Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns all of these characters; I do not.
Thayet looked at Jon. "Buri's pregnant," she told him bluntly. He should know that the leader of the King's Own and his friend was to become a father.
It was after the party, and Jon was tired. This made his mind alert. "What?" he asked incredulously. "The father…is Raoul?" he breathed.
"Is it that hard to believe?" his wife asked him coldly. "Raoul's great. He'll be a wonderful father. He's already doubtful about it, and you don't even believe in him!"
Jon was taken aback at his wife's anger. "Thayet, I'm very happy for Raoul. He will be a great father. I was just tired. I wasn't thinking," he told her.
Thayet stared at him in disbelief. She didn't seem to have heard what he had said. "Jon, you don't believe in things anymore. You aren't passionate, the way you used to be. Mithros, you didn't even let Kalasin become a knight!"
"Thayet, I thought we'd worked that out," Jonathan said, his heart pounding. They hadn't gotten into a fight for a long time. Things were going so well…
Thayet continued. "What happened to the man that I loved? The man that was a great king? The man that the Lioness would give her life for? The man that I would give my life for? You aren't that man, Jonathan of Conté." Two tears trickled down her soft skin, but she brushed them away before Jonathan could see them.
"Thayet." Jonathan's voice was soft, and Thayet could tell that she had hurt him. He didn't look her in the eye; he just stared at the floor. "Thayet, maybe we weren't meant for each other after all."
"What?" she asked quickly, staring incredulously at her husband.
"Thayet, you're a remarkable woman. You're beautiful, caring, and strong. I'm not." He didn't seem sad, just thoughtful. "I love you, Thayet. If you want to leave me, you can. I'm not going to stop you."
She smiled sadly. "You never would, Jon." She fingered her wedding ring, staring at the gem. Jon took her hand and kissed it.
"I'm not good enough for you, Thayet. You're the woman that a god deserves, not me."
"I love you, Jon," she told him. "You've always been the man that I love." She wasn't sure if she meant those words, she just wanted this to be over. She'd never seen Jon act this way before.
Jon looked at her, hope in his eyes. She sighed; she couldn't break his heart like this. "I love you, Jon," she said, trying to make it sound as sincere as she could. "I really do."
He smiled. "Let's forget about this, then," he told her. "Our love still lasts, then. That's all that matters to me."
His wife nodded, trying to smile.