Chapter Fifteen #3
“It is time for lessons, ladies,” she said, extending an arm to herd them toward the stairwell. “And stop asking about your chicken. Mary will be fine in the kitchen yard, where she has always been.”
“But she is lonely,” Janet said, starting her sob story on her mother.
“Not for long,” Caledonia said evenly. “You will see her soon.”
“If she cannot sleep with me, can we at least give her a bed?”
“She has a nest to sleep on.”
“She needs a bed.”
Thor was grinning, watching the interaction between Caledonia and her somewhat manipulative middle daughter.
They were still becoming accustomed to one another, but they were learning quickly and bonding beautifully.
The littlest daughter even slipped her hand into Caledonia’s without prompting as she began to lead them down the stairs.
He thought it was all rather sweet and had to admit that he enjoyed being a parent more than he’d thought he would.
He let Caledonia take the lead in all things, of course, but he liked having the baby fall asleep on him after supper, or Janet climbing into his lap because she wanted to talk more about her chicken.
A shockingly domestic life for a man who had never even considered such a thing.
But no more shocking than his suggestion to assume the de Wylde name.
He had no intention of shirking the de Reyne name entirely, merely adding de Wylde to it.
As he’d told Caledonia, it wasn’t unusual for a man to take his wife’s family name if she was of a higher station and he assumed what was largely considered a family title.
He’d been thinking about doing it for a few days now, ever since this life he’d undertaken had become something delightful.
He still couldn’t believe he had such a beautiful, brilliant wife, and already he was falling in love with her daughters.
Even Jane.
“Let us attend to our lessons now and we will discuss the chicken later,” Caledonia was saying as she went down the stairs with a little girl in each hand. “For now, we have tasks to attend to. So does Thor. My angel?”
He was right behind them as they came off the stairs with the keep entry directly in front of them. “I certainly do,” he said. “You attend your lessons, and mayhap I will speak with Darius about a… bed… for a chicken. Mayhap he can build one.”
Janet ripped her hand from Caledonia’s grip and threw herself at him, trying to hug him and grab him all at the same time in her excitement.
“Will you?” she nearly yelled. “Will you ask him?”
Thor had to steady her before she tripped and fell on him. “I will ask,” he assured her, but then he caught sight of Caledonia’s disapproving expression, and that cooled his own enthusiasm. “But… mayhap we should ask for your mother’s approval first. My love?”
Caledonia couldn’t very well deny the child. She thought a bed for a chicken to be quite ridiculous, but perhaps this was all part of gaining her daughter’s trust. She was building something here and wanted to make her child happy, so perhaps she needed to relent on this.
Even if it was with a bed for a chicken.
“If Darius will build such a thing, I suppose it is acceptable,” she said reluctantly. “Thor, why not take Janet with you to ask Darius? You can join us in the solar once you have spoken to him.”
Janet seemed wildly excited about a chicken bed.
Fighting off a smirk, Thor winked at his wife and took the child with him, holding her hand as they headed from the keep.
Caledonia watched them go, smiling as they faded from view.
Then she looked down at the child still in her grip, noting that Joan was looking up at her.
She smiled at her and squeezed her hand.
“Shall we go to our lessons now?” she asked, not really expecting an answer. Joan was bright, but speaking was still beyond her capabilities. “Lessons? Lessons?”
As she nodded, the child nodded. Caledonia wasn’t sure if she was simply mimicking her or if she really understood her, but it didn’t matter.
She took the little girl into the solar, where they had an entire corner set up with a table for their lessons.
Today, they were working on letters. Caledonia sat down, pulled Joan onto her lap, and wrote the letter A on a piece of vellum.
They had been working on A and words associated with the letter A for the past week.
That was how Caledonia had been taught long ago, so she simply repeated the lessons Lady d’Umfraville taught her.
Nicola joined them shortly and, soon enough, Janet returned.
Nicola took over part of the lesson and spoke of all of the words that started with the letter A.
She even gave the girls small green apples because the word apple started with an A.
Janet was very good at writing the letter, and Joan could write it so that it was semi-legible, which was a big step for the little girl.
She was praised appropriately.
Toward the nooning hour, Nicola pulled out small pieces of vellum and a few paints they had made with berries and grass.
There were only four colors, but that didn’t matter.
With a frayed water reed as a brush, Janet and Joan could paint pictures as part of their lessons.
They seemed to like learning to paint best of all, so Nicola helped them with their pictures while Caledonia headed off to the kitchen to bring them back something to eat for the midday meal.
The door to the solar was closed, and when she opened it, a small body fell through, onto the floor at her feet.
Jane pushed herself off the ground.
“I am so terribly sorry,” Caledonia said, helping the child up. “I did not know you were there. Are you injured?”
Jane eyed her mother. “Nay,” she said bravely, rubbing her right elbow. “I am not. It does not hurt in the least.”
Caledonia could see that wasn’t true but didn’t argue with her.
Frankly, she was surprised to see the girl at all.
Jane made it a policy to avoid her mother at all costs, but more than that, Caledonia had come to see over the past several days that Jane was simply a loner.
She was an odd child thanks to Madam Madonna’s care and spent several hours every day preaching to the animals in the stable.
They’d all seen her do it. Darius even tried to talk her out of it, but she was firm.
It was something she needed to do. Therefore, it was a distinct surprise to see her here.
But Caledonia wasn’t the only one who saw her.
