26. Sheltered
He finds Mary sobbing in the library.
"Darling?" he asks, concerned. "What is it?"
She lifts her head and glares at him, cheeks red and dark eyes burning. "Granny told me!"
Robert is perplexed. "Granny told you what, dear?"
"That you and Mama didn't love each other!"
He resists the urge to groan. Mary has led a sheltered life, still harbouring dreams of marrying a prince-like figure for love, with no knowledge of how cruel the world can be. Of course his mother would feel the need to set the poor child right on the shades of grey that exist in the world.
"Your mama and I love each other very much," he tells her, gathering her up in his arms. "How do you think you and your sisters got here?" He closes his eyes briefly, wincing. That's certainly not a conversation he wants to have with her just yet.
Mary sniffles.
"You got here through love," he tells her. "Without it, you wouldn't be here." Not strictly true, but it will do for now. He's not going to say any more about it.
Finally, Mary gives her father her best watery smile; he knows that everything will be fine.
A/N: ...I cheated. I tried to keep this to one hundred words, I really did. But it kept going over and I didn't want to throw it away, so I made it two hundred words instead. At one time I was going to extend this into a full fanfic, but I don't really have the time to do that now. xD
But I do think that at one point Mary would've just been an ordinary little girl. I think it makes sense for her to have harboured dreams of love and marriage, even if they are destroyed for her one day.