Iylaine acts her age

“Oh – Iylaine!” Lady Luitgarde said with a timid smile.

Iylaine had only been walking through the screened passage on her way to the dining hall, perhaps, or to the kitchen stairs, but she stopped in the doorway out of a sullen sort of obedience. “What?” she snapped.

Lili climbed awkwardly to her feet. The girl was already several inches taller than she when they were both standing: she scarcely dared face her from the couch.

They were also very nearly the same age, and she knew that Iylaine resented being asked to treat her with the respect owed her stepmother – for that and possibly for other reasons.

“I had only been wondering where you were,” Lili said, as lightly as she could.

“I was in the stable.”

“I see. So, I – ”

“Malcolm just left,” she interrupted. “So you can stop watching me now!”

“I wasn’t watching you, dear… I only wondered…”

“What’s the matter?” the girl snarled and stomped into the hall. “Do I still have straw in my hair?” she asked and savagely mussed her own hair. “Did I lace my dress up wrong? Did I leave my shift behind?” She lifted the edge of her skirt to show the pale linen beneath.

“No, but – oh, Iylaine! You wouldn’t!” Lili quavered.

She did not know what the girl would do, and she was intimidated by Iylaine and unnerved by her golden-​​eyed sweetheart. She also had the idea that Egelric expected her, because she was lady of the house, to keep an eye on his daughter when he was out.

“I wouldn’t?” Iylaine laughed sarcastically. “No, I wouldn’t! But who are you to be giving me lessons in propriety, Lady Luitgarde?”

“I’m not – ”

“After what you did to my father! At least Malcolm wants me for wife! But perhaps I’d better marry him before your sneaking sister tricks him, too!”

The girl was unaccountably furious, and trembling in her fury. Lili knew that she had not wanted to come visit – she never did – but she did not know why she had suddenly gone savage. Lili cowered away from her. She did not know what the girl would do. Perhaps she would scratch or kick.

Iylaine was so furious and Lili so frightened that neither had noticed Iylaine’s father had come to stand in the doorway of the hall.

Lili saw him first. “Egelric!” she cried as if she were crying for help.

Iylaine started to turn, but he had crossed the floor in a few long strides and grabbed her by the arm to spin her around the rest of the way.

For the first time Lili saw her husband in all his fury. If she had not known he was not truly Iylaine’s father, she would have said she could see from whom the girl had inherited her temper.

And for the first time Lili saw Iylaine intimidated and even afraid. She seemed to be growing smaller, melting beneath his hot gaze.

“I have nothing to say to you now,” he snarled through clenched teeth. “Go to your room, and stay there until I send for you!”

Iylaine seemed relieved to be granted an opportunity to escape, and she ran for the stairs as soon as he had spoken. Egelric stared after her, still panting, still with his fists and jaw clenched and the muscles standing out on either side of his neck.

He only relaxed when one of Lili’s slight movements caused her gown to sweep against the floor.

“Lili,” he said gently and took her into arms that were trembling now. “I’m sorry. Please don’t listen to her. She’s my own self at that age. She’s unhappy and angry at the world, as I was. I raised her as I was raised, and so I raised her all wrong. You must help me with our baby. You must be a good and sweet mother to him. It is what she and I never had.”

For the first time Lili saw her husband cry.