Ren took advantage of the change and sat Eldest Whistler beside her, wanting a chance to mend their friendship. They were, hopefully, going to be sisters-in-law.
Kij Porter took the chair to Ren’s other side. As the first remove made its rounds, Kij leaned close and whispered, “Is it true? Their grandmothers married Alannon?”
“Go look at his portrait upstairs after dinner and compare.”
Kij made a noise of disgust. “That proves nothing.”
“There’s a paper trail. Do you think we wouldn’t check? Besides, it’s not as if they came forward with the claim. Our paths happened to cross when Odelia was attacked, and the story came out.”
Kij gazed down the table at Jerin. “He is certainly a pretty one. We were thinking of offering for Dirich Dunwood, but maybe we’ll go for royal blood instead.”
Ren covered her dismay. She’d forgotten that her sisters-in-law had been quietly searching for a husband. She shot a glance at her Mother Elder. Were the Porters here not as a subtle dig at them, but to provide a way to marry Jerin off before Ren could get her sisters’ approval?
After dinner they retired to the blue salon. There, Odelia and the Porter sisters vied for Jerin’s affection.
Ren did not have the heart to press him, so she stood back and watched as Jerin flustered under the close attention. He flashed shy smiles at their compliments and witty remarks, but grew quieter and quieter.
“Jerin’s had a long day,” Ren finally murmured to Eldest Whistler. “And he’s not used to this mobbing.
Why not send him up to your suite?”
“I’ll take him up.”
Ren rested a hand on Eldest Whistler’s shoulder to keep her from going. “I’d like to talk to you. Have- can Summer and Corelle take care of him?”
Eldest studied her with ice-blue calm, then nodded. “We should talk.”
Good-nights were said, the younger Whistlers went off to their rooms, and Ren led Eldest to her study.
Ren poured out brandy, offered good cigars, and then said, “You seem angry at me.”
Eldest Whistler spoke slowly, obviously choosing her words carefully. “Shall I say that I was disappointed when I learned what liberties you had taken with my brother?”
“Corelle saw us, then,” Ren guessed.
Eldest nodded. “And told the first moment it was useful to her to do so.”
“I’m sorry,” Ren murmured.
“This sponsoring of Jerin. It’s your idea, to make amends?”
“In part.” Ren considered and decided. “I love Jerin. It would make me happy to marry him. If I had been born Eldest to another family, I wouldn’t have left your farm without a marriage contract.”
“But we’re too far beneath the princesses of the realm,” Eldest said bitterly, almost spitting the word
“princesses.”
“Except for a quick dalliance.”
“Perhaps not.”
Eldest looked up sharply, and then frowned. “You toy with me.”
“No. My first husband was politically a good choice. Keifer was also a spoiled, self-centered, manipulative brat. He played my sisters against one another to get his way. He threw fits, threw food, threw dishes, pouted, cried, and withheld sexual services. The public appearance at the theater was typical of his refusal to listen to common sense.”
“1 would have spanked him,” Eldest murmured.
“I wished my sister had, often. Perhaps she would be alive today.” Ren sighed. “Keifer was everything that Jerin is not, including a bloodline that traced back twenty generations. I have asked my mothers to allow a marriage between our families. To be frank, without Prince Alannon’s blood, they would have never agreed to consider Jerin. I don’t know if it’s enough, though, for them to decide in favor of a marriage.”
“I see,” Eldest Whistler said, face controlled against any emotion that she might have been feeling. A soldier’s face. How many generations before that military stamp would breed out?
“My mothers thought it would be unfair to raise your hopes for a royal match,” Ren said. “I thought you should know, so you can keep it in mind when the offers for Jerin come in.”
A trace of a smile flitted across Eldest’s face. “You don’t want us to accept any offer before you can make yours.”
“Yes.”
Eldest stood swirling the brandy in her glass, considering, and finally sighed. “And how long must we wait?”
Ren hesitated before saying, truthfully, “I don’t know. I know your family made a good first impression.
I know that my mothers are now convinced of your royal bloodline. I know that I love Jerin. and that Odelia is most likely favorable to a match. Lylia is just old enough to marry, and anxious for her wedding night. She’ll be swayed by Jerin’s beauty alone, I think. Trini suffered at Keifer’s hands, and will probably not endorse any man, which my mothers well know. Halley-if she’s to be found, if she’s alive-she’ll be the difficult one to sway; she was not happy with our first marriage.”
“So the rumors are true; Princess Halley is missing.”
“For months.” Ren sighed. “She has never dealt well with the murder of my sisters. At midwinter she said not to worry about her, that she’d be gone for a while, then vanished.”
“Can you make an offer without her?”
Ren shook her head. “I don’t think I can. Halley is much better Eldest material than I, and so her word carries much weight with my mothers. They might decide to wait for her to reappear.”
Eldest Whistler sighed, and was long silent. “We will let you know of any offers we receive, and give you a chance to counter them, but we can’t wait forever. We need Jerin’s brother’s price a week after his birthday. We’ve made arrangements to buy the mercantile at Heron Landing from the Picker sisters, and they’ve given us only until then to buy it, else we pay a penalty.”
Two months. Ren nodded, feeling sick. Halley had been gone for eight months. Sixty spare days did not seem enough time.
“Excuse me,” Eldest murmured, “but I should go and tend my family. They’re still unsettled, this being a new place and all.”
“Of course,” Ren said. “Good night, Whistler.”
“Your Highness.” And Eldest Whistler left with a bow that was hardly more than a nod.
“Gods above, Halley.” Ren murmured to the fire. “Where are you? Are you even still alive?”
Chapter 9
It had been a night of nightmares and Ren jolted awake at dawn. A light rain during the night had dampened the fireplace ashpit, and the ghost of winter fires lingered in the room. Ren tumbled from her bed still half asleep and flung open the windows. After a couple of deep breaths of clear summer morning air, she sat on the window seat, staring as the sun turned the river molten, letting the glitter fill her eyes and blot out the night images. Her nightmare had been twisted by fears of losing Jerin. Halley was missing in a burning building, while the dwarflike shopkeepers from Heron Landing were carrying Jerin off to marry a stranger. No, it wasn’t difficult to tell what had triggered her nightmare.
Where had Halley gone? More importantly, how could they get her back in time?
While Halley hadn’t said where she was going, it hadn’t been hard to guess why she left. More than any of them, Halley had been marked body and soul by the explosion that killed their sisters and husband.
Typical of Odelia’s luck, Odelia had not gone to the theater that night. Ren could never remember why, except a hazy notion that it came as punishment for some small crime. Trini, fortunately, had not gone either- she was still recovering from Keifer’s unnaturally vicious treatment of her. Lylia and the youngest sisters, of course, were too young to take to the theater. With their husband, Keifer, all ten oldest princesses, however, and two of the middle princesses made a rare appearance at a public performance.
After six years, odd memories remained crystal clear. A virgin layer of snow had covered the city, not yet
