July 12, 1178
Camaline swayed from side to side with the same reluctant indulgence she'd shown for her nieces and nephew, but if Sparron squinted, he thought he could discern a small smile. As per his suggestion, she held the boy; if she was going to be his mother, it seemed crucial that they bonded, and there was no sense in putting it off. That left Sparron with the girl, which also worked in all of their favors. If tonight was the only night of their lives that he could be her father, he'd be a fool to throw it away.God, what was wrong with him? He hadn't even wanted to go through with this, and now one baby wasn't enough, even if that hadn't been the agreement. Even if he owed it to Lettie to let her keep at least one.
"She seems to like you," muttered Camaline as Sparron son's made a swat at her cleavage.
Sparron gave the girl a little tap on the shoulder and sighed. It would have been so much easier if she didn't. Being 'Uncle Sparron' just wouldn't be the same. "I think she's too sweet to dislike anyone."
Camaline sniffed, but she didn't press. More grateful for that than he should have been, Sparron peeked around her at Searle and Lettie on the bed. Neither of them seemed all that interested in the babies and that bothered him. He supposed he couldn't blame Lettie--she was probably still aching from the birth--but Searle hadn't once demanded to hold the girl. Maybe he was just giving Sparron his night? That better have been it.A flick of Camaline's eyes told him she also sensed something amiss. "He's probably still baffled by your heroic sacrifice."
"It wasn't heroic." Not that there would be any explaining that to Searle. 'If my father thinks I suggested it, he'll blame the voices in my head' was not the sort of thing he could tell a carefree, sunny little thing like Searle."Well, someone didn't get that notice." The baby reached for her breast again; unamused, Camaline shot him a stern look. "All right, you--I don't know where you got your love of tits from, but you'd better not make a habit of this."
"Aww, he's just hungry." Not that he seemed to be suckling at anything. "All right, maybe he just likes breasts. Life will probably be easier for him that way."
"Oh, he can gawk at all the breasts he likes, but mine are strictly off-limits."
"Well, good thing you won't be feeding him, then." If he'd screwed up everything else, at least he'd had the foresight to line up a couple of wet nurses already. But what was everything else, now that the result was here? Even for him, it was difficult to focus on past wrongs with a tiny little angel in his arms. "Lettie? Searle? Does she have a name?"
Searle started to shake his head, but Lettie wasted little time in cutting him off. "Alina."Oh. Sparron watched as the color drained from Searle's face, every freckle more obvious against the deathly white. Awkward. "That was my mother's name."
"Yes, and we already named a daughter for my mother." She stretched her swollen hand and sighed, the gold wedding band practically choking the enlarged finger. "People will be expecting our second daughter to be named for yours."
"Yes, but--""But what?" There was a look in her eye with which one could not argue. Sparron considered leaving the room but Lettie locked him in place with a commanding glance. He didn't think she wanted an ally--not exactly. She could handle Searle on her own. She just wanted a witness. "We agreed that she'd be your daughter, didn't we? And that you wouldn't treat her any differently than Rennie or any of our future daughters?"
"Yes, but--"
"And what would you have named our second daughter?"
Searle swallowed. "Alina."
Satisfied, Lettie slumped downward and stared at the wooden panels above her. Searle glanced at Sparron, a scared look in his eye, but he didn't know how to respond. She was his daughter--not Searle's. But she was also Lettie's, and if she was Lettie's then she had to be Searle's. The name was incorrect in the most correct of ways.
Powerless as ever, Sparron lowered Alina to a cradle of an arm and forced himself to look away. What right had he to be here? If not for the hour, if not for the baby, he would have taken his family and left. "Searle. Come hold her."NEXT CHAPTER:
9 comments:
...I need to start writing these earlier in the day.
*zzzz*
This is heartbreaking, I think Searle knows Sparron loves his children - and he probably won't feel right being the stand in dad for baby Alina :S
What's the boy's name?
