"Just act like you always have toward her and if she tells you she needs something, help her."

"I don't think she wants me near her after what happened." Lek said sadly. He tried to look at Pinja without looking.

"You are probably right,'Aislyn said sadly. "You are probably right."

Lek's shoulders dropped and he abruptly left the room.

"Are Lek and Pinja..?" Nelek asked.

"If it is, it's all on one side. Pinja has been leery of men since she arrived, because of her husband. At most, they are casual friends."

"Oh." Nelek hated missing out on so much of his children's lives. Realizing that his two eldest were now old enough to be courting was a shock. "He doesn't have anyone then? What about Millie?"

Aislyn shook her head. "No, he doesn't. I don't know that he has been looking." She lowered her head. "I don't think Millie is trying either. She's never even had a close friend until Pinja. I don't know that Millie believes there is a man who would be interested in her."

"I'm glad I didn't miss that, but I don't like that Millie has been lonely." Nelek frowned. "Why would Millie think that?"

"Because, other you, I and Lek, and to some extent her siblings, no one has ever bothered with Millie. Not even her cousins bothered with her. They sure flocked to Sileas though when she arrived. Remember how no one from school came to any of her birthday celebrations, Millie never had friends over. That one guy who showed up in the village the other year, the one that bought the pub, he disappeared on her after expressing interest." She sighed. "I would probably be feeling much the same way, and I don't know how to help her. She's less lonely now that she has Pinja, but I would like to be a grandmother."

Nelek kissed her. "Our children are young yet, there is still plenty of time to become grandparents."

"I know," Aislyn  said softly. "Everyone their age is already starting families though, I don't want them to feel left out."

"Yehudit has gotten married? And Sileas?" Nelek was surprised, Neither Aron nor Liadan had mentioned Yehudit starting a family.

"Yehudit hasn't, I doubt Lia will ever allow any man near her. Sileas was betrothed and about to be wed, but the raiders murdered him," Aislyn said sadly. "He was wonderful for Sileas, he knew exactly what she needed when she needed it. I suspect he sometimes knew before. Larrigan barely left her side, he always made certain she was protected."

"Poor Sileas, she has been through a lot." Nelek said.

"She has. I see so much of myself in her. All she really wants is a good man to love her and a passle of children. Oh, that's right, I don't think you know that Andy shot her with an arrow and made it so she can't have any babes. Brie, though, said she believes something may happen with Lord Thornblade. So there's that."

"Didn't they think the same thing about Brighid?" Nelek asked. "Then she had triplets."

"You're right, they did. But the odds of the same miracle happening in the same family are pretty slim."

"True." Nelek admitted.

"Everything is in such an uproar. I wonder what it would be like to have peace and happiness."

"Did your mother guess?" Pinja asked Millie, then fretted, "Oh, she didn't tell Lek, did she?"

"Probably, she would know the symptoms. I doubt that she would have told him, but Lek is smart. He might put it together himself. He knows Mama used to get sick when there was a babe on the way."

"I didn't want him to know." Pinja said, upset.

"He won't hear it from me or Mama, I promise," Millie said reassuringly.

"But you said he may have figured it out on his own." If Pinja were strong enough she would have paced.