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Marenil smiled to see the sensible young woman who had stopped to visit a few times during the week. Lin seemed to be developing quite a strong friendship with Saeryn, which only pleased him the more. Linduial needed friends her own age. He brushed a few potato peelings off his lap and rose gingerly--rain always made his knees remind him of his age.
He walked over to the two girls, pulling them a little out of the doorway in anticipation of an impending mass exodus through the narrow portal. "I am feeling much better, thank you, Lady Saeryn, thanks to the kind care of your people here. Young Aedhel is a valuable asset to any household. I shall suggest the Lord send her to study under the Healer who came the night we arrived. I think there is much talent hidden in her retiring manner." And something else besides, he didn't say, keeping his curiousity politely to himself.
"And my Lady Linduial!" he turned toward his charge with a formal bow, but his eyes and tone belied it. The girl smiled at him sunnily and sidestepped the bow to hug him tightly, surprising Marenil. If she'd relaxed this much in a week, these people were going to be no end of good for her. "Now, now," he murmured. "I'm fine, and in a few months I'll be going home, good as new."
Lin pulled away. "That reminds me...a letter for you from father came yesterday while you were asleep, sealed in one for me. It's a few months old. Must have been following us all the way here...I can go get it."
Marenil grinned at her. "If it's waited this long, it will wait a while longer. Tell me about your letter. Your brothers getting into the usual messes?"
Lin quickly began chattering happily away about her brothers' latest exploit (which seemed to involve a pirate with a beautiful hostage...stories found those boys like magic. It was uncanny.) Marenil took the opportunity to look her up and down more carefully. There was an odd look on her face, as though she had been hit with a metaphysical brick and was thinking her way around it. Marenil threw a questioning look at Saeryn as the three fell into step following the rest of the residents of the hall out to the tent-Hall that had been set up in the courtyard.
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