Best She Can Do

Writers: Heather, Miriah
Date Posted: 1st September 2019
Series: The Hallmaster's New Wife

Characters: Enamra, Thayde
Description: Enamra finds Thayde the morning after the fight.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 12, day 20 of Turn 9

Enamra

Thayde

----
"What happened to you?" The gasp was loud as Enamra stared down at
Thayde where he sprawled on the couch. His face looked swollen,
bruised, and was covered in dried blood. His knuckles looked battered
and swollen as well, and Enamra rushed to the sink to fill it with
cool water. Hurrying back with the basin, she knelt and pressed a
cool, damp cloth to his eye before taking another to lightly dab at
his lip. "Your face...what happened?"

She hadn't slept well and it was clear by the shadows under
still-reddened and slightly swollen eyes and mussed hair. She'd woken
alone, certain that Thayde had slept with his former companion, but
when she'd began to make breakfast, the body on the couch had startled
her. What she saw after had put her into a near panic. But any
evidence of any anger or further tears was diminished by her immediate
worry as she began gently wiping at the dried blood.

Thayde hissed as the cool cloth was pressed against his eye, which
felt crusty, as if someone had glued it shut. **That little snot's
fist fit perfectly into my eye socket,** he thought as he pushed
himself up on the couch to a sitting position.

His head felt wooly from the combination of alcohol and the fight. He
looked at Enamra with his good eye, noting her tear swollen eyes and
knowing he was the cause.

"Will you get me some water to drink?" He croaked, his tongue poking
out to explore the split in the middle of his lower lip.

"Don't do that. You'll make it bleed more." Enamra hurried to get him
a glass of water, bringing it back and handing it to him. She dipped
her cloth in the basin and began wiping gently at his lip and chin,
her face set in concentration. "What happened? Did you fall? I should
call a Healer." She dipped her cloth into the basin again, cleaning
the final bit of dried blood off of his chin. Then she sniffed and
looked at Thayde. She knew what beer smelled like; when her papa could
afford it, he'd buy and drink copious amounts, which thankfully had been
rare. "You were drinking." She looked down at his bloodied hand, then
back up to his eye. "Did you get in a fight? Is..is that what
happened?"

Thayde looked down at his hand, at the split knuckles, and flexed his
fingers experimentally. It hurt and they were stiff, but at least his
hand worked. He had never actually punched someone before and had not
anticipated how much it would hurt. Still, he felt a sense of
satisfaction as he remembered the way Doroon's nose had buckled
beneath the blow.

"Yes," he answered her.

"Why?" She watched his hand flex and saw a scab break. "Don't do that,
Thayde." She wiped at the blood, then hurried to the kitchen to find
the bandages that Thayde kept stocked. Finding them, she brought
them back and set them on the table near the couch. She'd had to wrap
her papa's hands several times after cuts and figured it would only be
a little different. Carefully picking up his injured hand, she set
it on her lap. Slathering his knuckles with a dab of numbweed, she
carefully placed the bandage pads on his knuckles, ignoring the
numbing of her own fingertips.

Thayde tilted his head back and rested it against the couch while she
worked. "Doroon was there."

She went utterly still, her face going pale as her eyes shot up to
look at Thayde's face. "Doroon?" It was a soft whisper. "Doroon was
where? You... you fought him? Was he the one that did that to your
face?"

"He looks worse than I do," Thayde said with a hint of masculine pride.

Enamra just stared at him with wide eyes, her mouth parted. A part of
her was thrilled that Thayde had fought with Doroon, that he'd hit him
and struck him. She'd dreamed of doing that, of hurting him like she'd
been hurt. It was almost like the stories she'd heard, of men
defending the women they cared for against some sort of villain. But
she'd not dreamed of swollen cheeks, eyes, or bleeding knuckles. She
looked down at Thayde's half-wrapped hand, then back at his face,
looking at his swollen eye before hurriedly bandaging his hand. And
maybe, just maybe a little, it made her feel a little better seeing
Thayde a bit bruised too and provided a little sop to her wounded
feelings.

She bit her lower lip and felt guilt surge. She shouldn't feel that
way at all. It wasn't right for her to think that way. Thayde had been
hurt. And even if she was upset with him, he shouldn't have gotten
hurt for her. "You didn't have to do that, Thayde." Her voice was
soft. "It's not worth it." She shook her head; she wasn't worth it.
"You don't have to do that. Doroon didn't force me. I let him ruin
me." She rose. "I'm going to run you a bath. Are you hurt anywhere
else?"

