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“She makes me happy.” Farrendel stated it firmly, meeting Jalissa’s gaze.
“Does she care for you?” Jalissa countered, her eyes intense.
Weylind and Rheva seemed content to remain out of it, while Ryfon and Brina huddled on the bench as if they really wished they were somewhere else.
“It has only been two and a half months.” Farrendel did not want his family to keep questioning Essie like this. Why could they not let her and Farrendel find their way in peace?
“That did not stop you from caring.”
No, it had not. But how could he help caring for Essie when she was the warmest, most caring person he had ever met? Of course he cared for her. Besides, she was his wife. Caring for her was kind of the point, was it not?
He could hear Weylind’s admonition from before the wedding.You love too easily. But, perhaps, this was one time when that was not a bad thing. Farrendel and Essie were married. Far better that they learned to care for each other quickly rather than waste time being miserable. Essie had shown him that.
Farrendel raised his head and met first Jalissa’s gaze, then Weylind’s, putting a firm conviction into his words. “I believe she does.”
Weylind opened his mouth, but Rheva rested her hand on his arm, speaking before he had a chance. “Of course she does. We all can see how happy you are together, and I, for one, am thankful to see it.”
Rheva’s words were spoken with that finality that kept even Weylind from continuing the conversation.
Farrendel tilted his head in a slight nod to Rheva. At least one of the members of his family had accepted Essie. Well, two. Machasheni Leyleira had taken to Essie right away.
For several long moments, everyone lapsed into silence. Farrendel shifted, trying to move his arm without waking Essie. Perhaps he should join Essie in dozing. Once she woke, she would be wide-awake late tonight, and he would likely be kept awake talking with her.
Yet unlike Essie, he could not bring himself to sleep with so many people around, even if those people were his family and he trusted them.
With Essie sleeping against him, he could not pass the time by exercising on the top of the train. Nor did he want to try to start up another conversation with his family, given the direction the last conversation had taken.
Instead, he glanced at Ryfon and Brina. “Would you care for a game of eshalma?”
Ryfon blinked at Farrendel. Brina gaped, then grinned. “You want to play? With us? It has been so long since you asked to play a game.”
Had it? Farrendel tried to remember the last time he had offered to play a game with his niece and nephew and failed. He had gotten into such a habit of retreating to spend the time by himself rather than with his family. He just had not had the energy to spend on people for such a long time.
After another stunned moment, Brina hopped to her feet, then crouched to dig through the drawer underneath the seat where the games were kept. She located the game, shut the drawer, and returned to her seat.
Ryfon got out the pieces for the table, then glanced toward Farrendel.
Farrendel felt another smile ease onto his face, and he stretched his arm out. “I cannot move. You will need to set it up where I can reach.”
But that meant Weylind’s legs were currently in the way.
“Dacha? Could you move?” Ryfon juggled the pieces of the table as he glanced at his parents.
Weylind glanced up from his paperwork. Then, Rheva tapped his arm, and together the two of them slid along the bench so that they were out of the way.
Ryfon set up the table, and Brina laid out the board and started on the pieces.
Jalissa eased closer. “Do you mind if I join?”
“No. The game is better with four.” Ryfon’s smile widened.
Also smiling, Brina began setting up a fourth set of pieces.
Farrendel’s own smile remained in place as they started playing. He had not even realized how much he had missed truly spending time with his family like this.
ChapterSeventeen
As their horses rounded the bend in the trail and the clearing around Lethorel and its small lake opened in front of them, Farrendel kept his gaze on Essie to catch the moment she saw Lethorel.
