It was late, the pub emptied to the point where the minstrel, in his place of honor by the fire, was playing for his own entertainment more than drinks or coin. Which was a damned shame, because had he still been trying to please his meager audience Angelo wouldn't have felt so guilty over snarling at him to leave off the bloody love songs.
The minstrel looked up at his outburst, met his eyes with a smirk that said, You're drunk because your woman just left you, and obligingly began a song about a faithless wife.
Which shows how little you know, Angelo thought, bitterness replacing the guilt. She didn't leave me, I left her.
Surely he must have made worse mistakes in his life, but in that moment, he couldn't think of them. They were blotted out by the wounded anger in Jessica's expression when she saw him pressed against the dancing girl whose name he'd never learned, by her furious refusal to talk to him, by his cowardly departure from Trodain as soon as the celebration ended.
He'd been a day and a half on the road before the full impact of what he'd done had hit him. He'd actually turned around, been well on his way back to the castle before he'd realized that Jessica would undoubtedly have left already.
His steps had turned to Alexandria, then. He spent his journey rehearsing a thousand apologies and hoping to meet her on the road.
Of course, he hadn't, and when he'd stood outside the town gates he had once again proven himself both a coward and a fool.
In the months since, he'd done his best to forget - her, the quest which had drawn them together, the hopes he'd once harbored for their future - and pretended that his travels didn't take him near Alexandria far more often than was strictly necessary.
Near, but never to.
Now Eight had summoned him, and undoubtedly Yangus and Jessica as well, leaving him no choice but to face her. Leaving her no choice but to see him, however briefly. His foolish hope at the prospect was far more painful than his dread of her reaction.
But he would not turn aside from Trodain, as he so often had from Alexandria. Because while he might be a coward, he wasn't fool enough to throw away a second chance.
