As was their way, for he took pains to make certain she had no idea that moments of preciousness would one day be hard to come by, so you should take the time to savor them when you had them, she pulled away first and demanded to know, “Isn’t this land splendid?”

“It is, indeed, my little beauty,” he agreed.

“They live in the trees!” she cried.

He smiled at her. “As I’ve seen.”

“And everywhere is so green,” she carried on.

“I’ve noted that as well, my darling.”

“And you would really not believe what these ladies can do with their bows and swords and staffs,” she shared excitedly.

He actually would.

“Is that so,” he replied.

“It is! It is so!” she exclaimed. “It’s no wonder they always beat Uncle Trajan.”

He grinned at her. “Yes, they are most fearsome.”

“No, they aren’t. They’re lovely to me,” she contradicted.

“I am most glad to hear that.”

And he was. He would never imagine Ophelia or the Sisterhood would be anything less to his daughter.

But he was still pleased to hear, and see from her behavior, that she had been treated well. And he made note to express his gratitude to Ophelia for that.

“I think it was Uncle Trajan they didn’t like,” she decided. “I was only four when he was gone but I do remember him being in a foul mood most of the time. Unless he was being mean to somebody,” she remarked. “He quite enjoyed that.”

And that was his wee Aelia.

She didn’t miss a trick.

Even when she was four.

She abruptly changed subjects, as was her way.

“Did you get me a present?”

“Are you my dearest daughter?”

She giggled and patted his beard. “I’m your only daughter, silly.”

Before he could reply to that, his body locked when he heard the words she spoke as she carried on.

“No, wait! That’s my new sister!” she yelled, twisting in his arms and pointing to the pretty blonde girl he’d seen with Elena many weeks before. “Her name is Theodora and she can already ride a real horse, not just a pony.” She twisted back to Cassius. “And she’s my friend!”

“Well, isn’t that grand,” he muttered, keeping his emotions carefully in check, for he had not informed his daughter any of this was happening.

Though his gaze sliced to Elena, who was standing not close, but not far.

He saw her eyes on him and she appeared torn between some soft emotion that was strong enough not to let go even though the emotion warring with it was the fact that she was exceptionally angry.

He would know why when she looked away and growled, actually growled, “Mother.”

“She needed to know,” a stately voice came from behind his daughter from a person he could not see, but he knew was Ophelia.