At the sound of her son’s heavy tread, Lady Eadgith lifted her head slightly from her task of bed making. She smiled to herself, for she had not yet told her children the reason why she lately felt the need for afternoon naps.
“Starting to worry about me?” she chirped. “Tell Wyn I shall be right down. I don’t know why I’m so tired these days. Must be all the – ”
All at once she felt a hand on her hip, pulling her roughly back against the body of the gentleman behind her.
“Sigefrith!” she wailed and spun around to face him.
It was not Sigefrith, but his father.
“Leofric! Good Lord!”
Little Peleia hooted in derision. “You thought it was Sigefrith!”
Leofric scowled with his eyes and chuckled wickedly with his mouth. “A man comes in and puts his paws on your behind, and your first thought is of your son!”
“I… didn’t… know you were here…” Eadgith breathed.
Leia shoved her way past her father and announced, “It’s my birthday! I’m five! You forgot!”
Eadgith stroked Leia’s hair out of her eyes and back over her little head. “I didn’t forget, Leia,” she murmured past the lump in her throat.
Indeed she had not forgotten. She had awoken that morning to a different lump, and as soon as she had remembered why, that one had burst and flooded her with bitterness. It was Leia’s birthday, of course, but also the anniversary of Matilda’s death, and Eadgith was not even at home to see Leofric go off to spend it alone with Matilda’s daughter.
She had made herself sick imagining it: he would not even need to sneak out before she rose, but could breakfast at leisure and ride boldly out across the court and through the gate. He wouldn’t need to come skulking in after dark, carry Leia up to bed, and then go sleep alone in some bed that was not her own. He could come in when he pleased. Perhaps he would not even go out at all, since she was not there to distract him with her un-Matildaness.
But he was here.
“Then where’s my present?” Leia asked.
“Leia!” her father scolded.
“She said she didn’t forget!”
“I didn’t forget,” Eadgith soothed, “and your present is downstairs. But it is not ladylike to ask for it.”
“I’m not a lady!” Leia groaned. “I’m only five!”
“Neither do little girls.”
“I’m not a little girl! I’m a – pony!” Leia laughed wildly at her joke, then suddenly let out a miserable wail and threw her arms around Eadgith’s legs. “Owwwwww! I miiiiissed you, Eadgith! I have no one to play with when you’re gone! No one!” she repeated with a tragic whimper.
Eadgith bent and gave her a proper hug. “I missed you, too, Leia. Were you a good girl?”
“No!” Leia grinned. “I broke the leg off your sewing table.”
“Leia!”
“We shall speak of that later,” Leofric said quickly and wrapped his arms around Eadgith’s waist again. “Owwwwww!” he whined. “I miiiiissed you, my pigeon!”
Eadgith laughed dazedly. She was beginning to feel as if it were her own birthday. To stave off her rising giddiness she scolded, “What a looby! Tell Wyn to hurry up and have her baby then. And what are you thinking, riding all the way out here in the middle of January with this little girl?”
“It was her idea!” he protested.
“Leof!”
“I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, and she said she wanted to come here, where, I quote, ‘I can see all the people I like’.”
“What about the people you don’t like, Leia?” Eadgith giggled, foolish in her giddiness.
“They can go hang!” Leia cried.
“Leia!” Eadgith gasped in horror.
Leofric attempted to distract her by kissing her as far around the back of her neck as he could reach from the front.
“Leof!”
“How are you two?” he whispered on his way past her ear.
“We are doing well,” she sniffed, “though I don’t mind telling you I’m getting too old for this. I have never been so tired in my life.”
“Were you getting into the bed or getting out of it?” he murmured.
“Getting out of it. I just had a quick nap.”
He tipped her back halfway onto the bed itself. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to change course?”
“Leof!”
“Leia,” he said over his shoulder, “go down and tell Wyn that her mother is tired and needs a little nap.”
“She just had one!” Leia protested. “I want my present!”
“She needs another one. You go ask Wyn – perhaps she knows where your present is hiding.”
“But you come too!”
“I must tuck her in and sing her a song. Scoot now, or I shall toss you out of here so hard your behind will blaze a trail through the woods clear through to Bernwald.”
Leia found this image so amusing that she skipped out merrily, singing, “My behind will blaze a trail! My behind will blaze a trail!” as she went.
“Oh, Leof,” Eadgith groaned, trying not to laugh. “What will you make of the girl?”
“You will surely save her from utter depravity, my pretty pigeon. As you have so often saved me.”
I'll try to get a Leila chapter in during the coming weeks.
Chapters
I wonder if he'll let her know where he goes... What will become of Peleia? Goodness, she really will become Matilda at this rate. It's a bit frightening.