Once Elain and Lucien arrived back at the estate they headed straight for the sitting room again, Elain claiming an armchair by the window while Lucien stretched out on the sofa nearby. He waved a hand and Elain jumped when the fire jumped to life. She rubbed her hands together a pulled the blanket from the back of the chair around herself.

"Spring's just started but it's still so cold out. I don't know how soon I'll actually be able to plant anything." Lucien nodded, draping an arm over his eyes as he lounged.

"The ground will likely be frozen for a while yet. I always forget how frigid early spring is."

Walking side by side had kept them pretty warm but the ride back had been fairly miserable. It had been frigid the last time she had taken him into town, racing him on the path before she sent him back to Prythian, but the ride into and out of town today had been downright glacial. The fire slowly warmed the room and Elain looked back over at Lucien.

"Nesta will lose her mind if she sees you sprawled out so improperly, you know." Lucien waved his free hand,

"I will find some way to survive." Elain frowned slightly, sinking a bit further into her chair. "Is everything okay? I didn't do anything to upset you, right?" Lucien shook his head, "No, you've been wonderful. I'm just cold and old."

Elain sat forward a bit at that. That was right. Lucien didn't look much older than Graysen but fae aged differently than humans.

"How old are you exactly?" She leaned on the arm of her chair to look at him. Lucien lifted the arm over his eyes long enough to look at her. He did look really tired…

"That was one of the first questions Feyre asked me as well." She twisted in her chair until her legs draped over one of the arms, "I'll tell you something for anything you tell me. For example, I am 21 years old." Lucien pushed himself up a bit until he was leaning back on the side of the couch rather than lying down on it. "I'm a little under 500."

Okay, so she hadn't been expecting that old.

"Alright… uh your turn I guess…" she offered and Lucien blew out a breath. He finally adjusted to sit properly, leaning forward on his knees.

"Can I skip the game and just ask you a question?" Elain nodded and gestured with a hand for him to continue. He folded his hands together and blew some hair out of his face. Glamored like he was now, it was easy for Elain to forget that Lucien wasn't human. Even after hearing that he was close to 500 years old. "Exactly how involved are you with that Graysen boy?" She covered her mouth and cleared her throat to keep from laughing. "That Graysen boy… You sound like my father." She couldn't help the small giggle that escaped her but she eventually straightened a bit to explain. "He asked me to marry him almost a month ago. I told him I had to think about it since I wanted to discuss it with Nesta and our father first." Lucien nodded slowly, "And… do you think you'll say yes?" Elain bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "I don't know. He's… he's a good man. He cares for me but something doesn't feel right about it."

It felt awful to say. Honestly, she hadn't had many doubts before the day Graysen proposed. They'd spent a whole day going through one of the greenhouses in town. He'd listened to her gush and when they had gone back to his home for dinner well… she hadn't returned to her family's estate until the next morning. She'd spent that morning considering everything. Graysen's home was… dreary to put it politely. It was in desperate need of a feminine touch but she wasn't sure if flowers could actually fix the prisonous feel of the grounds.

And then there was the matter of having slept with Graysen before cementing anything. Socially it would be bad if word got out and they didn't have plans to get married at least. Her behavior could reflect poorly on her father and he'd been working so hard to keep their good fortune going. She couldn't stand to be the reason that the family fell from grace again. She had wanted to believe that Graysen would never tell anyone about it, that he would never hurt her family like that. But she couldn't be certain. So she had been terrified when he actually proposed.

It was stupid. Graysen loved her. Very much. But would he hold her indiscretion against her to make sure she agreed? She hated that she thought him capable of such a thing. But she'd told him that she needed to think about it anyway. And then started avoiding answering his letters. She just needed time to think. Get her head on straight and consider everything. And then they'd found Lucien stuck in that trap. On a trip Elain had been hesitant to go on as it was, Graysen had been about to leave an animal in a trap when it took no time at all to cut the poor thing free. It wasn't like Graysen and his father had realized Lucien was actually a faerie. If they had Lord Nolan likely would have gut Lucien instead of just leaving him there. But something twisted in her gut at the thought of marrying someone who would permit such cruelty just because his father ordered him to get moving.

Elain twisted a bit of her hair in her fingers,

"I… I don't…" she sighed and rubbed her face with her hands, "It's so stupid. I never had a problem until he proposed." She tugged a throw pillow into her lap with a huff. "I wish I could just… see what would happen if I said no." She looked at Lucien and offered him a weak smile, "Sorry. That was a yes or no question and I just stammered a bunch." Lucien shook his head.

"You don't have to apologize… but you want to say no?" She had no idea why he was so interested but she nodded. She picked at a loose thread on the edge of her throw pillow. "Yes… I just don't know how to approach it with him." Lucien stood up, stretching a bit before patting her head on his way to the kitchen. "Things will be alright. I'm getting some water, would you like some?" She shook her head, "No, I'm alright. Thank you." Lucien continued on his way and once he'd left the room Elain sank further into her chair. Not knowing how things would go was terrifying… she didn't know how Lucien could be so calm about things like that. She wrapped the blanket a bit more firmly around herself. She wanted to believe him though. It was silly but she wanted to believe things would be okay, even if just because he'd been the one to say so.

Lucien lingered by a window in the kitchen, holding his glass of water but not making any effort to drink. He'd figured that she must be a little uncertain if Graysen was being so… territorial. But Elain seemed pretty damn certain that she wanted to say no. She was nervous though. If she was that nervous to outright reject Graysen then there had to be a reason. But she wasn't likely to tell him directly if she hadn't wanted to bring it up when she was answering his questions. Which meant that, unfortunately, he would be venturing into that town again to have a chat with the lord...

And hopefully, Graysen wouldn't say anything to antagonize Lucien into driving the human's face into the thawing dirt outside.