Chapter 11 #2
“It is too nice of a day to spend indoors,” Octavia continued pleasantly. “So, we will be spending it outside. I want to see how advanced Aaron’s mathematical skills, so I have come up with a little game…”
She spoke pleasantly, happy to over-explain her lessons, knowing the Duke would not respond, while knowing that he listened. Despite how cold he was, how disinterested, she wanted to please him, and she wanted him to be impressed.
While the Duke was the last one to join them, he was the first to leave. The moment he finished eating, he pushed back his plate and stood.
“You’re going?” Aaron said, disappointment heard in his tone.
“I am,” he said simply, walking down the table and toward the door. “As I said earlier, I am busy today. But good luck with your lessons.”
“Thank you for joining us,” Octavia called after him. “Can we expect you tomorrow?”
He paused at the doorway, turned, and looked right at her. There was a warning in his stare, because he must have heard the mock lightness in her tone. Octavia looked right back, refusing to bow down and refusing to be intimidated. Rather, she smiled, even fluttering her eyes.
“Maybe,” he said finally. “We will see.” A final look of warning, and he strode from the room.
The moment that he was gone, Aaron turned back to his old self. If anything, he was even worse. It was as if all the energy he had not used while his father was there had built up and needed to be released before he exploded.
“Are you almost finished?” He stood on his seat and looked expectantly at Octavia. “Hurry up! I want to go outside.”
She did not rise to the bait. “When I am ready, we will.”
“But –”
“If you think to rush me, you can think again.” She looked up at him, letting him know that she would not break under his insistent badgering. “However, I do wonder how you think I am going to allow you to join my lesson before you wash your hands…”
“Oh!” He jumped down from his chair. “Yes. My hands! I…” He looked about the room, his body trembling.
“Run along,” she said to Aaron. “Once you are finished, we will be ready to go outside.”
“All right!” he screamed and then took off, laughing the whole time.
Henry sighed and pushed back his chair. “I’ll wash up too…”
“Henry…” Octavia reached across the table and took his hand. “Is something the matter?”
“What? No,” he said a little too quickly.
She scoffed. “I did not take you for a liar.”
“I am not lying!”
“You are.” She held his hand and looked right at him. “Now, tell me what is wrong. Something clearly is, and while I want to be angry at you for lying to me, I’m worried, Henry.” She softened her expression. “Please, if something is the matter… You know you can tell me.”
Henry was a good boy and rarely did he disobey or argue with Octavia. She might have been his sister, but she treated him more as a mother might a son, and he knew how much he needed her, as she needed him.
“I… I don’t…” His chin began to wobble. “Something happened last night, Octavia.” He looked at her, and there was fear in his eyes. “I do not know… I think I am dying.”
Her stomach dropped. “What? What happened?”
He bit into his lips, he cowered back, and then he slowly opened his mouth so that she could see inside. “You see it?” he spoke with an open mouth. “My teeth. They’re falling out.”
Octavia saw the missing tooth deep in the back of his mouth. She frowned when she realized what was wrong, she considered her reaction, and then she burst into laughter.
“What?” Henry demanded. “It’s not funny!”
“I am sorry,” she said, still laughing. “I did not mean to… I am not making fun of you.”
“I’m sick!” He scrunched his face. “Why are you laughing?”
“Oh, Henry.” Octavia stood up, walked around the table, and wrapped her arms around her little brother. “You are not sick, nor are you dying.”
“Then why are my teeth –”
“It happens to everyone,” she cut him off gently, giving his little body a squeeze to show how much she loved him. “At your age, everyone loses their teeth.”
“You didn’t,” he demanded. “You have all your teeth!”
“They grow back,” she said as she let go and stood back up. “This is something to celebrate, Henry. It means you are growing up…” Her throat tightened suddenly, and she sniffed back a random tear. “You are becoming a man.”
“R… really?”
“Yes,” she said. “Your body is going to change a lot over the coming years, Henry. Some of it is good, some of it is bad.” She laughed at the notion. “But it is perfectly natural.”
“A man…” His brow furrowed as he considered and then beamed. “I’m turning into a man.”
“Not yet,” she said, suddenly serious. “And if you are, real men wash up after they eat. And real men do not need to be told twice.”
Desperate to prove to his sister that he was turning into a man, Henry leapt from his seat and sprinted from the room. She watched him go, a smile on her lips, her heart full inside her chest.
So much has changed this past week… and so much is changing every day. My brother is growing up, I have a job that I am starting to love, and it feels finally like our life is set on a path that might give us what we both deserve: hope for the future.
It was a simple sentiment, but it put Octavia in good spirits; spirits that she hung onto as she wandered from the breakfast room, ready for a another full day, one to look forward to, and certainly not the last.