Juliana laughed softly. "I think it is well between us," she smiled. "I did not love him when he asked for my hand, but I agreed because he is the best man I have ever known. He became my friend very quickly - quicker, when he told me that the Justine he called for in his fever was not his wife, but his sister." She blushed to recall how envious she had been of that unknown woman then. "T'was the risk of losing him that taught me my heart, and my mother's advice not to let love slip through my fingers that had me tell him. My father approves, though he and Jos do not really understand each other. He's fond of you, though."

"He called for me?" Justine asked, blond brows lifted. "He was very sick then, oui"" she added with a frown. He had written and told her what had happened, but she had not realized how serious his injury had been. How very like her brother to keep the truth from her so that she did not worry. She wondered what else she didn't know.

Juliana frowned, realizing she had said a little too much, but unwilling to lie to Justine. "He almost lost his leg," she told her sister gently, "and in the fever that followed, his life hung in the balance. He called out for you every time he surfaced. I know, because I was there. I nursed him from the moment he arrived; I slept in a cot by his bed; I changed his bandages, I soothed his terrors. He is a strong man, Justine. Too stubborn to die, and glad I am of it."

"He is not just my brother, but my twin. I'm sure he has told you. I am the elder, but only by a few minutes. That fact galls him, I'm afraid," Justine added with a small laugh. "He likes to think of himself as the elder, as if I need protecting. He is a good man, Juliana. Kind and loyal and caring. He will take good care of you, but you should know that he takes his duty to the king and the duke very seriously."

Juliana's smile deepened. "He has already proved that he will protect me at any cost," she assured Justine, "though you should not tell my brother or father that. I would not have them know what happened in their absence. I know Jos will take care of me, and I hope he will allow me to care for him in return. I've promised him lads and lassies to come home to when he goes away on duty." She blushed a little, still shy of acknowledging that she slept in her husband's bed. "And you should know that Bryce can be over-protective. Don't be a-feared of belting his back, or kicking his trews. He understands that words sometimes don't enter his mind until it is too late."

They'd already had at least one misunderstanding, but neither had held it against the other, and in fact, they had become closer because of or in spite of it. But there was something her new sister was not telling her, and Justine's eyes sparkled brightly with interest as she leaned forward and touched her companion's sleeve. "Come, now you must tell me. What is it my brother did to prove himself to you? Or shall I guess?" She knew her brother well enough, after all, to guess what he might have done, especially considering the fact that the lady's home was in the borderlands.

Juliana winced a little, but trusted that Justine would not share what she was about to say. "We had unwelcome Coimbran guests," she said quietly. "Their captain made a wee bit too free with our hospitality. He would have done more, had Jos not ended him to protect me." She bit her lip, glancing toward the door. "You cannot tell Bryce, nor my father. My brothers went to a war they did not wish to fight to protect my honor above all. Bryce cannot know how close I came to losing my honor in his absence."

Justine's eyes widened. Though she thought the story might go something like that, it worried her a little, not only for her own safety, but for what Juliana had been through. "Oh, I am sorry, but I am glad Joslin was there to protect you." She frowned further as she considered a moment. "You do not think Bryce should know this?" she asked, unsure if she agreed with the other woman's desire for secrecy.

Juliana shook her head firmly. "No," she confirmed. "For your own sake, Justine, do not tell him. He would lock you behind the keep's walls for your protection, whether you truly needed it or not. And you will be safer now in Darroch than I ever was, with your legion of Frankish knights to protect the building of the fortress. No Coimbran deserter is fool enough to try his hand against somewhere so well protected, and they have not the men to raise an army for attack since Berynsford."

"I will not tell him, if you do not wish me to," Justine assured the other woman, making no other comment on it. She was not like other maids and though no knight, believed herself capable of defending herself against attack, to a certain point, anyway. "He did not harm you, did he?" she asked further, making no further comment regarding her own safety.

"Bruises, nothing more," Juliana assured her. "I've been rough handled before, I heal fast. Truth be told, I was more worried for the anger in Jos than I was for any harm to myself. But he confessed to Mother Magda, and it all seemed to melt away."

