"No," gulped Jayn, her eyes riveted upon the object in his hands. "He married you. It's the only thing that might possibly lessen the sacrilege. You were up there a long time."
She looked up at him bitterly.
"Oh, Yorgh! Why did you have to take that wench with you?"
Vaneen, who had been so quiet behind his shoulder, spoke at last.
"And I didn't even give him a tunic with a fur collar," she said.
Jayn flushed, then paled as she bit her red lower lip; and Yorgh saw that the comment must have struck a deeper wound than could days of kitchen drudgery.
He didn't know what to say; but his silence must have seemed threatening, for Ueln spoke up.
"I will ride after him, and make plain to his people how we brought him and the girl to the mountains," he offered.
"A good idea!" said Jayn, with an undertone in her voice that made Yorgh think of a cornered ponadu. "Just to be safe, and to make sure they take him back, we'll all go!"
Yorgh and Vaneen glanced at each other, but soon found that the Raydowers were in earnest. Before noon, they found themselves leading the hastily assembled column from the village out onto the grassy plain beyond the foothills.