“And thank the gods for that. Yet she tries, doesn’t she now?”
“There, if he’d guided her so in the first of it …” Marg smiled to herself as Keegan stood, hands over Breen’s hands, face pressed to Breen’s face. “They make a picture.”
“They do.” Enjoying it, Tarryn slipped an arm around Marg’s waist. “And there, she’s hit the target. I wonder why they seem so careful around each other when I’ve heard … What’s all this now? What’s the boy angry about?”
Frowning, Tarryn studied the scene in the field. “How could a man with such kindness in his heart have such a stubborn block of a head? She’s doing her best, isn’t she?”
Tarryn’s eyebrows shot up as, after Breen started to nock the arrow again, she turned on Keegan.
“Angry words,” she said. “You don’t have to hear them to know. Well, I’m pleased to see she’ll stand for herself.”
“That she does when her temper’s stirred.”
“Looks to me like she’s put him in his place. Good for her.” Then Tarryn winced as the next arrow struck the ground inches from Breen’s foot. “Ah, now the eejit’s laughing at her. You can’t train a body if you’re … There’s the way, give him what for!” She all but cheered as Breen shoved her son.
Then fell silent when Keegan yanked Breen against him.
“Well now,” Marg murmured, sipping her tea. “There you have it.”
“There you have it,” Tarryn agreed. “I’d heard he’d bedded her, but now I see why he no longer glides into the Capital now and again to go to Shana’s bed. He thinks I don’t know, but I know where my children are.”
“Ah, youth.” Marg shook her head as in the field Keegan and Breen stepped away from each other, and Breen again picked up the bow. “What a waste of heat.”
“He stepped back from Shana some time ago. Not long, not long a’tall after Breen came through. I’m not sorry to tell you I’m glad of it.”
Tarryn went back for the pot, and now the two women sat.
“I’ll say to you what I’ve said only to Minga, who’s a sister to me. I’ve great fondness for Shana’s parents. Her father is good council, and her mother strong and kind. But when the girl—and a beauty she is, Marg—set her sights on Keegan, I worried. I worried, as it wasn’t my boy so much as the taoiseach she aimed for. It was desire and ambition I felt from her, and never love for him. I want love for my children.”
“A mother does.”
“She’s angry now that he told her plainly, and I can hope kindly, he wouldn’t pledge to her. Ah, she puts a good face on it, and she’s spending her time with Loren Mac Niadh. A more handsome couple you’d be hard finding in the whole of Talamh. I’m hoping the charm of him, for he has it aplenty, will cool that anger I feel from her.”
“But you’ll worry. Only today I said to Breen that love is worry and joy together.”
“That’s the truth of it.” Tarryn reached out to squeeze Marg’s hand. “I’ve so missed you.”
“And I you, the daughter of my heart. I’ll say to you now what I couldn’t find the way to say before. After Eian and Jennifer ended on the other side, I had hope you’d pledge to each other, you and my boy.”
“I’ll say to you what I couldn’t find the way to say before. We would have, I think, if he’d lived. Near to ten years after we lost Kavan—my husband, my love, Eian’s dearest friend, a brother in all but blood to him—it bloomed between us. I’m blessed, Marg, to have loved and been loved by two such men.”
“I’m glad of it. I’m glad to know he had that with you before he died.”
“And now it may be his daughter, my son.” Tangled with hope and worry, Tarryn looked toward the window. “Surely it will be them at the head of the spear against Odran. We can hope they bring each other joy as well.”
“She may not stay, Tarryn. When, please the gods, Odran is destroyed and the worlds are safe, she may choose to go back to her other world.”
“She may, and must make her choice. Still, it’s good she’ll come to the Capital soon. She’ll see who Keegan is there. See more of Talamh. Politics and war,” Tarryn said with a sigh. “There will be much talk of both, but she should see and hear and know what we are and how we govern.”
She sat back, drank more tea. “It’s a pleasure for me to sit with you awhile and have no talk of politics and war. We can only sit and watch these matters of the heart unfold.”
“But we have the pleasure of talking of them.”
Tarryn laughed. “Aye. Such as when will Harken finally persuade Morena to pledge so the pair of them can give me more grandchildren?”
“Slow and deliberate is Harken, and a life today and tomorrow’s tomorrow is how Morena sees things. Young Finian might take the leap before those two. How fares her parents, and her brothers and their families?”
“All well. Her da stays at the Capital, as Flynn’s on the council. But both Seamus and Phelin flew south, and our light goes with them. Seamus’s wife, Maura, you remember, teaches and trains the youngers. Well, she’s her hands full with their oldest, who at ten argued hard to join the battle coming in the south. And Noreen’s carrying their first.”
They whiled away another hour talking of friends and family.
CHAPTER NINE
When Marg left, Tarryn went outside to gather flowers for fresh displays around the house. Something, she knew, neither of her sons would think of. She noted Keegan had Breen training with a sword, and hand-to-hand, using wraiths.
Though she stayed out of their way, Tarryn watched, and deemed Breen’s skill with a sword acceptable for a novice. But her skill with magicks and her strategy with them were well over that mark.
It brought her relief to see it, and gave her more hope. Much depended on Eian’s daughter. Too much, she thought, but the fates were so rarely fair.
As she filled her basket, she heard hoofbeats.
She lifted her hand in greeting as Morena and Marco rode toward the paddock.
“You’ve a fine seat, Marco,” she called out, “and a credit you are to your teacher and your mount.”
“I got to gallop.” The thrill of it still lived in his eyes as he leaned over to rub the mare’s neck with both hands. “Man, we flew!”
“I can’t take much credit, truth be none a’tall.” Morena swung off Blue. “The man was surely a centaur in another life.”
He laughed as he dismounted. “You guys don’t really have those, right?”
“A smallish tribe in the far north,” Morena said easily. “Their home world is known as Greck, but some have migrated here and settled.”
He poked her shoulder. “No bull?”
“Not a bit of it. Let’s see to the horses now, as you have your meeting—and a cake you promised to bake for tonight. Marco has to talk to people on the other side, in New York City, over the computer.”
“Isn’t that a wonder? Is this your work then?” Tarryn asked.
“Some of it, yes, ma’am. It’s for Breen’s book.”
“Marg told me she has a story about her dog.” Tarryn glanced over to where Bollocks, who’d come around at the end of the archery segment, deviled the cows. “She says it’s a fine one.”
“It really is.”
“And with the apples Grandda gave him, he’s going to make an applesauce cake, so he says, to bring to the ceilidh.”
“It will be welcome, as its baker is.”
As he groomed the horse, Marco glanced toward the tents. “We saw the soldiers training on the ride. Ah … do they come to the party?”
“Of course, more than welcome.”
“That’s good.”
“Will you come to the Capital with us, Marco?”
He jolted, blinked at Tarryn. “Me? The Capital?”