Ren looked out upon the river. The trail ended here, then, at least for her. Summer Court opened in less than a week, and she needed to return home to Mayfair to act as Elder Judge. “There’s nothing here for us. Let’s go.”
With no twenty sisters and one wounded princess to feed, Jerin did not hold dinner. He sent a tray of food up to Odelia with Summer, and the family ate a quiet dinner. He put the leftovers in the warming ovens for the others. Cleanup would have to wait until the others had eaten.
His announcement that it was bath night was greeted with much groaning and moaning. He supervised the water brigade to fill the tanks of the bathhouse boiler, and had the fire built up. As the water heated, he sent the little ones up to their rooms to strip down and to troop back for the cold-water scrub and hot-water communal soak.
He went up to his quarters, undressed, and realized there was a good chance Ren and her women would return before he finished bathing. He couldn’t go out in just a towel as usual. He opened his wedding chest and found his grandfather’s silk bathing gown. It slid on like a cool, soft hand. Just in case Ren saw him, he also put on his only piece of jewelry, a small golden deer encrusted with green stones strung on a gold chain.
Eldest had told Jerin once that most neighboring families found the Whistlers’ bathhouse a source of mystery. Apparently most families bathed less frequently, in laundry tubs set up in the kitchen. It seemed an uncomfortable way of bathing. Mother Elder often told them what her mothers went through trying to build the bathhouse. Grandfather had wanted one, so Grandfather got one, despite the fact his wives were clueless on how to build one. Apparently it was just one more of the many traditions Jerin’s grandmothers had bent themselves into pretzels over for his grandfather’s sake. Grandpa wanted all the menfolk to read and write? They were educated. Grandpa wanted the boys to play alongside their sisters, learning to run, climb, ride, shoot, and defend themselves? They were taught.
Jerin was going to miss the bathhouse. He was going to miss his freedom even more. He continued to soak even as his sisters turned to prunes, got out, and trooped back to the house. How had his grandfather convinced his grandmothers to build the bathhouse? He could not imagine his grandmothers giving in to childish displays of temper. Nor could he imagine his grandfather throwing a fit-he had been a quiet-spoken, dignified man.
Perhaps wives were like sisters. You chose your battles instead of engaging in every skirmish, negotiated terms whenever possible, and fought as cleanly as possible in hopes that the other person would react in kind. He would know soon, whatever the case. Within the next few months, his sisters would choose a betrothal offer that suited them, and he would marry on or shortly after his birthday.
He climbed out of the lukewarm water, finding comfort in being clean and warmed to the core. If nothing else, he would have to insist his wives build him a bathhouse.
It was full night when he stepped out of the bathhouse. Stars studded the sky and the crickets were in full voice.
“I’ve caught you again.” A woman’s voice made him start. Princess Rennsellaer came out of the night.
Jerin pulled the silk wrap tight about him. “How is it. Princess, you keep catching me with next to nothing on?”
“Luck, I guess.” Ren reached out to finger his wrap. “This is beautiful.”
“It was my grandfather’s.” Feeling naked, he stepped back into the shadows of the bathhouse door.
“The kidnapped one during the war?” Ren followed him into the shadows.
“Yes.” He blushed. “It was all he was wearing when my grandmother Tea snatched him.”
Ren laughed, running hands over the silk gown. “I suppose he wasn’t very happy.”
“No, he wasn’t. My grandmothers were common line soldiers, unspeakably low for a prince to marry.
After his entire family was put to death for Queen Bea’s murder, though, he became more philosophical about life.”
Ren took a sharp gasp inward. “What? Your grandfather was part of the False Eldest’s family?”
“Prince Alannon. General Wellsbury had slipped my grandmothers into Castle Tastledae to break the siege.
Grandmother Tea found Grandpa alone and unguarded, so of course she took him.“
“Of course,” Ren murmured, pulling him out of the shadows to eye the bathing gown closely. “This is the only thing he had?”
Jerin glanced nervously about for his sisters. They wouldn’t be happy about his talking to Ren with next to nothing on. “A necklace. And some hair combs.”
“Does your family still have them?”
Jerin fumbled the green deer out of his gown. “Grandpa gave the necklace to me before he died. Doric has the hair combs. Liam and Kai weren’t born yet. He said we should never forget our blood is royal.”
Ren looked aghast. “Commoners can’t marry royals.”
“My grandmothers didn’t marry him until they were knighted.”
Ren laughed, caught between amusement and shock. She cupped the deer in her hand and gazed at it.
“Do you know how long my family searched for Prince Alannon?”
“My grandmothers were quite anxious to keep him.”
Ren laughed, then fiddled on her fingers, counting generations. “We share great-great-grandmothers.”
She tapped on her index finger, then stepped down to her middle finger. “Your grandfather was cousin to my grandmothers.” She wiggled her ring finger. “Our mothers are first cousins once removed, or second cousins?”
“I’m not sure.” He leaned over to touch her pinkie. “This is us?”
“First cousins twice removed, or second cousins once removed, or third cousins.”
“Are there such things as third cousins?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted.
“Perhaps it’s a good thing we did nothing in my mothers’ kitchen.”
“Pshaw, sharing great-grandmothers means nothing.”
“Are you sure?” Jerin tucked an errant lock of hair behind his ear. “There seems to be a great deal we’re not sure of.”
She pulled him to her, her hands slipping into his gown to stroke his damp bare skin, her mouth warm and sweet on his. Her kiss left him breathless, trembling, and wanting more but not daring to go on, because this time he would not be able to stop. She held him, nuzzling into his hair. “I am sure,” she whispered into his ear, her breath hot, “that you are a beautiful man, in a beautiful silk gown, and I want you.”
“I-I-” He wavered, then steeled himself to pull out of her arms. “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t do it-I can’t betray my family. We’ve come so far from being thieves, but only because twenty of my grandmothers died in war, because Grandmother Tea lucked into finding Grandfather, because my mothers worked until they dropped to make this farm bountiful. I hate being the coin of their future, but-but-”
And he knew, suddenly, that any look, or word, or gesture from her, and his will would go. He fled her, fled his own desire.
Chapter 4
Jerin was not sure if he was relieved or disappointed that Odelia came to breakfast the next morning. She looked pale, weak, and battered, but pronounced herself up to riding. She spent the meal watching Jerin’s every move until Ren teased her for being a bird dog at point. Jerin had to admit there was an uncanny resemblance between the princess and a hunting dog locked on to a pigeon: the unwavering gaze, the orientation of the body toward the target, and the trembling desire kept carefully in check.
As he feared, Ren announced that with Odelia fit to ride, they would be leaving. By setting out immediately, they would have a good chance of making the four-day journey downriver to Mayfair in time for the opening of Summer Court, where the princesses would preside as judges. Eldest offered the use of the Whistler dogcart to Heron Landing, where the royal steamboat was tied off. Odelia agreed that the small buggy would be safer than trying to take the ten miles on horseback to town. Breakfast finished, the women went out to hitch up the dogcart and saddle the horses. It happened so quickly, it wasn’t until Jerin set the last dirty plate next the kitchen sink that he realized the princesses were going, going for good, and that he’d never see Ren again. Suddenly it seemed
