Page 20

“He’s an elf.” Essie glanced at Farrendel, her eyes seeming to be asking something of him. What, he could not begin to guess.

The younger of the two scurried to King Averett, scrambled onto his lap, and buried his face against his shoulder.

Bertie turned to Essie. “He looks mean.”

Farrendel winced. He had forgotten to smile. Essie had told him not to appear too scary with her family.

Essie tickled Bertie’s stomach until the boy squirmed away from her. “He’s just nervous about meeting all of you. You’re scaring him.”

Bertie crinkled his nose, still peeking at Farrendel warily.

Farrendel understood and did not fault the child. He himself was wary of all the people who were near strangers to him in this room. The weight of all the eyes focused on him made his headache throb harder. He probably should say something, but the words stuck in his throat. Why was it so difficult to talk in front of people?

Essie patted Bertie’s back. “Why don’t you go to your mama for a moment, all right? We have presents for everybody.”

“Presents!” Bertie’s face lit up, and he zipped across the room to Queen Paige.

She pulled him onto her lap. “You didn’t have to get us anything. You’ve already been sending us the elven shampoo and conditioner.”

“That isn’t the same as giving you things in person.” Essie rested a hand on Farrendel’s arm, giving him a smile before she faced the room again. “We wanted to share a little bit of Tarenhiel with you.”

How did Essie always say the right thing? He could not even manage a proper greeting to those in the room right now, and yet she was smiling as if in total ease, her words making it clear this was something from both of them.

He kept his gaze focused on her, since it was easier than looking at the others. When she glanced at him, smiling, he could not help but attempt a smile in return.

While Essie handed out the gifts to her mother and Queen Paige, Farrendel distributed the gifts to King Averett, Prince Julien, and Prince Edmund as quickly as possible, looking at the floor rather than at them.

Essie sank onto a seat on the floor next to the end of the settee where Queen Paige sat. Farrendel eased to the floor next to her. It meant King Averett occupied the padded armchair next to him, but it was not like Farrendel had much of a choice. His stomach churned.

Edmund inspected the package in his hands. “So, do we all just tear into our packages? Or should we be more organized about this?”

Farrendel could not force himself to say anything else. At this point, he had fulfilled the tradition. He did not care what human tradition they had for opening gifts. It was a struggle just to sit there, head pounding, when all he wanted to do was bolt.

ESSIE TOOK Farrendel’shand, his fingers cold in hers. He looked about ready to throw up from nerves. What was in those gifts? She couldn’t imagine what Farrendel might have picked out for each of her family members. She squeezed his hand and whispered, “Well, I’m impressed.”

At the very least, Farrendel had proven to her that he cared enough to follow through with this tradition, even when it was clearly painful for someone as shy as he was, even with her smoothing it over for him.