Christine knew he was upset. Of course she did, the whole castle knew, for heaven's sake if the snake in her bed was any indication.
She just wished she knew why.
Problems had never seemed to be troublesome for long to Christine. She had learned from a young age that as long as she treated them the right way with tact, cleverness, and strength, she could work her way through anything. If she couldn't find the source of the problem, she could use the above to quickly deduct to bend it's knowledge to her will.
Erik, however, wasn't bending, and for the first time in her life, Christine felt she was facing a problem she couldn't solve. For weeks and weeks he had said only politeness to her at dinner, avoided her attempts to join her for another chess match. He wouldn't spend any time with her at all.
What was he angry about? Had she said something coy about his mask? Had she troubled his past? She searched her memories as she lay awake at night, unable to pinpoint anything.
He was a sensitive man, though he tried to hide it behind a mask (Literally, and figuratively) of indifference and avoidance. He had to be coaxed out, like how a badly treated dog must learn to trust it's master. It would creep towards you, it's eyes filling with hope. Until one made the mistake of holding a stick the wrong way and it ran back behind it's wall of snarls and barks with it's tail between it's legs.
When Erik was offended, he too ran behind his wall. Christine finally realized one night while she stroked the small stomach that was growing, that the moment it had all begun was when she had told him of her pregnancy.
The thought had occurred to her before, but it had seemed ridiculous, he had wanted her for her child. Had married her for children, for an heir. Surely he should be happy, even ecstatic at the news. Of course, he had acted shocked and even distant at her news, but she hadn't thought much it of, even had expected for a while. But this seemed a little excessive.
And yet, for the first time that night, after six weeks of cold attentions, she began to seriously entertain the idea that her telling him of her pregnancy had started this whole mess off.
The moon shone through the glass in her window as she thought in the dark. Meg shifted in her cot at the end of the room, the wind outside howled, crashing waves against the shore and forcing the cold though the thick, stone castle walls.
Christine sighed, pressing her fingers against her forehead. Perhaps she ought to send Meg for a glass of water, her head was pounding. But it was so cold, and Lady Giry would scold Christine and Meg again if she let Meg borrow her robe once more. Meg didn't have one of her own...
Perhaps she would get it herself.
She moved out of her bed, slipping on her fur lined slippers and shrugged on her robe. She walked to the door, pressing her ear to the wood, listening.
The castle was silent, save for the shuffle of feet as the prison guard reoriented himself after the many hours he must have been standing guard. Christine opened the door, lifting it so that it would not scrape against the floor. She should speak to the carpenter about it, the door needed to be reset.
The guard turned to face her, his face staring off to the wall nervously. "Your grace?" He asked.
Christine gave a small curtsy. "I'm going to get a drink of water." She stepped forward, but the soldier blocked her.
"I'd best come with you, your Grace." He said, his face serious and firm.
Christine nodded. "Very well." And he accompanied her down the hallway, trailing a few feet behind her. The moonlight shone brightly through the windows, Christine suddenly shivered.
They walked into the courtyard, Christine's slippers making next to no sound against the stone ground, but the thump of the soldier's boots would alert anyone to their presence.
Christine walked across the courtyard to the well, it was almost as light as day, with the moonlight reflecting off the stone.
The well, when she had first first seen it, it had seemed a marvel. How on earth did they have a safe well to drink from when they were surrounded on all sides by salt water?
Erik had explained it to her, during one of their chess matches. There was a stream of clean water underground that emptied into the sea, it went deep, deeper than most streams. Originally, there had been no moat surrounding the sea, only a castle pressed up against the edge of it. The Lord that had built the castle originally had discovered the stream of water by some means, and had had the castle built around it. Erik had measured how deep it was, nearly twenty five feet, and had had the moat built to be fifteen feet deep and had lined the bottom of it with stone, so that it would not interfere with the clean water that was supplied to the well.
"Many castles have fallen because they didn't have a source of freshwater." Erik said. "I wouldn't let it happen to mine."
Christine grasped the bucket, swinging it off the stone wall of the castle and into the dark tunnel that led down, down into the spring of water. If she cocked her head the right way, she could hear the water moving down at the bottom of that well. It was almost soothing to her aching head.
