She rubbed a hand up his arm. "Wanting something and fearing it won't happen aren't always the same," she said. "I don't want to drift off." She smiled slightly. "I don't want to disappoint you." She stopped, frowning at the end of the hall. "Up or down?" she asked.

"Down," he said. "I fear I was not paying much attention to where the countess's prison tower lay when I arrived, although considering my last few arrivals in Seelie country, perhaps I should have done. We could always ask." He started off down the passage, which seemed to lay on the windward side of the castle, judging by how immediately it grew cooler. He held on to her arm. "I'm scared. And a little sad. Sad mostly because I wish . . . I wish this was a little easier. For the both of us. I meet a perfectly nice young woman, for the first time in ages, and there's no reason we can't be together except for a great lot of unavoidable circumstances. It's different when you just find out you don't care for each other, or that you can't get along, but to have it just be . . . things." He shook his head, smiling. "And I very nearly just made an ass of myself by telling you you'll understand when you're older. Forgive me."

She laughed. "I don't mind that," she said. "I know there are things I don't understand about some things, that you do. I would be bothered by it if you said it about something I could know." She bit her lip as they started down, and pressed closer to him with a shiver. "My father said he would try to make things easier," she said, a little hesitant. "He wasn't angry, when I talked to him. He...he apologized, for how he spoke to you the other night."

Faolin grimaced. "I need to find him and apologize. I preemptively made an ass of myself." He held out a hand to hold her still, then broke away long enough to speak to one of the house guard, quietly, in Tuathailli. He came back to her, nodding. "We will have to be exposed to the elements. There's only one entrance to the tower and it's from the courtyard." He started along again. "I'm glad he wasn't angry, but I'm a little confused about how he means to make things easier."

"I'm confused, too," Goneril answered. "But I think he means he won't stand in the way. He also...offered to let me come back," she added. "Or to let me stay here at Cnoch na Niall for longer. I...don't know...if that's the best idea," she finished, a little hesitantly. "I'd like to spend more time with you, but I don't want to...I'm afraid my father might be pushing me at you." She bit her lip, shivering even at the idea of going outside. "Keep me warm?"

"I don't know if it would be a good idea for you to stay here, either," he said seriously. "And I absolutely refuse to take you with me. Nothing personal." He kissed her nose. "Besides the problems with tallfolk in the court, if I'm sent away you'd be stuck alone and bored with no one who speaks Common but for Fiona." He put an arm around her shoulders. "I think it's stopped snowing. It shouldn't be too bad to cross the courtyard."

She laughed and kissed his cheek, burrowing herself against him. "As long as we don't drown in the snow that's already there? How...forgive me if I sound hopeless, but how is this ever going to work if I can't come to stay with you? Do you think that's something that can change? Those don't seem like problems that are going to go away overnight."

"It might be easier for you to slip in as part of the countess's entourage," he said, half-teasing. "She's already got the great big obvious tallfolk husband; one more in the crowd could likely pass as so much luggage. Hang on."

He pushed open the side door. The courtyard had already been cleared for the morning, slushy paths with waist-high heaps of snow to either side, and, near the middle, a wide clean area with a bonfire so that the servants and any passersby could warm up a moment before going on. The lone guard on tower watch wore a leather hood and mask that left only his bright grey eyes showing, giving him a look of almost comical stoic grimness as he stood watch over a tower with no one to escape from it.

Goneril's eyes lit up at the scene, and she shivered again, tugging up her skirts with her free hand so as not to let them trail through the slush. "I've never seen this much snow before," she said delightedly. "So I could come with the Countess, if she'd let me?" she asked, hopeful. "I think I would be more comfortable with that than coming alone. If I just went with you, it would...well, it would look like you were bringing a woman back from the south, and...I know that's what it is, but not in the same way. People might treat me like your luggage."

"Also I would like a chance to warn Bree." He paused a moment, looking serious. "My lady sister," he told her, "is very, very much a traditionalist, like our mother. When I'm at home, it's a great deal like your parents: my business is instantly her business."