Where was she?
Niles paced the floor of the tree house, waiting for any sign of Corrin. How long had it been since Prince Xander called lights out? Two hours? Three hours? He couldn't remember. The only things going through his mind were:
Corrin had patrol duty today.
She was usually home by 10.
It was now past midnight.
Niles ran through the possibilities of why she wasn't home. Trying to soothe his fears, he considered the fact that Lady Elise had probably asked for a story to fall asleep, or perhaps Lord Leo wanted to run over several battle tactics with her. But those things wouldn't take more than an hour.
She could have… As much as he hated to think about it, he thought about her potentially injuring herself. What if she's out there with a broken ankle? What if she's been crying for help these past few hours and I haven't been there to help her?!
Niles' heart began to race as he considered other possibilities. Did someone try to break into camp? Faceless? An intruder? She probably had to fend them off. Alone? What if she's injured? What if…?
His blood ran cold at the thought. What if somebody took her? His mind visualized Corrin struggling for help against an assassin twice her size, hand over her mouth and knife at her neck. The assassin breathed into her ear, "Not one peep, or I'll leave your pretty little head here for everyone to find."
Niles threw his hands on the windowsill, head down, teeth gritted, knuckles white, breathing in the sounds of the night. There was nothing, and it tortured him. So help me gods if something happened to her, he thought, rolling through every scenario again and again.
He let out a quick breath as his grip loosened on the windowsill. I'm going to go look for her, he decided, turning around to go grab his bow and cloak. She must need help. There's no way she would be gone for so long. She wouldn't… She wouldn't leave me.
Would she?
Niles abruptly stopped. What was that noise? He put his cloak back on the floor. Could it be…? Lowering his breathing, he quietly listened to to whoever – or whatever – was coming up to his room. Suddenly, he felt the world fall off of his shoulders as he heard the quick patter of footsteps come up the stairs. In walked Corrin, exhausted from her extended patrol.
She gave him a weak smile. "Hey, love," she sighed. "Sorry I'm home so late. I wasn't expecting Keaton to go hunting for berries at this hour; I had to look for him."
He blinked slowly, mouth slightly agape. Not wanting to expose his fearful side to his wife, he lowered his eyes and smiled. "Naughty, naughty! Coming home late and making me worry."