House of Cards Contributions Log

Girls Will Be Boys

posted by Tara at 02:20 PM, March 09, 2004 | Filed under : Fiction | Comments and Followups

Lilly’s arrival at the Tecy’s estate was not the ideal situation she would have you believe. Indeed it took quite some time for her to adjust. The following story tells of how she and her foster father Mallett began their understanding of one another.

He hated himself for it. He truly did. In the days after Lilly’s arrival all he could do was wish she had been a boy. Boys he understood. He always wanted to raise a son, to teach him the family business. With luck the boy would not have only been skilled at creating blades but at using them as well. Perhaps someday his son would have been a great knight. Now he had been given a child; someone to foster and to pass his knowledge onto. The problem? He was a she. This deeply disappointed him. He hated that he felt that way, hated that he could not simply enjoy what they had been given like his wife Jade Smith had.

Not only was she a girl, but she was thin and frail. The child looked as if she might blow away in a strong wind. She barely spoke and never looked directly into the eyes of anyone. When Jade tried to touch her, she backed away. Meals were an ordeal of sorts. Lilly would only eat if no one was looking. Then she would quickly eat as much as she could as quickly as possible using only her hands. At night she rocked back and forth on the floor, often crying silent tears. Anything Jade tried to do to comfort her only caused the girl to cry out and scamper away into a corner. Indeed the whole situation seemed quite hopeless to Mallett.

For weeks this went on. Jade insisted things would be fine. Mallett hoped for his wife’s sake that she was right. The first day Lilly had let them do what was needed without protest. As time wore on though, every little thing became a battle. “It’s a good sign,” Jade would tell him. He didn’t have the heart to let her know just how much he disagreed. But his wife persevered combining discipline with love. Slowly the tantrums became fewer. Eventually the child retreated into the near silence of the first day of her arrival. Lilly was nearly unresponsive to most everything. They both had begun to worry that she might have taken several steps backwards once again.

The one day two men came to the house in need of weapon repairs. Outside they exchanged good natured barbs with Mallett. Evidently Lilly did not find them nearly as humorous as the men did. She appeared from seemingly no where, dragging a sword along the ground. Instinctively she positioned herself between her foster father and the perceived enemies. “Leave… Him… Alone,” she said in a serious tone that sent shivers down Mallett’s spine. “I not let you hurt.”

At that moment Mallett stopped thinking about her gender. She was the daughter of Prince Benedict. He should never have doubted that she would be able to follow in his footsteps. “Lilly, it is very brave of you to come to my aid,” he said gently. “However these men are my friends. They will not hurt anyone, I promise. Now why don’t you give me the sword?”

Lilly simply shook her head.

“Please?” He tried.

No good. She shook her head again the look of determination growing on her face.

“All right,” Mallett replied. He needed to try a different approach. How would he get Benedict to give up a sword? That’s it, he thought. “How about this? You give me the sword, and I promise to use it to defend against these gentlemen if they get out of hand. In return, I will find you a sword that you can carry and teach you to use it so that you will not have to rely upon me to do the defending anymore.”

She cocked her head to the side, clearly thinking about this. Mallett had to fight back the smile. Here he and Jade had been considering that she might be a bit simple. Obviously that was not the case. For the first time, she allowed her eyes to meet his as she looked him for several seconds more. Finally she nodded once and thrusted her arm forward so that she was handing him the hilt of the blade. Immediately he took it with a grateful sigh. Once the sword had been handed over, she immediately began walking towards his work area leaving Mallett with no choice but to follow.

Explaining to his wife why their young foster daughter was carrying a blade, even though it was only a wooden practice blade, was not an easy task. At first Jade had tried to talk Lilly into giving it up. The girl would have none of that. She got up from her chair and stood beside Mallett, almost daring Jade to try to do something. This time there was no hiding the smile on his face. “Just think of it as a security blanket,” he told his concerned wife.

“Some security blanket,” she responded but he could tell she was already giving in.

0 Comments

Monthly Archives (Last 5)

February 2007
December 2006
October 2006
September 2006
July 2006

Powered by Movable Type 3.33 and the HiveMind of the House of Cards GM team