Beloved

She drank him in. Hair, lips, eyes… she detected no change. Or did she?

Bowing before him, she whispered. "Welcome home, my lord."

A gentle hand under her chin raised her gaze to him. "Has it been so long?" he asked, eyes sparkling with merriment, "that I have become your lord and not your love?"

He took her in his arms. "Never!" she laughed, reassured.

He pressed his lips against her hair, then stepped back again to better look at her, eyes widening in surprise at the prominent swell over her womb.

"A child?" he questioned.

"Aye, Estel. Our child."