"Me!? Don't go blaming me for your little change of heart! I didn't tell you to change in fact if you did it thinking I'll think better of you." Lori chuckled dryly. "Pigs will fly first." she snarled placing money on the table she stood. She placed money in front of him "thanks for the help." she limbed away heading for her horse.

Alex grinned and nodded. "Well then don't expect me to go easy on you." he gave her a wink as he placed money on the table for there food.

Cal wanted to argue, wanted to scream after her that of course it was her fault, that she must have put some kind of spell on him, but he didn't even try. He just watched her go, defeated, a tight feeling in his chest.

Rosemary nodded. "I'd be insulted if you did." She said.

Lori managed to somehow get onto her horse and rode off a dark scowl on her face. She didn't want to admit that she found Cal interesting. Part of her was still loyal to Cas while another part of her wanted to think about Cal and that part was getting louder.

Alex stood. "Why don't I see if they girl needs help...or do you want this job?" he asked. ''I'm sure I could find another job. After all I am a strapping young man." he smirked.

Cal dropped his head into his hands. He stayed that way for several minutes before standing up. He couldn't give up this easily, not if he really had feelings for her. And, he had to admit, he did. Besides, she was injured and alone, and he couldn't just leave her like that. So he ran outside and jumped on his horse, urging it into a gallop after her.

Rosemary chuckled. "Yes you are." She smiled. "Actually, I think I would like this job, at least temporarily. I liked waitressing at the inn before, so I know I can handle it."

"Alright. I'll go find something else. Can't be to hard." Alex kissed her forehead gentle before heading off to go job hunting.

Lori hadn't gone far when she heard a horse behind her. Frowning she glanced back she was surprised and unreasonable happy to see that it was Cal. She debated if she wanted to gallop of or wait. With a sigh she decided to wait.

Rosemary smiled and made her way over to the waitress to ask about a job opening. The poor woman looked relieved at the prospect of having some help, and brought her back to meet the innkeeper.

Cal slowed his horse to a walk as he caught up to her. At first, he didn't even look at her, too embarrassed to show his face. "It seems I am fated to spend the rest of my days chasing you. I am surprisingly okay with that."

Alex meanwhile found a job with a few builders who where working on getting up buildings before the cold weather came.

Lori frowned at him. "What if I don't want you to chase me? What if I just want you to go away?"

"Then I will spend the rest of my days in sorrow, watching you from afar and wishing things could be different." Cal said honestly. "If you truly, honestly want me to go away, then I will." He sighed. "I...only wish for you to be happy." That was the point of helping her across the border, wasn't it? So that she could have her own life and be happy.

"Why are you acting like this!?" Lori shoved him hard. "I don't get you at all! I don't get this." she gestured between them. "What is wrong with us?" she asked. 'Why do I have to be thinking about a guy at all! I wanted to get away from all that crap!"

Cal's eyes went wide as he was pushed, nearly falling off his horse before catching himself. He didn't know how he'd expected her to react, but he certainly hadn't been prepared for that. Weren't women supposed to appreciate honesty? "I...I don't..." He paused, at a loss for words for possibly the first time in his life. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I...I'm sorry."

Lori threw her hands into the air and began to grumble something about the universe and where it could shove something. 'Here's the deal. We get to our siblings and then beat them. If they should be in love well...I'll deal with that when it happens. As for us...all I want is to be a baker and not think about love. I've had enough of that courting someone else." she dropped her voice when a few travelers went by them.

Cal felt his heart break a little, but years of practice kept it from showing on his face. He nodded. "Understood." He said. "For now, let's just focus on the finding and beating of our siblings."

Lori was saddle sore by the time they found the village by the ocean. She stretched and slipped off her horse. "My butt!" she pouted heading for the inn. "Remind me to never ride that much at once a..." she stopped short when she saw her sister working. "YOU!!!" she lunged at her and began to drag her outside. "You are in so much trouble Rosemary." she never used her whole name.

Rosemary yelped as she was dragged away from her work, though she was smiling ear to ear. "You came! I was starting to worry..." Her smile disappeared at the mention of her full name, and tears took it's place. "I started to worry that something happened to you, or that you'd hate me, and I...oh my God your ankle! What happened? Oh God I was right you got hurt and it's all my fault..."

Cal watched the reunion with mixed amusement and pity. After a minute, he decided to give them some privacy and took the horses to be tied up, fed and groomed.

