TM Challenge 224
Her first, her greatest fault was letting him go alone. Oh, there was the matter of the baby--she was with child--but, damn it, it shouldn't have held her back. She should have foreseen, just as all of them should have foreseen. She should have been with him--as, if she'd been there, there wouldn't have been trouble, or it would have been trouble of a different nature: she'd have killed his mother herself, and the consequences be damned.
As it was--and this, this slap on the wrist punishment, this year in exile, the lightest possible sentence, so much to say that exceptions would always be made for Gawain's brothers, never mind the damage done. The damage was done. There was no putting the consequences aside, no damning them, as it was.
She had known! She had seen that unsettled, subtle place behind his eyes on the day she met him and the day she married him, but she had known that with honest effort it could be eased almost to disappearing. She had done it herself a hundred times. She had made him as close to well as could be, but he wasn't well when he'd left, as she'd known, but she was angry with him for wanting to leave in the first place, and she'd thought of the child, and told him, hell with him, he could go on his own if he had such a need to visit his mother.
Her greatest fault.
And all around her it was being remarked upon, the bitterness of it, the sadness of it, poor mad Gaheris--or else damned Gaheris, unnatural man, worse than Cain, Cain only killing his brother--and all the fault lay with him, if you listened to the talk in Camelot. No one blamed her. She had even heard a few dared to pity her; by hearsay only--if she had caught them saying it she would have killed them without regret. Lady Lynet! tied to a madman and a murderer. She would have killed the man or woman she caught saying it. Consequences be damned.
What good would the exile do? There was nothing subtle in his eyes now, only stark, blank terror, and she had held him all night and let him weep, rocking his body, smoothing his hair, more gentle than she had ever been in the good days. He hardly knew anyone, but he knew her. She had held him all night and never slept; he had, but woken screaming.
And she saw her husband in him just the same.
Words: 430
As it was--and this, this slap on the wrist punishment, this year in exile, the lightest possible sentence, so much to say that exceptions would always be made for Gawain's brothers, never mind the damage done. The damage was done. There was no putting the consequences aside, no damning them, as it was.
She had known! She had seen that unsettled, subtle place behind his eyes on the day she met him and the day she married him, but she had known that with honest effort it could be eased almost to disappearing. She had done it herself a hundred times. She had made him as close to well as could be, but he wasn't well when he'd left, as she'd known, but she was angry with him for wanting to leave in the first place, and she'd thought of the child, and told him, hell with him, he could go on his own if he had such a need to visit his mother.
Her greatest fault.
And all around her it was being remarked upon, the bitterness of it, the sadness of it, poor mad Gaheris--or else damned Gaheris, unnatural man, worse than Cain, Cain only killing his brother--and all the fault lay with him, if you listened to the talk in Camelot. No one blamed her. She had even heard a few dared to pity her; by hearsay only--if she had caught them saying it she would have killed them without regret. Lady Lynet! tied to a madman and a murderer. She would have killed the man or woman she caught saying it. Consequences be damned.
What good would the exile do? There was nothing subtle in his eyes now, only stark, blank terror, and she had held him all night and let him weep, rocking his body, smoothing his hair, more gentle than she had ever been in the good days. He hardly knew anyone, but he knew her. She had held him all night and never slept; he had, but woken screaming.
And she saw her husband in him just the same.
Words: 430