Guardians of the West

had handled things. His mood was self-congratulatory as he departed the following morning to return to Riva.

CHAPTER TEN
    "Anyway," Garion was saying as he and Ce'Nedra relaxed in their blue-carpeted sitting room on the evening of his return to Riva, "when we got back to Mandorallen's castle and told Nerina that it was all right for them to get married, she raised all kinds of objections."
    "I always thought she loved him," Ce'Nedra said.
    "She does, but she's been in the very center of this great tragic situation for all these years, and she didn't really want to give that up. She hadn't got all that noble suffering out of her system yet."
    "Don't be snide, Garion."
    "Arends make my teeth ache. First she held out for a dowry -a very big one."
    "That seems reasonable."
    "Not when you consider the fact that I had to pay it."
    "You? Why should you have to pay it?"
    "I'm her guardian, remember? For all of her thee's and thou's and vaporish airs, she haggles like a Drasnian horse trader. By the time she was done, my purse was very lean. And she had to have a formal letter of consent -and a veil, a lady to attend her, a ring, and flowers. And I was getting more irritated by the minute."
    " Aren't you forgetting something?"
    "I don't think so."
    "Didn't Mandorallen propose to her?" Ce'Nedra leaned forward, her little face very intent. "I'm certain that she would have insisted on that."
    "You're right, I almost forgot that part."
    She shook her head almost sadly. "Oh, Garion," she said in a disapproving tone.
    "That came earlier -right after the business with the dowry. Anyway, he proposed, and I made her say yes, and then- "
    "Wait a minute," Ce'Nedra said firmly, holding up one little hand. "Don't rush through that part. Exactly what did he say when he asked her?"
    Garion scratched his ear. "I'm not sure I remember," he confessed.
    "Try." she urged him. "Please."
    "Let's see," he pondered, looking up at the ornately carved wooden beams of the ceiling. "First she objected to having the proposal come before they had gone through all the business of 'getting acquainted,' as she put it. I guess she meant all the sneaking around so that they could be alone together in secluded places -and the love poems and the flowers and all those calf-eyed looks."
    Ce'Nedra gave him a hard little stare. "You know, sometimes you can be absolutely infuriating. You've got about as much sensitivity as a block of wood."
    "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "Never mind. Just tell me what happened next."
    "Well, I told her straight off that I wasn't having any of that nonsense. I said that they were already acquainted and to get on with it."
    "You're just full of charm, aren't you?" she said sarcastically.
    "Ce'Nedra, what is the problem here?"
    "Never mind. Just get on with the story. You always dawdle so when you're telling me about something like this."
    "Me? You're the one who keeps interrupting."
    "Just move along with it, Garion."
    He shrugged. "There isn't much more. He asked her; she said yes; and then I marched them down to the chapel."
    "The words, Garion," she insisted. "The words. Exactly what did he say?"
    "Nothing very earth-shaking. It went sort of like 'Wilt thou have me as thy husband, Nerina?"
    "Oh," Ce'Nedra said with a catch in her voice. He was astonished to see tears in her eyes.
    "What's the matter?" he demanded.
    "Never mind," she replied, dabbing at her eyes with a wispy scrap of a handkerchief. "What did she say then?"
    "She said that she hadn't had time to work up a suitable answer, so I told her just to say 'yes.' "
    "And?"
    "She said, 'I will have thee, Sir Mandorallen -with all my heart.' "
    "Oh," Ce'Nedra said again, her handkerchief going once more to her brimming eyes. "That's just lovely."
    "If you say so," he said. "It seemed a little drawn-out to me."
    "Sometimes you're hopeless," she told him. Then she sighed a little forlornly. "I never got a formal proposal," she said.
    "You most certainly did," he said indignantly. "Don't you remember all that ceremony when you and the Tolnedran Ambassador came into the throne room?"
    "I did the proposing, Garion," she reminded him with a toss of her flaming curls. "I presented myself before your throne and asked you if you would consent to take me to wife. You agreed, and that's all there was to it. You never once asked me."
    He frowned and thought back. "I must have."
    "Not once."
    "Well, as long as we got married, anyway, it doesn't really matter all that much, does