"I'm sorry-" Briar started,

"I don't care." Sandry replied, "It doesn't concern me who you sleep with any way, do what you want."

"But it does-"

"please, it couldn't concern me less if i were your mother."
Briar closed his mouth, she's right, you know a part of him said as he mounted his horse and hung back as Sandry started off at a trot. Briar was surprised when Daja chose to hang back as well and pulled her mare up to his.

"Don't wory about her." She said. "You know Sandry, you know what she's like."

"I thought I did." Briar mumbled.

"I think you should talk to her." Daja told him. "Tell her how you feel."

"How I feel about what?" He started to say, but seeing the look on Daja's face, just nodded.

"Daja I can't." He said after a moments hesitation, "I don't want to hurt her, I don't want anything to happen."

"You've already hurt her." Daja observed.

It was a very long trip back to Summersea, and Briar remembered with dread that he would be staying at Sandry's. He wondered if she would take back the offer. However once they reached the tall metal gates Sandry took that particular worry aside by giving him directions to the guests quaters.

He gave her a winning smile as he passed her but she just stared at him in disgust.

All through their supper there was a tension in the air which couldn't even be removed by Sandry's uncle Vedris's persistant questions of their journey. Daja, every few minutes would look at Briar, raise both eyebrows, look at Sandry pointedly and then look at her plate. Briar spent most of the meal trying to signal for Daja to stop this, while Sandry only stared down at her plate and Vedris was happily oblivious to any of it.

"So tell me again, what exactely did you say to Berenene?" Vedris asked.

"Uncle we've told you at least three times tonight." Sandry spoke up. "Besides, I'm tired, I think I'll retire to my rooms."

The other two mumbled their agreement and Briar saw Daja to the door before going back to the guest rooms, where he sat on the freshly pressed linnen and massaged his head.

Feeling restless Briar reached for his cloak and headed out into the dark garden, passing a young man going into the palace. He supposed he was a quest of Vedris.

"Evening." he said. The man nodded in reply.

Once outside, Briar began to feel more calm. Sitting in a neche behind a fountain that was usually used as an out of sight spot for couples during social events, Briar began to think of what Daja had said.

He wondered how everything had become so complicated since they were now adults. He remembered days spent at dicipline cottage, sittig on the warm thatch. He remembered pulling Sandry's braid and teasing Triss, making juovinile bets with Daja.

The hedge behind Briar rustled with his emontion and he turned and picked on of the newly bloomed flowers, thinking it was much the same colour as the dress Sandry had worn earlier in the day.

The dress Sandry had worn earlier in the day lay rumpled on the floor, and Sandry stood in her peticoat infront of the mirror. She removed the silver necklace she had been wearing and put it on the dressing table just as a knock came at the door.

Sandry's heart leap as she walked towards the door, she pushed it open but her smile dropped.