(no subject)

[sai_delgado]

She's not avoiding the bar, not precisely. It's only that there's that which needs doing in the stables, and with the stock-- and so Susan Delgado is out in the training ring, working Corella on a lunge rope.

And thinking a little, mayhap.

Comments

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

After a time, Alain is there, too, leaning crossed forearms on the fence and watching.

Mayhap thinking a little, himself.

[sai_delgado]

She notices him, and flashes a bright smile, but she does not call out -- it would startle the two-year-old, and disturb that which she's trying to accomplish, and she knows that Alain will understand, oh aye.

But after a time, she finishes with the palomino mare and turns her back into the paddock, then comes to stand by him.

"Good day, Alain. How do'ee fare?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He returns the smile, and waits, absently assessing Corella's performance as he knows Susan is.

When she comes over, he turns away from the fence a little, towards her. "Well enough. And you?"

[sai_delgado]

"Aye, well enough," she says. "It's a pretty day out; has been all day, say true."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

"So it is."

A pause. But he came out here to give news, more than to see the horses, and there's no point in drawing it out. So he says, quietly and simply, after a short silence, "Lady Deschain is gone, now."

[sai_delgado]

Her head snaps around as she stares at him.

"Gone?" And well she knows it-- there's naught else really to go, is there?-- but still she asks,

"To the clearing?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He nods, and looks off into the distance, at the hazy line where forest meets sky. He's still leaning against the fence.

"Aye. Moved on, of her own choice."

[sai_delgado]

Susan bites her lip and looks unhappy.

"I tried to tell her it were nice here, although mayhap it'd be strange, at first--"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He glances at her, then, with swift concern.

Gently, "Aye, and it were both, I think, but..."

He exhales. "She's not ka-tet, as we are. Stranger for her."

(Would'ee have peace of the clearing?)

[sai_delgado]

"Ye say true, Alain-- she weren't --"

She sighs, looking unhappy still.

"Mayhap I should have said something, but if it were her own choice..."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He wonders what sort of conversation they might have had. He doesn't push it, right now.

Softly, "It was."

And for the best, he thinks, for all of them, though he doesn't say it.

[sai_delgado]

"She went her way in peace, then."

Susan sounds oddly certain of this.

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

Alain saw the path she stepped onto. He nods with a silent certainty of his own.

"Aye."

Give her peace of the clearing. Say true.

[sai_delgado]

Susan sighs.

"And-- Roland must know, I wager?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

Quietly, "He saw her to the door."

[sai_delgado]

She closes her eyes as if to shut out the image. After a few moments, she says,

"At least he were able to bid her a farewell, then."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He nods.

Then, because she still has her eyes closed, he says "Yes."

[sai_delgado]

Susan sighs, and finally opens her eyes again, looking out over the paddock.

"Aye, well -- mayhap it's not an ill thing, I wot."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

Alain looks down, for a moment, and then shakes his head slightly, tilting his head up to look over the trees in the distance. He leans against the fence, still turned partway towards Susan. One elbow is propped on the top rail, and he absently traces the line of the chain around his neck with a thumb.

"No. I don't think it is."

There's a heaviness, there, because, for love of the gods, it shouldn't be the easiest option to watch your mother turn away down the path to the clearing.

But sometimes it is. Was, here, for Roland. Even if it's still a cruel and hard thing.

[sai_delgado]

She turns to look at him, concerned at his tone, and asks gently,

"And-- are thee well, Alain, say true?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He pulls himself out of his thoughts a little, and gives her a small reassuring smile. "Worried for him. But aye, I'm well, Susan. Say true."

[sai_delgado]

"I'm glad of that," she says, smiling back at him, and there's silence between them for a moment before she asks,

"Did'ee know her well, then?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He shrugs, equivocating. "We all knew each other's parents, of course. And our mothers were friendly, as our fathers were. But she was ever... kind, yes, but not warm, do'ee ken? Not close. Not for us 'prentices, anyway."

And she died before any of them but Roland had passed the trial.

[sai_delgado]

"She's a lady of yer court," Susan says. "There were something-- aye, it's as ye said."

A pause, and then she confesses quietly, "She knew me. Who I were."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He slants a glance at her, and listens.

He doesn't look surprised. He'd wondered if she might, though he hadn't been certain. He never learned how much Gabrielle Deschain knew of her son's time in Meijis, not when she died a few days after his return.

[sai_delgado]

Susan shrugs.

"I'd not really thought about it before, do'ee ken? That -- others besides ye, in Gilead, might know."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

Quietly, "Not many. Our fathers and mothers -- I don't know how much Lady Deschain knew."

[sai_delgado]

"It doesn't matter, Alain. Say true."

She reaches out to touch his hand. "And mayhap it's only right -- I knew her story as well."

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

A faint smile at her, reassuring and a little sad both, and he turns his hand to give hers a brief squeeze.

[sai_delgado]

She smiles back, and is quiet again for a moment. Finally, she asks,

"Thee knew she'd left -- ye spoke with her, I wot?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He nods, mouth twisting faintly ruefully. "A little, aye. Cuthbert and I together." Which was very polite, and certainly not awkward at all.

He tilts his head. "And ye did?" He knows she did. That's not what the question is, really. But he'd only hear if she'd tell; he's not pressing.

[sai_delgado]

"Aye." Quietly, and then she glances sideways at him, and her own answering smile is mayhap a little rueful, as well. "She asked of Roland, of course."

A pause, then,

"And if I-- if I liked it here. Why I'd not left for the clearing my own self, do'ee ken?"

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

He nods.

Softly, "Ka-tet. There's a life here, for us, for now."

Al? Is there life to be found in a way-station?

There is.

Not peace, maybe, but life. And that's enough, and more than enough.

[sai_delgado]

"Say true."

And he has-- simply and yet completely, Alain has touched the heart of things.

Susan moves a little then, to lean on the fence herself while looking at the horses in the paddock -- and smiling, a little, as she glances over at Alain in companionable silence.

(one from many and more than we were)

[honest-johns.livejournal.com]

Alain has always been comfortable with silence.

He leans against the fence, folded arms resting on the top rail, shoulder to shoulder with Susan, and watches the horses graze in the noon sunlight.