A Rose Point Holiday (Her Instruments 4)

With the Eldritch civil war over, a castle to renovate, and a wedding to prepare for, the last thing Reese is thinking about is taking a break. But the new year is coming and the Eldritch take their holidays very seriously, so Reese decides it can't hurt to observe the local proprieties. Who knows? Maybe it'll make good practice for what Felith is calling the wedding of the century. Of course, that was before Reese realized it was going to involve gifts. And decorating. And a town full of recalcitrant Eldritch tenants who have no reason to trust her...

A Rose Point Holiday is a short, pastoral novel set during the last days before Reese becomes Theresa Laisrathera Eddings, lady of Rose Point Castle and the surrounding lands of Firilith. The Eldritch have never seen a holiday quite like this one!

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: found family, pastoral, low-conflict, holiday, fun, space opera, romance, elves (space)
Rating: G

Excerpt from Chapter 1

The decorating commenced immediately. By the following morning, enormous swags of fabric and evergreen boughs were being carried into the castle, the resinous scent wafting in on the shoulders of the men pressed into service to haul them... because they were large, and they were going everywhere: on mantels, hung from window sills and doors, lining entire rooms where floors met walls. The clutches of berries Reese had assumed to be real were in fact painted glass beads—the fir cones, though, were genuine, and scented with something enough like cinnamon that the faint hint of cardamom that cut through the sweetness surprised her. Also glass were the stars hung everywhere light could catch them.

The broad golden bowl that appeared in the middle of the great hall, though, mystified her. Particularly since it was large enough for her to sit in.

“Should I even ask?” she said to Irine.

“That is the firebowl,” Irine said. “Apparently Felith neglected to mention that the candles we’re supposed to light every day have to be lit from a fire in this bowl. Everyone’s in the household comes from here, and the central fire has to be kept lit from Solstice until the New Year. That’s when we let it go out.”

Reese eyed it warily. “That sounds dangerous. What do they do, fill it with coals? Wood? Why here, and not a fireplace that’s properly vented?”

“I don’t know,” Irine admitted. “Kis’eh’t said she’d come up with something for us. Felith wasn’t sure whether she should be scandalized by the suggestion, but she decided since this was a new sort of house, new ways of doing things seemed called for.”

Reese chuckled. “Good for her.”

“She’s more than three-quarters converted to modern thinking,” Irine agreed, satisfied, surveying the hall with her hands on her hips. “Apparently we should have colored rugs and wreaths and a lot of other things that we don’t have because we aren’t Eldritch, but now that I know about them I can have them made for next year. Which is when—fair warning now—Kis’eh’t is going to insist we align the Order of the Universe to coincide with the local end-of-year holiday so the Pelted immigrants can have their celebrations. She said we could skip this year because we’re so busy.”

The idea of juggling two holidays, one of them foreign and the other an excuse to celebrate every holiday the Pelted and their alien allies observed within a single week....

“That face,” Irine said, staring at her with sagging ears.

Reese rubbed it, hoping that would wipe the expression off. “Sorry. There’s just so much to do. I’m spending money as fast as the Queen lends it to me. Or gives it to me, I can’t tell and I’m afraid to ask. And everything’s broken or ancient. You know.”

Irine hugged her, which shouldn’t have come as a surprise but did. It was a welcome surprise, which was also new. But nice. Reese leaned into the tigraine with a sigh that ruffled the fur on Irine’s neck. “Sorry. I just want to get it right.”

“Of course you do. But you’re stressing too much about things, arii. You should go get Allacazam and take a nap.”

“Later, maybe. I need to talk to Belinor and Val first, see if I can get them to go into town.”

“Ooh?” Irine glanced at her, brows arched. “Are they going to scout for you?”

