Chapter Nineteen
“Mama! I want to see the dogs!”
Ines was in fine form that morning after a night in the de Lohr nursery.
She’d been fed, bathed, and had played with her new friends until the nurse blew out the candles and forced everyone to go to sleep.
Even then, Ines and Celestine had stayed up, giggling and playing with Celestine’s clay cows.
The cows had an adventure with another herd of mean cows who wanted to steal their food, but the nurse shut that down, too, when she realized the girls hadn’t gone to sleep.
Still, Ines was well rested and ready for dogs this morning.
It was all she could talk about.
Both Ines and Adabella were walking with their mother, who was on the arm of her new husband, Essien.
The girls hadn’t attended the wedding mass because Catalina didn’t think they would really understand what was going on, so they’d essentially been in the de Lohr nursery since yesterday.
They’d missed the wedding and the feast. This morning, Catalina and Essien had explained the marriage to the girls, together, telling them that they would go live with Essien now at his home in the north.
Essien even brought up ponies, which thrilled the girls.
At least, it thrilled Ines, but Adabella didn’t seem interested one way or the other.
She clung to her mother’s other hand, solemn like she usually was.
“We will go find the dogs later,” Catalina said to her youngest daughter. “But first, we must return to Grandfather’s tent and collect the things we left behind.”
“Why did we leave them, Mama?” Adabella asked.
Catalina squeezed her daughter’s hand. “I simply forgot,” she said.
“I realized this morning that we’d left behind a satchel containing your shoes and some things for your bath.
I suppose I gathered our things so quickly yesterday that I left a few things behind.
Essien is taking us back there before he enters the mass competition today. ”
Adabella looked around her mother at the tall, dark-haired man who was now her mother’s husband. The very same man who had given her the puppy. He caught her staring at him and gave her a smile and a wink.
“My puppy,” she said. “Where did he go?”
Essien wasn’t quite sure how to answer her. He looked at Catalina, who made a face, and he didn’t understand why until Ines rushed him and grabbed hold of his legs. He very nearly tripped as he tried not to run her over.
“I want a puppy!” Ines declared. “Addie has a puppy? I want a puppy, too!”
He very well understood why Catalina had grimaced at the mention of a dog. He smiled at Ines, but he was talking through his teeth to Catalina.
“What do I do?” he said. “Help me.”
Catalina’s response was to grasp her daughter by the hand and pull her away from Essien.
“Not now,” she said firmly as they continued walking.
“We have a busy day ahead of us. You will help me find all of our things left over in Grandfather’s tent, and then we will watch Essien at the mass competition. Dogs and puppies will come later.”
Ines was yanking on her mother’s hand. “But—!”
“Nay, Ines,” Catalina said sternly. “Cease your begging. Behave yourself or there will be no dogs at all.”
That shut Ines up, but she was very unhappy. Truthfully, Essien felt a little sorry for her. All the child wanted was puppies. He supposed that wasn’t an entirely unreasonable request at that age.
“Lady Ines,” he said, “if you are a very good girl and do what your mother tells you, I will take you to see the dogs myself. With your mother’s permission, of course.”
Ines nodded, but she still wasn’t entirely happy. Dogs were slipping through her fingers and her world was a darker place for it.
Poor little lass, Essien thought.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever learn not to be soft when it came to children.
They exited the gatehouse of Lioncross Abbey and headed for the competitors’ encampment, which was alive with men preparing for the first round of the mass competition.
Yesterday afternoon had only been a preliminary round, something meant to be a warm-up for the main event, which was today.
There was a good deal of activity, in fact, and Essien held tight to the ladies as they passed into the encampment, heading for the de Efford tents.
There was a single fire in the middle of the encampment and the guards were warming their meals on it.
It smelled like burned bread and singed meat, but the de Efford soldiers were happily eating the offerings.
It was a cold morning yet again, so any warmth was welcome, even if it was scorched food.
They knew Catalina on sight, and they were all aware she’d married, so when she entered the encampment with Essien, a big man with big muscles, the guards were respectful.
Catalina took Essien and the girls into the large tent.
