all. She was jealous that he had spent all day with her father, and she blamed him for spoiling her joy at her father’s return.
When he had eaten his fill, the master called the household to the dining room, and we welcomed him home. He had, as always, brought gifts for the children: for me it was a little deer carved out of wood, and for Lina it was a red scarf, beautifully embroidered in the way of the North with bright threads in curious patterns. She held it to her cheek, and her brow cleared; she loved pretty things.
“Now,” said the master to the household, “I want you to meet Damek il Haran. He is fostered to me by the king and will be a brother to Lina. He is of royal blood and will be attended as a noble and treated kindly by you all.” Here he gave Lina a stern look: her black glances had not escaped him.
The boy stared unsmilingly back at the servants and nodded distantly without saying a word. Lina scowled at him, but he ignored her, which lowered him further in her eyes. He certainly wasn’t an immediately likable boy, and he looked none too pleased to be in our house; his expression was clouded with what looked very like resentment. His proud manner obscured his good features: he was in fact handsome and strongly built, with thick black eyebrows, dark eyes, and a sensuous mouth. He lacked the white skin of a noble, possessing instead the swarthy hue of a shepherd, which made me think he must be of mixed blood.
“I shall have to find a room for him,” said my mother, which was as close as she came to expressing her annoyance at having to house another soul in a house that was already too small. “Perhaps Lina and Anna can share again.”
“They are too old to share a room,” said the master. “Lina is of an age when she must begin to mind her position.”
My mother forbore to answer that it would be even more improper to put Damek in Lina’s room, whatever the propriety in rank, but I knew she was thinking it. Instead she sighed, saying that for the moment he would have to sleep in the room usually occupied by the master’s manservant and said nothing more. The next day she cleaned out a small room she had just filled with odds and ends from the southern estate, sending them on to be stored instead at the manse, and turned it into a bedroom for Damek. That was only the first of the inconveniences he represented for our household.
That first night he didn’t endear himself to anyone. I noticed the shadows underneath his eyes and excused his manner as exhaustion, but even so, he displayed little inclination to be pleasing company and answered any question with a monosyllable or a grunt, if he bothered to answer at all. His stubborn indifference confirmed Lina in her dislike, and she too became sulky, as if each were competing to be the most ill-mannered. This angered her father, although he wouldn’t rebuke her in front of us and instead gave her stern looks, which only had the effect of making Lina sulk more.
This threw a pall of gloom over the company, and we retired rather earlier than was usual. As Lina and I washed ourselves before bedtime, she made a face at me. “What do you think, Anna? Isn’t he the most horrible boy? And he is to be my brother ! The shame!”
I answered that perhaps he was just very tired and might be more friendly on the morrow, when he had had some rest. Lina tossed her head.
“I think he has a soul as black as pitch,” she said. “And even if he was nice as nice and sorry as sorry, I won’t be friends with him. I don’t believe he has royal blood at all. I don’t know why Papa has to bring him here. He’ll just spoil everything.”
That was hard to argue with, after the evening we had just enjoyed, but it wasn’t my place to comment, so I said nothing. I went to bed and before sleep overtook me, spent some time wondering who Damek was, and why my master had chosen to foster such an ill-favored boy.
Such wondering became a common hobby about the
When he had eaten his fill, the master called the household to the dining room, and we welcomed him home. He had, as always, brought gifts for the children: for me it was a little deer carved out of wood, and for Lina it was a red scarf, beautifully embroidered in the way of the North with bright threads in curious patterns. She held it to her cheek, and her brow cleared; she loved pretty things.
“Now,” said the master to the household, “I want you to meet Damek il Haran. He is fostered to me by the king and will be a brother to Lina. He is of royal blood and will be attended as a noble and treated kindly by you all.” Here he gave Lina a stern look: her black glances had not escaped him.
The boy stared unsmilingly back at the servants and nodded distantly without saying a word. Lina scowled at him, but he ignored her, which lowered him further in her eyes. He certainly wasn’t an immediately likable boy, and he looked none too pleased to be in our house; his expression was clouded with what looked very like resentment. His proud manner obscured his good features: he was in fact handsome and strongly built, with thick black eyebrows, dark eyes, and a sensuous mouth. He lacked the white skin of a noble, possessing instead the swarthy hue of a shepherd, which made me think he must be of mixed blood.
“I shall have to find a room for him,” said my mother, which was as close as she came to expressing her annoyance at having to house another soul in a house that was already too small. “Perhaps Lina and Anna can share again.”
“They are too old to share a room,” said the master. “Lina is of an age when she must begin to mind her position.”
My mother forbore to answer that it would be even more improper to put Damek in Lina’s room, whatever the propriety in rank, but I knew she was thinking it. Instead she sighed, saying that for the moment he would have to sleep in the room usually occupied by the master’s manservant and said nothing more. The next day she cleaned out a small room she had just filled with odds and ends from the southern estate, sending them on to be stored instead at the manse, and turned it into a bedroom for Damek. That was only the first of the inconveniences he represented for our household.
That first night he didn’t endear himself to anyone. I noticed the shadows underneath his eyes and excused his manner as exhaustion, but even so, he displayed little inclination to be pleasing company and answered any question with a monosyllable or a grunt, if he bothered to answer at all. His stubborn indifference confirmed Lina in her dislike, and she too became sulky, as if each were competing to be the most ill-mannered. This angered her father, although he wouldn’t rebuke her in front of us and instead gave her stern looks, which only had the effect of making Lina sulk more.
This threw a pall of gloom over the company, and we retired rather earlier than was usual. As Lina and I washed ourselves before bedtime, she made a face at me. “What do you think, Anna? Isn’t he the most horrible boy? And he is to be my brother ! The shame!”
I answered that perhaps he was just very tired and might be more friendly on the morrow, when he had had some rest. Lina tossed her head.
“I think he has a soul as black as pitch,” she said. “And even if he was nice as nice and sorry as sorry, I won’t be friends with him. I don’t believe he has royal blood at all. I don’t know why Papa has to bring him here. He’ll just spoil everything.”
That was hard to argue with, after the evening we had just enjoyed, but it wasn’t my place to comment, so I said nothing. I went to bed and before sleep overtook me, spent some time wondering who Damek was, and why my master had chosen to foster such an ill-favored boy.
Such wondering became a common hobby about the
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