Not when he pushed her so hard into the tree she felt pieces of bark crumble off and gouge her through the rags she wore, not even when he choked her did Vesta's eyes flinch or show fear, even as her body tried to protect itself, hands scrabbling against the tree to push away from it, or on his wrist as his grasp denied her breath.  Bruises, fresh atop old, would be her jewels today and a princess wore them with unassuming dignity.  If that was all he had left, all he could muster, then wear them she would and pray that the gods give him more wealth to bestow on her the next day.<br/><br/>He named her coward but it was she who had seen him weep, there in the surf as she lay almost dead and him pierced through with a bolt, a bolt that she drew the next day, delicate hands pulling at the hardwood shaft and against the terrible suction of his muscles as he bit down hard on the wadded sack they'd tried to drown her in.  She, a princess who had her own physicians back home, great learned men with magnificent and clever tools of bronze and ivory and draughts that took away pain or fever, she had performed the surgery, seen him scream out his agony, and not until it was over and he was passed out from the pain of it had she gone off to vomit and shiver like she had the ague.  The next day she risked and received dozens of stings to bash down a bee's nest with rocks and stole a comb of their honey, comb she crushed between her delicate hands, feeling the still living larva interspersed with the golden filled cells writhe between her palms as she dripped the oozing honey into his wounds to keep infection at bay.  She who stayed with him despite everything he did to her, every cruel act and hateful word, stayed with him too through all the things he could not do to her, like feed her or clothe her or offer her proper shelter.<br/><br/>And he called her coward. Called her an oathbreaker.<br/><br/>Vesta ignored the clenched fist her wielded and spat at his feet, glaring at him.  "I swore two oaths, husband," she said, the word snarled out with contempt.  "One as your wife and the other as the woman you couldn't protect from your own kin, from your own men who should even now be your soldiers and retainers.  I swore I'd stand by you before your gods and mine, and I called upon those gods who we dare not give name to that I'd have my vengeance.  One oath I honor every morning when I wake up and my only bed is the lie of the protection of your embrace!  The other I will honor once you either snap out of this madness and listen to reason or die here in these woods, bones shot through with mushrooms and saplings that my father's armies grind into the dirt as they pass on their way to take back your throne in my name!"<br/><br/>Panting, light headed from the attack upon her and from her defiant words, Vesta felt dizzy and weak and only her resolve kept her upright though she swayed a half step back.