They take again, the two of them, to that tongue he does not know - a tongue he might have become passably fluent in, he is chagrined to think, if only he had sequestered himself for a time in the maester's study and made himself tractable - but there is no place for chagrin among these hills and plains, no one to whom he must explain his dearth of knowledge. He has not been humbled away from the idea that he might simply learn, in one long afternoon, if he cares to. For the nonce, he wears Ofergyld as if he were a stallion, and that word his proudest barding. He carries himself with a pride he has not here earned, gleaming plate and disheveled gold of hair, chin lifted.
The bone of banter that his wife snaps at her brother over brings a smirk to his face; when in her life could she have been turned aside? Even if for the sake of nobility and chastity she deferred, he can imagine quite easily her flight through wit and deception to have, all the same, what she decided she would have. A man's valor and a man's victories; a man's pride, though he does not know her to gloat. Not outside of their bedchamber, at the least, an unspoken jest for which he laughs alone. Never let it be said that when he is not an accomplice in conversation, or if he in fact knows nothing of the language, that he cannot look to be having a grand time even so.
A drier laugh for his wife's verdict: when are abundant proofs ever proof enough for any warrior? What proud hall does not wait to be dressed with gilded talk of peerless glories, each more virile than the last? He shares a glance with her brother, though he is not so quick to acknowledge the advantage she may hold, in her own hall or any other. "Nay, my lord, for too often has she been held hostage to another's name. Bested in riding and lancing, left with no recourse but a prayerful desperation."
The look he turns on his wife will, of course, assure her that he speaks of those times when it is his own name breathless on her lips, moments when she is resolutely held beneath him, pleading for more.
And just as swiftly do his thoughts turn to matters nearly as pertinent, fiery green gaze squinting toward the fastness toward which they ride. "Will there be no tournament to mark the homecoming of so cherished a lady? I would be most honored to cross sword or lance with so renowned a hero as yourself, Lord Elmer."
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sforzinda
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Date: 2021-10-15 04:13 am (UTC)The bone of banter that his wife snaps at her brother over brings a smirk to his face; when in her life could she have been turned aside? Even if for the sake of nobility and chastity she deferred, he can imagine quite easily her flight through wit and deception to have, all the same, what she decided she would have. A man's valor and a man's victories; a man's pride, though he does not know her to gloat. Not outside of their bedchamber, at the least, an unspoken jest for which he laughs alone. Never let it be said that when he is not an accomplice in conversation, or if he in fact knows nothing of the language, that he cannot look to be having a grand time even so.
A drier laugh for his wife's verdict: when are abundant proofs ever proof enough for any warrior? What proud hall does not wait to be dressed with gilded talk of peerless glories, each more virile than the last? He shares a glance with her brother, though he is not so quick to acknowledge the advantage she may hold, in her own hall or any other. "Nay, my lord, for too often has she been held hostage to another's name. Bested in riding and lancing, left with no recourse but a prayerful desperation."
The look he turns on his wife will, of course, assure her that he speaks of those times when it is his own name breathless on her lips, moments when she is resolutely held beneath him, pleading for more.
And just as swiftly do his thoughts turn to matters nearly as pertinent, fiery green gaze squinting toward the fastness toward which they ride. "Will there be no tournament to mark the homecoming of so cherished a lady? I would be most honored to cross sword or lance with so renowned a hero as yourself, Lord Elmer."