Valmar had not been sure of his welcome, but at the sound of his step Karin sprang up to meet him and took his hands as though she had last spoken with him much longer ago than yesterday. She sat him beside her in the window, from which they could look out at the tents spread across the fields between the castle and the river. He looked at her carefully, expecting to see her somehow different inside the elaborate gold dress. But she was still his big sister.

“I’ve wanted to talk to you for days,” he said. “Everyone heard about the-the man Roric went with, and you know Roric told me it was a Wanderer. But he said something else too.”

Karin bent closer, her gray eyes so intense he had to look away.

Now that it came to it he found it unexpectedly hard to say. “I should have told you this before, but, I don’t know, I didn’t like to say it before Father and my brothers. Roric said to tell you he would always love you.”

Karin sat back slowly, her hands folded and her eyes closed. “Thank you, Valmar,” she said after a moment.

He had expected more reaction from her. “Did you already know he loved you?”

She opened her eyes and smiled with just the corners of her mouth. “Yes. I already knew.”

“Well, I did not,” said Valmar, then stopped himself when he realized he was sounding petulant. After a brief pause he went on, “I know he is not really our brother, but I was still very surprised-we’ll probably all marry someone someday, but I think I had assumed it was someone we had not yet even met. I don’t want to say it’s not right, but…”