Sister's Approval

Elswyth had as soon as she had gotten the letter written by Heron's sister abscombed with it to the next room. She didn't want Heron seeing her reaction to it as she had in her letter to Hazel admitted her love for him.

And she didn't want him to know what his sister had written about that. She rather hoped the younger girl accepted her. It would be terrible to not be accepted by the beloved sister of her future husband.

To her relief though the letter read like this.

"To my future sister-in-law,

Yes. Do please make my brother fall for you. Make him fall hard. And make him happy.

Thank you for the letter, Elswyth. I can't wait to meet you. You sound so interesting. I would love to start a correspondence with you and if you would like I can give you information on my dear brother.

Hazel."

She smiled at the fact that Hazel seemed to have accepted her. Yes! She couldn't help but grin.

Still, she would wait on doing more than some light verbal teasing until he had become completely of age.

Why did boys not be counted as an adult until they were eighteen anyway? When girls were of age at sixteen? How did that even make sense?

She sighed. It was troublesome to wait due to some stupid rule like that. She wouldn't see it as quite so silly a rule if it had been for both genders. But girls could marry at sixteen!

She sighed and folded up the letter, slipping it into a pocket within her cloak. She headed back into Heron's study and found him going over papers. He looked studious when he read such documents. And it made her both want to watch him and disturb his work at the same time.

She usually just watched though – she knew his work was important.

He glanced up at her and smiled at her as she walked closer. "So what did my sister write you?"

"It's a secret." She perched on his chair and ran her hands through his hair affectionately.

He sighed and said in mock despair, "You haven't even met my sister yet and have secrets with her you can't tell me."

"I'll tell you someday. Not yet though." She patted his head. She was never quite sure why he usually was perfectly fine with her messing with his hair but she was glad he was.

"Alright." He shrugged and continued perusing the documents in his hands.

She wanted to tease him. However she found herself just watching him instead. She really did have it bad for this young man.

So quiet came upon them, the only sound being the rustling of the papers and an occasional scritch of his pen as he signed something.

After a while he leaned back and stifled a yawn. "Its getting late."

"Oh?" She glanced out the window. It was getting a bit dark out. She had totally lost track of any passage of time.

"Let's go eat before it actually does get dark."

It was late so they just went to the kitchen and got something out of it. Or rather Heron snuck in and pilfered the place. She giggled to herself and then after they had snuck away asked. "Wouldn't they just give it to you?"

"Old habits." He grinned, "Besides I like the thrill."

"It is a bit thrilling." She admitted as they sat together on one of the steps. "And I'm more than willing to be your accomplice."

Heron chuckled. His eyes were bright, despite his overall tired look. He probably needed to go to bed soon. He'd been working hard for weeks. She wished she could ease his exhaustion.

The only thing though that she could really do is encourage him to go to bed. So after their quick meal, she told him he really should go get some rest.

To her relief he agreed, and walked away from her in the direction of his bedroom. She too headed to her own bed.