All Standard Disclaimers Apply

Chapter 2

Similarities Naught

            "Mother?"  The dark-haired four-year-old called from her seat by the fireplace, her eyes brightened by the nighttime lamp light that she had always loved best. "Mother, are you well?"

            Victoria coughed and drank some of the herbal tea that Mrs. Collins had brought in for the sickly woman. Victoria was not well, and had not been in nearly two years, though her daughter would not yet understand why. It seemed to Leecy that her mother had never been well. At the very least not since the birth of her second child, a daughter named Aria, who Leecy now sat with by the fireside, observing her quietly.

            "Do not worry for your mother Leecy. She is a strong woman like you and Aria will be someday."  Mrs. Collins looked kindly at Leecy Delizabane as she walked through the room and the little girl smiled. Victoria gave a look of gratitude to the Mrs. Collins for reassuring her daughter. She set the tea down, wishing that she might have some medicine to make the sickness in her stomach release her for a time. But most medicines were forbidden in the Isle. Yet another small detail she had not been informed of when she was married to Merrick and brought to these strange Islands.

 Sitting on Leecy's lap, Aria fussed and flailed her little arms and Leecy put her down. The small red-haired toddler hopped up and down and clapped her chubby little hands at her old sister, indicating a request for a clapping game that Victoria sometimes played with her. Leecy looked at the child strangely, not understanding the point.  On the nearby sofa, Victoria looked up form her needlework and smiled down on her daughters. When the younger child tired of the attempted game she stood and stumbled around the room in an infant roaming, Mrs. Collins and Leecy kept close watch. At length Leecy took up a small book and began to read.  Delizabane children were always schooled into literacy from the earliest age and Leecy proved to be tenacious in her pursuits. This pleased Victoria, knowing it would serve them best in their lives; their mother wanted her daughters to be as prepared as they could possibly be. Merrick was in complete agreement. The field of education was the only area in which Merrick showed any interest in his daughters. Victoria frowned to ponder the additional education the children would have to endure, and which Leecy was already begun.

"There is no way around it Madame, my children, whether male or female will be schooled in the art of battle. They will have all the necessary skills required to lead and defend their country and the honor of this family."

 Victoria recalled her husband's words as they had been re-iterated before each birth or whenever she seemed to question the idea.

            Leecy lay down next to the fireplace with her book and rubbed her arms. Victoria suspected that they were sore again from the lesson she had had that morning. Merrick had given his oldest daughter a variety of firearms for her Christmas present and was now insisting that she have a lesson everyday on how to use them. The guns were far too heavy for a four-year-old to hold up for extended periods, but being told that it was a sign of weakness, Leecy was afraid to complain. Aria made her way over to her mother and held out her arms for the sickly women to pick her up. Her fingers wriggled and she hopped up and down to gain her mother's attention.

            "Leecy, take care of your sister for me" Victoria's voice was horse and nasal from her illness. Leecy rose promptly and gathered up the small child in her sore arms.  Aria accepted her older sister's embrace and wound her chubby fingers in Leecy's long dark curls. Leecy looked at the red tendrils framing the child's face and the bright blue green of her eyes. Her eyes contrasting eyes narrowed slightly. She did not like the difference. Aria already strongly resembled her mother with her red hair and light eyes. Analicia was undoubtedly her father's daughter. It was a secret hope of Victoria the lineage would be in appearance only. Knowing the tenacity of her family, that hope would never be reality.

"Leecy do not frown so at your sister. She is impressionable" Victoria silently reproached herself. She put too much on a four year old, thinking Leecy would understand her. Leecy was very bright, but not old enough to understand adult language.

            "I don't like her eyes" she muttered, surprising Victoria. Perhaps she has understood after all.

            "Why don't they look like mine?"

            "We are all of us different my little doll."

The answer did not satisfy. Leecy almost dropped her sister in a bit of disgruntled fashion. Aria squealed and cried.

"Analicia!" Victoria ceremoniously dropped her needle work and looked harshly on her daughter. The small child stood up defiantly and folded her arms proudly. She did not look to the ground but straight into her mother's angry face. Aria screamed on the ground.

Already so much like my father

"Come here Analicia!" Victoria ordered rising to her feet. Leecy stood for a moment, then her hands fisted by her side and she met her mother by the sofa where she had been sitting. Now her eyes went down upon the lightly colored carpet.

"You are too young yet to learn of our house's discipline Leecy."

The child made no response, but Victoria suspected her fists tightened.

"Why did you do that Analicia?"

Again Leecy said nothing and her dark eyes did not rise.

"Answer me Leecy!" Victoria shouted.

Silence.

"If not me you will answer to your father." She warned her.

Leecy's eyes shot up and looked clearly frightened.

"Tell me why."

Leecy chewed her bottom lip for a moment, debating with herself. Finally her eyes fell to the level or Victoria's waist. Not watching her eyes, nor sinking back to the floor.

