Eadgith uses her influence
“Papa, we came to see you!” Peleia cried. However, she scarcely looked at her father and instead ran for the corner wherein the toys were piled.
“Not so fast, young lady!” Leofric lifted her high above the floor. Leia could only kick her fat legs against the empty air in frustration. “If you come to see Papa, then you see Papa.”
She stopped kicking and smiled prettily. “I came to see my toys too. You may see Eadie.”
“Very clever of you to bring your sister to distract me.”
“I know!” she grinned.
Leofric laughed and put her down on the floor again. “Where’s that Drageling?” he asked his eldest daughter.
“He’s napping. But Mistress Leia did not want to sleep!” Eadgith said pointedly.
“I have too much work to do!” Leia announced as she dug through the toys in search of one precious dolly.
“I wonder where she heard that before?” Eadgith laughed.
“In fact, I believe she picked it up from the twins,” Leofric said. “I don’t often tell Leia I’m too busy, because all she wants is to play in the corner. Aefen and Aeri always want to go for a ride.”
“Oh, dear,” Eadgith said, looking suddenly distressed. “I suppose if I don’t take this opportunity to speak to you, I shall never dare.”
“Speak to me about what?” Leofric asked.
“The twins and their ride. And Liss and Raegan and Cedric.”
“What about them?” Leofric frowned. He was beginning to understand.
“Cedric has not seen his mother in weeks, and the others not since the autumn.”
“She made her choice,” he growled.
“The children did not.”
“The children do not have a choice to make. They are mine.”
“They are just as much hers, whatever the law says! They love their mother just as much as they love you.”
“And what do you suggest, Solomon? Shall I cut them all in half?”
“No…”
“When you find a means to put my children in two places at once, I shall be only too happy to share them with their mother.”
“But surely you admit they should see their mother sometimes?”
“Sometimes, I grant you! But her ‘sometimes’ consists of all the time. A few times a year is plenty.”
“Father!”
“Your mother sees you less often.”
“That’s different. I’m grown. I don’t need my Mama all the time.”
“My baby…” he sighed. “You don’t understand.” He realized at once that it was a mistake to sound as if he was pleading with her.
“I think you should let them go to their mother’s for Christmas,” she said quickly.
“Christmas! Son of a serpent!”
“Christmas!” Leia squealed.
“Oh, you hear that word, do you?”
“I love Christmas… presents!” Leia giggled.
It was the worst sort of interruption: his little motherless girl’s glee over the coming holiday. Leia had no idea that her mother was lacking in her life, but Leila’s five children would be spending their first Christmas without their mother. On the other hand, if they went to stay with her, then they would be spending their first Christmas without their father… and he his without them.
“You want me to spend Christmas without my children?” he asked miserably.
“You shall have Leia and Mae and Drageling, and me!” Eadgith said. “And my Sigefrith will be coming on Christmas day after Mass, and he will be bringing the Prince and Princesses, and my brother means to ride with him and bring Haakon for you to keep until after the Christmas season. So you shall have three daughters, a son, a son-in-law, two grandsons, and my stepchildren.”
“I shall not miss Leila’s children any less for all that,” he grumbled.
“I know you won’t, but you will have a merry Christmas with the rest of us. Leila would be all alone with only her husband and her baby, and you know Christmas isn’t the same with only a baby. You need children who can look forward to their Christmas… presents!” she said with a meaningful glance at Leia.
“Christmas presents!” the little girl echoed.
“But, Eadie,” Leofric groaned. “You want me to send my children to that dreadful, drafty house of hers in the middle of the winter?”
“It’s quite snug. I know, as I just slept in it a few nights ago. And Godefroy is building a nicer house, so soon you shall no longer have that objection.”
“But—but you have no idea what it is to take those youngsters on such a long trip!”
“I have some idea, since I recently took Drageling that far! Anyway, you needn’t take them. Godefroy will come for them, and you have men you can send with them. They could go and return in an afternoon. Father, if I didn’t know better, I would say you’re making excuses, and in that case you should rather give in and stop embarrassing yourself.”
Leofric sighed wearily and hung his head, defeated. “Very well, it shall be as Your Majesty desires. If they wish to go, they shall go. Son of a serpent! My own daughter turning against me!”
“I’m not turning against you. I am simply trying to think of what is best for my brothers and sisters, and I know they miss their mother. And they will miss their father while they are with her. We simply must make the best of a difficult situation.”
Leofric shook his head. “Sometimes I swear I am hearing Lady Hwala talking to me with your own voice.”
“But I am Lady Hwala.”
“I think you speak more truly than you know, my baby,” he said with his fondest smile.
