“Sometimes, Raven lacks manners,” Oria said, raising a brow at Raven for speaking improperly.
Raven laughed, her whole face beaming with it. “Royden told you to keep an eye on me and correct me when necessary, right?”
“He wants—”
“Me perfectly mannered so my da can arrange a good marriage for me.” Raven sighed dramatically. “I’m going to choose the man I want to wed and there’s nothing or no one that can stop me from doing that.” Raven shook her finger at Oria when she went to speak. “You’re one of the lucky ones. You have loved my brother as long as I can remember and you want to marry him. Purity and I aren’t so lucky. We get stuck with whoever our das choose for us.” Raven turned to Purity and continued shaking her finger at her. “Don’t let that happen, Purity. Choose the man you want to wed.”
“He doesn’t want me,” Purity said, blotches of red staining her cheeks and spreading over her pale face.
“Arran doesn’t want to wed anyone,” Raven said. “No one woman will ever satisfy him.”
“Raven!” Oria scolded again.
“I’m only repeating what I hear Royden and Da say about him, and Arran admits it himself,” Raven defended.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve seen how nice Arran is to women. I’d be safe with him,” Purity said.
“It’s better you find someone who will love you, then to settle for the likes of my brother,” Raven said.
“No man will ever love me,” Purity said and tucked her deformed hand under her arm. “I’d rather someone who could keep me safe.”
“Maybe you should learn to keep yourself safe,” Raven said.
“Raven!” Oria scolded for the third time.
“You believe me wrong to think of learning to protect myself?” Raven argued. “What if there came a time you needed to protect yourself? What would you do? Cower and beg for mercy or defend yourself? I refuse to cower.”
“I wish I had your courage,” Purity said.
“You have courage. We all do. You just have to find yours,” Raven said.
“You spend too much time with your brothers,” Oria said, but couldn’t help but give thought to Raven’s words.
Raven laughed again. “And you don’t spend enough time thinking beyond Royden.” Her laughter faded and her tone turned serious. “There is one thing we have that can help us.”
“What?” Purity and Oria asked eagerly.
“We have one another. We have friendship.” Raven stretched out her hands to the two women.
Oria took Raven’s hand while Purity hesitated since it was her deformed hand that was closest to Raven.
Raven would have none of it. She grabbed Purity’s arm and yanked it out from under her other arm and took hold of her deformed hand.
Purity’s eyes lit wide and her mouth fell open to speak, but words weren’t easy to find. Finally, she said, “No one touches my hand. They call it a devil’s claw.”
“We all have a bit of the devil in us,” Raven said.
“Hush!” Oria warned. “Don’t let anyone hear you speak such blasphemy.”
“Think what you wish, Oria, but I heard my da claim it himself. He says the devil resides in all of us and only the honorable ones keep him at bay.” Raven squeezed their hands. “Friends?”
Oria and Purity smiled and returned the squeeze. “Friends.”
“You’re my first and only friends,” Purity said with a soft smile.
“Then it’s good, lifelong friends we’ll be,” Raven said.
Royden calling out for Oria interrupted the three women.
“I have to go but we’ll talk again,” Oria said, scrambling to her feet.
Raven watched her hurry off, then turned to Purity. “Why don’t we visit the other kittens in the barn.”
Purity found herself blushing again. “Your brother may be there with someone.”
“Did you catch him there with a woman?” Raven asked, jumping to her feet.
“I did,” Purity admitted in a whisper.
“Good, maybe he’ll be there again and we can learn what all the moaning and groaning is about since it doesn’t look like much fun to me.” Raven pretended to gag.
Purity giggled. “I wonder myself. I only know that your brother seems to be good at pleasing women.”
“Ahh, so the true reason comes out as to why you want to wed my brother,” Raven said teasingly.
“I have little doubt that I will never have the opportunity to know such intimacy with a husband,” Purity said, sadness returning to her voice.
Raven scrunched her nose. “Who wants to?”
“One day you will, Raven, and I hope he’s a man of your choosing.”
“Raven is wiser beyond her years,” Oria said as she walked with Royden.
“Da says the same and blames himself for having raised her more accustomed to the company of men rather than women,” Royden said. “Da is hoping, as well as I am, that once we wed you will provide Raven with a much needed woman’s touch.”
Oria smiled. “Your sister already realizes that and is ready for it. Raven has an independent streak that I don’t believe you’ll be able to tame.”
“Can we tame her long enough to find her a husband, then she can be his problem?” he asked with a teasing grin.
“Now I know where Raven gets it from,” Oria said with a laugh.
“Raven is a handful. She speaks her mind when she should hold her tongue, gives her opinion when it doesn’t concern her, demands that she’ll choose her own husband,”—Royden shook his head— “I could go on and on.”
“You forget how kind your sister can be and how much she loves you, Arran, and your da. She worries about all of you as much as you do her.”
Royden raised their clasped hands and kissed hers. “I know, that is why my da hopes to find her a good husband that she will want to wed, though I wonder if any man will please her.”
“It isn’t the man who will please her you need to look for. It’s the man who will steal her heart.”
“Like you stole mine?” Royden smiled and kissed her hand again.
“I doubt I stole your heart as fast as you stole mine.”
“And when exactly did you lose your heart to me?” he asked, steering them toward an area that would afford them some privacy since the urge to kiss her was too much for him to deny.
Oria smiled at the memory. “When I first met you.”
He scrunched his brow trying to recall and when he did, his brow shot wide. “You can’t mean when we actually first met. You were so young, five or six years was it?”
She nodded.
He laughed. “It was when you tripped and I picked you up that you believed yourself in love with me?”
“I knew without a doubt I was in love with you. You were kind, strong, and tall.”
“And barely ten years,” he said, laughing again.
“You were big for your age,” she reminded.
“That’s something I’ve often been reminded of, but still, how could you know?”
“My heart and stomach told me. Both fluttered and raced, and did all sorts of strange things not only that time, but each and every time I saw you.” Oria giggled as she confessed, “I even made sure to trip now and again around you so that you would pick me up.”