"Not like mine" she said in a small whisper. Leecy never spoke much and rarely above a whisper when she did. It was not a display of fear on her part.

Victoria sighed in understanding. Then she began to cough. Her coughs consumed her for several minutes. The room was loud with the sounds of Victoria's illness and Aria neglected cries. Leecy did not move throughout. When Victoria had righted her breathing, she motioned for her daughter to come closer. Leecy obeyed carefully but did not look up when her mother grasped her hands and squeezed them gently.

"She is your sister. She is younger than you and needs care. It is the first and last of your responsibilities Leecy. Aria will always need you and you must always remember to care for her and to love her as well. I have all my faith in you my little doll. I know you will make me proud and that you will honor your family. You want that right?"

Leecy nodded compliantly but sincerely.

"It begins here Leecy, with your sister. She is the beginning of your responsibilities. If you can do right by her, than you can do anything else. She will grow under you. She will love and admire you, idolize you, strive to be like you. That is a tremendous duty that you will have to conduct with the utmost respect and maturity. Are you capable enough for this, Leecy? May we depend upon you?" She spoke in a light tone that would help the four year old wrap her mind around the concept. Leecy seemed motivated by the talk of honor and duty more than anything.

"Why do I have to do it …  Madame?" She answered in her small voice. But Victoria was wary of her answer. She called her by the name her husband used most of the time. Inside Victoria was a dread that Merrick had passed himself down into his eldest child. She didn't want any of her children to bear a manner like her husband, but especially not the Eldest Child.

The Isle did not need another Merrick Delizabane.

But she would not fear, for Leecy was special. She would not be like her father. Even if this strange illness progressed and took her life as the doctors feared, Victoria knew that Leecy would resist her father's dastardly influence. Oh she would be trained, that neither Analicia nor Aria would escape. But Leecy would be her own person. It was already evident. Victoria needed her to instill that independence in her sister.

I think even then she knew she would not live to do it herself

"I do not like her" Leecy folded her arms stubbornly. Victoria looked frustrated. She was a stubborn child, frequently obstinate and willful. Her inflexibility was too strong for her almost five years. But something about it did not trouble Victoria all that much. A noise from the door grabbed her attention.

'What trouble is this?" Merrick, dominating and large, loomed over the doorway. His black eyes scanned the room where his youngest daughter sat wailing, and his eldest scowling a hole into the ground. His wife made no movement to explain. Merrick both enjoyed and distained her fear of him.

"It was nothing Merrick, Arai simply fell over and Leecy did not reach her in time." Victoria moved to her husband's side, trying to distract him.

"Is that so Analicia?" he pushed his wife aside. The little girl rose to meet his gaze and just looked at him, their eyes matching colors. In the short years of her life the little girl had never had a confrontation with her father. Not because she feared him, but more because it never came up. Suddenly Victoria thought perhaps she should have taught Leecy to fear her father. But she knew that wouldn't have been right.

"Well" he became taller over the tiny girl. His voice grew in severity. Victoria held a breath, hoping Analicia would keep with the lie.

"I let her drop."  Merrick's arm shot out and took a tight hold on her slim arm.

"You did what?" he roared at her. With a rough torrent of violence he shook her arm until she lost balance. "You did what?"  Again and again. When she was on the ground, her free hand covering her face a little to hide from him, he stopped.  Merrick rose again, tall and overbearing, and insufferable to Victoria, who felt as though she might cry, but knew she could not.

"You did what?" he asked one last time, his voice more frightening then when he yelled. He was trying to scare her, trying to make her repeat the lie her mother had first told. That way he might punish her with reason.

Leecy's eyes rose again, they did not look afraid, but definitely distressed.

"I let her drop" she repeated, not as soundly as she had the first time.

Merrick's laughter wrung out and startled all in the room. Even Aria had fallen silent once her father had begun his assault. He patted Leecy's head and knocked her chin a little more roughly than he should.

"That's a good girl. That's a very good girl." He smiled, but it did not look like a real smile to Victoria. Leecy just watched his eyes carefully, and breathed hard through her nose.

Merrick's attention now focused on his wife. His gaze turned cold and foreboding. Victoria knew what was to come.

"Madame, come with me" He ordered in a way that would take no refusal. He walked passed her and out the door, and Victoria, breathing in deeply, obediently followed.

Alone in the room with her little sister, Leecy sat now staring at the door her parents had left through. Her eyes darted from one golden door hinge to another and her breathing slowed. When at it had been some time since the room had turned silent, she moved and held her sore little arm, bending it up and down several times. Her mind turned over what had happened as best it could. Then she looked over at her sister, who had taken to walking around the room again. She looked at the splay of red hairs that were growing all about her rather large head. Leecy's own fingers played through one of her dark curls and she thought again. She thought of her father's dark hair and eyes.

"Like mine" she muttered in a rough whisper. Again, Aria caught her eye.

"Not like mine" and to Leecy, that seemed much better. Slowly, she smiled.

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