Page 62 of Ties of Legacy

As soon as they all felt far enough away to be safe, they stopped and made what camp they could for the night. There were no bedrolls to make it comfortable, and the food was basic, but both women ate ravenously.

“I’ve never been so hungry in my life,” Avery said through a mouthful. “I don’t think they can have fed us once.”

“Not while we were sleeping,” Mattie agreed. “The sleeping potion negates the necessity—but they pushed it to the extremeof its limits. Any longer and we might have been in serious trouble.”

“Just don’t eat too much,” Elliot warned them both. “You’ll make yourselves sick if you do that.”

Avery reluctantly put her remaining food down, rubbing her stomach. “Do I want to know how you know that?” she asked in a soft voice, but there was something darker in her eyes.

Elliot shrugged. “I’ve never gone days at a time without eating if that’s what you’re worried about. But my mother has never been a very…consistent person. Sometimes she forgot to prepare food, and sometimes we ran out of both food and coin. But when she did remember, or she found a source of wealth again, she liked extravagance.”

Avery’s face turned thunderous. “But you were just a child!”

“Don’t worry,” Elliot said with a smile, trying to keep things light. “It wasn’t so bad when I was little because my dad was the opposite of my mother—he was stability personified. Meals were regular affairs in my early years. And once it was just me and my mother on the road…” He shrugged. “I was basically a youth by then, so I learned to find odd jobs where I could and to hide the coin from my mother. That way I could always source food for us when we needed it. I learned how to cook, too.” He smiled ruefully. “That’s probably why my cooking is so terrible.”

“Elliot, I’m so sorry,” Avery’s gentle voice was almost too much for him, and he cleared his throat.

“Those years are long behind me. I haven’t traveled with my mother for years. For obvious reasons. There’s no need to feel sorry for me.”

“I think I’ve heard of her,” Mattie said, her eyes narrowed in thoughtful concentration. “Is her name Opaline?”

Elliot’s mouth went dry. “Yes,” he said stiffly, “it is.”

Mattie nodded. “There’s a reason Lorne knows so many roving merchants. There aren’t many like him and yourmother, and we always end up crossing their paths.” Her lips pursed. “Your mother doesn’t have Lorne’s reputation, though. I wouldn’t call her a merchant friend.”

Elliot held his breath, his heart thudding in his chest, but Mattie didn’t say any more. After tutting a few times, she returned to her food. Elliot’s shoulder slumped as he let out a quiet breath of relief. If Mattie did know more about his mother’s history, she was apparently going to keep it to herself.

Avery gave him a questioning look, but he turned away from her to look into their small fire. She didn’t press him, but his earlier relief weighed heavily in his belly. Avery had secrets as well, but it no longer felt the same—not when her secrets were to protect others while his were to protect himself.

He still remained silent, however. How could he tell her about a past he still hadn’t made peace with himself?

The next morning, they were back on the road early, all eager to reach the hamlet as soon as possible. When it finally came into view, nestled on some hills overlooking the ocean, they pushed their horses to a faster pace without needing to discuss the matter.

Avery led them to a comfortable cottage on the fringe of the hamlet, surrounded by a bright garden full of different colored roses.

“Aunt Sylvia!” she called before she had even dismounted. “Uncle Ewan! Dahlia! Ash! I’ve come to visit!”

Four people poured out of the cottage as she slid to the ground—a girl and boy a similar age to Avery, followed by a middle-aged man and woman. The four of them surrounded her, all exclaiming joyously as they engulfed her in a group embrace.

Elliot could almost see Avery’s stress lifting, and he tried not to feel jealous. He wasn’t sure if he wished he held that role in her life or if he just wished he had an equally loving family to return to.

“What are you doing here?” her aunt demanded, once they all separated again. “Don’t tell me you’ve come to stay permanently?” She sounded hopeful.

“Don’t be ridiculous, mother,” the girl said. “Avery wouldn’t do that.” She was gazing at Avery with an adoring expression, reminding Elliot of Avery’s long ago words about her younger cousin who loved to travel as much as she did.

“Mattie!” Avery’s uncle—Ewan she had called him—finally spotted the record keeper. “What can possibly bring you out to these parts? Why didn’t you let us know you were coming?”

“Of course you’re always welcome, with or without notice,” his wife said with a reproving look at him.

“But of course, of course,” he said, undaunted. “Mattie knows that. There’s not a roving merchant home in six kingdoms that isn’t open to her—just as her record-keeping hall is always open to us.”

Mattie slid off her horse and shook herself down. “I’m sure I would have sent warning ahead if I’d had any intention of visiting,” she said. “I didn’t leave home voluntarily.”

Ewan’s eyebrows rose as he threw a look at his niece.

Avery held up her hands in protest. “It wasn’t me who forced her out.”

“I think this is a story that might be better told inside,” Elliot said, suddenly reminded of their arrival at Mattie’s house in the capital. It already seemed infinitely long ago.

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