A Brother's Price

“but then I’m not a boy.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jerin asked.
    Halley spread her hands. “I tried at first, but you didn’t believe anything I said. Later, I thought you knew. I guess, looking back, Kij and the others never did actually name me in front of you.”
    “You’ve done nothing but make us proud of you,” Ren said quietly, clasping his hand. “You’ve been brave, clever, and selfless.”
    “Kij would have won the day without you.” Odelia covered Ren’s hand with her own.
    “We love you.” Halley cupped his hand and her sisters’ hands between her two. “And we’re not going to lose you again.”
----
    Chapter 16

     
    Ren was jolted awake by someone leaping onto her bed. All annoyance vanished as Jerin squirmed into her arms.
    “Get up! Get up!” He left her breathless with kisses between his demands. “Their ship is at the landing! They’re here!”
    “I’m awake!” She managed another kiss before he slipped away. He dashed across the room to peer out her window, kneeling on the window seat.
    “I can’t wait to see everyone, especially my new brother!” He looked adorable in his plum silk tunic and flowing trousers, his long black braid dangling between the bare soles of his feet.
    “It will take them at least an hour to cross town and climb the hill. Come here, and give me a proper good-morning.”
    Nights, Jerin insisted on keeping order. Eldest to youngest, and last night had been Odelia’s turn. Days, though, he was deliriously spontaneous.
     
    There were wagons and wagons filled with Whistlers.
    Wedding Keifer had been a solemn occasion, with all the pomp and joy of a state funeral. The day had been hot. the clothes uncomfortable, and the need for respectful silence reinforced with Eldest’s riding crop. The Porters had stayed cool, quiet, and watchful as sharks. Much as Ren loved Jerin, she spent the first month of her betrothal dreading their actual marriage ceremony.
    Cullen’s wedding cured that dread. After that extended country frolic, it was a family decision to include the Annaboro Whistlers and make drastic changes to the royal traditions. So it was over a hundred of the Whistlers that tumbled out of the wagons into an extended, loud greeting: twenty-four mothers and aunts, sisters and female cousins numbering more than seventy (Jerin couldn’t remember exactly how many cousins he had), and eight— eight —brothers and male cousins.
    Ren’s little sisters and both sets of the Whistler youngest thundered off like a pack of puppies, tumbling and yelping and squealing. It wasn’t until they vanished, off to explore the palace, that Ren realized she hadn’t seen Eldie Porter among them. All the little ones had been red- or black-haired.
    “Where’s Eldie?”
    “She went with the others,” Eldest reported, greeting Ren with a rough embrace. “We’ve dyed her hair. She felt out of place, being the only towhead. With her blue eyes, you’d nearly take her for one of us now. Oh, yes, we’ve had her pick a new name, Neddie Whistler.”
    “Gave her a tattoo, too.” Corelle indicated her own Order of the Sword tattoo. “Since Kij told her that she’d been fathered out of a crib.”
    They had agreed that she wouldn’t be told the truth about her parentage, nor what had happened between her mothers and aunts, until she was an adult. The Whistlers had whisked Eldie out of Avonar the very night her fate was decided, telling her nothing but that she was now one of them. Their letters reported that between Cullen’s familiar presence and a child’s acceptance of new situations, Eldie settled in quickly. Apparently she had been painfully lonely, and thrived on being one of twenty Whistler children.
    Cullen folded Ren into a hug, and she laughed in surprise at how much taller he was since the last time she saw him.
    “Look at you! What have they been feeding you?”
    “Just all that exercise he gets, riding.” Corelle said with a wink, obviously meaning more than horses, which earned her a cuff from Eldest.
    “He’s just hit his growth spurt.” Eldest gave a slight, satisfied smile. Cullen echoed it, abandoning Ren to embrace his wife from behind, his large hands resting gently on her stomach.
    Hoy! What’s this ? Ren eyed Eldest Whistler closer and found barely noticeable signs of a pregnancy. Two months? Early in the third month ? Luckily it obviously wasn’t into the second trimester—for then it would be proof that Ren and her