From inside the solar, Janet piped up.
“Summer!” she cried. “Come! We are painting!”
Jane didn’t react at first. She seemed quite indecisive. Caledonia opened the door wider.
“You are most welcome,” she said softly. “We have been having lessons. We would like for you to join us.”
Jane looked between her mother and sisters, unsure what to do.
She couldn’t even announce why she’d come in the first place, but she was here.
She’d been eavesdropping on her sisters and mother and knew they were having fun and learning.
She’d heard about it and even caught glimpses of it, like now.
Darius had even tried to talk her into coming, but she was stubborn. This was so very foreign to her.
She couldn’t be part of it.
… could she?
“Nay,” she finally said, backing away. “I… I must go.”
The smile faded from Caledonia’s face as she watched her eldest child back up. “Go where?” she asked.
Jane didn’t have a quick answer because she was nervous. Nervous and scared. She wanted to go in with her sisters, but she knew that was wrong. “I must spread the word of God,” she said. “They must know that Christ loves them. I must go.”
“Jane,” Caledonia said as she began to follow the girl. “You do not have to spread the word of God any longer. You are safe, lass. No one is going to hurt you. We want to love you if you’ll let us. Won’t you join us?”
“Nay!” Jane said as she bumped into the entry door, grabbing for the handle. “I must teach about Christ!”
“Why?” Caledonia was suddenly on her, dropping her knees and grabbing the girl by the arms so she couldn’t get away.
“Why must you do this? You are preaching to animals, Jane. Animals who do not understand you, who will never know the love of Christ. I know you must understand this. Why do you do it?”
Jane was trying to pull away, but not too strongly. “Because… because I must!”
“Why, lass?” Caledonia pleaded. “Did Madam Madonna tell you to do this? Did she tell you that you must do this?”
The tears started to come as Jane began to resist more strongly. “Let me go!”
“Not until you tell me why you feel the need to preach to animals,” Caledonia said steadily, though it was becoming a struggle to hold on to her squirming daughter.
“Jane, if Madam Madonna told you that you must preach, then she was wrong. It is right that you should love God, but you do not need to preach. You are not a priest or a nun. You are a young girl and, right now, should be learning how to be a woman. You should be learning your letters and how to sew and how to paint. You should be learning things that all girls should learn, and that does not include preaching to the animals.”
Jane managed to get one hand free and began beating on the hands that were holding her. “Let me go!” she demanded, weeping. “You are wrong! I must preach if I am to go to heaven! Madam Madonna said so!”
“Madam Madonna was wrong.”
“Nay!”
Caledonia managed to grab Jane’s free hand and yank on the girl, forcing her onto her knees in front of her, where she couldn’t get leverage to pull away.
Caledonia was afraid that if she ran, she would hide forever.
The child had been so conditioned by Madam Madonna that she didn’t know right from wrong, love from hate, or anything else.
She only knew fear. Caledonia prayed she could break through to her because if she couldn’t, Jane was lost.
And Caledonia wasn’t going to lose her.
“Listen to me,” Caledonia said softly but firmly, mere inches from Jane’s red face.
“Jane, I want you to listen to me carefully because I believe you are a bright lass. I believe you can understand what I am saying and not surrender to your fear of Madam Madonna. Listen to me carefully, please. Did Madam Madonna ever show you love?”
Jane was yanking to pull her hands free from Caledonia’s grip. “Let go!”
“Not until you answer my question.”
Jane was growing frustrated and terrified. She wasn’t going to answer. She was stubborn, and Caledonia knew that must have been something she got from her mother because Caledonia was stubborn, too. Realizing her child wasn’t going to answer her, Caledonia attempted to break through.
“Love is good,” she said quietly. “God loves you and is happy when we show love to others. Especially our family. I love you, Jane. I have loved you since you were born. Madam Madonna tried to kill that love you have for me by telling you lies about me. None of it is true. I only want to love you and make you happy. I want to hug you and feed you tasty food and teach you how to paint and how to write. I want to see you grow up happy and find a good husband who will love you, too. I am not the devil. Sometimes, the devil tells lies, and that is all Madam Madonna told you. Lies. She was the devil, Jane. Only the devil would take a child from her mother.”
Jane shrieked. “That is not true!”
“It is,” Caledonia insisted. “If you continue to do as Madam Madonna wished, then you are allowing the devil to control you. Do you understand me? Do not let the devil win!”
Panicking, Jane bit the fingers that held her.
With a yelp, Caledonia released her with that hand, but when Jane went in to bite the other hand, Caledonia slapped her across the mouth to stop her from doing it.
Jane was behaving like an animal and Caledonia’s reaction was instinctive.
The slap shocked Jane, who tripped back onto her arse as Caledonia released her.
“You will not bite me again,” Caledonia said sternly, though she was shaken.
The entire conversation had shaken her. “Jane, you are my daughter and I love you. I want to show you that I love you, but I cannot do that if you are going to behave terribly. God is not happy with children who disobey their parents. One of his commandments is to honor thy father and thy mother. I would suggest you follow His commandment and stop your ridiculous behavior.”
With that, she turned for the solar as Jane sat there a moment, watching her, before scrambling to her feet. Caledonia slammed the solar door with such force that it echoed in the entryway.
Jane turned and ran. She ran until she ended up in the stables, in front of her equine audience, weeping and praying and preaching. She didn’t know anything else.
And that was how Thor found her.