Luke was a shocking sight, and not only because she’d expected Zarek, but also because of how much he’d grown since the last time she saw him. She still remembered (though her recollection of those years was fragmented at best) the small, stuttering boy dragging around a stuffed lamb—or was it a ram?
“Melandru’s mercy, Luke, I almost didn’t recognize you! What are you now, six, seven feet tall?” As she cradled the boy’s head against her ribs the thought flitted through her mind that Zarek might need to need to find a way to explain her pregnancy to his son. Hopefully he had already. Luke had a little sister, after all.
Once the door was shut behind her she eased her bag down onto the floor and embraced her brother as tightly as her present state allowed. She pulled back, her hands planted on his shoulders, and smiled at him.
Arvanna didn’t look quite the same as she did when they last saw one another. Her skin had grown a little darker and her hair wasn’t cropped so closely anymore; instead it fell around her shoulders in neat, inky braids; nor did she look quite so forlorn. The Crystal Desert had been good to her, apparently.
Zarek departed for the kitchen, but Arvanna remained in the sitting room to eventually quiz Luke about his studies. “I’m all right,” she pitched her voice up to ensure. “Just a few changes of clothes.” (Of course, “a few changes of clothes” for Arvanna meant an entire wardrobe.)
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,” started a feminine voice. A lily white hand reached to snip a yellow daisy at its stem. “How does your garden grow?”
Still clumsily forming words, a child answered, “With silver bells and cockle shells…”
“And pretty maids all in a row,” finished Fiatri as she set a finished daisy chain around little Arvanna’s ears. “I think we should make up a rhyme with your name. Who even is Mary?” she titters. “What do you think?”
“I like rhymes,” the child answered as articulately as could be expected.
Fia laughed. “Maybe we could ask your aunt if she knows any, when she gets here. She does have the same name as you, after all.”
“Aunt?” Her little face scrunched in confusion.
“Daddy’s sister. Just like you’re Luke’s sister. Big Arvanna,” she explained as she set the girl on her hip. “The last time you saw her you were thiiis big.” Her forefinger hovered above her thumb to indicate tiny. Arvanna giggled.
“Come on, then. She should be here any old minute now.” She closed the greenhouse door behind her and looked out on the lane to spot an outbound carriage. “And I think she’s beaten us home,” she thought aloud as she ambled toward the house.