Risk

Chapter XXXIX

Mother was still sewing, sitting in the same place and position, almost as if no time had passed. She looked up briefly, but her eyes only stayed on the two of them for a moment before flicking back to her work. Had Jasta not known her so well, she would never have seen the momentary pause of her lightning-quick eyes when she caught sight of their clasped hands, but she knew for sure and certain that her mother knew now, if she hadn't already, of their feelings for each other. Jasta wished she could be so certain of them herself.

"I see you're awake. I hope the boys didn't do too much damage to you last night. They can get such a temper." She forced a smile to lighten the dark words.

Rowan glanced over at her with a bewildered expression, and she could see that he clearly had no idea how to reply.

"They didn't. I was already hurt." He eventually decided what to say, and went back to looking at Mother as she calmly sewed away on a small shirt.

She nodded and finally set her work down, looking up fully now. "I hope you're feeling better today."

Rowan nodded.

"Mother, when do you think Rose will be back?" Jasta interjected. This time it was her that led Rowan as they walked over to the couch and took a seat.

"Oh, any moment now. She left a while ago."

Jasta nodded. The lantern on the table had been lit since she'd last been in the room.

As if the conversation had summoned her, Rose walked through the door. Her long hair was pulled back from her face with a ribbon, which Jasta had never seen before. She hardly ever did anything with her hair. Even combing it was often too much effort for the girl.

"Did you catch anything this time, dear?" Mother asked from her seat.

"Two jagaar. I almost managed a squirrel, but it got away at the last moment." She set the familiar worn game bag on the table, and that's when Jasta realized she was using all of her old hunting gear, down to the very quiver she'd once used for the arrows.

"That's good. Those will make a good stew." She smiled.

Rose nodded then she tensed up slightly when she saw that Rowan was in the room with them, though she did relax a second later. "Uh, hey." She set the bow and quiver down, propping them against one of the chairs.

"Hello." Jasta couldn't see Rowan, because he was sitting to her left, but she could hear him.

"Uh, I don't know if you know yet, but I'm Rose." She shuffled her feet with a short glance over at Mother.

Rowan nodded. "I know. It's nice to meet you."

Rose nodded back. "Yeah." She seemed to be avoiding Rowan's gaze.

Jasta frowned. She hated that even her own sister seemed to still be afraid of Rowan. She didn't recall him ever doing anything wrong, even when they were about to kill him. She couldn't be too hard on them, for she had acted the exact same way when first meeting him, but they should at least be able to take her word for it. She almost felt sick.

"Are you okay?" Rowan asked her, quite out of the blue, and she was pretty sure that he was sensing what she was feeling again.

"I'm fine. What about you?" she looked into his eyes, trying to gauge if he was going to tell the truth or not.

"Why would either of you be anything but okay? My daughter is finally home and both of you are safe." For a second Jasta had forgotten that her mother was even in the room, she had been so silent, but now she spoke up again.

Jasta looked at her for a moment, unsure how to reply. What was she supposed to say to that? She didn't want to lie and say that everything was perfectly fine, but she also didn't want to share exactly how mixed her feelings were about her homecoming. Not even Rowan knew that.