“I was not asked if this was something I wished. I was given no choice. I was then wed to a man. A king. The ultimate power in our realm. I was made queen. But I held no power. I had no voice.”

It was Aramus who was quiet then.

“But even without it, I used it,” she carried on. “I used my voice. I told you my thoughts. I told you what was important to me. You did not listen.”

“Ha-Lah—”

“You railed at me and left me to sleep alone on my wedding night. I should not have minded. It was not my choice to be in that marital chamber. But it was the only wedding night I would have. And I slept alone.”

“My wife—”

“Though, once you’re rid of me, if you allow me to take another husband, I suppose I’ll have another wedding night.”

“Do not speak thus,” he growled.

She fell silent.

“I lashed out. I regret it. I admitted that. And now you do have a choice,” he informed her. “It is your choice if we again grow apart or if we move on together. But I warn you, don’t allow your pride to make that decision.”

“But don’t you see?” she asked. “I have nothing. Pride, as empty as it is, is the only thing I possess.”

Aramus growled again, this time with no words, as he stared through the dark at her curls on the pillow.

“I would thank you not to touch me,” she declared.

“I would get used to me touching you, wife,” he ground out. “For I will use touch, and any other manner at my disposal to win you again.”

“Against my will?”

“It will not be against your will. You cannot be falling in love with a man of a morning and in that same morning stop doing this very thing.”

“Yes, Aramus,” she said quietly. “Yes, you can.”

By Triton, she was right.

He’d made that so.

He could not go back there, to that morn, remember the words that came out of his mouth, the words that came from hers telling him he’d been earning her love, but he had put an end to that.

And he could not bear to remember the look on her face.

Instead, he did what he’d desired to do time and again since the first time he laid eyes on her.

He buried his face in her abundance of soft curls.

“I will miss my man,” he told her.

“And I feel badly for you.”

“Do not make me lose a man and my wife on the same day.”

“It was not your doing, the loss of Catedrais. The other…”

She did not finish her statement.

It was still clear.

“I can only share my regret, what else would you have of me?” he asked.

“This is our problem.”