Aurie couldn’t move fast enough from inside that house. All the memories he had destroyed, all the heartache her family had already been put through, all the heartache they would go through. All for nothing. He’s nothing. Exactly what she suspected from the beginning. The dream hung in her vision as she skipped a step off of the porch and thrust the basket into Alden’s chest as he stared at her in confusion.

  The offlander’s eyes were just as she had seen in that dream. Those burning golds encircled by greens, looking into her, studying every part of her face the entire time she was in them. Those padded feet, though she didn’t remember him missing a toe, were just as rough, scarred. Bare. She had truly looked at him in that dream, seen him for what he was. Not a noble but a barbarian. A wolf in sheep’s clothing bent on destroying everything she loved.

  “Go to the house,” she said as she rushed around to the other side of the house without hearing Alden’s distraught reply.

  How that man had thrown her, that harsh language spilling from his thick lips with rage, that spear in his hand, overpowered her vision. It was him. She knew it in her stiffening bones, in the frantic beating of her heart, in the shallowness of her lungs. They had to get away from him. They had to abandon this dangerous gamble her husband had set them in.

  “…I think you’re remembering the one I sealed on our house, there’s no opening to underneath here,” she heard Balor say as she rounded the corner to the backside of the house.

  Maud was straightening and brushing dirt from her dress when Aurie stopped in front of her and pointed, “Go to the house, now.”

  “What happened now? This was your idea.”

  “Go!” Aurie shoved her hard enough that she stumbled past Balor, whose mouth fell open beneath gleaming eyes.

  “What happened now?” He growled.

  Aurie rushed to him. She didn’t want him to see that she was still mad at him for last night. This was bigger than that, more than that, and she needed him to understand. She needed him to abandon this foolish gamble, to abandon that man, before it was too late.

  “Everything is so back and forth with you two. Will you just have your spat already?” Maud huffed, catching herself.

  “I said go!” Aurie roared. As Maud rolled her eyes and made her way to the road, Aurie grabbed Balor’s hands and clasp them to her chest, as close to her heart as she could muster, “Balor, please, listen to me.”

  “What happened? I know he wouldn’t hurt you, he’s a kind, good man,” Balor looked worried, but he was forcing his warmest grin at her. “Do you know what he told me? That you’re the house that…”

  “I don’t care what he said,” she lifted her head to look him as piercingly into his eyes as she could muster, “Balor, you need to come home. You need to go to the homesteaders and do whatever it takes to get them to forget you ever stood by that…man. Please, Balor, I beg you.”

  “I can’t do that,” Balor stiffened. “He’s worth more than those pricks. He’s a good man. Look, let me tell you what he said to me…”

  “Balor!” She shouted it louder and fiercer than she meant. She softened her voice and moved invitingly closer to him, “Balor, please. He’s lying to you. He’s not a noble.”

  “That’s the village talking! He is or he wouldn’t have those rights!”

  “He’s not!” She wanted to cry, wanted to crawl into his arms and plead, but he was hard as stone even as he held her hands so warmly in his. “His feet are hard as stone. My love, my dearest husband,” she put a hand to his cheek, making certain to capture his gaze, “My heart, I need you to listen to me. Hear me when I tell you that his feet are rougher than my father’s.”

  “Is that what this is about? His feet?” Balor threw his head back to laugh but never let her hands fall from his, “Darling, he’s obviously a soldier of some sort. Those are just from soldiering.”

  “They’re from having a life without shoes, Balor,” Aurie shook her head at him. She moved close enough that her bust pressed into his firm chest while making his arms wrap around her. Once he looked back down to her, his embrace habitually tightening around her, she lifted herself onto her toes and put her arms around the back of his neck. Their noses touched and she looked deep into his eyes, “My father was a soldier, remember? His feet were softer by far. That isn’t a noble in there. Please believe me when I tell you that he’s nothing more than someone who will only bring us to starve this winter. He’s destitute. And by standing with him, so will we. Only, unlike him, we can’t hunt. Or fish. Or anything else. He’s not even a common man, he has the feet of a serf or worse, a slave.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “With that horse, he most certainly is neither of those things. And he is kind hearted, good to the core. I know a good man when I see one and he is just that. Once you get to know him, you’ll see.”

