She shakes her head, her hand lifting to brace over Magni's heart, and firmly so. Let there be no mistaking. "You are not to blame for the foul things they whispered to me. We would have worked it out, sure enough, but they knew they could make it more painful than it had to be, and they did so."

If what all this proved was to show anything, all she and Magni had needed was time. Time they eventually got with no one prying and pushing and pulling.