Henry looked at her, raised an eyebrow curiously and watched her. His wife first held out the bag, then spoke, tucked some flowers into her hair and then held out the pearl to him with the other hand. And she had a confused and expectant look on her face. Finishing the futzing he was doing with this scabbard and sword, he took the bag from her, tucked the leather flagon inside and slung it over his shoulder. “I'm going out,” he said. It was a rather obvious reply and didn't give any indication as to where or why. Or even for how long.
This was rather odd. He didn't exactly spend a large amount of time with Opal where he had much of a grasp on anything about her, other than what he learned at first meeting her. She was well-mannered, kind and very attractive. That should have been enough for him. For other princes, or men in general, it likely was. But Henry wanted more. Now... now he was sort of stuck. It was like a trap.
Oddness aside, it did not escape him that she was standing there as well, dressed far less regally than one would expect and about to do something. What exactly? Was she going out as well? Where would she go without a guard -at the very least? There was only one way to find out.
First things first, he had to do something about the pearl she was holding out to him. For some reason, that bothered Henry a great deal. He didn't want her gems and stones. They were not for him. He had no use for them. But the fact that she was holding it out to him as if it was second nature meant that she was grown far to accustomed to people taking the fruit of her gift from her. Had marrying her been the wrong decision? Was he exploiting her somehow? The kingdom was doing better, certainly, but what was the cost of that?
Henry's hand reached up toward her, as if to grab the pearl. Instead, it folded over Opal's to close her hand, securing the pearl inside against her palm. It was the most polite way to tell her to keep it -he didn't want it. “What are you doing?”