"It'd be a pity to do it before we've had the time to make 'wife' official, and after the lengths she went to matching my lifespan," Martel murmurs, dry, and watches Ewar go. (Information, there, if Sparhawk cares to pick at it - he always has secrets, this one, but they are precious few and the things he guards the closest are primarily the things Sparhawk already knows.)

Of Ewar, he says, "He hired himself. I had him in with the other boys renovating the castle and he decided to stay on afterward." ...sound familiar? "Useful young man."