They weren't married, but the had an arrangement. Just like she and Mercury did. You would think, Rosmerta mused, that a body would get used to the pain after a while. That there would be some sort of adaptation, an acclimation. After all, when it was just above freezing in late summer, everyone complained how cold it was. But that same temperature in early spring was considered balmy. Because people had acclimated to the cold. Why couldn't she acclimate to the pain? Enough had come at her that she ought to be used to, or at least prepared for, the next blow.
But no. Every fresh little cut stung just as badly as the first had. So here she was, walking through the marketplace with a woman she'd rather eviscerate than look at because understanding what was going on was the only way she was going to be able to survive the situation. Because logically she knew this was not Peitho's fault. Because despite that logic, there was a painful yearning to know all the details, as though that was going to provide some kind of shield against the pain. It wouldn't. It would only make it worse. But she couldn't help herself.
“There's a stall just up there,” she commented. “They sell meat pies and some wine, and they're near enough the square that we can eat them there. And we can talk.”
They could talk about what Mercury meant to this other goddess. They had an arrangement but could it really be like the arrangement she had with him? They were two very different goddesses, something she was both pleased and loathe to admit. Because they were different there was no way, really, that he could feel the same for them, and he did seek her out and return to her, despite having a goddess like Peitho in his home pantheon. That had to mean something, didn't it? But it was also difficult to acknowledge, because on a purely aesthetic basis, the Greek goddess had her beat, hands down. Peitho was gorgeous. But if looks were all that mattered, there were prettier goddesses in the Gaulish pantheon that Mercury could have chosen to spend his time with as well.
Oh bloody hell. Did he have another goddess tucked away in this region?
Did he have others from other pantheons besides her and Peitho?
Rosmerta took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Then she blurted out, “You see, the thing is, despite the arrangement, which works just fine for us because neither of us really wants to be tied down, at least that's what he told me, but despite all that, the thing is... I love him.”
They couldn't be that much alike. That was why he kept coming back to her, leaving Peitho behind. Because this goddess just couldn't love him the way she did.