He wore a beige léine with black trousers and bare feet. One sleeve of his léine was empty and tucked into his belt. He looked around the hall and nodded in greeting to Mac and the other men, after greeting his kin.
“I’m only stayin’ long enough to greet ye, Mum, Father, Father.”
His parents and Father Timothy smiled at him.
“And who is this short-haired beauty?” He set his eyes on her, his smile charming. Silene’s belly flipped. She smiled while Galeren introduced her.
“Are you certain you cannot stay?” she asked him.
“Mayhap I can be persuaded.”
Oh, dear, but Lionell was astonishingly pleasing to look at. Like Galeren, he resembled both his parents, but Lionell favored his mother. He also had a silver tongue and boldness that exceeded Galeren.
“Well then,” she told him playfully. She knew what his mother wanted. “Let me make a plea on behalf of your kin. Do not be in a rush to go.”
He tossed her an incredulous grin and then moved toward the door to leave.
She wouldn’t ask again, but she didn’t think he wanted to leave.
“Lionell,” Father Timothy called to him. “Stay to please an old man.”
For a moment, Lionell seemed to have decided and took another step toward the exit. Then he stopped and returned to the table. He took a seat near Bors. Everyone was quiet but relieved, especially Galeren. He felt the tension in his body leave and he relaxed close to her.
“Lionell,” Silene said, drawing his attention. “Do you know that your name means little lion?”
“I didna know,” he quipped. “But Galeren knows now, after tryin’ to drag me from my bed.”
“But here ye are,” Galeren said with a smirk.
Somewhere to the right, Will laughed, and then everyone else did, including Lionell.
Soon, he accepted a cup of mead and shared a quiet word with Mac. His eyes found her. He smiled and then glanced at his brother. “Where did ye find him, Miss Sparrow?”
“Silene, please,” she corrected. “And on the cliffs in Bamburgh. I had been there praying. He had come to take me to my uncle, the high steward.”
“Go on,” Lionell urged.
“Aye, please do,” his mother agreed.
Silene smiled and glanced at Galeren. His apologetic expression changed into a smile even more radiant that his brother’s. “He was quite patient with me having to stop several times a day for my prayers.”
“Several times a day fer…prayers?” Lionell looked on the verge of bursting into laughter.
“They are verra important to her,” Galeren told him on a warning growl for Lionell not to laugh.
“Verra well,” Lionell defended in a friendly tone. “But who prays several times a day and canna do so in her head?”
Will chuckled while he chewed his bread. This time, Padrig kicked him hard under the table.
“A lass preparin’ to be a sister in the church,” his father answered Lionell’s question.
Lionell’s already large eyes opened wider as they fell on her and then on Galeren. “Brother, ye took a lass from God?”
“Lionell,” Father Timothy said gently, trying to ease the high tension in the dining hall. “Ye speak of what ye dinna know.”
Silene tried to remember to breathe. She was finding it difficult, but she closed her eyes for a moment and held on.
“Of course,” Lionell said, unconvincingly.