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AVERY

“ A re you sure you’ll be all right?” Avery asked Mattie as they lingered on the bank of the river. “You’re not nervous about living alone now?”

“Hardly—given I’m not alone,” Mattie said wryly. “Surely you’ve noticed the constant stream of relatives coming through my hall since we returned. Or did you think they were all coming to congratulate the newlyweds?”

Avery grinned. They had certainly received a great many well wishes from the constant visitors to the record keeper’s hall—along with some bemoaning about the impatience of youth. Apparently Elliot had been right, and every relative, no matter how distant, had wanted to be there for the ceremony.

“Come on,” Elliot said good-naturedly. “Leave poor Mattie be. I know the one you’re truly sorry to leave is Frank. But I for one, am ready to cross the border and get a break from his…” He broke off at Avery’s glare, quickly amending his sentence. “Ahh…loving temperament.”

“Goodbye and good riddance,” Frank barked from Mattie’s shoulder.

“He’s gotten a lot better at those,” Elliot mused, “but somehow it isn’t an improvement. He’s a source of constant amazement.”

“You must admit he’s even better than a guard dog, though,” Mattie said. She smiled affectionately at him. “When I said I wanted a companion even blunter than me, I’ll admit, I wasn’t thinking of a pet parrot. But he’s already learning a lot from spending time in the library.”

“Pet?” Frank squawked, clearly horrified. “Useless paper lady!”

Mattie just laughed. The record keeper had taken an unexpected shine to the irascible bird, and it comforted Avery to think of the two of them together.

She embraced Mattie one more time before finally letting Elliot pull her onto the waiting barge that would carry them and Nutmeg downriver to Ethelson to retrieve her cart. From Ethelson, they would travel west, visiting places along the way that both of them had enjoyed in the past.

They didn’t intend to hurry, so Avery didn’t know how long it would take, but eventually they would reach Halbury. Although Elliot hadn’t needed a bargain, it still seemed the best place to start their investigations.

Mattie had provided them with a list of suggestions, and Avery had a few of her own as well. It was possible it would take years—generations even—but it was time for the roving merchants to find a way to share their gift with the rest of the kingdoms. Elliot had found a way to shift his tie from the lamp to himself, so there had to be a way for others to shift their ties as well.

Elliot and Avery just had to find a more reliable method than sacrificing your full inheritance because she didn’t think that was a strategy that was likely to prove popular.

But that was a problem for the future. For the moment, she was merely happy to be on the road again—this time with Elliot by her side for good.

He guided her to the rail, resting his arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head against him and sighed happily.

“And finally it’s just the two of us,” Elliot murmured.

“For a lifetime,” Avery replied, earning a kiss and the unspoken promise of a lifetime’s more to come.