Family Matters

Writers: Heather, Paula, Suzee
Date Posted: 4th November 2015

Characters: Mirdella, Demir, Rethisa, Mirrys, Indel, Indella
Description: Family interaction.
Location: Hidden Meadows
Date: month 2, day 2 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Kobias, Zathris

Demir

Mirdella was dying out of curiosity. What kind of woman had her
brother married? Her presence meant that Mirdella's chances to push
her husband to Holder's position were lessened, which made her vexed.
None of it showed though. She was as meticulous as always, every lock
of blond hair in their place, her dress wellmade and good quality but
not too fancy, she was wearing just right amount of jewelry to show
she was woman of good taste and high rank.

"Hurry up, children, we're meeting your uncle's new wife," she chivyed
her three children along. "Indel, did you have to tear a hole to your
pants just today?" She chided the eldest.

"Sorry, mom, I fell," Indel replied.

"Mirrys, do something to that messy hair of yours. At least you're
looking perfect, Indella," she continued and smiled proudly to her
little girl. She beamed back. Then Mirdella reached to smooth down
Mirrys' hair.

Although Rethisa wanted to hide in her room until after the baby was
born, she knew that the longer she stayed holed up the more people
would talk about her. She had managed to avoided people for the first
couple of days after arriving by using the excuse that the trip had
tired her out and she needed some time to rest.

**People are going to talk, Rethisa, there's nothing you can do about
it.** She scolded herself as she turned in the mirror and regarded
herself. Allera, as usual, had done a wonderful job tailoring the
finely made turquoise dress into something that was figure flattering,
even if there was no way to hide her now very pregnant belly.

"It's just breakfast with Demir's family. You can do this." She said
to her reflection.

Smoothing a tendril of her platinum, blonde hair behind her ear,
Rethisa left her room and traveled across the hall to the parlor where
the Holder's family could dine apart from the rest of the Hidden
Meadow residents.

Mirdella turned to watch when she heard the door open. Being woman and
mother herself, she spotted her condition right away.

**Well, well, well, this is interesting!**

Demir was a little late arriving but appeared right behind Rethisa.
"Good morning Mirdella," he said with a smile then leaned over to kiss
his wife's cheek. "Sweetheart," he smiled and put his arm around her
waist to guide her to the proper place at the table.
"Good morning, Demir," Mirdella chirped to her brother. She smiled politely
for the another blond woman. "Rethisa, it's such a pleasure to finally meet
you. I'm Mirdella, Demir's little sister and these are my children: Indel,
Mirrys and Indella." While she handled the introductions, she kept
wondering. Had her brother managed to knock her up on some of their earlier
meeting or did she fool him to marrying her while carrying someone else's
child? Since Mirdella didn't know for sure when the two of them had met for
the first time, she had find it out some other way.
Having been born and raised at Jade Harbor, Rethisa knew exactly what
etiquette required of her as a lady, and she smiled easily at Mirdella,
even though she didn't feel it on the inside, "It is a pleasure to meet you
as well, Mirdella." Her green eyes flickered to the three children standing
with her sister-in-law, "And what beautiful children you have, you must be
so proud."

"Thank you, Rethisa. They are my joy indeed," Mirdella replied.

"And soon we'll have our own and your children will have a new cousin,"
he said with a smile at his wife. His heart felt torn but that didn't show
as he doted on her in front of his sister. "What would you like to eat," he
asked before moving to the sideboard with his back turned to the ladies and
children. His eyes closed and he stood there motionless for a moment
before he grabbed a plate. **I can do this.**

"Yes, that will be wonderful," Mirdella replied. For a while she was quite
busy, getting her children seated and breakfast set in front of them.

"Do tell me when you need a midwife, I can warmly recommend mine. She did
so wonderful job with my difficult pregnancies," she said with a sweet
voice.

"Thank you Mirdella," Demir smiled. He'd let Rethisa decide what was best
for her but in the meantime he filled his plate and hers from what he'd
remembered she had eaten in the past. "Here you go darling," he said with a
newly weds besotted smile and slid the plate in front of her.

Mirdella observed them discreetly. It annoyed her that her brother seemed
so happy.

Rethisa's smile didn't quite reach her eyes as she tried to return Demir's
look when he set her plate down. She wished that he would just scorn her
publicly, treat her the way he really wanted to, all of this "pretend
happiness" was too hard to deal with when she knew it would be turned off
as soon as they returned to their quarters.

"Thank you, dear." She murmured.

Mirdella thought she saw coldness in her eyes, but couldn't be sure. "So,
Rethisa, where did you come from, originally?" she asked.

"My father is the Lord of Jade Harbor." she said to Mirdella, giving her
new in-law a polite smile. "It was lovely growing up beside of the ocean."
It wasn't necessarily the truth. The ocean had been beautiful, true, but
from the time she had hit puberty Rethisa's father had been making deals to
marry her off to the highest bidder. There hadn't been much time to enjoy
the beach during that time.

"Wow, you're Lord Zathris' sister then," Mirdella was awed. And cursing her
rotten luck. Her brother had really scored big time. She could see Hidden
Meadows slipping farther and farther away from her. The Lord Holder would
be favouring his brother-in-law.

"Yes, Zathris is one of my older brothers." She didn't mention it, but she
had always been so close to Zathris because they shared the same biological
parents. There were several half-siblings that Rethisa had because of her
father's many different relationships.

"Do you have a large family? There's only four of us: Demir, Kobias,
Mirdello and me," Mirdella was just making polite small talk.

Demir sat next to Rethisa and began eating his breakfast. It was mildly
interesting the way Mirdella had ordered their names. Before he'd
inherited, Kobias' name had always preceded his in everything. "Mirdello
and Mirdella are twins," he smiled. "So," his eyes flared with what
appeared as amusement. "We might be having twins."

"That's not amusing," Mirdella told her brother. "I spent all my
pregnancies worrying about it. They were difficult enough without added
complication of two babies at once."

Rethisa couldn't imagine twins, just the decision to keep and raise one
child had brought enough turmoil to her life, "I guess we will just have to
wait and see. To answer your question, yes, I do have a large family, after
my mother died my father remarried, I have several half-brothers and
sisters." That was even counting the illegitimate siblings her father had
sired with his mistress.

"It must have been interesting," Mirdella mused, mostly just to say
something.

Demir knew or at least he thought he knew that Rethisa's prior life hadn't
been a happy one. From what he'd gleaned of Verlow, her first husband, he'd
though her lot had been hard. But now he wasn't so sure that had been the
case at all she could have been lying about that part of her past as well.
Now he set his napkin next to his plate and rose from his seat. He found he
needed to get out of the house and away from these inane pleasantries.
Mostly just away from her.

"Well Ladies," he smiled. "I hope you have a good day. I need to get out to
the west fields Slaufen brought me news the irrigation is down again so I
need to... well." He shrugged. "You know.. go." He bent to give Rethisa's
cheek a brush with his lips. "I'll see you for dinner." He turned and
walked out of the room.

"Inarys is already there!" Mirdella called after him and then just shrugged
when it came apparent that Demir hadn't heard her. "Men," she snorted and
turned her attention to her children. "Don't put that much butter on the
bread, Indel."

Last updated on the November 9th 2015

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