4. First night.
The sun was almost done setting, it was getting dark. He was dry now. Dry but still annoyed. Not even Parris annoyed him this much. It was unnatural for a woman to be so damned stubborn, such a pain to be with. He wanted to wring her skinny little neck. 'Slender not skinny' he reminded himself but he didn't note it. His hair had been loosened from it's customary golden clips so that it could dry thoroughly. He rolled his shoulders and sighed trying to relax and calm himself but it wasn't working. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Eliod standing beside him. He knew him well, had known him since he had taken up the role of Crowned Prince and, as a result, was sailing every which way at a moments notice. Eliod was the ships captain more times than not and Hector had come to trust not only his judgment but him as well.
"All is well old friend?" Hector asked.
"Aye my Prince, the wind is strong."
"Good."
"The Princess is well?" he asked. Hector snorted and shook his head, was the princess well indeed. He glanced behind him at her. She was sitting on the deck her legs drawn up to her chest, her arms around her knees, looking out at the water. She had been there for hours now, her face sad and pensive. Her hair was loose and free, blowing back from her face, being dried by the wind. She wore the white chiton that he had thrown at her but no jewelry or makeup. She looked beautiful, pure, and even a bit innocent but he was too put out to notice that now.
"She is well enough." He replied darkly.
"And you?" Hector just laughed sarcastically.
"Going mad." He said running a hand through his hair. Eliod nodded and smiled.
"Then all is as it should be." Hector looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Is that so?"
"It is my lord." Eliod said grinning.
"Don't call me that, no one is here to think oddly of it."
"As you wish." Eliod said. "May I speak freely my lord?"
"You know that you need never ask." Hector replied smiling weakly
"Being married is a delicate balance. She is hurting and alone, you do not understand her, and you have little patience."
"I am patient!"
"Not with her Hector. You have patience with horses, and Parris to a certain degree, you have patience with others." Hector sighed and shook his head glancing back at her. Her chin was now resting on her knees but her position hadn't changed at all. Her mouth was sad and silent but his blood pressure rose at how much aggravation she could arouse with that cursed tongue of hers.
"She doesn't exactly inspire patience and understanding." He said.
"Not on the surface, no. She is all alone. Everything she has is yours now, even herself. You have control over every aspect of her life; you can do with her as you will. She has nothing; no one and you expect her to be obedient and polite? She is proud and to go from having anything to nothing is a big step to take with help, save by one's self."
"I have tried to be kind to her."
"Perhaps you have, but you haven't exactly inspired confidence in her have you?"
"Oh, by the Gods, not you too." Hector groaned.
"No matter how you wish to look at it you lied. First impressions are lasting. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment if you will. You have been taken from your family, and are surrounded by strangers. The man who holds your life in his hands, you happiness, everything, has lied to you. You are perfectly alone with no one to share you feelings with but yourself. How would you behave?"
Hector sighed and rubbed his face.
"If you look at her carefully enough you will see her, it's not difficult." Hector looked at him and nodded.
"You are right."
"I'm always right. Have you fed her?" Hector shot up straight at that his eyes wide.
"She hasn't eaten?" he demanded looking over at her. Her knees were now folded beneath her, her arms folded across her stomach.
"You haven't eaten either have you?" Eliod asked smirking
"What does that have to-" he stopped himself staring at him, already knowing the answer. "Right." He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "Right, I'll see you tomorrow Eliod." He walked over to her and waited for her to look up at him. She did, her eyes empty and then looked away again. "Have you eaten?" he asked.
"No." she whispered.
"Why not?"
"Because I wasn't hungry." She replied seemingly getting annoyed. 'Well that's a welcome change, let her get annoyed for once.'
"Are you hungry now?" he asked. She looked over at him again.
"I seem to have lost my appetite." She replied. He nodded at that and decided that humor was that next course of action.
"I understand completely, I sometimes have that effect." He replied watching her face. She was fighting a smile, he could see it. She was putting up quite a fight too, and in the end she won, but he had still seen it. "Come and eat Andromache." He said.
"I told you that I am not hungry."
"Did I ask you if you were?"
"Yes."
"Well I don't care any more, come and eat." He said. She glared up at him and then looked back out at the water. He glanced over at Eliod who nodded and gave him an encouraging look, said a prayer and then looked back at her. That was when he saw the bruises on her wrists and arms. Immediately he dropped to his knees beside her and grabbed her hands in his. She looked down at him in shock trying to pull them away but he held firm. "I hurt you." He said. "I'm sorry for it."
"Spare me. You don't care, I know that you don't care." She replied looking at him, her voice and eyes bitter. "I'm nothing to you, just another possession, another trinket, only I can walk and talk and bare you children." He stared at her in silence, seeing that Eliod was right.
"That is not true." He said quietly.
"Yes it is."
"How do you know that?"
"Because you are a man. You may take a wife but she holds no meaning for you. You have no emotion for her, no feeling. She is a plaything for your amusement and when she holds no intrigue for you anymore you get mistresses and send her off to the country side to weave and live alone having given you her life's grace. You care for nothing but your own image. You disgust me."
"Don't presume to know me better than you do Andromache. I am a man, but you don't know me well enough to like me or be disgusted by me. You don't know what I've done; you don't know who I am."
"I know that you lie, that's enough for me." She replied and turned away. He sighed, knowing that she had won that round and shook his head. It was no use.
"I lied to save you, because I had no other choice. Would you rather I knocked you out and had you wake up with a swollen face and a pounding headache?"
"Yes." She replied.
"I'll remember it." He said. "I won't lie to you again. And that's a promise." She made no reaction to it just sat there silently looking out at the water. "Are you coming down to eat?" he asked.
"Do I have a choice?" she asked. He clenched and unclenched his fists, took a deep breath and counted to ten.
"No. Come, you can starve yourself when we get to Troy, but not on my watch." He said rising to his feet. She turned and stood, stone faced and walked past him to their cabin. He followed her sitting a bit away form her and offered her fruit, wine and meat. She stared at him silently and he stared right back waiting. Finally she looked down at the platter and took some dates and cherries. He smirked patting himself on the back mentally. When she was finished she turned her back to him and went to sleep. He glared at her back, wanting to inflict bodily harm. He couldn't eat, not now. He threw down the bunch of grapes that he had in his hand and blew out the candles before going to bed, the air thick with animosity and tension.
A/N; Peplos and Chitons are the gowns that the women wore. A Peplos is more like what Helen wore, and fibulae are the clips that held them up. A Himation is a cape that men wore over their chitons. Just so that you knew what the hell I was talking about.