Shattered Reunion

The lowest parts of Tenetium were more bearable, but as Irene rode towards the mountains, she felt the biting cold of late winter as it still had a grip on the higher elevations. The mountaintops were still covered in snow but it seemed to have melted a decent amount in the Tenetium valley that surrounded the Duke's Tower.

That morning, she had spent the night at an inn in a surrounding village. Not that she would ever admit it, but she wanted to take a bath that morning before she was to see Henry. In her mind, she had been building up the day she was to return to him for a long time. 

Would he confess to her the moment they saw one another? Would he be happy to see her?

She hadn't wasted a moment. When the weather started to warm up, she left her father's home as quickly as she possibly could. She knew that too early would make Henry worry about her traveling in the snow but too late would cause dangerous muddy roads due to the rain.