“And good neighbor for convincing me of something I just said I didn’t want to do, Glenn.” This would be the new paradigm, she suspected; now that he had two names, he was Sionnach when she felt fond of him and Glenn when he was being Glenn. “Where would I be without you to repeat what I just said in just the right way to make me sound like an idiot?” Her fist propped on a hipbone, and she rolled her eyes, a gesture which for once was clearly visible. “Mayhap it’s worth the one or two generations of glory. The gods know I haven’t many better prospects. But Herself wouldn't care. She'd be glad to let the trees whisper her name for all time.”
It was meant as an arrogant joke, but it wasn’t funny, really. The corkscrew twisted in her chest, practically in her throat, as if trying to choke her for even making light of it. She tried to swallow it back to its proper place. It was like she had somehow gotten a wooden spoon stuck in her throat. Unfortunately it came at the very moment he gave her his sardonic little bow, and all she could do was glare at him.
By far the best way she had found to shut him up when he was busy burrowing up his own arse was to put him to the question—either he’d answer it, and she’d learn something, or he’d break his own neck trying to avoid it, which solved the problem of him nattering. “For so much certainty, you are very vague when you voice these opinions. How do you feel we need you? What service can you provide? And while you’re answering that, do a lady a good turn and give me a few hints how to convince this pack of stout hearts to yield enough even to consider accepting aid from the tultharian? I have my own schemes but I should like to hear yours first, to see how they compare. And so that you can’t just do the thing you just did and restate my own plan for me as if you’d come up with it.”
She did not, in fact, stab him—did not even feel like it—but the pause went long enough for her to wonder how far up the street she could tiptoe before he opened his eyes again and found himself alone and having a personal discussion with thin air. She had been blunt in part to see if it embarrassed him to silence, for once, and in part because she truly did feel he might be the one in ten who would actually take such a bold statement in the spirit she intended it.
“Sionnach,” she said finally, gently, and not quite interrupting the last part of the sentence except that Lugh’us Danaan, the point had been made, “that wasn’t to put you on the defensive. You don’t have to explain your reasons for it. I was asking for myself. I’ve gotten myself into some tight corners in the past so I wanted to be clear. I would not have things be awkward between us.”
And that much said, the matter settled so far as she was concerned, she walked on, adding lightly over her shoulder, “More awkward. Awkwarder. Whatever this great messy thing we have going.” And then, because she couldn’t resist it, “Besides, you probably never shut up in bed, either…”