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“Damn it, Marit, what are you trying to do?”
Haplo caught her arm and swung Marit to face him. She looked up at him with a faint smile, not the least disturbed by his half-hissed demand.
“What do you mean?” she asked pleasantly. Haplo wouldn’t have been surprised to feel a knife sting his belly, but he didn’t. Marit must have been expecting him to show up.
“You know what I mean! Are you trying to make me lose my mind?”
Marit tugged her arm away. Haplo let her go and glowered, waiting for her to explain herself.
“I’m getting tired of watching you pine away. Say something to Alfred. Both of you will be better off. If you don’t, I might just say something to him for you.”
Haplo closed his teeth around a few more curses and settled for a long exhale.
“Marit, there’s nothing between us and there never will be. I have so many more important concerns. The dragon-snakes, our people in the Labyrinth, our child. Falling in love is a distraction and I can’t afford it.”
“Times are different, Haplo. Our people are banding together like never before and there is more hope in the Labyrinth than I have ever seen. You aren’t the only one working to save our people. A bit of happiness isn’t too much to allow yourself.”
Haplo caught the flicker of pain in her eyes that followed his mention of their daughter, but Marit didn’t bother to reply on that subject. She had already taken in a number of orphaned children, boys and girls and any of the girls could have been theirs. Haplo helped with them whenever he had time and he trusted Marit and Hugh to take good care of them.
“So, seeing Alfred dressed like a Patryn struck a nerve with you,” she continued, radiating amusement. “Good, I thought it might.”
Haplo stared at her. “You did it on purpose? He told me you were helping him gain acceptance with our people.”
“I am,” she replied dismissively. “And with one of our people more than all the others. Haplo, you’re going to have to admit how you feel sooner or later and it’s better if you do it sooner. He may not be what our people are used to, but you can’t count on being the only one to understand his charms forever. So many of our people saw him transform into a dragon, after all. In time, someone will act and then where will you be?”
“Free of your meddling, if nothing else,” Haplo muttered darkly. Marit snorted and walked away from him. Haplo watched her go, awash in confused feelings that got more muddled by the moment. How had Marit gone from the woman he’d loved to a close but meddling friend who pushed him to give his feelings voice?
Maybe it had been Abarrach, he mused. His death had shaken Marit to be sure, but Alfred had been the one to hear his spirit, thanks to that time they had experienced each other’s mind in Death’s Gate. When it was all over, Marit had explained that she would always love him, but that there was no future for them. It had hurt, but Haplo had been too busy to feel bad.
And Marit had stayed beside him as a friend while he recovered and then fought at his back while they struggled to save their people. Haplo, for the first time in his life, hadn’t lived up to his name. Even now that he’d worked through the shock it, he still couldn’t believe how much his life had changed.
He could do without her attempts to make him confess his feelings for Alfred, though.