Aleksandra listened, her heart growing heavier in her chest. She had tried not to worry about him, but it was an impossible feeling to rid herself of. And she knew it would only grow worse over the next two days. This was going to distract her. But for the next two days, she reasoned, if she let herself feel it she could put it away during the feast. It wasn't good to keep things in for too long.

So as his hands slid from her shoulders, she caught them and slowly, not meeting his gaze, twined her fingers through his. She could worry over him and give him her strength for these few days. She could be all his support if he needed it.

"I'll be your castle walls, Aulfr. No one will get past me, should they even dare to try." There was a new look in her eye, a tone to her voice that she'd never used with him before. A sort of crazed determination that she usually reserved only for hunts, when she was out for blood. "And by all your gods and the Saints above, I'll see you sitting at the head of the table at the next 'feast', even if the heads of your enemies are lying at your feet when the time comes."

She raised his hands to her lips and pressed a firm kiss to his fingers, then let go. And then she went to take a bath.