Oh, no. This isn't a bad reaction, but it's certainly animated, and Christine starts to panic a little. This is too soon, isn't it? Things are too uncertain and she should have just ignored those mothering instincts of hers that kept cropping up. But it's a little too late to ask him to forget about it, isn't it?

Her shoulders slump and she takes a long drink from her cup before answering.

"Yes, all the time. I have always feared you disappearing on me." And while Christine wouldn't want to put her children through losing their father like that, if they were among the Avvar, there would be a community raising them anyway. "I fear you falling in battle. I fear you becoming infected with something that I cannot cure. I fear you tripping and falling down a mountainside. I fear a bear mauling you." She stops and lets out a self-deprecating laugh. "You know how I worry. But I think of my father, and how he was taken away too soon. Should we stop living our lives because of what might happen? I did not want to have feelings for you because I knew you could disappear at any moment. But my heart would not listen to my head and I did end up having feelings for you. And had I not acted on them, I would be living a miserable life right now without you."