Thayde reached out quickly with his right hand, out of instinct,
earning a hiss through his teeth as his hand caught in the folds of
her skirt to keep her from walking away before he said what he wanted
to say. "Doroon took advantage of your innocence, that is not your
fault. He deserved everything he got, and more." Even though she had
not said the words exactly, he knew what she really meant and said,
"You are worth it. You are my wife and I will never sit by while
someone has nasty things to say about you."

His movement and sudden grasp startled her enough to stumble. She
landed in his lap, sitting down heavily, but his words stopped her
before she could jump back up and away from him."Sorry!" Instead of
immediately rising, she stared at him, hand against his chest in an
effort to steady herself. She wasn't surprised that Doroon had said
things, especially after he'd laughed at her when he'd left. She
didn't want to know what they were. Then her eyes lowered. "Thank you
then. For defending me. Even if you really don't have to." She moved
to get up. "I'll start that bath."

"Don't thank me," he said, not releasing her just yet. "I am no better
than Doroon in many ways. I deserved this as much as he did. I am
sorry, Enamra. Truly."

Enamra stilled as Thayde kept a hold on the plain skirt that she wore
and looked down at her hands, then away. "You're nothing like Doroon.
He wouldn't have married me. And...you provide for me like a husband
should. He's not like that." At his apology, she closed her eyes and
gave a little shrug. "Just don't lie to me again, please."

"I won't," he swore. "I would love for us to start over. Can we do that?"

Enamra didn't know how to even begin to approach being able to. "I
don't know," she admitted. "I can't pretend I didn't see what I saw.
And, it really hurt." She watched her fingers rub against each other,
remembering how he'd moved against the other woman, kissed her and
touched her. "Are you going to see her again?"

"No," Thayde assured her. "She is not stationed here so hopefully she
won't even be around the Hall." He wished that he could go back in
time and change what happened, but he couldn't. "Even if she does come
back to the Hall, nothing will happen. I swear it."

She wanted to believe him, she really did. "Did you want to marry her
before you had to marry me?" That was the question that really nagged
at her. Had she taken Thayde away from someone he had actually wanted?
"Did I take you away from her?"

Thayde shook his head, realizing that his past love life was probably
something that they should have already spoken about since he knew
about since he knew about Enamra's. "No, I knew Jalodwyn, that's her
name, when we were younger but I had not seen her in several Turns
before she showed up for a visit at the Hall. The last woman I was in
a relationship with was named Irabel, she was a dolphineer here, but
she left months before you came. I would never have asked you to marry
me if I had been secretly wanting to marry someone else."

"And what if this Irabel comes back? Will you set me aside or go to
her?" Her fingers twisted against each other as she waited for his
answer. He hadn't married her for any other reason but to protect her
reputation. She had to know what to expect.

"No, even though it doesn't seem like it now, I did mean my vows
and...." Thayde paused. "I care about you and I would not want to be
with anyone else."

She flicked a glance at him, still not completely believing him, but
wanting to. Slowly she nodded. "Okay."

"I just need you to do something, Enamra. I know it might be a while,
especially after all of this, but when you are ready to be intimate,
tell me. I don't want it to be a problem between us any more."

Enamra immediately flushed and shifted on his lap a little,
embarrassed by the request and uncertain how to respond. A wife was
supposed to be willing for her husband and she'd tried that, but it
hadn't worked at all like it was supposed to. She didn't know how to
go about it and was afraid to try anything like that again. "Okay.
I'll try."

"It doesn't have to be anything elaborate, okay? You can literally
just say 'I'm ready' and I'll know what you are talking about." Thayde
did not want any more confusion because he clearly was not good on
picking up the signs that Enamra dropped for him.

She just nodded, unable to imagine herself just going up to him and
saying that she was 'ready'. How did one just do that? Besides, she
could still see him moving against that other woman, kissing her and
touching her...There was a flash of jealousy in her gut, coupled with
more than a little shame at her own lack of ability to properly entice
her husband. She swallowed hard and immediately attempted to change
the subject. "Can I get up now to run your bath?" She cleared her
throat. "You kind of smell like beer, Thayde."

Thayde sniffed at his shirt and his nose wrinkled immediately. "I had
not even noticed, but you are right. A bath sounds great." He released
her, his right hand throbbing as he did so.

Immediately rising, Enamra hurried to the washing basin, pulling it
with all of her strength to the heated water tap. As she started
filling the tub, her mind worked over what they'd talked about.
Starting over? No, they couldn't do that. But they could keep trying
maybe. She wished she could stop remembering what he'd looked like
with the other woman. She'd keep her vows; maybe it was the best she
could do.

Last updated on the September 3rd 2019

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