Fortune turned in a swirl of skirts and headed to the Main Hall.

It was muffled, but Pinja could hear the voices of those attending the feast. Everyone in the keep besides herself and Aalyssa was probably there. She shuddered at the thought of being there, around so many people.

Alyssa returned to Pinja. "Hopefully she will find someone who is available and that they have fish."

"I used to like parties like that." Pinja said, still trembling at the thought of being up there.

"I did too," Aalyssa admitted. "Only when I had Konner though."

"I loved dancing." Pinja fidgeted with her cap, remembering dancing at balls. She was a great dancer, possibly one of the best. It was as if her feet never touched the ground. Pinja missed it, and how she felt before Jack ruined everything,

"I always enjoyed looking at all of the dresses. And the food." Aalyssa had only liked dancing when it was with Konner. She had never liked other men touching her. She never trusted them, not knowing if it was someone her mother had influenced or not.

"I never should have danced with so many men... I loved dancing, it was like flying, I'd dance with whoever asked me..." Pinja pulled her cap over her ears. "Even Jack... more than once... I didn't know I was asking for it, but I was asking for it dancing with him... I didn't know it would make him think to do what he did." Pinja seemed to shrink under her cap.

"Dancing with someone is not asking for anything to happen," Aalyssa replied. "It can be part of courtship, but a decent man would never force himself on someone."

"I led him on. I probably led a lot of men on. If Jack didn't kidnap me another man would have."

"Your village must be filled with monsters as opposed to men."

"They just expect it after a girl dances with them like that." Pinja said.

"I have never witnessed such expectations, and I even spent time in a royal court."

"The women there must have been more responsible and not dance with everyone that asked."

Aalyssa let out a most unfeminine snort. "You have never been to a royal court before. It's a hotbed of bedhopping, spying and backstabbing."

Pinja blushed. "It's different in Boville. Ladies only go to bed with their husbands... Unless they're mistresses... Or prostitutes." Pinja blushed some more. "Around one third of the marriages start like mine did, bride kidnapping."

"What a horrid sounding place. Perhaps the king should raze the whole village to the ground."

Pinja shrugged. "Two thirds of marriages don't start that way... I don't think..." Pinja trailed off. She had been to a lot of weddings that seemed to have little anticipation after the bride had been absent from social occasions for weeks before. "Oh God..."

"What is it?"

"I'm so stupid." Pinja said. "So many weddings I had been to. They were like mine."

"It is a horrible way to do things. The king needs to put an end to it."

"It's tradition." Pinja said unhappily.

"New traditions replace old all the time."

"Not all marriages are like that..." Pinja said. "Just if the girl might be pregnant..."

"You will pardon me, I hope, if I should say that under such circumstances, each bride could be suspected of being pregnant."