Page 43 of Once Upon A Bear

He would not let Kellan have her.

But then he frowned at himself, because she was not his to control. If Guinevere wanted to marry his brother, he could do nothing to stop her, even if everything inside him was shouting that Guinevere could not marry his brother.

He’d just have to win her over first.

He hurried to catch up with them and took the place on the couch next to Guinevere before anyone else could. As his mother rang the bell and asked for tea and a light lunch, his little sister, Liliana, came bounding into the room.

She might have grown taller recently, but no matter how grown-up she appeared to be, she would always be his little sister. There was no escaping that.

Unfortunately, that meant he had no idea how she was going to react to him sitting next to a woman.

“Hello,” his baby sister said as she hurried up to Guinevere and gave her a slight curtsey. “I’m Liliana.”

Perhaps calling her a baby was a bit of a stretch, given that she was nearing adolescence, but looking at her still brought to mind the tiny bundle that had been put into his arms when he himself was that age.

“Hello, Liliana,” Guinevere said with a smile. “I’m Guinevere.”

Liliana’s gaze turned to Gideon and grew quite impish. Gideon sighed.

“I didn’t realize Gideon was bringing a girl home,” Liliana explained as she flounced over to another seat and grinned at the two of them.

“Now, Liliana,” his mother said, directing the maid who’d appeared to leave the tea tray on the table, “Guinevere is not just a girl that Gideon brought home. She’s a healer who helped Kellan.”

Liliana’s gaze whipped around to stare at her oldest brother.

“What did you do?” she said, the words harsh.

“My, how the tables have turned,” Gideon teased.

“I’m not the one who got hurt,” Liliana said pointedly.

“The horse threw me,” Kellan said.

“Oh.” Liliana waved her hand. “That’s nothing.”

“It was bad enough that Mother sent for a healer,” Kellan said, suddenly defensive. “I was bleeding.”

It was a treat to see their oldest, nearly perfect brother be the one caught squirming.

“You fall off horses all the time,” Liliana pointed out. “And I don’t see any blood.”

“This one seemed a little harder than some of the others,” Kellan admitted. “And it’s on the back of my head.”

“Your brother could use a long, hot soak in a tub later,” Guinevere said to Liliana, making her as much a part of the conversation as any adult in the room.

Gideon liked that. Many of the upper class would ignore Liliana or treat her as if she didn’t belong because she was so much younger than them, but Guinevere didn’t have that nonsense ingrained in her.

“I think your brother might need your help.”

Liliana cocked her head and waited for Guinevere to explain.

“He’s going to have to be very careful,” Guinevere continued, “and if he’s anything like most young men, I know he’s not going to like doing that.”

“Oh, he won’t,” Liliana said, shaking her head sagely. “Kellan doesn’t like sitting still and doing nothing.”

“You’re going to have to help him. One of you should sit with him,” Guinevere said to Liliana, “even if that means you have to sit on him.”

“She said I’m allowed to sit on you,” Liliana told Kellan with an impish grin.