She was heartbroken twice when she was his age; once when Ceiro had married Judith - that had been a crush doomed from the start - and once with another man, equally unattainable. By the time she'd turned twenty, she'd met the one who everyone thought would break her heart.

She'd married him before she'd turned twenty-two.

"It's not a bother," she assures him with a quiet smile. "It's nice not to have to walk places alone, I think."