"He confessed for killing a man who intended to ..." Justine did not finish her thought, as the words were as vulgar as the act she was too much a lady to mention. "If you don't mind my saying so, death is too kind a fate for such a man. Joslin was right in finishing him, though perhaps he should rather have made an example of him," she pointed out, a small shudder going through her at the thought of any man but Bryce laying a hand on her.

"Life is brutal, Justine," Juliana told her quietly. "To wish anything but a clean end to those who would harm us makes us as bad as they are. I have seen men die in many ways; I saw my own mother's end, and it was not clean, and there was no mercy in it. I am not the cruelty of those men, and nor are the people I love. If we have it in our power, a swift, clean death given freely is far better than allowing our enemies to linger, as they would have us do."

"I will not argue with you, my lady," Justine replied, though she wasn't sure she agreed. Of course, she had not lived on the borderlands and did not know the difficulties and the danger the people there had suffered day to day. It was enough to know her brother had done what he needed to do to keep his lady safe. "I am glad Jos was there to keep you safe, and I am glad he has made you his wife, and I am glad we will be sisters," she told her, offering a small, almost shy smile.

"Then you should call me Jules, as my brother and yours do," she was told with Juliana's twinkling smile. "I have never had a sister. I am glad that you are the sister I will have, and proud to call myself yours, if you will it."

"Tres bien ....Jules," Justine replied, the shortened form of the other woman's name a little awkward on her tongue, though she'd likely get used to it, with time. "Nor have I," she added with a soft smile. "I would be honored to call you sister, if you will do the same for me."

"Aye, that sits well with me," Juliana smiled, sipping her tea comfortably. "Oh!" She sat upright suddenly, remembering the packet she had brought in with her. "I have something for you." Setting her cup down, she rose to retrieve the cloth-wrapped parcel from the bed.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est ca"" Justine asked, rephrasing her question in a language Juliana was more likely to understand. "What is this?" she asked, taking a sip of her sweetened tea before setting the cup aside, a curious look on her face.

Smiling her warm smile, albeit with a secretive cast, Juliana laid the little bundle in Justine's lap. It was small, and very light, feeling almost fragile. "Open it, and see," she told her new sister gently. And within that cloth lay something no one in Arindale had ever seen before - a circlet of heather, dried during the journey from Darroch, yet still bearing the fragrance that marked it as once living.

"Calm thoughts," Justine echoed as she settled herself in a chair so Juliana could fix her hair. She closed her eyes, hands clasped in her lap and tried to think of something that might calm her, but what? She was being married today - married! Not to someone who had been chosen for her, but to a man she had and was still falling in love with. "I am not sure what to think about, Jules. Tell me of your own wedding day. What was it like" Did my brother behave himself?"

"Aye, he behaved very well indeed," Juliana giggled, gently undoing the braid to comb through Justine's curls. As she worked, she told her friend all about her own wedding day - about the customs of Darroch and Dunfayre, and the joy that had surrounded the entire affair. She even told her about Joslin getting lost on the way to their marital bed, though she did not elaborate on what had happened once the door was closed.

"He can be silly, at times. He does not always know when to be serious," Justine told her, though the other woman likely knew that already. "When we were small, after Mama died, he was quiet for a long time before his laugh came back," she recalled, though those were not happy times to think on.

Juliana paused, twisting stray curls at Justine's temples into spirals to frame her face. "He does not speak of your parents," she said quietly. "They seem to hold sad memories for him, and for you, I'd imagine. But I'll help him hold his laughter, I promise you that."

"It is better to remember the happy memories and forget the sad, n'est-ce pas"" Justine mused quietly, as Juliana worked the curls about her face. "It is good to laugh. Bryce makes me laugh," she said, purposely changing the subject away from sad topics of conversation, not just for her own sake but for Juliana's, as well.

"Sometimes the sad can be remembered with a smile for those that are a part of it," her friend said gently. "But it is good to laugh. Just don't laugh when he takes his braes off, or you'll get yourself spanked before you're made a woman in his arms." She winked down at Justine, examining her handiwork. "Aye, that'll do. Veil and heather shall go on when we've got you dressed."

"Spanked!" Justine exclaimed with a gasp. "He would not dare!" Though perhaps he would in jest. She did not yet know him quite well enough to know for sure. He did not seem like the type of man to abuse or mishandle a woman, nor had she seen any sort of behavior from him so far.

