Spectacles Before Kin

Summoneyy warned us she might arrive late, which prompted Blaedy to turn promptly to my family as if the gap required official entertainment. I gave the sensible version: Edwin and Mara, a Westfall farm, wheat and pumpkins, chickens, and Barley the horse, who survived chiefly by refusing to notice anyone’s plans.

Then Blaedy announced another test tomorrow. I have apparently become a household examination subject, with Arrowyy’s adoption and my marriage already well worn by the previous inquiry. Arrowyy, meanwhile, concerned himself with whether Blaedy would have to retire before the hour grew unreasonable. A son learns early which battles are his father’s and which are merely bedtime arithmetic.