  He wasn’t listening to a word she was saying. He couldn’t hear a thing she was trying to tell him. The offlander had infiltrated too deep into his mind. She had to get him to understand, to see reason, to see what was really happening.

  “We’ll starve!” She threw herself out of his embrace. “And he won’t help us. Because he can’t! He can’t sell in the village any more than we can. Think about it, Balor, really think. If he’s so wealthy, if he’s so high and noble, then why was he trying to sell furs? Where is his food? His supplies? His men at arms? He has none, that’s where. The man will lose his land with the taxes and we’ll be destitute for it because you won’t let this stupid idea of yours out of your head.”

  “His land can’t be seized, sold, or parceled, not even by the king,” Balor was beginning to look worried. His brows pressed together and his cheeks had lifted nearly to his eyes, “Pierre told me himself.”

  “Well ours can and will be if we stand by him,” Aurie growled. Why can’t he see it? Why is he so blind to what this man is doing? That boar’s red eyes, his hateful words, the way he threw her down. She shook the memory from her vision, “I have to do this, Balor. You must open your eyes. It is us or him. I can’t do this any other way.”

  “What are you saying? Look, if you would just let me tell you what he said, then you’ll see…”

  “I heard you tell Alden,” She shook at him, “Us. Or him. Either you go to the village and get the others to accept us back, work their fields or something, I don’t care, or I can’t take you back. Do this for me, do this for us, for our marriage, for our children. We’ll starve, Balor, and you must see that. With Berone preparing for siege, they won’t pay us a third of what our harvest is worth and you know it. And Alcer? They’ll undercut us just for the asking. We need this. We, Balor. Your family. He can’t help us even if he wanted to.”

  “But I like him. He’s not like them. He’ll help us through the winter. Look, he can hunt. And I know he’s a noble. Maybe he’s just been titled or something, but he’s a Cathol, and all the nobles are Cathols. And he can read and write. And his rights, Aurie, he has rights, like a nobleman.”

  Aurie stiffened her chin. She could barely breathe; her heart was pumping so hard she was shaking. “If you get them to forgive us and forget this fool idea, I’ll take you back. I’ll sleep in our bed. I’ll be your dutiful wife as I always have. I love you, Balor. Please, I beg you.”

  Tears rolled down her face, her eyes fixed on every dimple within his beard, on his pained eyes, on the creases in the patterns of his sweaty forehead.

  “Come home,” she trembled, “Come home and fix this. If what he said was true, then he’ll understand. He is a kind man, I saw that too, but he’s not worth what will happen to us after harvest, after taxes take every penny of your labors. You need to abandon him and return to your family. To me.”

  His shoulders sank and he braced himself as if his knees were about to give out. If this had been any other time, any other argument, she might have grinned at finally getting through to him. But she rushed to him and pressed her lips hard into his, wrapping her arms tight as she could around him.

  “I love you,” she said into his ear as his face fell from her kiss. “Come home. I miss you. I need you to stand by me. Stand by our family. He’ll manage on his own, promise you me.”

  “I know,” Balor’s voice sounded small. Defeated. She had never meant to devastate him as she knew she had. She would make up for it when he came home. She would do everything she could think of to show him that he made the right choice this time. “I’ll tell him and head to the village.” He lifted his chin to look into her eyes. Her heart sank at the sight of how they glistened, “I love you, Aurie. I never meant to endanger us. I never meant for us to…”

  “I know, my love,” she pressed her forehead to his, twisting so she could feel his warm sweat cool her. Their noses pressed. She ran her fingers into his hair, pulling him. “I know. If he’s as good a man as you say, he’ll understand.” She lifted for another kiss.

  “He is,” Balor straightened from her embrace, refusing the kiss by turning away. He took a few steps and hung his head, saying over his shoulder, “I’ll do what I must.”

  As he turned the corner, Aurie felt her breath stick in her throat. This was what needed to be done, she told herself as she made her way back to the road. She stifled the tears that wanted to flow from her like the rains that had pounded their roof the night before. She had cut him deeper than she thought possible, but it was what needed to be done to make him see. To make her husband come back and her family to be safe. Secure. Fed.

  In time—she stopped for a moment to look back toward Balor, who was haphazardly tossing his tools back into the wagon while the offlander watched from the doorway—he’ll see that this was the right choice.