Without direction and completely unbidden, Emilia's hand shot out, fingers outstretched, though she was not quite close enough to touch him. She held out her hand in a vain attempt to grasp for what she could not reach, her fingers tense in the chill air-all else seemed to fade into the shadows of night as she held out her hand to him, a last, beseeching adjuration for him to return to her, one that she knew he would not take... After what seemed an eternity, Emilia released a shuddering breath and lowered her arm slowly back to her side, closing her eyes and drawing a painful sigh. Pulling her shawl back around her shoulders, she agonizingly willed herself to stay where she was and to trust Iago, just this once...
"So be it then, do not promise me the time of your return," Emilia said softly, her fingers clenched around the fabric of her shawl. "But you will promise me that you will return…" she insisted uncertainly, daring to step a little ways out of the chamber. Her eyes met her husband's, and she was startled by the lost, imploring look that she found in them. Why, he begged that she let him go just as strongly as she begged him stay.
"...Won't you, Iago?" Her eyes grew hot with tears, and Emilia felt ashamed for it. A very child she was at this moment, ay, a child who watched his mother leave for market and feared she would not return. A child who might cry inconsolably in his dear mother's absence, though it was certain, yes, certain she would be back before long, for no loving mother would ever abandon her child… But a cruel mother could, even as her poor son might wail and mourn the loss of her to the very end of his life. Ay, and that she feared.
How ridiculous she was being. Of course he would be back. In the morning, once they had been reunited, she would think back upon this night and laugh at her own whimpering cowardice. But now, it was night, and the night's wicked darkness leered at her, tormented her, from every which way…
Do not wait for me. Something I must do. Unfriendly, frightening words they were, for they seemed a dark, ill omen that pointed toward the very thing she feared.