Glass of Revenge

~30~

Chaos erupted in the palace halls just a day or two after the birth of the twins. Knowing just how loyal Elide was to Aelin, she and Rowan had decided to appoint her as the twins' nursemaid.

Predictably, the appointment had caused quite a stir once it had gotten out. To Aelin and Rowan's utmost surprise, many of the older lords were more than accepting of the decision, knowing just how close the two young women were

.But not to their surprise, Lorcan was less than happy about it. He was still convinced that Aelin would soon free him from his vows to her. And he was still just as convinced that Aelin would allow Elide to leave with him, so totally convinced that Elide would want to leave Aelin's service in order to make him happy. It was apparent to many around them that Lorcan understood his wife as little as she understood him.

Elide and Lorcan's love for one another had seemed so intense during the war, so all consuming that many had thought that their love was as strong as Rowan's and Aelin's, and was as enduring. But the stress caused by the war and the stresses caused by the aftermath of the war, ordinary everyday life had gotten in the way and they had changed beyond almost all recognition. The war had changed them. The war had changed everything.

Neither Elide nor Lorcan were the same people that they used to be before the war. They had changed so much in the months since to the extent that they barely knew who the other person was. And what they now found in each other was something that they hated. Something that they now found themselves despising.

What confused Lorcan the most, what he hated the most, was his wife's refusal to understand – or to even listen to – his side of the story. He hated the fact that Elide was so stubbornly supporting Aelin, hated the fact that Elide was so close to her queen. He refused to understand the friendship between the two young women, the burdens they carried, the guilt they carried at losing their families, at not being able to do more to save them. Lorcan did not understand it, and refued to even try.

Instead of even attempting to understand his wife's friendship, Lorcan scorned it. He thought that Elide, as his wife, should be dependent only on him. That his wife should obey his every command. Lorcan had a stick shoved so far up his ass, that he thought he had the right to dictate to his wife how she lived her life, without even understand or acknowledging just how wrong that was. Unable to realise that a marriage should be a true partnership of mutual love and respect, and not a dictarorship. Perhaps, in a way, it was Lorcan's upbringing on the streets of Doranelle that made him so cold, so completely heartless. Perhaps the reason why Lorcan was so unabl to understand what it meant to love someone was because his own childhood had been so totally deprived of love and happiness.

Elide, on the other hand, had long since been growing weary of Lorcan's behaviour. Ever since the war ended, and they had finally married, Lorcan had grown beyond controlling. Was sick of the way he treated her, the way he acted as though she were unable to think for herself. What Elide hated the most was the fact that Lorcan treated her like a possession, the fact that he treated her like a china doll half the time. Hated the fact that he barely let her have her own opinions or make her own decisions.

Oh, in public Lorcan would make a show of deferring to her opinions and decisions, but it was just that, a show. It was as though Lorcan became a different person when they were alone, unable or unwilling to accept that any influence he had in Perranth, in Terrasen was due solely to the fact of his marriage. Unable or unwilling to accept the fact that he held no real power, unable or unwilling to face the fact that people only tolerated him for Elide's sake. And for someone who was so used to having power, used to being in control, that was a nightmare that Lorcan was unable to accept.

It was amusing to see the fued escalate between the previously happily married couple, but it also caused tension in the royal household. The most casual remark, the barest glance in the wrong direction could create an explosion.