Guess who's coming to breakfast?

"For marrying Roland and coming here, they cut me off," she said simply. "It was a betrayal in their eyes. I wrote sometimes, early on, mostly to my sisters or my mother, but they never wrote back, and so finally I stopped." She sounded calm as she said it, but it was clear that even after thirty-something years, it still hurt.

"Ahh, I'm sorry." He had wondered, but Aleyn had mentioned wanting to meet family there. "I'm sorry," he added sympathetically. "I hope the wonderful family you made here was some consolation."

"All the hardships were well worth it," she said with a slight smile.

"Dad always said so too," Aleyn added.

"Well I should certainly hope so!" Mrs. Harrowden said, somehow bristling and looking affectionate at the same time. "He wasn't the one who left his family behind and came to a place where he didn't know the language or the culture and then pushed out seven babies." Her look softened slightly. "Ah, that's not fair to him though... there were difficult parts for him too. I suppose."

Vedran smiled good-naturedly. "I'm sure in a household with seven children there were parts that were difficult for everyone! Especially if all these stories I'm hearing about Aleyn are true." He smirked teasingly at the sorcerer.

"Like all good stories, they get bigger and more elaborate each time they're told," Aleyn said, smiling back. "And besides, I'm far too nice to tell the stories that make *them* look bad. It would be unfair, being the responsible, caring big brother, to mention how Lystra and Tavya asked Lila if I was a good kisser on the first time I had her over to dinner, or how Ciryl and Bretyn were the ones who lost five silvers down the outhouse and tried to go retrieve them and had to get rescued *by me*, or that Maynard was the one who carved *my* initials into the windowsill. Really, would I be stupid enough to sign my own name to my vandalism?"

He shook his head, still smiling. "I thought I knew you, Aleyn."

"I'll be sure to get all the good stories about you when you were a kid out of your mother, since you don't have malicious siblings to rat you out."

Vedran gave an exaggeratedly affronted look. "She would never! I mean, I was a perfectly well behaved child."

"I suppose mothers have to say that?" Aleyn said with a glance to his own mother.

"Oh no, we can definitely say that some of you were much worse than others," Mrs. Harrowden said with a grin. "Although I suppose if you only have the one, that doesn't work so well."

"Well there's no basis for comparison, at that point." Vedran grinned.

"No, she'll have to say you were the best one *and* the worst," Mrs. Harrowden replied, her brown eyes twinkling.

Aleyn rose to help with clearing off the table. "No, it's okay," he said as Vedran made to help as well. "You take it easy. It's already crowded in the kitchen anyway."

"Have some tea instead," Mrs. Harrowden suggested, already pouring him some from the pot in front of her. "Lenyard, go and check on the girls, I heard some squabbling." Len, knowing when he was being dismissed, left the room, giving a polite nod to Vedran on the way out.

Aleyn's mother smiled at Vedran once they were left alone, but he could tell she was also scrutinizing him carefully.

Vedran returned Len's nod, and accepted the tea with polite thanks, but he felt more nervous now that he was alone with Mrs. Harrowden, wondering what she might be looking for. "So," he offered to fill the deepening silence, "home, safe and sound."

"Yes," she said. "Thank you again. I'll be interested to hear about how they finally got back, whenever Aleyn has the chance to tell me. But I imagine he's a little busy right now."

There was chatter coming from the kitchen - Aleyn catching up with his sister, and the occasional interjection of a third voice that he presumed must be Tomas - but he was pretty sure that wasn't exactly what she was getting at. "I imagine he would be happy to make time..."

"Oh, of course he would," she agreed. "But he went to you first, didn't he, when they got in late last night. It's all right," she added in case Vedran was worried that she was upset about it. "Work has to come first, I suppose." Her gaze was steady, but there was something else there - a question? A test?

The contents of his teacup didn't hold any answers he could read about how would be best to handle this, so he looked back up to meet her steady gaze. "I was very relieved to see him, and to hear the rest were alright."

"I can tell," she said. "You're certainly doing much better than the first time I saw you. I appreciated your honesty then."

"I'm sorry." He resisted looking away again. "It isn't just work, of course."

She nodded, taking a sip of her tea. "Thank you again, Vedran. I hope... well. I hope a lot of things. It would be too easy, and too hard, to say I hope you'll both be very happy, I suspect. And I know you'll look out for each other, take care of each other, I could tell that much from the first time I met you, so there's no need to wish for that. So instead I hope that you'll be stronger and better off together than you were apart, even when it's difficult. And I hope it will be worth it for you both."

She paused, giving him a little smile. "And because I'm his mother, even though I know it's impossible in the long run, I have to say - please try not to hurt him."

He felt a little dizzy - echoes of the panic attack the night before when Aleyn had told him he loved him and he'd felt so overwhelmed. He was sure some of it showed through, though he forced himself to relax his grip on his tea cup and smile. "I promise I'll try."

"Ah, good and scared," she said with a contented sigh. "That's how people who court my children should look when they're finished talking with me. It's when they don't look scared that I get worried."

He shook his head, but not the feeling. "If that's your test, you should feel plenty reassured."

"Oh, dear, the test varies with the person and the situation." She reached over to pat his hand. "You did fine, though, after a little initial stumble, but I'll chalk that up to nerves. You strike me as a fine young man. And I do expect you'll keep your promise and come by with your oud one of these days to entertain an old woman - you seem like the type who takes his obligations seriously."

He smiled more naturally at that. "That one I can promise to do."

Aleyn reappeared, drying his hands on his pant-legs. "Oh, hey, it's getting late. We should probably get on our way, Monti will be wondering why there's a pile of loot on her desk." He smiled to Vedran, trying to see if he'd emerged unscathed from the inadvertent one-on-one conversation with his mother.