Laughing, Juliana kissed her cheek. "He would dare it only if you were willing for it, lass," she promised her friend. "And don't think to say that you would never like to be touched in such a way. At the hands of the right man, you'll allow almost anything, so long as it is done in love."

"Oui"" she asked, curiously now. "And has my Joslin spanked you?" she teased, eyes dancing with mischief. It seemed she shared Joslin's good humor, but it had taken a little while for her to warm up to Juliana enough for it to make itself known.

The look in Juliana's eyes was all mischief and warmth. "Aye, once or twice," she giggled. "Of course, I spanked him back again when he wasn't looking." They'd provided any amount of entertainment for their knightly escort on the road from Darroch - a newly wedded couple who were trying very hard to behave themselves properly until they finally reached the privacy of their own home.

Justine giggled. "I have spanked him once or twice," she admitted, meaning her brother, not her betrothed. She would not dare try such a thing with Bryce so soon in their courtship. Of course, now that they were being married, it was a different matter. She could hardly imagine spanking Bryce, and the thought of doing so made her blush anew.

"Ah, 'tis different when the hand that swats is also the hand that caresses," Juliana teased her gently, unlooping the underdress from the stand to bring it over to where Justine sat. "Passion is passion, whether 'tis anger or lust, but passion born of love ....We are lucky women to have it."

"You do not think we are going too fast?" Justine asked, though her brother and Juliana had wed just as quickly, if not more so. There had been some question as to whether or not Juliana was with child, but so far, there was no evidence of that, though Justine knew her brother well enough to know he might not have waited as patiently as Bryce had.

The border lady smiled at her, a soft, sad smile that was wiser than her years should have allowed. "Life is short, Justine," she said gently, holding the underdress over her arm as she helped her friend out of the robe that covered her. "We should seize the happiness we're given and hold on tight. I don't think there is such a thing as going too fast when you know your heart is true."

As Justine had promised, she was already wearing underthings, so there was no worry that Juliana might see anything she shouldn't, though as they were both women, it hardly mattered. "Is that why you and Joslin didn't wait, or was it really because of your father?" she asked. Though she'd hoped to be married alongside her twin, she had not complained that he hadn't waited or begrudged him his happiness.

Juliana's smile faded into apology, guilt coloring her eyes as she looked into Justine's gaze. "It was me," she confessed with absolute honesty. "My father would have sent me off a maid, trusting to Jos as a knight and a good man. Jos would have waited until we arrived here. But I could not wait, and the moment they knew that, they did not try to make me. I am half sorry for my impatience, for I know it is a disappointment to you." She glanced away, laying the robe aside to begin helping Justine into the soft underdress.

Now it was Justine's turn to reassure her new friend and sister, offering a warm smile her way and touching a caress to her hand. "I do not hold it against you, ma soeur. I understand. If it were me, I am not sure I would want to wait either. Please do not worry that you have disappointed me. I could not be happier to have you for a sister."

Reassured, Juliana's smile returned, though still a little touched with guilt for her impatience in marrying before Jos had a chance to warn his sister in person. "We'll not be parted long, brothers and sisters as we are," she said quietly. "You'll be back for the duchess' birthing, I'll be bound. She is farther gone than she believes - return with the thaw, and you'll see a dear friend with a son or daughter soon after." She winked, her eyes twinkling with promise, and slipped about to Justine's back, gently drawing the laces of that underdress snug.

Justine frowned a little, despite Juliana's reassurance. Both women were basically trading places with each other, trading homes to be with the men they loved - each of them going away from the place that had been their home all their lives and the people they'd loved. "You will find a good friend and ally in Lady Alys. I will miss her company." As she would miss all those who she loved here in Lonnare and especially in La Roche, not the least of whom was her brother.

Tying off the laces comfortably, Juliana wrapped her arms around Justine's waist, hugging her gently from behind. "I will look after her for you," she promised her sister softly. "I can see how dear she is to you, and to her laird. I'll not let anything harm her, you've my word."

Justine wasn't sure if she'd make any other female friends when she reached Darroch, but she would have Bryce and his father, at least, and presumably be the new lady of the house. Would the people accept her in place of Juliana, whom they'd known all their lives" "We have become good friends since my brother went away."

