8 months passed from that loving night after their wedding and Pauline was frustrated. For the past few months every time Pauline went into town there was gossip about her. "Still no children?" "not pregnant yet I see" "married to her job" "perhaps he's not interested" "getting it somewhere else is he?" At first she had been able to brush it off but for the last two months Halt had been gone and it had been harder to manage.
After their marriage the work had piled up on them both and neither had seemed to have the time nor the inclination to deal with the matter at had. After Halt had left the teasing had intensified and Pauline was at her wits end with it. Halt had returned the previous night and she had every intention of discussing it with him but the poor man had fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Now it had wormed into her head that perhaps the gossip was right after having heard it for so long and perhaps he wasn't interested in her or maybe he was getting it elsewhere so that evening she had been rather harsh on him snapping at him without cause.
Halt had resolved to place himself at a safe distance sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a stack of reports when there was a knock at the door. Pauline fetched it, a messenger boy handing her a letter and scuttling off. Pauline opened it and read.
"Everything alright" Halt asked carefully wondering if he would get chewed out again.
"My parents would like us to come to dinner tomorrow night" Pauline said.
"We should go perhaps it'll cheer you up" Halt said.
"Some faithfulness would cheer me up just fine" she said setting the letter on the side table.
"Faithfulness?... What are you talking about?" Halt said setting the report down.
"Who is she, Halt?" Pauline demanded.
"What in the gods names are you talking about?" Halt said.
"The woman that you would rather sleep with rather than your own wife!" she said and went to their room slamming the door.
Halt sat at the table completely flabbergasted he had never seen Pauline behave that way, the woman had never lost her calm or let anything get to her. 'What on earth just happened'. That night she did not let him hold her like she usually did and the next morning she was gone early without so much as a word.
Inside Pauline felt like she was being ripped apart and Halt felt confused and rather useless considering she wouldn't even let him do anything about it.
That evening at dinner the couple sat at the table. Pauline's mother saw the coldness Pauline was showing Halt and was surprised by it expecting to be the couple to be closer now than ever. The conversation had been light and simple until Georgiana found the touchy subject.
"Pauline I see you aren't pregnant yet, you need to get on with these things or you will never have children" Georgiana said matter of factly.
"Here here" her father agreed "perhaps a grandson for the battle school, or perhaps not with Halt's build hmmm. But a grandson no less."
"May I be excused please" Pauline said suddenly and left the table.
Halt went to stand but Pauline's mother touched his shoulder sitting him back down "let me" she said.
"Probably a good idea" Halt said and sat back down as the woman went after her daughter.
"What have you done?" Georgiana scolded him.
"Not so sure it's what I've done as what I haven't" Halt said.
"I don't get it?" Pauline's father said.
Halt just took a drink of coffee not willing to continue the conversation.
"Pauline stop" her mother called her "what is going on? Why did you storm out of dinner like that? And why on earth are you treating Halt like the bane of the earth?"
"Everyone is on my case about having children mother it's all I hear every time I go in town" Pauline said sitting on a bench.
"Well most women your age would have been pregnant it's a bit of an anomaly when someone isn't of course people will talk" her mother said sitting beside her "are you having trouble getting pregnant?"
"I wouldn't know" Pauline said simply.
"You and Halt haven't..." her mother said.
"No we haven't" Pauline said "and the newest rumors suggest he is getting it elsewhere."
"Well I certainly hope you don't believe them that is absurd and here you are blaming poor Halt for something he hasn't even done" her mother said.
Pauline looked at her having heard the words leave the woman's mouth she realized how ludicrous it actually was "We were so busy before he left that we just never found the time and since he has been back I have been cold as ice to him" Pauline said sadly.
"Pauline ranger's have a level of discipline that rivals anything you can imagine you have seen it in Halt and he has made that a part of your marriage. He will refuse anything as long as he thinks you are uncomfortable and that includes consummating your marriage. He loves you and only wants you to be happy and this marriage is just as new to him as it is to you" her mother said.
"You're right no matter what he has always tried to keep me happy..." Pauline said and looked at her mother "How is it that you know so much about them mother?"
"About whom?" she asked.
"The rangers. Sometimes it's as if you know Halt's mind better than I do" Pauline said.
Her mother smiled "I do not even pretend to know what goes through that mans head sometimes but I can see the way he feels about you anyone can and everyone did at the wedding... But a long time ago before I met your father there was a young man named Pritchard he was a Ranger and he won my heart unfortunately it wasn't to be as my marriage to your father was shortly there after to be arranged my parents didn't approve of the rangers. I stayed friends with Pritchard though, until he was killed some years ago. He trained two young men before he died both of which you know Crowley being one and Halt the other I see a bit of him in the two of them."
Pauline looked at her mother softly "I am sorry you lost him."
Her mother smiled "were it not for losing him I never would have had you" she said stroking her daughters cheek "and I did love your father and though we fight I still do."
Pauline smiled "I owe Halt an apology."
"No you don't" came a voice from the shadows, Halt seemed to morph from the ground as he stepped into the light.
"I'll leave you two to talk" her mother said and moved back toward the house.
"I'm sorry Halt, I should not have snapped at you or blamed you-" Pauline tried to apologize.
"Shh it's alright when I was in town today I heard the rumors and between that and last night and this conversation I have a pretty good idea of what happened" he said.
"I was a fool to let it get to me" she said shaking her head.
Halt hugged her to him "you could never be a fool... but next time you decide to be completely irrational warn me first" he said.
She smacked his arm at that then hugged him "I want to be with you Halt... I want to consummate our marriage, I want to make love, I want to have children" she said "I'm sorry we haven't talked about it before now but I want all those things with you."
Halt held her close "nothing would make me happier than having those things and starting a family with you" he said.
She kissed him lovingly and he returned it happily glad things were back to normal.