Chapter Nine....‘Hero’ of The People
Willingly, she pushed thoughts of her mother aside. But something inside her had changed. Something linked to a
small little girl that had realized she was flawed and wrong enough that she didn't deserve love unconditionally. She
could feel it even if she couldn't quite put that difference into words yet. But it was a good change.
She led her husband through the winding, twisting, narrow side passages of the city in the mountain. It was a city
built with one purpose in mind. Defense. And so every inch of it was designed to be paid for in blood. If they ran
into her family, with word spreading like wildfire during the dry season, thanks, no doubt to Podes, they were never
going to have time alone. So she took Hector the hidden ways, deep into the maze of Thebes, down the old, worn
paths she was so familiar with she could travel them in the dark. Finally, she climbed a set of stairs and pushed a
narrow door open. Up the winding street was the market place and the food was already cooking in the various
stalls. Andromache turned back into her husband's arms and teased softly:
"See? I didn't lead you astray."
"You never would." He said. "Or if you do, it would be for an ulterior motive that I just might enjoy." He teased her as
they walked slowly, him forward, her backward, as they approached the market place. He smelled the food and
smiled.
"Come on, show me your people." He said. "I already know they adore you." Much like the people of Troy had come
to adore her, he was sure. Now he just had to win them over. All thoughts of her mother had been dismissed from
his mind, similar to when he came home from the battlefield. What happened on the battlefield was left on the
battlefield.
The people of Thebes lived harsh lives. When it wasn't snowing, it was raining and when the sun was out it was
time to work furiously to make up for the days lost to the weather. Because of it, they lacked a certain refinement
that would be found in a well established city like Troy. Their jokes were rowdy, their laughter was loud, their humor
was good intentioned and their hearts were generous with what they had. And their fascination with Hector was
obvious and uncomplicated by false modesty or the act that they weren't.
Andromache, even gone for a year, was greeted as if she still came to market every day and at the first indication
that either she or her hero husband might be even thinking about being hungry brought a showering of food gifts
until there weren't any more hands or arms to hold it. Hot meat roasted with garlic and herbs and skewered on
sticks with vegetables. Bread loaves still warm from the ovens and full of nuts and berries to add flavor. Eggs boiled
and pickled. Fish, fresh and pink from the streams, steamed and stuffed full of vegetables and wild seasoning.
Every form of fruit imaginable. Pastries sticky with honey. Roasted nuts. Wine and ale and fruit juices. Even with the
basket she'd been given, Andromache ran out of anything to carry it all with. And still the generosity came.
If anything Hector had it even worse because they were slipping gifts into his arms as well as the food.
Finally, laughing, she found a simple wooden table that was empty under a spreading tent awning. Almost lost her
husband in the crowd before they moved enough for him to find a seat as well. Clay pitchers were thumped down
on the table in front of them by several different hands and then the owner of the tent was shooing people away
and they went with good natured rebuttals and backward glances and calls about 'better food than Troy'. The rest
of the patrons under the tent exchanged smiles but respected the apparent sacredness that being seating
represented and for a moment, there was no one to concentrate on but each other.
Smiling, cheeks flushed from all the attention, Andromache reached across the table and picked a runaway leaf
from her husband's darkly curling hair.
Looking at all the food they could never possibly hope to eat, Andromache chuckled and raised dancing eyes to
her husband to ask: "You were hungry?"
Hector laughed as they sat down, and he laid down his gifts and flowers and snacks that were pressed into his
arms. Seemed the only thing he wasn't offered were first born children and mountain goats. And that might have
been because there was no way he could carry all of that, 'hero' or not.
"I am starved. Just watch, I'll pack all this away, then gain a ton of weight..enough to make Akakios look like a
starved man. Then we'll see how much they love me." He teased as he reached for some of the meat with one
hand and her hand with his other.
It was so nice and casual here. Troy was his heart and soul, no doubt. But that was the city he was prince of, more
formality was expected. Even as he welcomed new additions to his city and roamed the streets, it was still different
than here, where he was just welcomed honestly.
"Then I hope they still love me because I might need some help walking, or waddling, down the street." He
continued with a chuckle. He felt relaxed here, not even her mother could spoil that. He saw no need to mention her
mother's threats about children, they'd come when the gods decided.
Andromache laid out as much of the food as was possible and packed the rest in the basket. There was no way
even Hector could eat all of this but luckily, with a house full of men, leftover food was never a problem. She
laughed at him when he joked about getting fat and twined her fingers through his.
"I would love you no matter what form you took. Even if we had to build a bigger boat just to float you home to
Troy." Unlikely considering how much energy he burned on any given day. Her husband was as solid as an oak.
