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He hated that she hesitated. She’d never hesitated to leave his little sister with him before. But after all his shouting and grumpiness for the past week, he understood.

Merrik smiled and reached to roll the table beside the bed into a better position. “Yes, we will be too busy with our tea party to even notice you are gone.”

Mama reached to shift the table the last few inches. “Thank you. I will be back in a few hours.”

She likely had numerous things to see to after being so consumed with caring for him—or attempting to care for him while he refused most of her help—for the better part of the past week.

As Mama left, Kari pulled up a chair to the other side of the table, set her smaller basket on the floor beside her, and opened the lid. She pulled out a tablecloth, this one a crisp white linen with a border of violets and lilacs embroidered around the edge.

Merrik’s smile widened as his sister fussed over setting up her tea party, spreading out the tablecloth, arranging the napkins, and pouring the hot water from a kettle into the delicate pink and purple floral-patterned teapot. While she enjoyed reading because it was something she shared with Fieran’s sister Ellie, her true passions were collecting porcelain teacups and putting on tea parties like this. Her dream was to someday own a tea shop. Since she would likely inherit plant magic, she could even cultivate her own plants and create her own tea blends.

“Which teacups did you bring?” Merrik leaned forward as she pulled out a shape wrapped securely in a soft, white cloth.

“The violet, the pink rose, the blue rose, and the hyacinth.” Unwrapping the package, Kari set a delicate off-white teacup with purple violets twining around the side on its saucer. She proceeded to unwrap the other three teacups. “Which one do you want?”

Merrik studied the four teacups, as if picking was a gravely important decision.

In some ways, it was. These four teacups were among Kari’s favorites. She’d risked breaking them, yet she’d brought them anyway. That was how much she wanted to spend this time with her big brother.

As if Merrik needed any more guilt about the past week.

“I’ll take the one with blue roses.” He held out his hand, carefully taking the teacup when she passed it to him.

She picked the violet teacup for herself before she set the extra two in the final spots on the table. While this tea was only for the two of them, she always set up extra place settings. When she’d been young, those spots had been for her dolls or for Ellie if she happened to join them.

Now that she was older, she was following their mother’s adage of always being prepared to feed any friends who happened to stop by.

Once the teacups, place settings, and tea things were set up to her satisfaction, Kari dug into the basket Mama had brought, revealing tiny sandwiches cut into precise squares, little pastries dabbed with a spot of frosting, and other delicate treats.

“How late did you and Mama stay up, making all of this?” Merrik took in the spread. This was even more elaborate than most of the tea parties his sister put together.

Kari shrugged, smiling. “It was nice to be home again and in the kitchen with Mama. And I made some of the treats with Machasheni and Aunt Fayetha while I was staying with them.”

She would have needed to stay busy to distract her from worrying about him.

“You put together an impressive party today.” Merrik worked to keep his smile on his face. He had never wanted to hurt his little sister. But the shadows in her eyes whenever she looked at him spoke of the toll all of this had taken on her.

“Linshi. Which tea do you want?” Kari pulled out six different tea tins, showing them to him.

“My favorite, of course.” Merrik pointed at the tin of the chocolate truffle black tea, a rich blend with a depth provided both by the chocolate and the truffle.

“I should have guessed.” Kari’s smile brightened, as if she found it comforting that he was acting predictably normal with his tea choice.

She measured it into the strainer, then poured the hot water over it from the teapot with easy movements. Even young as she was, she made an excellent cup of tea.

“Have you had the chance to read the latest Star Forest novel yet?” Merrik had purchased the newest book in his sister’s favorite series and gotten it signed by the author a few weeks before his crash. He had a vague memory of his dacha saying something about putting that book with Merrik’s things that were being sent with him to Estyra. “You were given it, right? If not, I will have to dig it out of my footlocker.”

“Mama gave it to me.” Strangely, Kari’s smile disappeared, her shoulders slumping. “It wasn’t as fun reading it without Ellie. We always read the new books at the same time.”

“I am sorry.” Merrik winced. If he and Fieran hadn’t crashed, Kari and Ellie wouldn’t have been separated. “If you would like, you can tell me about it. Just do not give away any of the surprises. I have not read it yet.”

“You didn’t? But you had the book for ages.” Kari gaped, as if she couldn’t believe his restraint.

“I could not read your book before you did.” Merrik found himself smiling more broadly. “I would not dare. What if I cracked the spine? Or wrinkled a page?”

Kari’s smile and laughter returned before she launched into gushing about the book. The talk of the book lasted all the way through both of their teas steeping and waiting for the tea to cool enough to drink.

As Merrik raised his teacup to take a sip, footsteps sounded in the hall outside of his room. The curtain across that end had been left mostly open to let in the light from the broad windows across the way.