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“I don’t see a great deal of evidence for that.”
“I beg your…”
“Have you made such a success of our family life?”
“Kenver!” His mother looked shocked.
“How dare you speak to your mother this way?” His father scowled. “Don’t expect to be welcomed when you come crawling back.”
His mother made a cutting gesture. “Of courseyouare always welcome,” she corrected.
Meaning that Sarah was not, Kenver understood. There was nothing left to do then but depart, and so they did, with a loaded wagon and two riding horses. If his father chose to make trouble about his horse, Kenver planned to create an enormous stink. The kitchen maid who had been helping Sarah rode on the wagon with the carter. Gwen and Jowan were to meet them at Tresigan.
They reached there by early afternoon. The house looked smarter and fresher without the curtains of ivy. Going in through the now-functional front door, they found the rooms much lighter, smelling of whitewash and new wood. Furniture had been brought up from the cellar, cleaned, and distributed, supervised by the enormously efficient Duchess of Tereford. There was a bed and wardrobe in each of several bedchambers, a sofa in one downstairs parlor, and a dining table and chairs in another. To Kenver the place looked bare, even a bit stark, but Sarah did not seem daunted. He wondered what it would take to daunt her.
Unfortunately, the house also contained Merlin. They had told him they were coming, hoping he would take the hint and depart. And indeed when they arrived to find his possessions gone from the kitchen, they thought he had given in. “Did you stay to say goodbye?” Kenver asked him.
“I shall live in the cave,” Merlin replied. “I’ve shifted my things out there.”
“The cave,” exclaimed Sarah.
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable with some family or friends?” asked Kenver.
“I have no family or friends to turn to. The cave is better than living rough in the fields. Part of it is quite dry.”
Kenver and Sarah gazed at each other. The carter offered to give Merlin a good thumping and haul him off.
Merlin bristled at the threat, looking quite ready to defend himself. “Are you going to eat my vegetables?” he asked Sarah.
“What?”
He pointed out the window to the garden. “I planted those and tended them. Are you going to eat them?”
“I suppose we are,” replied Sarah.
“So I’m providing sustenance for the household.”
“Yes, but…”
“I won’t venture beyond the kitchen,” Merlin added, gesturing upward. “The house shall be all your domain.”
Elys and the driver gazed at Kenver, waiting for orders. He turned to Sarah. She looked back at him, then gave a small shake of her head. He thought she was reluctant to begin their life together here with violence. And also perhaps ruefully amused.
“I’ll help carry your things in,” Merlin added, heading for the cart.
The carter and Elys hesitated for a moment and then followed him.
“Should we give him a bedchamber?” asked Sarah.
“No,” replied Kenver. “I don’t wish toencouragehim to stay.”
“Perhaps you could find him some position. Elsewhere.”
“I shall bend my mind to doing so.”
Gwen and Jowan arrived on foot a few minutes later and immediately pitched in to unload the cart. With so many hands, it did not take long to empty it.
Gwen, Elys, and Jowan found places on the top floor under the slanting eaves. There were small bedchambers up there, which the duchess had sparsely furnished. Kenver and Sarah were left with the middle floor all to themselves—a circuit of nearly empty rooms of varying sizes around Tresigan’s inner courtyard. The two largest had been hung with draperies that were…extremely colorful.
