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At the double doors of htly, then opened the door for us and stood to one side as we entered the warmly lit study There any doubts I’d had about my uncle’s welcome of us were dispersed Not only ine, cold meats, cheese, and bread set out on a table to welcome us, but also tobacco forjacket and silk lansin trousers, rose as we entered the rooreet my father with an ened arown He insisted that we sit down iht repast he had had prepared for us, and I was glad to do so

Their conversation flowed over lad to be seen and not heard, for it afforded me the uninterrupted opportunity to enjoy the best food I’d faced in some days, and also to see my father and my uncle as I’d never witnessed them before In the next hour I realized what had always escaped me, that my father and my uncle were close, and that my Uncle Sefert not only rejoiced in er sibling I had been a child the few previous tiether, and on those occasions they spoke and behaved with the reserve appropriate to their stations Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour or the casual setting, but tonight they spoke quickly, laughed heartily, and generally behaved more like two boys than two peers of the realm

As if to make up for lost time, they discussed a dozen topics, from the health of my father’s crops and the product of hter and my father’s selection of prospects for Yaril’s hand My father spoke of ardens, and said that he wished to visit the flower market and take new dahlia tubers home with him, to replace the ones devoured by rodents earlier that suarden and horew all too swiftly and would soon leave his protection In contrast, my uncle spoke of his wife’s discontent and a that she was ill pleased with my father’s elevation in status, as if somehow his rise had compromised my uncle’s position "Daraleen has always been jealous of her position She was a younger daughter in her faht to be wed to a first son It is almost as if she fears that some of her honor will be taken fro I have tried to reassure her, but alas, her hter’s apprehension Her fa fro Troven elevated had a noble father Nonetheless, my wife’s family shuns contact with the new nobles as upstarts and frauds It is without foundation, but there it is"

My father co none of it personally, as if they were speaking of a house with a cracking foundation or a field suddenly prone to root rot He did not condemn the woman, nor was there any discomfort in how frankly they discussed her jealousy It was a flaw they both acknowledged, but did not allow to affect their relationship

Daraleen went to great pains to cultivate her friendship with the queen She put their daughters before her majesty at every opportunity, and hoped to see theer cousin, Epiny, had begun to study the occult, for spiritualists and seances and other such nonsense fascinated the queen My uncle was plainly displeased by this "I have told her she is to regard it as studying pagan beliefs or Plainsends At first, she seeer she studies that claptrap, the more she babbles of it at table and the ive it It troubles er than her years, but I think the sooner she is settled with a solid man, the better it will be for her I know that Daraleen has high ambitions for her, and hopes to htly she reminds me that if Epiny finds favor with the queen and is invited to court, she will be seen by the finest young nobles of the realhter, Keft I think she would be better off studying the scriptures of the good god than researching crystal chi fortunes with silver pins"

"She does not sound so different froh a flighty period at about that age All she wanted to babble about hat she had dreah she knows I don’t approve of the old holy days, she sulked for a hen I would not allow her to go to a friend’s Dark Evening ball Give Epiny a year or so, brother, and I expect her father’s cohts of fancy and tih a reckless ti themselves"