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Averett waved to Mother and Paige. “Ladies first.”

“All right.” Paige grinned and untied the string holding Essie’s gift first, since it was the one on top. Mother was only seconds behind her.

Both of them revealed jars filled with a thick, creamy substance.

“It’s lotion. I picked the scents to match the shampoo and conditioner I sent earlier.” A lavender and vanilla for her mother and lilac for Paige.

Paige opened her jar, sniffed it, then held it for Bertie to sniff when he asked, since he was still sitting in her lap. “It smells amazing. Thanks so much.”

Then they were opening the packages from Farrendel, which had felt floppy and soft when Essie had been adding her part to the gift earlier. So it didn’t surprise her when Mother and Paige revealed several yards of elven silk.

What did surprise Essie was how perfect the colors were for both of them.

Paige gasped and held up sapphire blue silk that would look stunning with her hair. “This is beautiful.”

Mother ran her fingers over a forest green silk that was still muted enough to fit the dark wardrobe she wore to still mourn Essie’s father. “Yes. Thank you, Essie. If the seamstress starts now, she may be able to finish dresses before the welcome ball.”

Essie glanced at Farrendel, but as he had his shoulders hunched, his face mostly obscured by his hair, he didn’t seem to want to claim this part of the gift as his. “If you’d like, I can send along one of my elven dresses so the seamstress can make you similar dresses. Or you can have overdresses made from this silk.”

It was hard to tell since they were folded, but there did not seem to be enough fabric to make a human-style dress, not with the current fashion of massive skirts. As Farrendel had only seen Essie’s wedding dress, he would not have realized that the width of that skirt was normal fashion for balls.

“I’d love an elven-style dress.” Paige grinned as she carefully set her gifts out of range of Bertie, who was squirming and asking about his present.

As her brothers started unwrapping their gifts, Essie nudged Farrendel’s arm, whispering, “Now I see what that early morning dress delivery was all about. My new dress was just a cover for their fabric, wasn’t it? Sneaky.”

Farrendel didn’t manage a smile, but some of the green cast to his face faded.

“This is great.” Averett held up Essie’s gift. She’d gotten all of her brothers wooden fountain pens made of a dark wood and lacquered to a bright shine. He inspected the nib. “I suppose I’ll have to use this next time I sign a treaty with the elves.”

“Exactly.” Essie hoped there would be a lot of need for treaties and trade agreements and such things in the future. “There’s even a tiny secret compartment for extra ink or anything else small enough to fit.” She glanced at Edmund.

Grinning, Edmund inspected his for a moment before he twisted the top, clicked a section, and revealed the hidden compartment. “This is going to come in handy.”

She wasn’t going to ask what spy-related items Edmund was already planning to smuggle.

Farrendel had straightened at her gift, inspecting Averett’s pen from over the arm of the chair. “Is this Fingol’s handiwork?”

“Yes. After Illyna’s hair products have caught on so well, I’m hoping to introduce his work to Escarland next.” Illyna was one of Farrendel’s friends and had become Essie’s first friend among the elves.

“So even our gifts are politically motivated.” Averett shook both his head and his new pen at her. “Bad form, Essie. That’s the kind of stunt only kings and Parliament members should pull.”

Farrendel leaned back, as if he was decidedly uncomfortable sitting between her and Averett, even when they were only teasing each other. Essie grinned back at Averett, doing her best to put on her most innocent expression. “I’m a princess. I know how to play the game just as well as kings and Parliament members.”

She said it as a joke, but it was either joke about it privately with her family or drown in the burden of it. Seriously, if she sneezed, the maker of her handkerchief would suddenly find themselves swamped with orders.

Across the room from Essie, Julien had gone ahead and opened Farrendel’s part of the gift, revealing a flat, wooden box. He opened it and let out a low whistle that caught the attention of the others in the room. Glancing around, he picked something out of the box and held it up, revealing a gleaming, eight-inch-long dagger with an elegant, simple hilt. “This is going to go great with my historical weapons collection.”

“What?” Edmund tore at the wrappings, opened the box, and revealed a matching dagger. “Whoa.”

Essie nudged Farrendel. “You seriously gave my brothers daggers when you weren’t even sure yet if they’d like you? Did you really think arming them was a good idea?”

Farrendel shrugged, his shoulders tense as he glanced between her three brothers. “Daggers do not pose a threat to me.”

“Very true.” Essie patted his shoulder. “Well done on the gifts.”

Averett held his dagger out of reach of Finn on his lap. “Thank you, Essie.” A pause. “Farrendel.”

It was strange hearing her brother address Farrendel in such a casual, family setting. Essie knew and loved both of them, but they were still strangers to each other, for all she’d written letter after letter over the past three months.