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October 16, 1199
"You, uh... you don't really need a story for your dolls, do you?" Holladrin mused as her cousin--her new little sister!--banged one of the dolls against the wall of the castle with a gleeful smile on her face. Holladrin supposed she ought to have been annoyed, given that it was her castle, and her doll... but, she didn't play much with either any more. She was six, after all. She had big girl toys.
Celina could have the little girl toys, if she wanted them. And if they were hers... well, they were hers to be rough with, if she chose.
Really--Holladrin would have traded all of her big girl toys for a little sister!
"That's all right. My brother doesn't need stories for his wooden sword things either, and he's almost eight. Not everyone likes stories, I guess."
"Nope!" Celina agreed, showcasing her teeth before chomping down on the doll's feet. A stream of drool leaked from the corner of her smile as the dangling doll bounced against her chin. "Look! I'm a walrus!"
Holladrin laughed, though maybe she shouldn't have. Her father never yelled, but he wouldn't have wanted her to encourage any toy-biting. "You're too cute to be a walrus. You're more like a kitty--granted, a kitty with big fangs."
"A vampire kitty?"
God, her little sister was weird! A good sort of weird, though. "If you want. Just don't bite me, all right?"
"Right!"
"Is Celina being silly again?"
Lileina! In all of Celina's antics, Holladrin hadn't even noticed her other cousin--her new big sister--come into the room. "She's silly, but it's good silly."
Lileina shrugged. Lileina was nine, and nine was a little old for Celina's sort of silliness. But at least she was nice about it. "Well, thanks for entertaining her."
"No problem. Wedding parties are boring anyway."
"You won't think that when you're older." Lileina winked as she sat down on the rug. "You can dance with boys at wedding parties."
"Boys like my brother? Or... brothers?" Alas, Lileina and Celina did have a brother between them. But, Holladrin supposed she could put up with another brother if she at least got two sisters out of the arrangement. Especially an older and a younger! She'd always wanted to be a middle sister. "No thanks!"
"No, not boys like our brothers. Better boys! They're still stupid, but they're stupid in convenient ways rather than annoying ones. You can make them do whatever you want! Kay gave me his dessert just because I kissed him on the cheek, and I didn't even mind kissing his cheek; he's cute." And Lileina's cheeks were as red as her hair. "I think I might marry him."
Holladrin gagged--though at least Kay Kemorin was nice enough, for a boy. "I think you and Celina are both silly. But, you're my sisters, so I'll forgive you."
NEXT CHAPTER:
October 22, 1197
"There now," Celina soothed her newest granddaughter, determined to keep her focus more to the baby herself rather than the fact that Searle would never have another child. "Everyone gets the hiccups sometimes; you're doing quite well with breathing despite being so new to it."
The baby hiccuped again, face scrunched in a wail of discomfort against Celina's shoulder. Her face was as ruddy as either of her siblings' newborn faces before her, but her hair--what little of it she had--was more of a strawberry blond, as opposed to Lily and Ovrean's tomato red. Some part of Celina might have hoped to see Searle's auburn hair, but perhaps the lack of it was for the best; it was easier to see the baby as herself this way, and not just as Searle's baby. Baby hair could be fickle, but if it was to turn auburn, the girl would have grown into a personality by then.
On the bed, Cladelia rubbed at her now-vacant womb. The poor woman. She'd been so protective of this baby, so keen to keep to strict dietary regimens and the recommended bracket of activity and everything else the midwives had to offer, even though this hadn't been much of a risky pregnancy to begin with. The last month had brought this to an even higher notch, with Searle dead and buried. This baby was the last Cladelia had left of him.
And she still was. But a baby in the belly was a different matter from a baby in the arms, as Celina knew better than most. Once outside the womb, a baby was a separate creature, a whole new human--not just some surviving piece of Searle for Cladelia to keep inside of herself.
But, she'd come to realize--Celina hoped, at least--that there was still a piece of Searle inside of her. It just sat rather upward of the womb.
"There--I think that was the last of them." Celina patted the baby on the back, the hiccups now reduced to a steady pant of recovery. "She's a good weight for a baby--bigger than the other two were. But not big enough to give you any more trouble, I hope?"
"No." Cladelia shook her head, though she didn't dare look toward the baby. "No, she was good. Easier than Ovrean, actually. Very good."
"Have you chosen a name for her?" When Arydath had announced the baby's sex, the name was precisely the reason Celina had been relieved to hear she was a girl. A posthumous boy would have been--and should have been, perhaps--named for his father, but Celina didn't think she could handle another little Searle in the house just yet. And she doubted Cladelia would be ready for another little Searle before it was her own grandson.
"Well, I suppose she should have your name; Searle ought to have a daughter named for his beloved mother." Cladelia made a half-hearted attempt at a smile. It was no more convincing than a dairy cow in stallion's tack, but Celina could appreciate the effort. "A good thing we chose Ovrean's name for our son; had we used my father's name, Searle never would have had a son named for his father."
Cladelia, grief-stricken as she was now, was still young and healthy and beautiful. Celina wouldn't dare mention it just yet--surely she would have clawed the eyes out of anyone who'd suggested it when she'd been mourning Dalston!--but she doubted very much that Cladelia would be unmarried for too many years. She would have a son named for her own father yet.
So, knowing that, Celina nodded. "Searle and his father were always close."
NEXT CHAPTER:
