I'm beginning to realize I shouldn't have married based on pleasing facial hair and first name. Not solely, anyway. Or at least I should have found someone with more than a village to their name. Maybe he was polite yet respectful and that was a welcome change from the typical "A wo-man? On MY battlefield?".
Regardless, the relationship soon grew rocky. He seemed content to putter about his precious "holding" week after week, sometimes going on a lovely excursion to pillage an enemy village. Something I did *not* care for, not that we saw each other often. Awkward pleasantries and sidelong glances as we rode with the marshal. Barely-hidden jealousy when I received my first Nord castle, then another two. That's what happens when you grow a pair instead of bullying peasants!
Maybe I pushed too hard... Well, nah. But, one day I noticed that he wasn't with the marshal's warhost. I don't know when he left exactly, he didn't bother to send a messenger. Well, maybe it came while I was... celebrating... in my hard-won and awarded town of Suno. But he was boyar no more. The damn fool had left to become a Swadian "count", though can one truly be a count with no county at all?
For once I ignored the marshal's calls. The Rhodoks would wait - I had Swadians to kill. They were nearly crushed anyway, making his choice even more perplexing. And maddening. Their last town, Dhirim, was a bloody siege... But I didn't even request it, merely continued the hunt. One by one the castles fell. Our marshal smelled blood and brought the warhost to help, but still I ignored his summons.
Finally, here I am outside Tilbaut castle. Seventeen landless "counts" huddle inside. Their king is here too, oh yes, strapped unceremoniously to the back of my steppe charger. I demand an audience with the traitor, the first time we'll have talked in over a month.
Or ever, in a way."Yes, my poppet?"
Yep. This is it. I'm going to kill him. I'll FIND a way, dammit!
Oh... Really?
... Let's just get you home.
Someone claimed your village, we're going to my place. It's for the best, really.