Harris stared at the two children over the table. Blinking very slowly.

“Tam?”

“Yes?”

“When… Were there two of them?”

Penelope’s gaze shot up from her meal and she eyed the duke much in the way she would an idiot.

When Tam had tried to explain to Harris earlier that they had discovered a child below deck, he hadn’t gotten very far in the explanation before getting bombarded with lessons on steering.

Then Eli had come and she’d had to learn.

Until eventually it was nearly dinner time and Tam had to cook while Eli steered and Harris helped himself to more moonshine nearby. Only the children hadn’t come up to greet Harris as Penelope had been having a bath, and Tam had kept Luca nearby to make sure he wouldn’t try to eat any other random food they hadn’t cleaned up.

All of this meant that it wasn’t until the freshly scrubbed Penelope—who wore a clean white long tunic with a rope around her waist— was seated across from the mildly inebriated duke that Lord Oscar Harris laid eyes on her.

“You didn’t notice her before? She’s Luca’s sister,” Tam lied just to see how inebriated the duke was.

Penelope revealed how quick-witted she was as she stared at Tam flatly, and Luca grinned excitedly.

“Why is it everytime you leave my sights you have another child? I swear that one wasn’t here before.” Harris squinted at Penelope. “Though your mother, Tam, will be over the moon to finally have a granddaughter… She might even forget to kill you for having them while unmarried.”

Chuckling and shaking his head, Tam proceeded to spoon out the cooked beets and sausages he had prepared with some kimchi he had located below deck.

“What is that?” Harris asked, curling his lip at the brilliant red beets.

“Vegetables,” Penelope contributed while looking disapprovingly at the Daxarian duke.

Harris pointed a fork at her. “Name?”

“Penelope.”

Harris squinted at her. “You’re feisty. I like you.”

“You’re drunk.” Penelope gave a derisive scoff and rolled her eyes.

Harris grinned. “Yeup. You’re exactly the kind of kid that goes places. Though dial down the rudeness just a bit around strangers.”

“She’s testing us, Harris. To see if we really are as harmless as we say we are,” Tam reasoned while leveling Penelope with a knowing look.

She frowned back at him.

From her place at the helm, Eli glanced over her shoulder at them and gave the back of Penelope’s head a very tense look.

Tam bit back a smile. He had a hunch that Penelope would soon be hearing the same lectures Luca had about manners and respectfulness somewhere down the line…

“We found Penelope below deck as a prisoner. We’ll try and get her back to her family. Kat can probably help,” Tam said while cutting into his dinner.

Harris didn’t answer straight away as he was sniffing the beets dubiously.

“Penelope, do you have anyone that you know in Zinfera? If not, you might have to come to Daxaria with us while we sort out where your family is in Troivack.” Tam directed the question at the little girl who had tucked into her meal without complaint, and also revealed surprisingly polished dinner etiquette.

But at the mention of Daxaria, Penelope recoiled.

“Something wrong…?” Tam asked carefully.

“My… My mother and father hate Daxaria. And all Daxarians.” Her dark eyes turned intent as her brows lowered into an ominous look. “Are you all… Daxarians?”

“Eli is originally from Zinfera, but both Lord Oscar Harris and myself are from Daxaria, yes,” Tam responded, keeping his tone even.

The little girl turned to Luca. “When you were talking about your mother’s pub… You meant back in Daxaria?”

“Yes?” Luca looked perfectly confused as to why that came as a surprise. It didn’t help that he had one cheek stuffed to the point of nearly bursting.

Penelope’s nose scrunched up in disgust.

Tam leaned back in his seat and observed the child in silence for a time. “Have you ever met any Daxarians before?” he decided to try and turn the discussion onto a more positive route.

Penelope’s jaw worked and her attention grew fixated on her plate. “Maybe.”

The future duke finished swallowing his food. “Well, I’d like to think I’m not the worst.”

“That one’s annoying,” Penelope grumbled while pointing her fork at Harris whose lips were stained red as he made a healthy dent in his serving of beets.

“That isn’t very kind of you,” Tam said quietly.

She squirmed.

Evidently she wasn’t used to being reprimanded by a stranger in front of more strangers. All of whom were Daxarian.

“So what? I only need to be nice to my family.”

“That isn’t true.” This time it was Luca who interrupted. “Unless people are mean first, then you should be nice.”

“Not everyone who is mean acts mean,” Penelope retorted sharply while rounding on Luca.

“That may be true, but do you want to be mean?” Tam continued staring levelly at the little girl.

He watched as she lowered her fork and shrank back in her seat. “I’d rather be mean and alive than nice and dead.”

No one spoke.

The hurt and bitterness in Peneleope’s voice sobered the mood drastically.

Lowering his fork slowly, then plucking up his black napkin up to wipe his mouth, Harris turned to the little girl.

“There are times to be mean and times to be nice. Being nice makes things happy. But you are right that sometimes it is better to be mean, Miss Penelope.”

At this, the girl relaxed fractionally.

