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By Root 1095 0

’s cousins. That unmarried lasses would have a hall of their own was a breathtaking sort of luxury to Sevinna, who had been raised in her father, Tieryn Obyn’s, country dun to the north. Babryan and Wbridda had fine silk dresses, too, and lots of silver jewelry and soft wool cloaks, dyed in any color they chose. At one side of the room stood four carved chests, packed full of extra clothing. Those chests made Sevinna painfully aware of her own coarse linen dresses, all three of them, which sat neatly folded on a chair beside her bed. Her one consolation was that she was as pretty as they were, in spite of their jewelry. In fact, she looked enough like them to be another sister—blond lasses, all of them, with wide blue eyes and a heavy but sensually curving mouth that was the mark of the gwerbret’s line.

“I’m truly glad you’re here,” Wbridda said. At thirteen, she was the youngest of the girls. “I’ll wager we can find you a better husband than you’d ever find up north.”

Sevinna giggled and covered her mouth with her hand.

“And what makes you think I’m looking for a husband?”

“Oh, huh! Why else are you here?” Babryan broke in. “Mam told us all about it. She doesn’t want you to marry some rough northern fellow, either. Don’t worry. There’s lots of young men hanging around Da. I’ll wager there’s a truly handsome man who’ll be thrilled to marry the gwerbret’s niece.”

“Baba, you’re so cold!” Sevinna said.

“Oh, you’ve got to be when you pick a husband.” Babryan leaned forward earnestly in her chair. “Mam was telling me. She’s hoping to get me a place at court next year, you see, one of the princess’s servingwomen, maybe. Oooh—who knows who I’ll meet there?”

“Someone very rich,” Wbridda said. “And old and ugly.”

All three of them giggled, then laughed, the giggles feeding on themselves and turning into a wave of something near hysteria. I don’t want to marry yet, Sevinna thought, but Da says I’ve got to. She laughed with the rest until at last the giggling stopped as suddenly as it had come.

“I just hope I don’t fall in love with someone who doesn’t favor me,” Sevinna said. “But maybe I’ll never fall in love at all, and that will settle that.”

“Oh, listen to Sevvi.” Wbridda rolled her eyes heavenward. “Baba used to talk that way, and then last year she met Lord Abryn, and all I heard was men men men. You’re disgusting, Baba.”

“You just wait.” Babryan tossed her head. “Besides, Lord Abryn was only a passing fancy. I must have been daft. He’s got hair on the backs of his hands.”

“Hah!” Wbridda said. “You mean he was only a lord. Da was ever so angry, Sevvi. He practically turned Lord Abryn out of the palace, and all he did was give Baba some roses.”

“Well, I should think that was quite enough,” Sevinna said. “When a young man gives a lass flowers, it means something serious.”

“He was a rake, too,” Wbridda pronounced.

“Now here, Bry,” Babryan snapped. “You’re too young to even know what that means.”

“I am not. I heard Mam and Da talking.” She rolled her eyes significantly. “I’m not marrying her to a common lord, baby or not,’ Da said, and then he said, ‘so you’d better be cursed sure he never gives her one.’ Mam was so mad! Oh, you should have heard her, Sevvi.”

“You hold your tongue!” Babryan said with a blush.

“Shan’t,” Wbridda simpered at her. “And then Da said—”

Babryan rose from her chair and raised her hand to threaten a slap, but the door opened and Lady Caffa swept into the room. Although she was growing stout, Caffa was still a beautiful woman, with thick blond hair and eyes of the deepest violet. Her long green silk dress trailed behind her in a train and was bound in at the waist with a kirtle of her husband’s green and blue plaid. At the sight of her mother, Babryan curtsied and sat down again.

“Sevinna, dearest,” Caffa said, “I’ve summoned one of the clothsellers from the town. We must get you some decent dresses soon, and I’ll need you to pick out the colors you want. Then we shall set the women sewing.”

“My lady is ever so generous.” Sevinna rose and curtsied to her. “I don’t deserve such honor.”