It seemed strange to think that my baby sister could be in love with someone, though she was eighteen and of bonding age.
“Maybe.”
“Well as soon as you’re ready, I do want to meet him,” I said.
And make sure he’s worthy of you.
Mareth laughed. “Ever the big brother. You’re going to make a wonderful King, Stells. Everyone will see that soon.”
“I hope so.” The task seemed impossible without the woman I loved at my side and without the support of my brother.
Mareth reached over and patted my hand then turned and began surveying the ballroom once more.
“All right now… let’s find you a Queen.”
Chapter 6
Busy
Raewyn
Each day the healer visited my chambers, and I continued to regain my strength bit by bit.
Every night, a new evening gown arrived, each more beautiful than the last, and Kem helped me change into it for dinner. I was amassing quite a collection.
Where had they even come from? The dresses were all my size, always perfectly suited for my figure (which was filling out steadily thanks to the lavish dinners every evening in the dining room.)
Unlike the first time my ladies maid had brought me here, Pharis did not join me at the table. Ever.
I never saw him during the day either. I’d begun to wonder if he’d left Stormcrest altogether.
Whether he’d left the castle or not, his servants continued to obey his order not to speak with me. All of them but Kem.
In the privacy of my room, she and I chatted, but no one else would do more than nod at my greetings.
Night after night, I ate alone, silence filling the grand dining room and making me wish for the crowded confines of my family’s tiny cottage in Waterdale, for the cozy evenings spenttogether before the fire, eating little more than bowls of gruel while we told stories and laughed.
Somehow those meager provisions shared with people I loved were more satisfying than this ridiculous bounty of expertly prepared food.
Finally after a week of solo dinners, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I’d convinced Kem to talk to me. Maybe I could get the rest of the staff to communicate, at least when Pharis wasn’t around.
At the end of the meal, before Kem took me back to my room, I asked one of the footmen to go to the chef and request his presence at the table.
“I want to give him my compliments,” I explained. “I eat his wonderful food three times a day, and yet I’ve never met him. I don’t even know his name.”
The footman appeared reluctant, so I added a sweet, “Please?” to my request.
He left the room, and a few minutes later, reappeared in the company of another man. I was shocked to see that he was human.
He was much shorter than the footman and appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, his age easier to detect since he wasn’t Elven. Even the middle-aged and older Elves looked somewhat youthful, as if time didn’t affect them.
This man had gray hair and facial wrinkles, not something I’d seen among Elven people.
Like all the other staff members, the chef refrained from speaking but did give me a friendly smile.
“Hello. I’m Raewyn.”