I laughed at Camline's comment of her "son's" apparent love for breasts :P
I wonder how Lettie is going to deal, knowing that her other baby is being cared for by another family in another household, and will probably never know the truth.
Also, I'm thinking the fact that they're the same age isn't really a good thing at all, I mean, what if Roderick or someone else suggests the twins become betrothed to each other :S
Maybe I'm wrong and their family lines are too close to think of that, but yeah :S
Oh good gravy, THE FEEDING. What did Sparron tell the wet nurses the situation would be? Not that he would need to do much explaining. I suppose a lot of noble women would have had a wet nurse regardless, for pain and discomfort and inconvenience and infection and general decorum reasons. It might have seemed odd that Sparron was the one to arrange it though, given his maleness and all.
I feel really bad for Lettie right now. :( This may be a little sad and unfortunate for Sparron, but for Lettie it has to be torture. Even after spending all of these months getting used to the idea of potentially giving up her baby, I can't believe she doesn't want to back out. There is no sufficiently compelling reason why she has to go through with this, or at least not go down kicking and screaming.
Ans what does Sparron MEAN when he thinks to himself, "Something seems a little off with Lettie and Searle"?? Of course something is off! Something is very off! Sparron's not ordinarily an insensitive individual. I wish they would all just leave Lettie alone with her children. All three of them, just get the heck out.
...What is Severin going to say about this "Alina" business?
EkhoGirl: Searle's got to have some mixed feelings about this, no matter how sure of it he was when he came up with the scheme. Not everyone bonds with their even their own children right away.
Boy's name is Prior. We'll get to him in a couple posts ;)
We'll be getting into Lettie's head fairly soon, so there should be some answers there. As for the twins' futures... no worries, I already said that the incest in Gen. 3 would be elsewhere XD
Pen: Heheh. I didn't think it seemed too weird that Sparron would be the one arranging it, since Camaline was too "pregnant" to get out of the house and look around herself. Must have been an awkward batch of conversations :P
I can't imagine Lettie's coping well beneath the exterior. We'll be getting her POV fairly soon, so we'll get some sense of her current inner workings then, but she is certainly quite tense. They really should just leave her alone.
As for what Severin will think... good question. On one hand, I can't see him blaming the baby for her own name and he does love Alya like she was his biological granddaughter (not even comparable, but it's the closest I've got) and he'll probably see the logic behind the decision. On the other hand... yeah. I guess we'll just have to wait until Severin hears of this :S
Oh! I couldn't see Severin dismissing the baby. I only wondered what he would think of the name. There are a lot of emotions tied up in that name for Severin. What would he think of Searle's one and only Alina not even being his biologically? Would he think that Searle wasn't doing the name honor by giving it to a child that 1) is Sparron's and 2) that he might have confused feelings for?
Good questions. We'll be getting a post with Searle and Severin fairly soon; the name will doubtlessly come up :S
Hmm. Having read the comments, it seems to me that Lettie is fighting for her babies as much as she can -- by insisting that Alina be named, well, Alina, she's staked her claim to her and she's trying to force Searle to uphold his end of the bargain.
Poor Sparron, though. He already loves the hell out of both of these babies. But Lettie's in the same boat, we just haven't gotten her POV yet. ... Are you sure they can't all run away to a hippie commune and raise each other's kids?
Now I just hope for one thing, really, in all of this mess: that neither of these two adorables got their father's mental illness. Hey, they could have dodged that bullet.
Ok, and one more thing: at least the boy wasn't named Roderick.
True. She is doing something, even if it's a subtler approach than what might be expected.
As great as a hippie commune would be, I just don't see that happening as long as Sparron is heir to something :(
Potentially mental illness... well, it's much too early to tell. With any luck, they did dodge that bullet.
Naaah, I can't imagine Sparron would have done that to Octavius. "Dad, meet your first grandson. We named him after your nemesis." XD
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