She turned the handle at the side, lowering the bucket down to the bottom. When she felt it catch at the water, she let it fill, and slowly the rope creaked back up again.
The solder watched her with a bored expression, Christine smiled wryly, finally pulling the bucket up to its proper place.
She took the dipper from the side of the well and dipped it in, she drank, and her headache weakened. She dipped and drank again, feeling the cold, cool water slide down her throat, it felt good.
She offered the dipper to the soldier, but he waved it away. She set the bucket on the edge of the wall again, and they crossed the courtyard again.
It was so quiet, with the soldier's boots thumping and echoing around, it made Christine nervous. She searched around them, almost feeling at someone… or something was watching them.
Good heavens, did she really believe the stories she had heard growing up when she had been traveling so much? Fairies that would come and steal her from her parents, demons that would steal her soul, monsters that would eat her alive?
Ridiculous, really.
And then she spotted a pair of yellow eyes watching them from a dark hallway, Christine froze, the soldier also stopped behind her.
She turned to him. "You are dismissed."
He bristled. "Excuse me?"
"I have no further need of you, you are dismissed." She said, with as stern a glance as she could manage.
The soldier bowed and went back to his post, as soon as his boots had faded sufficiently,
Christine crossed her arms. "For heaven's sake, what are you doing prowling around this time of night?"
Erik slinked out from where he had been hiding in the shadows, he appeared so suddenly, so quickly that Christine almost could believe he had used some kind of magic to do it. His voice was low, and guarded. "I could ask the same of you." He said.
Christine pressed her lips together, then walked so that she was directly in front of him. She took his hand. "Can you not sleep either?" She asked as gently as she could manage, after he had appeared out of the shadows like that. It certainly was an interesting skill.
He pulled his hand away. "Come, I will escort you to your bedroom."
Christine signed, but allowed him to put one cold hand on her arm and to guide her up the stairs to her room. As they walked she spoke. "Erik, why are you acting this way?"
His voice was curt. "I haven't the faintest idea of what you are speaking of."
Christine felt fury built inside of her, but she swallowed it down and kept her voice pleasant. "Erik, we haven't been right for weeks, we don't talk as we used to, and you never let me into your room anymore. Please," she took his hand and squeezed it. "Erik, please, what vexes you? Tell me, and I will put it right."
It was the first time she had put it so bluntly, she had been afraid to. Before it had always been gentle coaxing, but now she let her eyes shine up at him a real plea. "You promised me." She said, her anger leaking into her voice. "You promised me I wouldn't just be a wife to dress and sit in the corner."
"Have I ever pushed away your opinion?" He asked, his grip on her arm tightening. "Have I ever told you to leave me?"
"No," Christine admitted. "But you have been avoiding me. Don't try to deny it, and I want to know why." For a moment, she was afraid of what he would say. Afraid that he had only paid so much attention to her because he had wanted a child, or worse yet, that he regretted marrying her… regretted punishing his child with a common woman as their mother.
They arrived at her room, and she waited outside her door, staring up at him. The solder, who had returned to his post outside her door, looked supremely uncomfortable. Christine ignored him.
Erik looked at the soldier, and then down at her. His golden eyes glittered. Suddenly he pushed open her door and pulled her inside, offering them some amount of privacy.
"Meg is asleep in here." She warned as he closed the door behind them.
"I will be quick." He said. He stood up to her, and brushed away a lock of her hair. "I've been very busy," he informed her. "Planting season is coming and I'm afraid I cannot pay the same attention to you as I did."
"But you haven't even been speaking the same way to me." Christine said, anger rising inside her again.
He heaved a heavy sigh. "Close your eyes." He finally said.
Christine pressed her lips very tightly together, but followed his instructions. A few moments later she felt his lips press against her forehead. It was soft, and gentle, she leaned into it.
He pulled away.
"I am very happy for you, and our child." He said in that same, stupidly calm voice that he had had that evening when she had first told him. That stupid, disconnected, voice, she hated it. "You had better rest." He said, and then he turned away and out of the door, leaving her alone again.
She leaned against the wall for support and thought about calling him back, but decided to sleep instead. She would think more clearly in the morning, she was never right when she missed sleep.
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