Honeyed Pasture beta

The question struck him in a place he hadn't known he was vulnerable. He realized, suddenly, that he had not truly asked himself this question. Now that someone else had, he found himself grasping for words to describe it, a name to put to it.

"He wants me to come to his lodge, to live there with his wives and his sons," he said, unable to answer directly. His own voice was just as soft as Aditya's, as if there were someone nearby they did not want to disturb. Perhaps that someone was Dutch. "I visited. We..." A shoulder lifted; not a shrug so much as a twitch, like a horse shaking off a fly. "It was difficult to leave," he said at last.