Seeing this, the duke leaned his forearms on the table and continued. “For example… There once was a young woman I loved very much. Her name was Hannah.”

Tam tilted his head. Where in the world was he going with this?

“When she first got hired at the castle in Austice— that’s in Daxaria— she was the opposite of you, Penelope. She tried to be nice and sweet to everyone so that other people would be nice and sweet to her back. It was her own way of trying to survive, because you see, sometimes when you’re mean it draws meaner people to you.”

Penelope stilled as she listened.

“But then… Some not very nice knights started thinking they could do whatever they wanted to her, say anything they wanted to her, and she would just keep being nice.”

Penelope glowered at this part of the story.

“Well. Tam there—yes that man sitting over there—his father told off those knights. And he explained what they did wrong. At first, they didn’t care, and wanted to bully him.”

Penelope looked at Tam only briefly before she continued fixing her attention on Lord Harris.

“But when they were mean first? Tam’s da was meaner back, and they still thought it was okay to be mean to Hannah because, well, she wasn’t ever mean back to them like Tam’s father was. Until one day, she had enough, and she screamed at them and threatened them, and she was utterly terrifying.” A dreamy smile took over Harris’s face. “Soon, everyone was mean. But being mean takes a lot of energy, and so, eventually, the knights started being nice, and then Tam’s father started being nice, and Hannah… Well, she was nice, but she had learned to be mean at the right time.”

The little girl gaped at Harris, her eyes wide, and her feelings unclear.

“So. Hearing this story, there are two things you need to learn. The first: being mean typically has two outcomes. Someone is going to be meaner, or you are going to scare someone off. Just like being nice means sometimes people are going to be nice back, or they are going to be mean.”

Penelope waited patiently for the second point.

“The second lesson here is, depending on what you want from other people, you have to determine what you’re going to be.”

Tam wasn’t sure how this wisdom was going to go over with an eight year old, no matter how mature she may seem.

“How do you want us to treat you?” Lord Harris continued. “Do you want us to be nice to you? Or do you want us to be scared off by you?”

Penelope’s mouth pursed and twisted in thought. She didn’t share her answer, but she didn’t cuss out the duke, either.

The rest of the dinner passed by mostly in silence, until everyone’s plates were scraped clean, and Tam started to fix a plate for Eli before taking over the helm of the ship to give her a break.

“Thank you for dinner. And for letting me out of the cage,” Penelope said softly to Tam.

He smiled at her. “You are most welcome. Did you like the food?”

Her face scrunched up. “I don’t like beets.”

Tam laughed. “That’s fine. I’ll try and cook other things for you in the future. Besides,” he leaned down and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I think Lord Harris loves them. So we can just make him eat them.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Before she could stop herself, the little girl let out a giggle.

Tam straightened just in time for Luca to skip up beside Penelope. “Dad! Are we going to hear about the stars tonight?”

He glanced up at the darkening sky to see that there were indeed two constellations already rising above them.

“We could do that. But it will have to be later. I’m going to be steering soon.”

“Awe…” Luca’s shoulders slumped.

“Do you want to play a game?” Penelope ventured while feigning a careless air.

Luca rounded on her eagerly. “Yeah! What kind of game? I only know how to play hide and seek and tag.”

“You also know how to leap frog,” Tam reminded his son fondly.

Luca grinned. “Oh yeah! Jeong and Bong taught me! Here, I’ll show you!”

Penelope didn’t look particularly enthused about this new game, but she still followed Luca down to the main deck—-though it wasn’t at the breakneck pace Luca took on.

Smiling, Tam felt yet another knot in his chest loosen as he watched the two children depart.

It was hard to believe seeing his son find a playmate would bring him any measure of peace given the day they’d had.

Giving his head a shake, Tam turned to Eli who didn’t look back at him, and was reminded he should be feeling a lot more tense.

They still hadn’t resolved their earlier discussion about past romantic partners…

Ducking his head in what he hoped would appear a contrite look, Tam made his way over to his assistant.

“I got you some dinner. I can take over for the next while.”

“The winds are changing,” Eli informed him cooly.

“Ah… I’ll watch out for that. Thank you for letting me know.”

She said nothing, nor did she let go of the wheel spindles.

“I’m sorry for my jokes earlier.”

“You weren’t joking. You genuinely couldn’t remember every woman you’ve bedded,” Eli reminded him curtly.

Tam coughed and started to rub the back of his neck with his free hand. “Er… Three. I’ve been with three women. Luca’s mother was the first… I courted a girl a few months later who wanted to get married and have children, and it was around the time my first nephew was born. After seeing my sister give birth I was relatively certain I was nowhere near ready for that kind of thing so that relationship ended. Then years later I—uh— I’m not proud of it, but I had a one night encounter with a woman.”

“So you could have other children out in the world?”

