Page 49 of A Winter Redemption
Confused, Jarne took it. His name had been scrawled in loopy black ink across the front. The wordOreswas written under his name.
Jarne opened the letter and read it aloud.
“Dear Mr Greweth,
Thank you for expressing your brother’s desire to adopt. We have sent him two half-oread children (siblings), male, ages five and ten. We have sent a bill to your family for the travelling and adoption fees.”
He kept reading, but he couldn’t properly follow the words. When he came to the end of the letter, he just kept staring at the scrawled handwriting. No one spoke. One of the children started coughing.
“Oh, you poor dear. I’ll get you something to drink.” Mila darted to the kitchen.
Jarne raised his gaze and looked at Aryn and Sero, who looked more shocked than he felt.
But they would. They’d just adopted two children.
“I wrote a letter,” Jarne said. “Just saying you were looking into adoption. I just asked questions. I didn’t know they’d send children. I didn’t ask them to.” Jarne had just wanted to help. For once, he’d wanted to do something good for Aryn. He’d wanted to help him.
But looking at Aryn and Sero’s faces, he began to think maybe he’d made a mess of it. It was one thing to be looking into adoption, another to have two children turn up suddenly.
Jarne couldn’t get anything right with his brother.
Then Aryn looked to the boys sitting by the fire, and Jarne could see the yearning in his eyes. The older one sat slightly in front of his brother as if protecting the smaller one. Neither touched their food. Their wary eyes darted amongst the adults.
It took Sero a moment to recover, but then he approached the children. Aryn followed. They didn’t get too close, but they sat on the ground and spoke to the children, voices so low Jarne couldn’t hear them.
For several moments, Jarne just stood frozen in place, watching them.
He felt arms wrap around his waist. Jarne startled. He looked down. Mila smiled up at him, tears streaming down her face.
“You brought them children. They wanted younglings, and you made it happen. And you brought them from one of the bad places. You saved the younglings.” She leaned up and kissed his cheeks. “Thank you. You’re a good boy.”
Jarne gave an awkward laugh. Rhorton clapped him on the shoulder, and Jarne jostled with the force.
“Are you sure it’s all right?” Jarne asked. “They didn’t expect two children today.”
“No, they didn’t,” Rhorton said. “And no doubt they’re shocked, but they’ll work it out. I know they’ll make wonderful fathers. And a wonderful family.”
Elise let out a loud breath. “I didn’t know what to do when they turned up. I worried you might send them back. I don’t know what I would have done then.”
Then Jarne realised Ketho wasn’t with the group. He glanced around.
Ketho stood by the window. Hand pressed against it, leaning against it, staring at the children. His face twisted and frozen.
“Ketho?”
But Ketho didn’t seem to hear him.
Visibly trembling, Ketho stumbled backwards to the door. He shoved it open and strode out into the snow.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Ketho’s ears rang. Blood pounded through his veins. He felt sick and faint.
He couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. He just stared at the two half-oread children cowering on the floor, their wide eyes brimming with terror.
Overlarge coats draped over their clothes. No doubt scrounged up by Elise or the man who’d dumped them on her. The children’s own threadbare and raggedy clothing hung off their too-thin bodies.
One of them coughed. Nymph sickness? His chest tightened, and he suppressed a sudden urge to cough. He hadn’t coughed in years.
