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As soon as she left, Essie turned to her family. They had relaxed, somewhat, but their stances remained tense as they glanced toward Farrendel.
This was ridiculous. They were family, even if Farrendel was a stranger to them.
Essie launched herself forward. “Mama!”
In a moment, Essie found herself enveloped in her mother’s warm, soft hug. How she’d missed this.
Her mother stepped back, her gaze searching Essie’s face. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, really.” Essie stepped into Julien’s bear hug. “I missed all of you so much.”
Essie squealed as her sister-in-law Paige gave her a squeezing tight hug. “I have so much to tell you.”
Paige flicked a glance toward Farrendel as she drew back, but her smile remained in place. “I’m sure. I can’t wait to hear all about the last three months.”
Averett pushed past Paige to hug Essie next. “Are you sure you’re all right? I’ve been so worried...” He trailed off, and Essie caught the tortured look in his eyes before he looked away.
“You need to stop beating yourself up about arranging a marriage of alliance for me. It worked out better than even I could have imagined.” Essie returned Avie’s hug before she extricated herself and glanced over her shoulder.
Farrendel stood, hands behind his back, his face impassive. To her family, he probably looked forbidding and hard. But they wouldn’t be able to see the way he leaned back, as if he wanted to bolt.
Essie reached a hand to him and waited until he hesitatingly twined his fingers with hers. “I know most of you met him briefly at the wedding, but none of us were relaxed enough to really get to know each other. Everyone, this is Farrendel.”
Farrendel remained still and hard as the statues in the palace’s garden. But Essie could feel the tremble through his fingers, the wariness in his stance.
Essie tugged on Farrendel’s arm to get his attention and spoke in elvish. Hopefully Edmund’s elvish wasn’t as good as Essie suspected it was. “Farrendel, my love, I know you’re nervous, but you’re going to scare my family away if you keep putting on your intimidating Laesornysh face.”
As he glanced down at her, the hard line of his jaw softened. When he replied, it was in elvish. “Sorry. It is just...”
“It’s scary meeting my family. You want them to like you, but you don’t want to be vulnerable.” Essie quirked a smile. “I know. I had the same thing with your family.”
Farrendel’s mouth curved upward enough to count as a smile. “You made it look easy.”
“I like people, so itiseasier for me.” Essie patted his arm. “Just smile and relax and try not to look so scary. Now we probably should stop talking in elvish before my family wanders off.”
They were all staring at them. Averett and Mother just looked bewildered. Paige smiled, her eyes twinkling as if she read something into the situation. Edmund had a smirk as if he had, indeed, understood that entire conversation. Julien had his arms crossed and looked bored.
Essie tugged Farrendel to stand in front of Averett. “Farrendel, this is my brother Averett, though we all call him Avie.”
Averett held out a hand. Farrendel’s smile dropped for a moment before he pasted it back into place and shook Averett’s hand. When Averett let go of Farrendel’s hand, Farrendel gripped Averett’s shoulders in the elves’ restrained version of a hug. “Shashon.”
Brother.
The elves didn’t have words for brother-in-law or sister-in-law. They believed a couple was so united in marriage, that they used brother or sister for an in-law. Though, they tended to skirt around that by simply not claiming any sort of relation if they didn’t want to, making it a huge deal for Farrendel to claim her family as his. Once said, he wouldn’t take it back. He would consider her brothers as his brothers for the rest of his life, even if her brothers didn’t know it yet.
Essie could’ve hugged Farrendel right then and there, but she restrained herself and instead gestured to Paige. “This is Paige, my sister-in-law and best friend. I have two nephews as well, and you’ll meet them tonight.”
“Essie has told me so much about you in her letters. I’m so excited to finally meet you.” Paige gave Farrendel a quick hug, and Farrendel went stiff again, glancing over his shoulder at Essie.
Essie grinned back at him and told him in elvish, “I did warn you hugs were common in my family.”
His mouth twitched with a grimace before he smoothed his expression and gripped Paige’s shoulders briefly. “Isciena.”
Edmund squirmed his way into line next, even though he’d had his chance to greet Farrendel at the border. He gripped Farrendel’s shoulders in the elven style of hugging and said in perfect elvish, “Elontiri, shashon.”
Welcome, brother.Essie sighed and swatted Edmund’s shoulder. “So you do know elvish.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but your secret language isn’t so secret, little sister.” Edmund tweaked her nose and strolled away, still chuckling, before Farrendel even had a chance to return the gripped shoulders gesture.