"She seems a rare sort of princess, I'll give her that," Juliana admitted with a smile, releasing Justine to reach for the outer dress that bore most of the embellishments. "Arms ....You'll have Marta, at Darroch, and Laurel, her daughter. They're not so concerned with rank there as seem to be here - if you're friendly to them, they'll become your friends, all of them."

"Non"" Justine asked, lifting curious brows. "Pourquoi pas"" she asked further, wondering why her brother and his wife had not enjoyed more of each other. Was it a matter of Joslin's health or of privacy or something else? "Is he a bad lover?" she whispered under her breath, knowing she should not be asking such a question about her own brother.

"Och, no," Juliana shook her head, smiling a little more deeply at Justine's assumption. "We were on the road, sister. Anything we did, we'd have been heard by all those knights traveling with us. Aye, and last night, I drank too much of the wine. I was asleep almost before I laid down. I'll not make that mistake tonight."

"You will not make a baby that way!" Justine scolded playfully. "Perhaps we will make a baby before you!" she added with a grin. Though she didn't say so, as of that moment, the competition was on.

As the two sister-brides laughed together, Alys grinned at them, rubbing her own belly affectionately. "Ladies, if that is the case, then you have already lost, both of you," she pointed out. "Unless you think I am simply getting fat."

"Ah, but you had a head-start, my lady. That does not count!" Justine countered, waggling a finger playfully at her in the mirror, before looking again to her reflection. "Do you really think Bryce will like what he sees?" she asked them, looking a little bit worried.

Rising to her feet to stand with Justine and Juliana, the three women framed in the mirror together, Alys smiled gently, taking her friend's hand between her own. "You look beautiful, Justine," she promised her friend with warm sincerity. "If he does not like what he sees, then he is a fool of the highest order."

"Aye," Juliana agreed, taking Justine's other hand with an echoing smile. "And my brother is no fool."

"Non, he is certainly not that," Justine agreed, giving both her friends' hands a gentle squeeze and smiling warmly at them both. "I am grateful today, not only to be married, but for the gift of good friends. It is my wish that we three shall always be friends, no matter what happens." Two of them were already family, of course, but even family members weren't always good friends.

"We will," Juliana was quick to promise, unsurprised when Alys echoed her immediate answer.

"Of course we will," the duchess insisted. "We will visit each other back and forth so often, they'll call the road the Ladies' Way before we're done."

Justine beamed a smile back at them, giggling a little at Alys' remark. "And our children ....they should be friends, too, oui"" she asked, though it seemed a certainty. She was almost envious of Juliana's place here in Lonnare, though there was a certain excitement to becoming the new Lady of Darroch and Dunfayre.

"Och, they'll be great friends, whether they want it or not," Juliana laughed, raising Justine's hand to kiss her knuckles affectionately. "Our lads and lassies will have to keep the next wee duke from getting too big a head for his troubles, with royal blood and all."

Alys' jaw dropped as she looked over at the border woman, genuinely startled that Juliana had the nerve to tease her so soon after they had first met. "And you are abandoning me to the tender mercies of this woman, Justine," she accused her friend fondly. "I may become even more plain spoken than I am already!"

Justine was not accustomed to the open warmth and affection given her by her new sister, but she did not discourage it. In fact, she was more than happy to embrace her friendship and return that warmth and affection. She laughed at the friendly bickering that was going on between the two other women, though there was a slight pang of sadness to be leaving both their company so soon. "I am not sure that is possible, Your Grace," she teased back.

"Oh, just for that, I'm going to start making both of you blush whenever I can," Alys threatened. "Starting at the wedding feast. Just you wait, I'll get you both so crimson and worked up, your husbands may not even have time to finish their meal before you demand to go to bed."

While Juliana might believe the duchess' threat, Justine knew her better than that and only laughed. "And deny us the privilege of seeing you dance with the duke?" she asked doubtfully, not to mention dance with their own new husbands.

"Hmmm, that is a good point," Alys conceded with a low chuckle. It was difficult enough to get Charles to dance when they were at the royal court - out here, it was virtually impossible. "I think, if you want to see that, you should make it your wedding wish."