“No, no. I occasionally cross paths with the second lady. She works as a merchant in Austice. She’s married with her own two children now. You actually would’ve met her when picking up moonshine for the—” Tam stopped talking as Eli’s head whipped around at this new information. He decided the only way to make the moment end quicker was to conclude his sexual history as efficiently as possible while giving out very few details. “The last woman was… Erm… Older. She couldn’t have… children… anymore… when we…”

Eli frowned at him.

“She lives in Sorlia?” Tam finished awkwardly.

“Did you love any of these women?” Eli questioned.

Tam knew a smarter man would’ve lied. But he wanted to be a good man more than a smart one.

“I loved the second woman. Mary. We courted for seven months.”

Eli looked ahead of herself again.

“Have you ever loved someone?” Tam dared to ask.

“Not really. I had an infatuation or two, but nothing like love.”

“Ah.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“It’s intimidating enough… The idea that you… we… do… that. But it is even more unpleasant to think how you have something to compare it to,” Eli explained stiffly.

Tam moved around the helm to place himself directly in front of Eli, his expression stern. “Every person and relationship is different. And the differences in ours has made it so that you’re the first woman I actually have wanted to marry and have children with.”

Eli blushed.

“Now, go eat dinner. I’ll take the next shift.” Tam jerked his chin toward the table where Lord Harris was already asleep beside the lantern he had lit.

Nodding, Eli stepped back and accepted the plate Tam offered to her while he took the wheel.

He gave her a warm smile, and adjusted his focus to the compass on top of the wheel’s post to ensure that the hand off hadn’t put them too off course.

“Tam?”

“Mm?”

“What if we… What if we shared a bed without Luca later.”

“Ah, was he kicking you in his sleep? He did that to me a few times on our way here and I had to make him cut his toenails.” Tam sighed at the painful memory.

“No… I… Maybe I want to… To try being closer with you.”

Tam went rigid.

His eyes widened.

How did breathing work again?

He cleared his throat, and slowly turned to look at Eli.

She was fidgeting something fierce, but she locked eyes with him.

Tam vaguely recalled to inhale and exhale before speaking. “Uh… Are you… Uh. Are you sure?”

She considered the question, then nodded.

Tam felt his face flush, then the blood started to make its way elsewhere.

“What about… Um…” Tam glanced over his shoulder at Harris who was snoring soundly, but still dropped his voice. “What about contraceptives?”

Eli inched closer to Tam. “I know my cycle and… it’d be safe.”

“Right… Right…. Ah. Right. Well. Later? Tonight?”

“I-if that’s alright.”

“More than alright,” Tam reassured swiftly. “But can I ask… why… now…?” He sincerely hoped he wasn’t slapping a gift horse in the face, but he really wanted to be sure she was ready for what she was asking.

“It feels like we just took in another child and we haven’t even gotten intimate yet. It just seems to me that we are all… backwards.”

“We don’t have to adopt her. She probably has family.”

“I know… But it is also that I… I’ve wanted to do that with you for a while, and I guess I… I don’t have a better reason than that. I just want to.”

Tam took in a heavy breath of air. “I am… very happy about this, really. But I just want to… to remind you that my family has… err… a strong propensity to have an easy time conceiv—”

“I know.”

“Right.” Tam licked his lips, searching for his next words. “And if that does happen… You’re okay… with… it?”

“Like I said we should be fine with my cycle, but if it happens we can… We can deal with it then.”

Tam opened and closed his mouth. “We are in the middle of a war and a rebellion, so I just—”

“Do you not want to?” Eli started to shy away and Tam instantly panicked.

“No! I do! I promise I very much so do!” Realizing his voice had risen in volume inadvertently, Tam brought it back down to its previous hush. “I just want to make sure we are on the same page about everything.”

“We’re already parenting a child through this whole event. It wouldn’t be ideal, but we seem to be doing just fine. Besides. We could always abandon our plans and run off to Lobahl and start a new life there.” Eli shrugged.

Tam slid a knowing glance at her. “You’ve actually thought out a plan like that, haven’t you?”

“I hear once you convince the Lobahlan government to let you in, it’s a wonderful place to live,” she answered innocently.

Tam grinned. “Alright. We share a bed. And if we wind up having a child, we leave the political fire we started and just start a new life. Sounds like a plan with no consequences or problems whatsoever.”

Eli drifted closer to Tam, rose up onto her toes, leaned in, and whispered. “You know how adept I am at planning.”

Gods help him.

Tam’s right knee buckled.

Only Eli could make talk about careful planning so seductive.

Tam coughed, and Eli smiled as she slid away from him. Apparently she knew exactly what she was doing.

With his head swimming with all sorts of incoherent thoughts, Tam struggled to keep his eyes and mind on the very crucial task of steering the ship. Sensing that he was struggling to keep his attention fixed on his present task, Eli left Tam to find a seat at the table to eat.

Gulping down a much needed dose of cold air, Tam wasn’t all that surprised to discover that as adventurous as his day had been thus far, he suddenly found that he was brimming with newfound energy.

It was almost impressive… Though it wasn’t entirely unexpected.