or looked upon even remained. You declared your love for me in front of the entire village."

"I am the most perfect lord husband, am I not?" I teased her.

"I would not go that far, warrior. Right now you are mostly tolerable," she told me with a sour look on her face, but a teasing glint in her eyes. "But I would remind you that you told me you are an impatient man and even so, you would give me the time I required to put my hurt behind us. You said you would no longer try to hurry me along with whatever I must do to forgive you, no matter how long it took."

I grunted at that. The little vixen remembered every word I had said to her. This did not bode well for me for future disagreements.

"But in effect, Carrick, by asking me whether I prefer to stay with you or not, you are hurrying me along the path toward forgiveness by requiring my decision."

She folded her arms over her chest and fixed me with a stern look.

"Do not think I do not see through your ruse."

"I promise that is not what I intended, Calissande." Unable to resist, I reached out and gently tugged one of her long curls. "That is not what I intended at all."

"Regardless, warrior, it would have been the end result. By saying I preferred to stay with you, I would have been saying I forgave you."

"Or perhaps you did not forgive me, but were staying merely to make my life a misery by poking at me constantly about my past sins. I have heard many a man complain about a wife's long memory and even sharper tongue."

At that, Calissande began laughing. "Well, my warrior, I admit that does sound like a just reward for you, to be saddled with a wife who tormented you daily, but I do not think that makes for a very happy home."

"I cannot imagine a place being anything but happy if you are there, Calissande. You are the very source of my joy."

"Very prettily said," she praised me with a laugh. 

"And am I?" I asked her intently, for she had used an honorific I did not often hear from her. "Am I your warrior, as you just called me?"

"Well, since I see no other warrior about our bedchamber, I must have been referring to you," she sassed me in answer.

"Very well," I told her, trying to hide how pleased I was.

"And so I cannot be accused of tormenting you, I will tell you, warrior, that I prefer to stay here with you. I no longer wish to remove myself to another of your estates and to live a life separate from you."

I stopped moving or even breathing for a moment, knowing what this declaration meant.

After a moment, I found my voice. "I vow, my lady, that I shall do everything in my power to make sure you never regret your decision."