It wasn't even the threat of marriage that had her so emotional! She did not care for it, but she did not know it. All she had witnessed of unions was the broken aspect of her mother and father who never wed, and the strain now between Senmut and Legend; she had no frame of reference for what a marriage might entail, or what a man might expect of her—but she did not want it because Khaemwaset had required it.

She sucked in a shuddering breath and swallowed tears. He-he-he said it would t-ta-take time, and I couldn't find y-you, Aiesha could not stop the crying now that it had started, this unmitigated fountain of emotion, but she was gradually getting control of herself again.

Wh-where did you, ah, go? Why couldn't I find y-you? Clearing her throat as best she could, face slicked by her tears; she was a mess but in the moment it didn't matter.