2.
~ "Olivia, do you know who I am?" Arthur asked the prim little girl in a powder blue coat.
Olivia stared back at him with sad brown eyes. She looked older than a six year old. Like a grown woman in miniature.
"Yes, I have a photograph of you." Olivia said in a smart English accent.
"Yes." Arthur smiled and held out his hand to the child. Remembering how Ariadne made her kiss his picture good night.
"You're my father. Papa is my step father." Olivia said.
"He's not your papa." Arthur said coldly. He sat down in a chair so he could see Ariadne's wonderful little daughter eye to eye. "I'm you papa. You'll be coming to America to live with me. We'll go on a boat and you'll see New York."
"I don't suppose it will do any good at all to tell you I don't want to go." Olivia said sharply.
"You're just a child, and with your mother dead, you have to live with me." Arthur said sternly.
"I don't know you." she told him. "It would be my preference to live here."
"When you are eighteen and can do as you please, you may return to this house." Arthur said.
A flash of defiance came over Olivia's small face.
'Ariadne.' he thought and the pain in his chest loosened.
"Olivia, I loved your mother very much. We wanted to raise you here as a family, but things happened." Arthur explained.
"What things?" Olivia asked.
"Just things." Arthur told her.
"I won't know anyone in New York. Why can't Fel and Harold come with us?" Olvia asked.
"I thought you didn't like Harold." Arthur asked.
"He is scarcely tolerable, sir." Olivia said smartly and Arthur started to laugh.
"Olivia, we must train this old woman out of you." he said as he didn't miss Ariadne so much anymore.
"Papa calls me an old woman to. But I'm not so very old; I'll be seven in the spring time." Olivia said.
"When you were born, your mother saw your face and you whispered your name to her." Arthur told his daughter.
"How could I speak when I was just a baby?" Olivia asked.
"You had your ways. Your mother understood you and when you told her your name, we listened and named you Olivia." he said and longed to hold his child again.
"Mother never told me that." Olivia said.
"I have lots of stories about your mother to tell you." Arthur said. "One time she ran away from home to see a museum in Paris with only Maura for company."
"Were you cross with her?" Olivia asked suddenly very interested.
"Oh yes, but one can never be too angry with a lady like your mother." Arthur told the child.
"I miss mother." Olivia said.
"I miss her to."
"I shall miss my sister and Harold." Olivia said.
"Well, perhaps, we can visit during the summer." Arthur offered.
"You don't mean that. Adults promise things and never mean it. 'Perhaps' always means no." Olivia said and sulked.
"Well, when I promise you that you will see them again, you will, dearest." Arthur told her.
Olivia nodded.
"Will we have a house in New York?" she asked.
"Yes. A house and horses if you wish." Arthur told her.
"I don't like riding or sporting. I hate getting dirty." Olivia told him.
"I hate getting dirty to. I think you get it from me." Arthur said.
"I'm glad. I was never like mother, although I aspired to be. She was so perfect." Olivia told him.
Arthur smiled. His lovely, imperfect wife would seem wonderful to their daughter.
"Yes." he whispered. "Yes she was."
~ "I suppose it's no good asking you to have a heart. I doubt you even have one." Eames said as Olivia was packed in the car and waved at her younger sister and Harold.
"I have a heart." Arthur told him bitterly. "I gave it to the girl you buried in the church yard."
The two men glared at one another.
"I've promised Olivia she could come and see her sister and Harold over the summer. I plan to keep that promise." Arthur said.
"You mean if I'm not too much of a drunk?" Eames asked.
"Ariadne wrote to me that you were better. But I can't leave my child with you. In a perfect world, I would take Harold and Felicity with me to. I think we both know I'm the better father to them. You could always sign your rights over to me. Then you would be free to do as you pleased." Arthur offered.
Eames glared at his cousin.
"Olivia is welcome over summer holidays, sir. But you are not." he said coldly.
"Very well." Arthur said curtly.
"She died calling for you." Eames said suddenly as Arthur made to leave.
Arthur stopped and looked back at Eames.
"She never called for me. Only called for you, her mother, Maura and water in the end." Eames clarified.
"Please tell me you gave her water." Arthur snapped. "Tell me you didn't let her suffer."
"Maura took care of her." Eames said.
"Yes, as I've suspected she will have to care for Felicity now. You won't be able to. I've instructed her to contact me as soon as you fail the innocent child. Felicity may be your offspring, but I was willing to claim her and Harold as my own once, and I'll do it again. She's still Ariadne's child." Arthur told him.
"Go to hell, Arthur." Eames spat and stormed back into his house.
He had writing to do.
~ END ~
I know. It's hard to end it on this note, but this is where this part ends. I will do another part. One whee the children, including James and Phillipa are grown and return to Blue Rivers. Maybe they find out the truth the adults have kept from them.