Later that day, henry arrived back at the carriage house. He stood just outside listening to the sound of female laughter and singing. For the briefest of seconds, his face showed a genuine smile of pure and untainted pleasure, something that had almost never happened in his life. Then, he regained control of himself and entered the room.
"Grandpa!" Eliza cried happily.
The little girl leaped up from the stool beside Katrina and flew to Henry's side. As Katrina watched anxiously, the child hugged Henry very tightly. The old man patted the child's head, but his eyes never left Katrina's face.
"I trust she was a good girl today, Mother?" Henry asked Katrina.
"She has been a little angel," Katrina responded, still watching the old man who was her son with troubled eyes.
Henry gently pried the little girl's arms from around his waist.
"Why don't you go and wait outside for a moment, my Dear. I believe Granny Katrina wishes to have a word with me in private."
Eliza pulled a face.
"Oh, grown up things again," she groaned. "Yes, Grandpa."
"And don't go running off," Henry instructed the girl as she skipped out the door.
Once the child was gone, he turned back to Katrina.
"Is there a problem, Mother?" Henry asked innocently.
"Who is she, Jeremy."
"Didn't she tell you? Her name is Eliza—"
"Yes, yes, Eliza Parrish. She told me all that," Katrina cut in.
"But who is she, really? To whom does she belong, Jeremy?"
Henry put on an exaggerated hurt expression.
"If you are implying that I have somehow kidnapped the child, Mother, you are very much mistaken yet again. I can promise you that both her parents are long dead."
Katrina gave him a long searching look. By your hand or by Abrahams perhaps? That look seemed to ask. Henry stood unflinching under her gaze, but offered no other explanations of the little girl's origins.
"How long have you had custody of her?" Katrina asked.
Henry thought back.
"Oh, it must be about five years now. How the time does fly by."
"Does Ichabod know of her?" Katrina asked.
Henry's face hardened in an instant, and Katrina regretted asking the question.
"And why should he need to know, Mother? He has far too many other things on his mind right now to concern himself with the daily well-being of a child. Besides, I'm hardly likely to ask him or Abigail or her delinquent sister to babysit, am I."
"I am sure if you were to ask, Ichabod would be quite willing," Katrina murmured sadly. When her son did not respond, she took that to be a firm no, and immediately dropped the subject.
"I suppose you'll be wanting me to tend her again?" Katrina inquired, trying not to sound too hopeful or excited.
Henry grinned at her.
"Well, if it's no terrible inconvenience, Mother. I know what a busy schedule you have—"
"Oh, stop it, Jeremy!" Katrina shot back at him. Her eyes blazed with suppressed anger, and her son took half a step away from her.
"For the love of God, please do not turn this child in to a tool for your bitterness and anger"
"You know my opinion about God and his so-called love," Henry declared coldly.
"But getting back on topic, yes, I would appreciate it if you could watch Eliza for me during the daytime. I have so many other things that need tending, you know. Things Eliza does not need direct involvement with."
"So I mind your Granddaughter … or whatever she is to you, meanwhile you destroy the rest of the world."
Henry shrugged.
"So melodramatic, Mother. Just consider it time well spent getting to know your own great grandchild. Eliza has such a soothing presence about her, a little angel as you put it. She can take your mind off of your own impending, um, impending troubles."
Katrina opened her mouth, but Henry was already out the door. She heard him calling to the little girl. Rushing to a window, she watched as Jeremy scooped the child up in his arms and disappeared.
"Are they gone?" Abraham's voice startled Katrina and she turned towards him, quickly closing the window although the light was now very dim.
"Yes," she sighed wearily. "And I want an explanation from you, Abraham. How could you speak to that child with such venom? How could you menace her like that?"
Abraham came to stand fully in front of his love, and Katrina was surprised to see him look ashamed.
"She is a lovely little thing," Abraham mused almost to himself. "I always hoped our own daughters would be as lovely as that child."
"That is not an answer, Abraham," Katrina demanded stubbornly.
The Horsemen of death shrugged.
"I wasn't trying to menace her," Abraham said sheepishly. "I … I forgot that she cannot see me. I was just trying to ask her why she had come."
"But you know her, don't you?"
Abraham shook his head a little sadly.
"No, no, I swear I really do not know the child at all, Katrina. All I know of her is that Lord Moloch gave her as a present, or a bribe, or perhaps a hostage, and your son is raising her … and that I killed her Father two centuries ago a few short hours after he had murdered his own daughter."
Katrina's eyes widened. Abraham paused dramatically, then went on,
"Yes, Katrina. A daughter who was very very much with child."
