At this Lir was sorely grieved and afflicted, and but for the great love he bore to his four children he would gladly have died too.
When the folk at the palace of Bov the Red heard that, they also were sorely grieved at the death of their foster-child, and they lamented her with keening and with weeping.

Bov the Red said, "We grieve for this maiden on account of the good man we gave her to, and for his friendship and fellowship; howbeit our friendship shall not be sundered, for we shall give him to wife her sister, namely Aoife." Word of this was brought to Lir, and he went once more to Lough Derg to the palace of Bov the Red and there he took to wife Aoife, the fair and wise, and brought her to his own home.

And Aoife held the children of Lir and of her sister in honour and affection; for indeed no one could behold these four children without giving them the love of his soul.
For love of them, too, came Bov the Red often to the house of Lir, and he would take them to his own house at times and let them spend a while there, and then to their own home again.

All of the People of Dana who came visiting and feasting to Lir had joy and delight in the children, for their beauty and gentleness; and the love of their father for them was exceeding great, so that he would rise very early every morning to lie down among them and play with them.
Only, alas! a fire of jealousy began to burn at last in the breast of Aoife, and hatred and bitter ill-will grew in her mind towards the children of Lir.

And she feigned an illness, and lay under it for the most of a year, meditating a black and evil deed.