suits them,” he replied.
“If your sister is the mistress of the manor, what am I to do?” Averil asked. “I am not used to being idle. Will we live in the manor house?”
“I have always lived there, but there is a bailiff’s cottage, Averil, if you would prefer it,” he told her. “It has not been lived in for many years. The last bailiff of Everleigh was a cousin of my father’s. He had neither chick nor child. When he died I was sixteen. My father then made me the manor’s bailiff, so the cottage is mine by right.”
“If your sister and I can exist peacefully together then we shall live in the manor house,” Averil said. “But if Mary is in charge, and she has Rhawn, then I shall spend my days making the cottage habitable again for us one day. For now I shall set my loom up in your hall. Will that be satisfactory, my lord?”
He nodded. “I think it a wise thing you plan, Averil, for once Mary is wed we would do well to leave her with her husband though she should never ask us to go. Still, it will be several years before my sister is old enough to be married.”
They had chattered back and forth as they rode each day, and Averil began to consider that she had made a good match even if Rhys FitzHugh was not a great lord. How Maia and Junia would tease her over her former boasting, but then, see who they would have as husbands one day, Averil thought. Maia, of course, would make the best match, being true born. And Ysbail would certainly see that Junia was not wed badly.
They finally arrived back at Dragon’s Lair, and as they entered the hall of her father’s keep Gorawen ran forward to embrace her only child.
“I am wed,” Averil said softly.
“Has he been kind?” Gorawen asked anxiously.
“He has had no opportunity,” Averil murmured.
“Thank heavens!” her mother exclaimed low. “There is much you need to know, my daughter. There are things I must teach you before you go to his bed. I shall tell him that he may not have you yet.”
“I do not know if he even wants me, really,” Averil said. “He has not even kissed me yet, Mother. While there was little occasion for coupling along our journey, surely he might have found a moment to steal a kiss, but he did not.”
“Perhaps he is shy,” Gorawen suggested with a small smile.
“He kidnapped me, Mother!” Averil said. “I hardly believe him to be shy.”
“Do you talk with one another?” Gorawen was becoming just a little concerned.
“Aye. I have learned much of him, and he me,” Averil answered her parent.
Gorawen nodded. “That is to the good,” she said. “I think perhaps your husband is giving you a chance to adjust to your new situation in life. He has shown no animosity at having to wed you?”
“Honor was at stake, Mother,” Averil responded. “And if I have learned one thing, Mother, it is that Rhys FitzHugh is honorable despite his behavior in the matter of obtaining my person.”
“But he shows no anger towards you at having made the error he made?” Gorawen persisted. “Often a man will make a mistake where a woman is concerned, and then he will blame her for his blunder. Has this been the case with you and Rhys FitzHugh?”
“Nay,” Averil said slowly. “I believe he has come to terms with what he has done. He speaks fairly to me, and has not censured me for his fault.”
“Good, good!” Gorawen said, but she thought to herself that she would watch this new son they had obtained most carefully. Averil had not her experience where human nature was concerned.
Averil kissed her mother’s cheek, and then turned to curtsey to her father’s wife.
Argel took the girl by her shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks. “Welcome home, Averil,” she said. “I am happy that all has worked out well for you.”
“Thank you, lady,” Averil replied sweetly. “Now, my sister Maia must have a husband of her own. But let him be near, lady, so we do not lose one another.”
“And then my daughter must be matched,” Ysbail said sharply.
“Junia has several years before she should wed,” Merin Pendragon said.
“But he must be as fine a gentleman as is chosen for Maia,” Ysbail persisted. “Not some poor bailiff such as Averil has wed, though I will admit he is handsome.”
“Aye, aye!” the Dragon Lord said impatiently.
Now it was the sisters’ turn to greet the returning Averil. They rushed her with little shrieks and giggles, hugging their eldest sibling.
“What is it like?” Maia demanded.
Averil shook her head at Maia. “The hall is hardly the place to speak on such things,” she said, reluctant that her sisters know she was still a virgin.
“He is very handsome, as my mother says,” Junia remarked.
“Is he?” Averil turned and looked at her husband. “Aye, I suppose he is.”
“How could you not notice?” Junia said.
Averil grinned. “A man should never be told how beautiful he is, little one. They are vain enough about everything else.”
“I wonder if my husband will be handsome,” Junia replied.
“Your husband must be a man of some property, and good family,” Maia told the youngest of the trio. “Handsome does not count. Wealth and family are the only important factors in a marriage. You are a descendant of the great Arthur, no matter you were born on the wrong side of the blanket, sister.”
“But Averil said she would wed a great lord, and Rhys FitzHugh is hardly a great lord. He doesn’t even have lands of his own,” Junia noted.
“He is bailiff of a great manor,” Maia replied quickly. She did not want Junia pointing out that their eldest sister, indeed the most beautiful of them all, had married badly and beneath her, though certainly through no fault of her own. Why, if Averil had not protected her two sisters that day, Maia thought, it might be her now wed to a bailiff. She shuddered delicately at the idea. Rhys FitzHugh was certainly not the man of her dreams. The man of her dreams was tall, dark and dangerously handsome with an air of mystery about him. She just didn’t know who he was yet.
“Rhys tells me there is a stone bailiff’s cottage if we wish it,” Averil said. The truth of innocent Junia’s words had not been lost on her.
“But you’ve lived in a keep all of your life,” Junia said. “Will not a cottage seem small to you, sister?”
“Mayhap it is a big cottage,” Maia suggested. She glared at Junia. Would the brat not be silent? Could she not comprehend the awful truth of the situation?
Averil laughed softly. “Perhaps he will become a great lord one day,” she said, a twinkle in her light green eyes.
“Oh, sister, I am sorry!” Maia replied low.
“Do
