“That is not possible,” Gwynn protested.
“Nevertheless, those are my terms,” Kyria said. “What do you say?”
“And we are to have Pietro? Why him and not Donal?”
Kyria, glancing at the way Pietro was snuggled against Gwynn’s breast, rolled her eyes.
Alayna turned to Gwynn, feeling so giddy it was difficult to form words. “Say yes!”
“My Lord Aldaran, you are in agreement with this mad scheme?” Gwynn said.
“As if I had devised it myself. It will grieve me to be separated from Pietro for even a single day, let alone the months that will pass before I see him again. But it is the best, perhaps the only way both my sons—excuse me, our sons—can grow and thrive, and their sons as well.”
“We shall just have to make sure the time between visits is not too long.” Tenderly Alayna placed Donal in her sister’s arms.
“You would trust me with your son?” Gwynn said to Kyria. “Not knowing me, or what little you do know being so ill?”
“I trust my sister, who is fierce enough to keep any five husbands in line. You see how wonderful she is with the boys. The only danger will be her spoiling Pietro.”
“It will be some little while until you and your men are recovered enough to make the homeward journey,” Edric said to Gwynn. “That will give us all a chance to get to know one another across the dinner table and the dance floor instead of over castle walls and battlefields.”
“Not to mention the process of weaning these two, for I do not think Pietro will agree so long as his brother enjoys the advantage,” Kyria added.
“Do we have an agreement, then?” Edric levered himself to standing with the help of his cane and held out his free hand to Gwynn.
Still holding Pietro in one arm, Gwynn stretched out the other. “You have my hand and my word on it.”
The hand clasp led to exclamations of relief and delight, occasionally verging on tears. The sisters embraced one another and vowed that they would fill the times of separation with many letters. In the midst of the celebration, Renata came in. To no one’s surprise she, grandmother and telepath, had had a fair notion of how the situation might be resolved. Although she expressed regret at losing daily closeness with one grandson, she pronounced the other quite sufficient to keep everyone in the castle on their toes, even more so if he took after his father.
“I was not such a troublesome, wandering child as all that,” Edric protested.
“You do not remember, but I do,” Lady Renata assured him.
“Even if you were not,” Alayna said, “I have it on good report that Kyria was. Adventuresome and disobedient, too.”
“I was not!”
“Was too!”
“Who said so?”
“Not telling!”
With this, the party dissolved into laughter. It was not until much later that anyone remarked how peacefully Donal and Pietro had fallen asleep, each curled happily in a loving parent’s arms.
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