Page 63 of Ties of Legacy

“What happened?” Sylvia drew closer to her niece, placing a concerned and protective hand on her arm.

“Have you had an adventure?” Dahlia asked, a note of longing excitement in her voice.

“If they have, I’m betting it was unpleasant,” her brother drawled.

“Yes, it was,” Elliot responded shortly. “And so I would like to get the ladies somewhere more comfortable. We’ve all been on horseback for days.”

“And who are you again?” Ash looked Elliot up and down, not giving away his opinion of the new arrival on his face.

“This is Elliot,” Avery said. “He’s traveling with me.”

“Traveling with?—”

“Not together like that,” Mattie interrupted, the laugh clear in her voice. “Isn’t that right, Avery?” She gave Avery a knowing look.

“Yes,” Avery said defiantly. “That’s right. But he’s just ridden for days to rescue us, so he deserves consideration from all of us.”

“I didn’t end up doing much rescuing,” Elliot said. “It was mostly the parrot.”

“Of course it was.” Frank preened himself from his usual perch on Nutmeg’s saddle.

“Is that mangy thing still with you?” Ash peered at Frank in disgust.

Frank turned a half circle on the saddle, flicking his tail at Ash. “Mangy boy,” he croaked. “Full of fleas.”

Ash flushed a dark red and started toward the parrot.

“Oh don’t start that again.” His mother caught his arm and hauled him toward the cottage door. “You know how Frank is. But there’s no separating him from Avery.” She threw an amused look over her shoulder. “We tried hard enough when she was traveling with us.”

Elliot grinned sympathetically in return, although his antagonism for the parrot had significantly receded since the bird’s pivotal role in Avery’s rescue. Elliot was well aware he would have struggled to even track them without Frank.

Inside, the cottage proved just as cozy as the outside. They didn’t have nearly as many unusual teas as Mattie, but the kettle seemed to boil non-stop, and Elliot’s cup was never empty.

Even better, it turned out that both Sylvia and Ewan were excellent cooks, and the spread that was soon before them left nothing to be desired. Not that you would guess it from watching Dahlia. She picked at her food and sighed, too busy alternating between casting longing looks at Avery and hopeful looks at her mother to eat much.

But from the stern looks Sylvia was sending back, she still didn’t consider Dahlia old enough to leave home and go traveling with her older cousin. And Elliot didn’t think the story they were about to tell was likely to soften Sylvia.

Sure enough, Avery’s family were just as horrified by the tale of their recent misadventures as he had expected. Sylvia’s response seemed to be to ply them all with a variety of sweet food, a form of sympathy he was happy to accept.

Mattie and Ewan went into a long conversation about the security of the record-keeping hall which went largely over his head because he was too busy watching Avery. She was clearly happy to be reunited with her cousins—the closest thing she had to siblings—and the three of them talked almost too fast for him to follow, catching each other up on the various happenings since they were last together.

“It can be a bit overwhelming, can’t it?” Sylvia murmured to him with a look of half exasperation, half affection. “But you get used to it eventually.” Her warm smile invited him into the family circle, and he remembered that she had been the one to marry into the roving merchant clan. And now she was looking at him like a fellow outsider being brought into the fold.

She seemed to have misunderstood his and Avery’s situation, just like Mattie had done. But he couldn’t protest when she’d given him nothing more than a look of shared sympathy. And themore he watched Avery’s family, the less he wanted to protest. Apparently Avery’s uncle had loved traveling just as she did, and yet here he was, settled with his family. Perhaps Avery would also have a change of heart?

“I don’t know how you do it, Mattie,” Ewan said from the head of the table, his voice catching Elliot’s attention. “We’ve only been here for two years, and I’ve had to take up running to try to soothe my itchy feet.” He chuckled, but there was clearly real discomfort behind it.

He looked over at his wife, his face softening as he watched her clearing dishes. “She endured the discomfort of travel for my sake for twenty years. Now that it’s my turn, I don’t know how she did it!” He sighed heavily. “It’s only fair, of course. And I would rather have her and our beautiful children than travel, but some days it feels even more stifling than I feared.”

Elliot quickly faced back toward Avery and her cousins, his brief hopeful thoughts dying. How could he ask Avery to join her life with his, knowing that sooner or later, she would have to sacrifice the thing she loved most?

The cottage suddenly felt stuffy and overly warm, a cage around him. He had just experienced a short period without Avery at his side, not knowing if she was safe. And he had only truly been able to breathe again when she was safe in the circle of his arms. He couldn’t imagine a lifetime of such days.

But where did that leave him?

He wanted to get up and walk out—to find some release in the cool air outside. But before he could take action, Avery turned abruptly from her conversation and called down the table to Mattie.

“Thanks to Rene’s interruption, you never did answer our question back at your house. Do you know how our ancestor transferred his bond from his kingdom to his own body?”

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