[Thinlómien]

"How did you know that you and Stigend were right for each other?"

Modtryth shrugged, surprised and not sure what to say. It was clear the girl needed comfort, but Modtryth could hardly decipher what exactly she wanted to hear and she knew sometimes it was best to tell the truth.

"At first, I didn't really know." There was a moment's hesitation when Modtryth considered what to say to her fellow maid. Despite Ginna's current status, she was a noblewoman born and bred. It doesn't mean she's stupid, Modtryth reminded herself wryly.

"As a maid and a half-Dunlending bastard, I got a lot of unwanted attention when I was young and unmarried. Not that I didn't have my ways of dealing with it," she added, softening her words with a bitter smile. "Some guys were more harmless, more sincere. When I first noticed Stigend, I have to admit I didn't think much of him. I had seen more handsome men, men more intelligent and more skillful. Not that he wouldn't have been attractive or talented, but he just didn't stand out. So at first, I had no idea."

Telling the story, Modtryth thought how much there was she never thought of, how much she had left behind. "But in time, I came to see him for who he was. He did not seek to take advantage of me - rather, he stood between me and those who had bad intentions, although it was not always necessary - nor was he just randomly infatuated with me. I realised he truly cared for me. And I will not lie to you - there never were too many people who did. My mother, of course, and I'm not trying to say I didn't have friends. But the people who could look at me without seeing an enemy were not many."

"But I don't wish to burden you with all this. Lord Eodwine and Lady Saeryn and all of you in their service have been so good to us that I keep forgetting how much my father's people still hates that of my mother's." Modtryth smiled. "Anyway, I guess I was trying to say that once I realised that Stigend would stand by me whatever happened I knew that my place was by his side wherever he went and that I had been a fool not to realise it earlier."

She made a pause, realising she had spoken for an uncharacteristically long time. There was something in Ginna that inspired trust, and she had asked. Modtryth held her tongue and refrained from adding anything about how you came to see things yet differently when you had been married for ten years. That was hardly what Ginna had asked, or what she wanted to hear.