Suddenly he froze, one hand on her breast, the other-somewhat lower.
He woke up. And now he's going to go all proper on me.
"If you stop," she said conversationally, "I am going to be very angry with you. I thought you taught me to always finish a tune you've started."
Please, God. Please, whoever's listening. Don't let him go all formal now. . . .
"I-I-uh-" He seemed unable to form any kind of a reply.
"Besides," she continued, trying to think around the pain in her skull, "I've been trying to get you into this position for weeks."
"Rune!" he yelped. "I'm your teacher! I can't-"
"You can't what? What difference does being my Master make? You've only got one apprentice, you can't be accused of favoring me over anyone else. You haven't been trying to seduce me, I've been trying to waylay you. There's a difference." There, she thought with a certain satisfaction. That takes care of that particular argument. "It's not as if you're taking unfair advantage of your position."
"But-the pressure-my position-"
"I like the pressure," she replied thoughtfully, "though I'd prefer to change the position-" And she started to squirm around to face him. He choked.
"That's not what I meant!" he said, and then it was too late; they were face-to-face, cozily wound in blankets, and he couldn't pretend he didn't understand her. She could read his expression quite clearly from here. She smiled into his eyes; he blushed.
"I know that's not what you meant," she told him. "I just don't see any 'pressure' on me to drag you into my bed except the pressure of wanting you."
"But-"
"And if you're going to tell me something stupid, like you're too old for me, well you can just forget that entirely." She kissed his nose, and he blushed even redder. "I wouldn't drink wine that was a month old, I wouldn't play a brand new fiddle, and I wouldn't hope for fruit from a sapling tree."
"But-"
"I also wouldn't go to an apprentice in any Craft for anything important. I'd go to a Master."
"But-"
She blinked at him, willing the pain in her head to go away. "You're not going to try and tell me that you've been celibate all these years, are you? If you are, then Gwyna was lying. Or you are. And much as I'd hate to accuse my Master of telling falsehoods, I'd believe Gwyna on this subject more than I'd believe you."
His mouth moved, but no words emerged. She decided he looked silly, gasping like a fish, and saved his dignity by stopping it with a kiss.
He disengaged just long enough to say, "I yield to your superior logic-" And then the time for talk was over, and the time for a different sort of communication finally arrived.
"You are going to marry me, aren't you?" Talaysen asked plaintively, picking his now-dry clothing off the rocks beside the stream and packing it away. There was no sign of last night's storm; even most of the debris had been washed downstream. And as if in apology, the day had turned bright and sunny around noon. Rune had caught a fish, using some of their soggy bread for bait; he'd managed to get a fire going, so they could cook it. The rest of the day they'd spent in laying out everything that had gotten wet to dry, and figuring out just how badly Rune had gotten hurt.
She'd gotten off fairly easily, as it turned out. She had gotten a bad knock on the head, but nothing a lot of valerian couldn't help. They were now a day behind, of course, but that was better than being lightning victims, or confined in the elven-king's hall.
Rune looked over at Talaysen's anxious face, and grinned wickedly, despite the black eye and bruises the tree limb had gifted her with. "Isn't it supposed to be me that's asking that?" she mocked. "You sound like one of the deflowered village maidens in a really awful Bardic Guild ballad."
He flushed. "I'm serious. I-you-we- We can't just go on like this. You're going to get harassed enough if we're legally wed! If we aren't-"
She looked at him with an expression of exasperation, and carefully folded one of her shirts before answering. "Is that the only reason? To make an 'honest woman' out of me? To protect me from disgrace?"