His body didn't have room to spare for fat. Not that she would have minded. Because the day he started to put on
weight was the day he was no longer training for war. She smiled at him, deftly pouring them both something cool to
drink with one hand. "And the people would love you fat and wide. They think the royal family here doesn't eat
enough to stay healthy. Give into their subtle ways and they'll happily roll you wherever you need to go. Though
you may not have as many volunteers for the upward slopes as the downward ones" she added, teasing as she
gave his fingers a light squeeze.
She thought - she suspected he might still be worried about her. He was always thoughtful and attentive and gentle
but he wasn't letting go of her physically. Not since he'd first come out of her mother's tower and taken her in his
arms. Even now he was going to eat with one hand just so that he could hold on to her. Either her mother had said
and done things that made him worried for her or had brought the thought of losing her to his mind - Andromache
had always been very, very careful to never let slip what her childhood had been like and her mother, knowing a
bride's price rested in her appearance, had always been very, very careful to leave no physical scars... or else he
was worried about how she might be reacting inside to what she'd just seen and heard. And either way, he wasn't
letting her go.
He never really did.
She'd never found anything so unshakable or reassuring in all her life.
She watched him from the edges of her eyes. Not needing to know what had happened in the tower. But she
wanted him to know that nothing was changed between them because of it. Except - possibly - he knew her even
better than he had before and that - if it was possible - she belonged to him even more now than she had before.
Heart and soul.
"There's a place I want to show you. After we're done." Her thumb brushed across his palm and she gave him a soft
smile. "One of my secret places."
"Where's the 'we'?" He asked her with a chuckle, since he was the one eating, not her. Then again, he was usually
eating when he had the chance. He knew if he kept it up, on the day he retired from the battlefields like his father,
he'd give Akakios a run for his money on 'jolly fat man' award!
But he continued eating, with a few interruptions from the people who would come and see if everything was
satisfactory, and some he supposed just wanted to see him close up for some reason. But he stacked the empty
plates and the bones in the bowls and stood up.
"Okay, let's go see this secret place." He said, standing her up also.
Andromache had happily picked apart a fruit pastry while her husband ate enough for half a regiment. She had a
weakness for sweets and had missed this particular type of cooking. Troy was much more refined and had greater
access to trade so what it served on its tables, or even in its kitchens, were masterpieces. Thebes, with less,
concentrated more on packing what they did have into as much as possible. And the fruit pastry with its roll of
roasted, honey coated nuts and fruit had been something she'd missed. She only ate one because, unlike the men
that had had 'serious' business to attend to previously, Andromache and the wives and her sisters had only had
gossip to catch up on and that had been accompanied by possibly more food than was in front of them now.
When Hector finished and stood up, ready for his next adventure, she smiled as she joined him. Well aware of the
eyes that followed their every move. In the festivals to come that her father no doubt had planned, the people of
the city would pack in close and beg her husband for stories of his exploits. But for now they were content to simply
welcome him into their city and their lives without question. Not every husband of one of the princesses of Thebes
was welcomed so quickly and whole heartedly. But not every husband was Hector of Troy either. She knew they
would have loved him for his reputation and the mix of romantic and heroic stories that swirled around him. But she
knew that they loved him more for his easy smile and his open armed response to them.
She rinsed her hands off and the owner of the tent barely managed to offer to have everything else brought back
to the palace ahead of about a dozen others that had apparently been waiting to make the same offer.
Andromache accepted, asked about the cousin of his that had moved to the other side of the mountain last year
and then, hand still in her husband's, managed to slip through a break in the side of his tent that opened into a
narrow, fairly empty street that wound downward and into another maze of closely interlocked buildings and
archways. Steps long and easy, she looked up at the man next to her and smiled, eyes dancing.
"Putting away as much food as you did, you've probably made a dozen or more grandmothers very, very pleased
with themselves and their cooking. Next thing you know, they'll be fighting over bragging rights on whose meat pies
you ate the most of."
"I knew that." He said with a chuckle. "Which was why I had to eat a bit of everything, okay a lot of everything. Its
hard, didn't want to insult anyone so I had to eat everything. Forget the battles, and the wars, or even the horses.
Your husband is now known more for his...healthy...appetite than anything else!"
Though, if Podes had his way, his young brother in law would soon spread the story of how he went into
Andromache's mother's rooms and came out unscathed.
"Damn, now I might have to outdo myself for dinner. What have I gotten myself into?" He said as they walked
through the narrow passage ways and alleys in between buildings, some built literally into the side of the mountain,
and he nodded to himself over the strategic placement of several of the buildings and roof tops. That was, after all,
ingrained training.
But he did like Thebe. Its people were honest and hard working, and he had been surprised at the welcome he had
received. Spoke volumes of their love for their princess.