“Hopefully,” Reese said. “Well, that and they really do need to see if there’s a church there that can handle a Ladymass. Since Val’s High Priest now, he’s got a good reason to be nosing around.” She studied the hall. The fireplace in it was worthy of the name, longer than she was tall by twice her height, and it was completely bedecked with greenery and stars. The boughs were pretty: they reminded her of postcards of Terra in winter, with snow-dusted firs and glowing hearths. Her family hadn’t celebrated Christmas, which had seen a revival after the Rapprochement with the Pelted had brought the Christian Hinichi back into contact with the Church that had inspired their religion... but she’d always found the winter imagery moving, and envied, just a little, the heroines of her romances who could curl up beside a fire with hot cocoa and toasty slippers. “This is looking really pretty, arii.”

Irine bounced on the balls of her feet. “And this is just the great hall! The part I really want to work on is the sitting room where we’ll be having the Vigil party. Since the boys are going to be freezing their tails off in the chapel for half the night, I want them to have someplace warm to come back to. And nice.”

“The chapel is nice!”

“The chapel is beautiful,” Irine said. “I love how you refinished it. And the roses are glorious. But you decided to leave the roof half off and it’s cold out there, Reese.”

“They can light a fire,” Reese said. Then paused. “Can’t they? Or is that against the rules because it might cause basilisks to come eat them?”

“No idea,” Irine said. “Don’t really want to know either. Brr.” She shivered. “Anyway. I must go discuss pie with the girls!”

“Pie sounds very good about now,” Reese said wistfully.

“There will be pie,” Irine said. “That’s one thing Felith and Kis’eh’t both wholeheartedly agree on.” She gave Reese another quick hug. “Remember the nap!”

“Later,” Reese promised. She drew in a deep breath after the tigraine had gone, tasting the pine-and-cinnamon-and-sea-brine smell of the hall and watching the firelight glitter in the stars. She’d never really had a winter holiday that meant anything to her, but something about this one was already seeping into her heart. This year it was definitely going to be a bit thrown together, but by next year? With the castle in order, and hopefully the town too, and more tenants, and her Pelted residents...

She’d be married by then. What a strange—and wonderful—thought. Of course, she’d have to survive all the preparations... she smiled to herself and turned, and found her fiancé at the door, as if summoned by her thoughts, and... who knew? Maybe he’d sensed what was going on here and been drawn back. The Queen was keeping him so busy she rarely saw him, but that was all right, because it made the sight of him standing so still, staring at the hall, so much more vivid and precious.

And that stillness was shock. But a good one, from the warmth in his eyes. She’d made him happy, and when he found her amid the bustle in the hall, he let her see it. Advancing to her and taking her hands in his, he said, “Theresa! I had no idea we would be observing the holiday.”

Were her fingers tingling? Her fingers were tingling. Was it abstinence that made him just holding her hands so intense? “Felith told us about it, and... well, we are a part-Eldritch House. It seemed the right thing to do.”

“It’s wonderful,” he said. “But do not tell me you have time for the entire season?”

“The whole kit and caboodle,” Reese said, knowing in that moment that she was going to do it, and do it right. “The Longest Night Vigil, Lady’s Day, and the New Year’s Feast.”

“But with so little notice....”

“We’ve done crazier things.” Reese grinned at him and was delighted when he grinned back.

“So we have. But this... this is special.” He looked up at the swags of blue velvet lining the walls. “A House is not a home until it has celebrated the Vigil season.”

All the more reason to do it. “Just make sure Liolesa gives you the day off!”

He laughed. “I’ll make sure of it.” He kissed her fingers. “I am here accompanying Valthial, if you will believe. He said you asked for him? He’s been waylaid by someone who’d like a decision or three on the chapterhouse, but he is here.”

“Poor Val,” Reese said. “I should rescue him. Can you stay?”

“I was planning it. I have been too long away from my betrothed and hoped she might have time for a ride before we return to our respective duties...?”

Riding with Hirianthial? Blood, yes. Especially if it meant a stolen kiss or two. Wasn’t there some Terran Pagan custom about kisses and greenery? She’d have to get Kis’eh’t to look it up. “I think my appointments can wait a few hours while I discuss Laisrathera’s future with its co-leader.”

He smiled over her fingers and kissed them again, breath on skin. “Then go you to Valthial, and tell him I asked him not to delay you.”

Cheeks warm, Reese said, “I won’t give him a choice.”