“A mother does.”
“She’s angry now that he told her plainly, and I can hope kindly, he wouldn’t pledge to her. Ah, she puts a good face on it, and she’s spending her time with Loren Mac Niadh. A more handsome couple you’d be hard finding in the whole of Talamh. I’m hoping the charm of him, for he has it aplenty, will cool that anger I feel from her.”
“But you’ll worry. Only today I said to Breen that love is worry and joy together.”
“That’s the truth of it.” Tarryn reached out to squeeze Marg’s hand. “I’ve so missed you.”
“And I you, the daughter of my heart. I’ll say to you now what I couldn’t find the way to say before. After Eian and Jennifer ended on the other side, I had hope you’d pledge to each other, you and my boy.”
“I’ll say to you what I couldn’t find the way to say before. We would have, I think, if he’d lived. Near to ten years after we lost Kavan—my husband, my love, Eian’s dearest friend, a brother in all but blood to him—it bloomed between us. I’m blessed, Marg, to have loved and been loved by two such men.”
“I’m glad of it. I’m glad to know he had that with you before he died.”
“And now it may be his daughter, my son.” Tangled with hope and worry, Tarryn looked toward the window. “Surely it will be them at the head of the spear against Odran. We can hope they bring each other joy as well.”
“She may not stay, Tarryn. When, please the gods, Odran is destroyed and the worlds are safe, she may choose to go back to her other world.”
“She may, and must make her choice. Still, it’s good she’ll come to the Capital soon. She’ll see who Keegan is there. See more of Talamh. Politics and war,” Tarryn said with a sigh. “There will be much talk of both, but she should see and hear and know what we are and how we govern.”
She sat back, drank more tea. “It’s a pleasure for me to sit with you awhile and have no talk of politics and war. We can only sit and watch these matters of the heart unfold.”
“But we have the pleasure of talking of them.”
Tarryn laughed. “Aye. Such as when will Harken finally persuade Morena to pledge so the pair of them can give me more grandchildren?”
“Slow and deliberate is Harken, and a life today and tomorrow’s tomorrow is how Morena sees things. Young Finian might take the leap before those two. How fares her parents, and her brothers and their families?”
“All well. Her da stays at the Capital, as Flynn’s on the council. But both Seamus and Phelin flew south, and our light goes with them. Seamus’s wife, Maura, you remember, teaches and trains the youngers. Well, she’s her hands full with their oldest, who at ten argued hard to join the battle coming in the south. And Noreen’s carrying their first.”
They whiled away another hour talking of friends and family.
CHAPTER NINE
When Marg left, Tarryn went outside to gather flowers for fresh displays around the house. Something, she knew, neither of her sons would think of. She noted Keegan had Breen training with a sword, and hand-to-hand, using wraiths.
Though she stayed out of their way, Tarryn watched, and deemed Breen’s skill with a sword acceptable for a novice. But her skill with magicks and her strategy with them were well over that mark.
It brought her relief to see it, and gave her more hope. Much depended on Eian’s daughter. Too much, she thought, but the fates were so rarely fair.
As she filled her basket, she heard hoofbeats.
She lifted her hand in greeting as Morena and Marco rode toward the paddock.
“You’ve a fine seat, Marco,” she called out, “and a credit you are to your teacher and your mount.”
“I got to gallop.” The thrill of it still lived in his eyes as he leaned over to rub the mare’s neck with both hands. “Man, we flew!”
“I can’t take much credit, truth be none a’tall.” Morena swung off Blue. “The man was surely a centaur in another life.”
He laughed as he dismounted. “You guys don’t really have those, right?”
“A smallish tribe in the far north,” Morena said easily. “Their home world is known as Greck, but some have migrated here and settled.”
He poked her shoulder. “No bull?”
“Not a bit of it. Let’s see to the horses now, as you have your meeting—and a cake you promised to bake for tonight. Marco has to talk to people on the other side, in New York City, over the computer.”