Without much hope, Niabheara rapped on Goneril's door. "Rillie? Are you awake?" She tapped again. "Are you there?" Niabheara was dressed for riding, her hair bound back and her scarf unwrapped, both ends dangling almost to the ground. She looked a little sallower than usual, and pensive.

Goneril was holed up in a corner with a book, looking a good bit thinner than she had a month ago. Fortunately, she was clean and un-disheveled, and she had traded in her English dresses for gowns cut more along the Tuatha lines.

"I'm here," she called back thinly. "You can come in."

Niabheara pushed back her scarf so that she did not tread on it, then timidly peeked around the edge of the door. "Ah. There's a breakfast, if you want to come down. Or we could send up something? Some nice oatmeal with honey?"

"I'm not hungry," Goneril answered. "It's all right. Maybe I'll come down for lunch?"

Niabheara huffed, frustrated. She leaned against the doorjamb, her arms folded against her chest. "Please? E'en a piece of bread-and-jam? You can't not eat in this weather; it's like asking to come down with something."

"I'm fine," Goneril answered, and gave Niabheara a pained look. "I'm not sick. I just...feel a little nauseated."

"Probably because your stomach's flat as an empty sack," she said. "You get hungrier when it snows. It is a fact." Niabheara herself had taken on a noticeably rounder look, especially in her face and arms, though that could be attributable to either her winter eating habits or the fact that she had spent the last month married to Marcello. She looked brown and roly-poly, like a seal pup. Cautiously she stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. "We're meant to be taking plaints this afternoon. Do you want to come? You could bring your book."

Goneril frowned, considering. "All right," she said. "If I come while you hear plaints, will you stop nagging me to eat?"

"Er. No." She seemed embarrassed to admit her plans so quickly. "Eating is still more important."

"I've been eating," Goneril replied plaintively. She sighed, closed her book, and got to her feet. "I'm really just not that hungry."