128 A First Impression

Sigrene's wariness was exactly as Haral said. It was like convincing Consul Janasef, who had been adviser to three generations of Rimets, that he was innocent of various mischiefs when the elderly consul was constantly seeing in him shades of various troublesome older uncles and cousins.

Was his face so ugly that it couldn't be trusted?

Defi understood that the siblings were feeling betrayed by those they thought they could rely on, and Adtra was a soothing presence, so the discussion had fewer snags due to temper.

Sigrene thought of him as a city-born urbanite who was farming on a whim and may possibly be taking advantage of her siblings, and he thought she was letting her emotions make unreasonable demands. Even if he had feelings of guilt over Amary's circumstances, he wasn't about to simply hand over control of lands that were his – that was how revolts against landlords happened.