Chapter 8: Attitude

If she could manipulate minds and move objects, he didn't know what he would do. It was unlikely, it was so unlikely for the child of a prince and a commoner to inherit the powers of a prince. But if she did...

He'd take her and run. He would not see her married to Elihim, or, worse, to Boz if he had deposed Elihim by then, to produce true heirs to the throne.

As she grew older, the sickness when he looked into her eyes grew with her. There were moments when he was so sure of it. Time was growing short. He wanted to give her a soft world for her fourth lanc, where it wouldn't matter what gifts she had.

There was so little time left.

"Yes, we can play, but only for a while. I have to meet Princess Lindsay and you," he poked her in her round belly, "you have to finish your studies."

"Will I ever get to meet Princess Lindsay?" she asked.

"Maybe. If you obey your nurse and stop sneaking off. We want to show Princess Lindsay her stepdaughter is a good girl, don't we?"

"Yes, Daddy. Then maybe she'll adopt me?" Her eyes sparkled as she asked with her tiny hands enfolded. "She seems so nice. Like she wouldn't hit me like Renina and Laren's moms do."

He didn't have the heart to tell her it was almost unheard of for a princess to adopt the children of another princess. And Lindsay was so young, herself. Even if she did stay, that was beyond what he could hope.

"We'll see," he said. "But she won't hit you, I'd never bring someone here who would hurt you."

"Princess Nylest did."

He winced. He remembered watching his first wife slap his daughter's face multiple times over what amounted to nothing. He knelt, taking her by her arms, and looking into her green eyes. "And you haven't seen her in a lanc, have you?"

She shook her head; she still seemed unsure. "No, Daddy. I really hope she likes me."

"She will."

He was hoping. Praying to the Immortal that if Lindsay stayed (by some miracle) it would be true. Nothing scared him as much as Deneta being hurt by another mother figure. She'd seen so many of Boz's children, her cousins, beaten and rejected by their mothers; yet all she yearned for was the doting love she saw Elihim's wife pour on her daughter. He had hoped his love would be sufficient, but she was old enough to see she was different from her cousins who all had moms. In a few years, she might understand; but, right now, all she saw was the lacking.

Deneta seemed reassured for the moment. "Are you going to bring her a gift?"

"Well..." Rivuk paused. He wanted to bring her something, a gift, but what? What was considered a romantic gift on Earth? What was even a good gift? For the first time he truly realized that for all his love for her, he knew nothing about where she came from or what her world was like. He would need to ask her. "I'm not sure what she would like," he answered his daughter, honestly.

"Then I'll make her something!" Deneta declared.