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Essie sat on the bed across from him and touched his arm. “You never mentioned this to me. I would’ve helped.”
“I know.” But that was the part of the tradition that made it difficult, especially for him. “But I cannot have your help. The tradition is to show how well he knows her family, proving to her and her family that he seeks to honor them.”
“So let me get this straight. You had to pick out gifts for my family without my help whatsoever.” Her voice held a trace of laughter.
Farrendel stared down at the canvas-wrapped gifts. “Yes.”
“I take it this would normally happen after a couple has been courting a while and he has presumably gotten to know her family in person very well. Making it rather tough for you, considering you only met most of my family briefly.”
“You talk. A lot.” He had also read everything Weylind’s sources had collected on the royal family of Escarland several times. Once before that meeting to discuss a peace treaty and several times since finding himself married to Essie. As it was difficult for elven spies to infiltrate Escarland, the dossiers had not told him much beyond what Essie had revealed, except for a few suspicions about her brother Edmund’s role in Escarland’s intelligence office.
When he lifted his gaze to Essie, her eyes were sparkling, and her mouth tilted in a grin. “How you manage to pay attention to even half the stuff I say is beyond me. I usually forget most of what I’ve said within minutes of saying it. Now I’m very curious to see what you picked out for each of them based on my ramblings alone.”
He had gone the simple route and had not personalized the items as much as would have traditionally been the case. Nor did he plan on giving speeches behind the meaning of the gifts, a part of the tradition he was more than happy to eliminate. Courtship rituals involved an excessive amount of talking and interacting with other people.
“I do not know how your family will react.” He could not hold her gaze. “It breaks tradition, but I believe I need your help. I do not want to offend them.”
“You won’t. Not unless you picked out something super scandalous for some reason.”
Unless an elf-made knife was considered scandalous here in Escarland, he did not think so. He shook his head.
“In that case, it would still probably be awkward if you just handed out gifts by yourself since this isn’t a human custom. And tonight is probably already going to be awkward enough. So let’s not add to it.” Essie reached out and squeezed his hand. “But, itiscustomary for humans to give each other gifts after traveling or living somewhere new. I actually have gifts for my family as well. I wasn’t sure if I should hand them out tonight and distract them from meeting you, but if you have gifts as well, we’ll hand them out together.”
Farrendel felt some of the tension release from his shoulders. He had been dreading going through with this tradition. Essie knew his intention, and that was all that mattered in the end.
“If we hand out gifts together, it’ll be clear to my family that we are doing things together. The presence of two gifts, obviously one from each of us, will show them I didn’t pick out the gifts solely by myself.” Essie rested a hand on his cheek, lifting his gaze to hers. “I know it isn’t exactly your elven tradition, but the result will be the same. You’ll show my family you care, but in a way they’ll understand by our traditions.”
Now he was especially glad he had checked with Essie first. Observing her interacting with his culture did not teach him all there was to know about her culture. Nor was his study of the little that elves knew about humans turning out to be sufficient. Fighting a civilization was entirely different than marrying into it, and he had not even had the experience of fighting humans to draw from.
Essie spent a few minutes digging out her gifts for her family and tucking them underneath the strings holding his packages together so that they formed one gift with two wrapped parcels. As both were wrapped in the standard woven canvas used by all shops in Estyra, the gifts coordinated enough to look like one gift when Essie finished.
“Here. You can carry the gifts for my brothers, and I’ll take Mother’s and Paige’s gifts. The ones for the nephews, too. They’re young, so they might find being handed gifts by you a little intimidating. Sorry.” Essie gathered her portion of the parcels and headed for the door.
He grabbed the remaining packages and hurried after her. She led the way down the hall to another oak door nearly identical to the one for her room. She swung it open without knocking and strode inside without missing a step.
Did he need another reminder of how much this place was not home? And that he might not belong here with her? The pounding behind his eyes throbbed more painfully. It was dull enough he could ignore it for now, but it would only grow worse the longer he stayed in this palace.
Bracing his shoulders, he stepped inside the room. All the chairs were already filled. Her brothers each had one of the padded chairs while her mother and Queen Paige had the settee.
Two small human offspring were tearing about the room. At the sight of Essie, they squealed and raced toward her, the taller of the two in the lead while the smaller one toddled with his fist jammed in his mouth.
Essie knelt in time to catch the older one in a hug. “Bertie. Finn.”
“We missed you.” The older one leaned back, his eyes widening as he focused on Farrendel standing behind Essie.
Farrendel shifted as the conversations in the room trailed off and all eyes swiveled toward him, the outsider in their midst.
“This is your Uncle Farrendel. You know how your mom and dad are married? Farrendel and I are married.” Essie reached behind her and patted Farrendel’s arm, her bright smile never wavering. “Farrendel, this is my three-year-old nephew Bertie, short for Albert, and one-year-old nephew Phineas, though we call him Finn for short.”
The human custom of nicknames was still a mindboggling one for him. Why did the humans have this need to shorten perfectly acceptable names?
And yet, the nickname Essie fit her better than her full name of Elspeth. Bertie and Finn seemed more appropriate for the young ones. Perhaps humans used nicknames to fit personalities in a way their full names did not.
As Essie’s nephews were still young, their human years were not that different from what their ages would have been if they were elves. While the human aging process was apparently constant, elves aged rapidly at the beginning and end of their lifespans while the middle years experienced very little aging.
Due to the heart bond with Essie, Farrendel was no longer sure what his life span would look like. He would probably start to notice aging at a more rapid rate, as the heart bond lengthened her lifespan and shortened his. Not something he was too concerned about. Until he met Essie, he had believed—and hoped—he would die young in battle. He had not had any reason to want to live a long life before her.
Bertie peered at Farrendel before he pointed. “Why does he have long hair? And funny ears?”