Alex looked up from where he was tending to there horses. "Brother! You found us. A little later then I had guessed but your still here." he grinned.

Lori was half glaring tears in her eyes. "How could you just leave me alone with a stranger? How could you just run off with a person you barely know!?" she rubbed her cheeks. "I was so scared and worried. Don't you ever, ever do that again Rosemary!"

Cal glared at his brother as he approached, then punched his arm- not too hard, remembering his recent horse injury- but hard enough to convey that he was not happy. "What the hell were you thinking? You don't just run off like that! Do you have any idea how worried I was? Not to mention you left me with a woman who practically wants me dead! Don't you ever leave without telling me again, you understand?" Somewhere during his speech, he realized he'd said all this before, when they were children and Alex had wandered off alone for the first time. That had been the day he'd realized he had to be both brother and parent to Alex.

Rosemary seemed to shrink in on herself. "I'm sorry." She said in a small voice. "I just...we thought if you two had a common goal, you'd get along better...and then you wouldn't be so mad about us being together..." She explained, though even as she said it she knew it sounded weak and childish.

"Yes father." Alex half rolled his eyes. "And was she really that bad?" he frowned. "I had a great time with Rose." he blushed darkly.

"Rose I'm not mad about that and we have nothing in common. If your in love with him then...I'm OK with that but if he hurts you I'll beat him." Lori growled.

For a second, it looked like Cal was going to pummel his brother. Then, without warning, he hugged him instead. "I'm serious, Alexander. I can't lose you. I already lost mom and dad, I can't lose you, too." It had been a while since he'd used his brother's full name. After a second, he pulled away. "No, she wasn't that bad...most of the time. She's confusing as hell, though. And she told me in no uncertain terms that she wants nothing to do with me or any man." He sighed, then smirked. "So it's Rose now, huh? How serious is it?"

"You both love your younger siblings..." Rosemary pointed out, before looking up at Lori with a blush on her face. "I do love him. I know it shouldn't be possible, after everything that's happened, and only knowing him a couple days, but...he's great. I always just accepted that I'd be married off for political convenience. I never dreamed I'd actually find someone who cared about me, let along shared my interests. I found out, he wants to work with horses just like I do! And he's so kind..."

Alex was staring at him in shock looking up at the sky. Then when he mentioned Rose his ears turned pink "It's none of your business." he shuffled his feet. "And what do you expect Cal? The girls grown up knowing she would marry someone she had never meet and probably wouldn't like." he shrugged. "Plus she's stubborn like you."

Lori held up her hand. 'Stop before I hurl." she made a face and shook her head. "Your right I about us having love for are siblings but thats it. I just want to relax and not think about love, men or anything to do with either." she sighed. "I want to make a apple tart covered in sugar and fresh from the oven with a sprinkling of red sparkles."

"I'm not stubborn." Cal said stubbornly. "And it is my business if you're going to be courting her. If you went as far as running away with her, she must be pretty special."

Rosemary smiled. "That sounds delicious." She said. "I'm sorry, I'll try not to talk about it too much. It's going to be hard, though." She sighed. "Well, I've already got a job here. I'm sure there's a bakery you can work at. We can start over, and this time we won't have to run away."

"Yeah she's special and no I don't feel like telling my older brother about my love life." Alex sighed. "All you need to know is that I care for her."

"If you try running away again I will tie you too me." Lori warned then smiled. "Maybe I'll try to find some place. If there isn't one I could try making my own place."

"Alright, I'll back off." Cal said, smiling. "Are you already working here? I need to find a job, too. I'm...not sure what I'll do, though. I've never worked an honest job."

Rosemary hugged her sister. "I won't run away again. None of us will." She said. "I'll bet if you started your own place, it would take off pretty quick. It's a new village, so there's property everywhere just waiting to be used."

"Well you could become a painter or a stylist." Alex suggested.

Lori fished out the rest of her cash and bite her lip. With a box she raced off to hire some builders so she could make her business.

Cal blinked. "Do...do people actually pay for that kind of thing?" He asked, unsure. He knew he was good at painting, but he'd always seen it as a recreational skill: fun but not really useful for making money.

Rosemary smiled. "Good luck!" She called, before heading back into the inn to continue her shift. She had a lot of work to do if they were going to pay for homes and businesses.

Lori managed to get some help building her own bakery complete with rooms up stairs.

Alex chuckled. "Of course they pay for that. Do you have any idea how much the court painter makes?"