"I shall do just that!" Justine replied with a grin. Now that she was dressed and ready for the wedding, she was starting to get nervous, and she was even more grateful for the friendship and support of such two lovely ladies as these.

"T'will only be a little while longer," Juliana murmured to her, smiling as she recognized the growing impatience in Justine. "When the knock next comes, t'will be for me to go to Bryce, and Joslin to come to you, and we'll meet again in the chapel."

"And thank the Goddess the wedding ceremony is so short," Alys groaned, moving to sit down once again. "No matter what I do, that chapel is always freezing!"

"I am sure the duke will do his best to keep you warm," Justine assured Alys as she moved to retake her seat. The waiting was almost unbearable now that she was ready, though in truth, she had been ready to marry Bryce nearly from the first day she'd met him. She giggled at a particularly fond memory of that first meeting. "Did you know some of the first words he said to me was to call me a shrew?" she asked them, hardly believing it of Bryce herself now that they knew each other better.

Juliana looked shocked, but Alys simply chuckled. "As I recall, you were about ready to emasculate him yourself when you first knew of his presence here," she pointed out to Justine. "At least he apologized."

"Oui, he did. It is hard to believe now, n'est-ce pas"" she said, a soft smile on her face. Not hard to believe that he apologized, but hard to believe there had ever been a need for one. He was sweet to her now, if a bit flirtatious. "Do you think he will change once we are married?"

"All men change a little when they marry their desire," Alys told her gently. "But I doubt Bryce Darroch will change so much that you no longer recognize him." There was no smile as she offered this, recalling the way her first husband had changed from a charming suitor to an overpowering force in the hours after she had spoken her vows. She knew she was lucky to have Charles now, and how lucky both Justine and Juliana were to have love on their side.

A little concerned by the duchess' very serious response, Juliana turned her eyes to Justine reassuringly. "From what I've seen, you know the man I know," she promised the bride with a small smile. "Of course, you're going to know him better than I ever have. You'll learn a few things I never will."

Justine looked from one to the other, recognizing the pain of memory in Alys' voice and the warm reassurance in Juliana's. "And you have memories I will never share," she reminded Juliana, with a soft smile in return - not jealous or possessive, simply stating a fact. She looked then to Alys with concern in her eyes, touching a hand to her cheek, understanding a little of her pain from the stories she'd told her. "You have Charles now, and there is no man who loves a woman more than he loves you."

Alys did smile then, catching Justine's hand gently in her own grip. "Never forget how lucky you are to have the love of the man who weds you," she told both of them. "To have his respect and know that it is your mind he loves, as much as your body he desires. There are many women who do not have that luxury - we owe it to them to be happy in our love, as much as we can be."

Sensing that here was a story unsuitable for a wedding day, but understanding the advice given from a woman made wise by experience, Juliana nodded slowly, aware that Alys and Justine had a bond she could not hope to rival. Not yet, anyway.

Justine was certain that given time, Juliana and Alys would have as close a friendship as she shared with Alys herself, and that hopefully she and Juliana, too, would grow to be good friends, but all of that had been already hoped for and said. Now was time for a different kind of bonding - that of a man to a woman in the bonds of marriage.

They sat for a moment in silence - the expectant mother, the newly-wed wife, and the bride, bound together by blood and friendship, and a warmth that seemed born of their separate struggles. Until a knock sounded on the door, and Alys looked up with a smile, fixing her eyes on Justine in all her finery. "It's time."

There were those butterflies again of excited anticipation and Justine drew a deep breath. She knew she was lucky to be marrying a man she loved, unlike Alys' first marriage or the marriages of so many unlucky women, both noble and commoner alike. It was time at long last to join with her beloved Bryce, in witness of all those they both loved and cared for. It was a day she had been waiting and hoping for and one that would likely prove to be the happiest day of her life.

On a crisp winter day, in the presence of friends and family, the heir of Darroch would marry the sister of his own sister's husband, linking La Roche and Darroch by blood once more. But blood was not the power in this match; it was love, a simple love that had grown from an unexpected quarter and blossomed as the winter began to draw in. If that love could bloom as the sky darkened ....who knew what fruit it would bring forth, come the warmth of summer?

((Taken us a while, but finally we have returned to Francia to get Justine married off to Bryce! Yay us!))