A Brother's Price

sample of what I’m buying?”
    “My brother is not a horse, nor a whore.” Eldest’s voice was toneless with her controlled anger. “We’ll need a contract and brother’s price in hand, a secure betrothal, before anyone can try for a sample.”
    Not counting royal princesses, of course . Jerin studied his feet as his face burned. Hopefully that comment won’t blow up in our face .
    Kij didn’t seem put off in the least. She chuckled softly and murmured, “Ah, I do enjoy taming a spirited colt before mounting and riding.”
    “Good day, Porter,” Eldest snapped.
    Kij nodded to them and went out.
    “I don’t like her. Eldest,” Corelle muttered.
    “You said he wasn’t a horse,” Summer growled.
    “Corelle. Summer,” Eldest snapped. “We don’t discuss family business in public.”
    Lylia and Cullen! Jerin turned around and found the two hovering by the door, looking paler than any of his sisters.
    “This is not a good time,” Lylia said, blinking rapidly. “We’ll leave you to discuss this.”
    She went without seeing if Cullen followed. Cullen opened his mouth, closed it again, and hurried after his cousin. The Whistlers stood in silence, the younger siblings waiting out of habit for Eldest to speak.
    “Well?” Corelle finally asked. “What do we do?”
    “We wait,” Eldest stated firmly, leaving no room for discussion. “This is only our first offer. We have time. We wait.”
     
    Ren was in her office in town when Lylia came in like a firestorm.
    “Where is she? Barnes said she came to the offices, and her office said she mentioned she was coming here! Was she here?”
    “She, who?”
    “Trim!” Lylia shouted. “That cold, self-centered bitch of our sister!”
    “Lylia!” Ren snapped. “You will not use that language when speaking about one of our family.”
    “Kij offered for Jerin!” Lylia wailed. “And that— that—Trini refused even to meet him!”
    Ren sat. She had no choice as her legs wouldn’t support her. “Whistler didn’t accept?”
    “She said they would need time to think, thank gods. It worked just like I planned. I got Jerin and Trini both to the playroom, and just as Odelia predicted, he was terrific with the youngest—I’ve never seen them so good. But all she did was stand at the door and sulk. Then— then!—to top everything off, she insulted him!”
    “She didn’t!” Ren suddenly felt like calling Trini a few choice names herself. “What did she say?”
    “Oh, nothing really bad. Just that she had better things to do with her time than play with soldiers.” Lylia deflated slightly at a look from Ren. “Oh, okay, it wasn’t really an insult. It just seemed like a slap in the face to me, after Jerin was so nice. He’s such a sweetie. He can do magic!”
    “Magic?” Ren could think of only one thing magiclike that Jerin did—and she hoped that he hadn’t done it in front of the youngest.
    “He can make coins and little balls disappear. He’s so clever with his hands.”
    Ren recalled Jerin being clever with his hands and her body pulsed with a sudden need to be with him again. Had he done magic on Lylia too? The kiss she interrupted seemed mild compared with the embraces she had shared with Jerin.
    “What do we do?” Lylia asked, drawing Ren out of her air dreams.
    “I’ll order Trini to spend time with Jerin, let her get to know him, and then push the issue. We’ve got to get married, and we want our husband to be Jerin.”
    Eldest Whistler was waiting for Ren in the princess’s study at the palace.
    “I’ve heard,” Ren said.
    “No you haven’t.” Eldest held up an envelope addressed in thin spidery writing. “Eldest Picker has died. Meg is now head of the Picker family. Someone ap-proached her with a better offer. She’s going to hold us strictly to the terms of our contract. Payment for the store will have to be on the contracted date, or she’ll sell it to the other party.”
    “I thought you had an exclusive contract.”
    “We do, until Jerin’s birthday, which we were assuming would be his betrothal day. We had hoped for some traveling time beyond that, but Meg Picker’s disallowed it. We need to be back to Heron Landing by that date. If we don’t hand the Picker sisters their money on that day, then we owe them the penalty and they are free to sell to the other buyer.”
    Ren did the math. Once Eldest accepted an offer, she would need four or five days for the betrothal contract to be written, all