“Now,” she said, hands on her hips as she looked around, “the first thing I must do is search my father’s trunks to ensure that he has nothing else of mine. My father likes to collect things, shall we say, even things that do not belong to him, so I will do that this morning.”
Essien looked around at the cluttered tent. There were huge trunks with iron braces and locks against one side.
“Your father takes all of this with him when he travels?” he said, incredulous. “How can a man need so much?”
Catalina threw open one of the trunks. “My father believes in traveling lavishly,” she said. “Not only do we have the fortified carriage, but we have two wagons to bring along his things—beds, chairs, trunks. He does not leave much behind.”
“I can see that,” Essien said. He watched the little girls as they went over to a table with two chairs and began fighting over who was going to sit in one of the seats.
“Would it be helpful to you if I took your daughters over to the stable where the puppies are? It might give you a little peace in packing.”
She looked at him. “You would do that?” she said gratefully. “That would be so very kind of you. Truthfully, they were with me yesterday when I collected my belongings, and I think I was so eager to get them out of here that I simply overlooked a few things.”
He smiled. “Then I am happy to take them.”
“But shouldn’t you be preparing for the mass competition?”
His smile grew. “That will take me very little time, indeed,” he said. “Let me take my wife’s daughters over to see some puppies first. It will give me a few moments to spend with them.”
Catalina nodded, her gaze moving to her girls as Adabella pushed Ines away from the chair and Ines began to cry. “We’ve not discussed this yet, but we probably should,” she said. “What do you want the girls to call you?”
He shrugged, watching Ines plop on the ground and wail. “Whatever they are comfortable with,” he said. “Were they close to their father?”
Catalina shook her head. “Not at all,” she said. “They were not male, so Alfred did not have a great deal of time for them. Ines does not even remember her father. She was so young when he left.”
“I do not mean to replace him, you know.”
“I know,” Catalina said. “You do what you are comfortable with. If you wish for them to call you Papa, I am agreeable. But if you wish for them to call you Essien, I am agreeable with that, also.”
He smiled faintly as Ines stopped wailing, stood up, and pinched her sister on the leg.
“I am their mother’s husband,” he said. “They can call me whatever they wish because, as their mother’s husband, I will love them and spoil them and discipline them if necessary. With your permission, of course.”
Catalina snorted. “You have it,” she said. “And you can start now.”
She pointed to the girls, now in a pinching fight, and Adabella got a good chunk of the flesh on her sister’s arm and twisted it. Ines screamed. Squaring his shoulders, Essien bravely entered the brawl.
“Ladies?” he said, going down to one knee as he got in between them. “It would be much better to behave kindly. Only well-behaved ladies are allowed to see the puppies.”
As he’d hoped, that shaped them right up. They were young enough that he could use that kind of logic and get away with it. Adabella came out of the chair, standing about eye level with him as he knelt.
“Will my puppy be there?” she asked.
Essien nodded. “I’m sure he will be,” he said. “Would you like to see him?”
Adabella nodded vigorously. Essien looked at Ines. “And you?” he said. “May I depend on you to behave yourself?”
Ines didn’t answer him so much as stick her finger up her nose in reply. “Why?”
Essien started to laugh, reaching over to pull her finger out of her nose. “Because the puppies are frightened if you are too loud,” he said, trying not to let her see him grin. “If you are naughty, they will run from you. You do not want them run away from you, do you?”
Ines shook her head. “Where are they?”
Essien stood up, holding out a hand to each girl. “I will take you,” he said. “And you can tell me why you like puppies so much. Do you like ponies, too?”
The girls had a good deal to say on the subject of ponies.
They were already telling him about it. Essien winked at Catalina as he led the girls out of the tent, heading for the tournament field and the stable, which weren’t too far away.
In fact, both could be seen the moment Essien left the tent, and he took the talkative girls in that direction.
Catalina went to the tent flap to watch.
Yesterday’s tournament champion, a prince to his people, was making the effort to spend time with two fatherless little girls who liked to pinch each other and pet puppies.
And he was doing it with such grace. Something in her heart swelled enormously for him, an admiration and adoration she didn’t think she was capable of.
But Essien had earned it with his gentle treatment of her children.
No man, not even their own father, had ever been so kind to them.
But Essien was.