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princesses.”
    “Jerin!” Summer wailed.
    He closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Summer, the goose was going to burn if I didn’t get it out, and the youngest are hungry, and we have guests—royal guests. If Corelle did the cooking, truly we would be poisoning the princesses.”
    “What if they see you?” Summer frowned at the door as if she expected the royal guard to burst through it any moment.
    “Then they see me!” He lifted the goose out of the roasting pan and onto the platter. “She’s the crown princess. She’s not going to ride off with me.”
    “One of her guards might grab you and desert,” Summer said.
    “I’m sure the army knows where their families are located,” Jerin said.
    Summer glared at him. “Jerin, will you take this seriously!”
    “I am!” He drained the drippings into a cook pot and set it to boil. “Only the creme of military are picked for royal guard. If they see me, the worst that will happen is that they’ll offer for me—and frankly, I think that’s a better fate than the Brindles.”
    “Don’t be naive, Jerin.” Summer crossed her arms and gave him a level look. “There are things to be done with a boy that have nothing to do with marriage.”
    He stared at her, and then blushed hot. “I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
    Summer glanced at the little girls around them, listening intently, and whispered, “You wouldn’t have much of a choice. It’s why they call it rape.”
    He rolled his eyes at that. “Trust me, if any of them were carrying crib drugs, our little sisters would know.”
    As a distraction, it worked. Summer turned on the youngest in a full rage. “You little brats! You stay out of their rooms!”
    Jerin moved on to the potatoes, which needed to be drained by now, and mashed. “Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes or so, though the sweet potatoes will be coming out later. The boys and I will eat in the keeping room, and then go upstairs right afterward. Heria can make sure the little ones eat, and Corelle can clean up with the girls.”
    “I will make sure you have a clean kitchen for morning,” Summer said.
    “Thank you, Summer. I’ll make sure our mothers know who acted the idiot and who didn’t today.”
    Summer suddenly caught him into a hug. “Oh, Jerin, I was an idiot! I knew we were leaving you and the babies alone! I let Corelle bully me into going. What if they had been raiders? We could have lost everything.”
    “I know. I know. Now, let me finish dinner.”
     
    Jerin had picked at his dinner and then left the kitchen without thinking of taking a snack. Later, he found himself so hungry that he couldn’t sleep. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. The house was silent. No one was up. He could slip downstairs, he told himself, grab something to eat from the pantry, and return with no one being the wiser.
    He crawled out of bed. and stood a moment in darkness. Normally he’d pull on his trousers in addition to his nightshirt before going downstairs. Tonight, though, his three younger brothers were in his room, restless in their strange beds. He would have to light the lamp to find his trousers. He could imagine a cascade of events, starting with the lamp waking the boys and ending with the rest of the house awake.
    It would only take a minute to run downstairs and raid the kitchen. I don’t need trousers. My nightshirt reaches my knees — it’s nearly a walking robe .
    The kitchen seemed huge in the darkness. Flames still danced in the hearth; Summer must not have properly banked the cook fires. He frowned, crossing to the hearth, not sure if he should take the time to settle the fire.
    “So my sister isn’t imagining things,” a female voice drawled in the darkness.
    Jerin startled backward, almost into the flames of the open fire pit. There was motion, and arms pulled him away from the fire with a low croon of “Careful, careful.”
    “Your Highness!” His heart hammered in his throat as he recognized