"I'm not going to lie," Ishan said, staring in wonder at the baby in Scarlett's arms. "I'm a little bit in love with her. Is that normal?"
Scarlett smiled and kissed him. "If it's in the vein of "I can't beliebe my genes had a hand in this small piece of perfection', then yes, it is normal."91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbnl9vUOOR
Chika folded her arms. "Enough with the gushing," she said. "I'm warning you; you're still on thin ice, Destiny."91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTdCGXLeaDu
"Oh give it a rest for once in your life," Scarlett said wearily. "I've been on my best behaviour, and your 'unseen ears' have had precious little to report back to you, judging by the increasingly angrier scowls I've seen on your face lately."
"Drop it," Chika warned. Her tone suggested she was walking a thin tightrope between keeping calm and exploding. Scarlett wisely curbed her tongue. "Now," the feline woman said firmly. "You are going to name her Nimue."
That tightrope seemed as thin as a gossamer spider thread; Scarlett raised not a peep in protest. "That's as good a name as any," she said. "I can't think of a better one at the moment." Yet despite her urbanity, Chika looked ready to snatch baby Nimue from her mother's arms, and Scarlett buried a sigh in her daughter's bright hair as she realised she'd inadvertently roused her great-grandmother by referencing the futile spywork of her unseen ears. She vowed not to bring the subject up again. "Look, can we please bury the hatchet?" she said, as she got ready to nurse. "We got off on the wrong foot when you first got here, and I haven't made things better. I promise I'll be on better behaviour from this point onward."91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡICPCOoOMZf
To her surprise, Chika actually nodded. "Very well," she said, her voice still tight with anger, but calmer. "This is not the time for us to be at war." She turned and left the room, and Scarlett sighed again. 91Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPcEnlJKLWj
"She's pissed," Ishan agreed, putting a protective arm around his wife as she began nursing their daughter. "You know you've made it worse; she's going to be seething that you're not playing into her hands, and she's going to do anything to get you to blow your stack at her."
"I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night," Scarlett said tartly. "I know she's looking for an excuse to trip me up, and I know she's going to get angrier when I don't give her the satisfaction. It's my way of getting her wound up to the point where she makes a mistake and gets so angry she inadvertently trips herself up. I've learned a lot in the last year and a half; don't let them bait you, and soon they get bored. You've seen it; I've been the soul of kindness to everyone, including my esteemed grandfather, and I've got them all eating out of the palm of my hand. You've told me yourself their loyalty is real; Chika soon won't have a friend in the world to call her own, and when she does expose herself for the menace she is, everyone's going to be on my side, not hers."
Ishan nodded. Forest elves were the best bullshit-detectors in the world; better even than sun elves, having learned that the steadfast calm of the forest was the one sure way a forest elf could tell if someone was bullshitting them. Even sun elves - themselves the most expert bullshitters in the world - were no match for forest elves when it came to bullshit detection. Ishan had exhaustively scanned each member of the household after they'd warmed to Scarlett, and his connection to the forest had told him true; they were all on her side. Trees were the wisest creatures in the world; their roots went to the very core of a person and stripped everything away. Ishan couldn't help a small smirk as he kissed his wife. "I can't wait for that day," he said. "But we'd still be well-served to be prepared; a cornered animal is never more dangerous than when it has nothing to lose."
:"Like I said, I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night," Scarlett said in fond exasperation. But even she admitted her husband had a point; Chika was on edge. Being exposed for the menace she was would tip her over, and Scarlett admitted to herself a fear she couldn't even confide in her husband; that even his uncanny ability for getting right down to the heart of a person had failed.
So absorbed was she that she never saw the sad smile Ishan subsquently hid against her head. Nor did she sense the subtle sadness as he cradled his sleeping daughter in his arms, replete from her first feeding. And Ishan sighed as he admitted even he was scared he'd missed something. He didn't blame Scarlett for her worries; too many times in the past had someone been on her side, only to prove themselves a traitor. And as he held Nimue in his arms, Ishan vowed that he'd do everything in his power to make sure his wife, daughter and stepson were far away the day everything came to a head, as he knew it must.
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