Page 89 of Dead Crown
Jacqueline gave Lumi a toothless grin like she was happy to see him. Or maybe it was gas. “I will later. It’s fine for now.”
Jaki leaned in to kiss his forehead. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I wanted you to sleep more.”
“You got up with her,” stated Lumi.
Jaki squinted. “Of course.”
“Perhaps you’re not so bad at being a Father. You automatically thought of what to do with her.”
Tivar would have snored away and left Lumi to do everything. If she’d fussed, he would have been a prick and rudely woken Lumi to “deal” with it. Jaki didn’t look entirely convinced, like he still thought there was some extra, particularly special thing he was supposed to do to be a good Father.
“You’re doing fine,” said Lumi.
“I’m not good with babies or used to them,” said Jaki. “I’m just doing what I see you do, or what I’ve seen and heard from others.”
Lumi headed back into the bedroom. “I imagine a lot figure it out like that.”
“How do you know how to change a nappy?”
Lumi placed her on the bed and sat by her. “There was a girl here when I was nine. I don’t remember who her parents were. I didn’t want to play house with her, but she pretty much forced me to. She knew how and had little siblings, so I guess she was already practically a nappy expert. She made me practice on her dolls. She was quite bossy and said I wasn’t going anywhere until I could do it to her satisfaction, which took about two dozen tries. Elira, it was boring.”
Jaki’s face broke into a smile. “I can see a little girl lording it over you while you miserably change a doll's nappy for the twentieth time.”
Lumi’s lip twitched. “Once she was satisfied, I told her I was going to find treasure so she and the baby dolls could live rich,and I’d probably have to kill a few bandits, so it might take a bit. I went upstairs and didn’t bother to come back down.”
Jaki sat on one side of Jacqueline as he chuckled. “Are you coming to the tomb?”
“I thought it was a given.”
“If you’re going, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take her. It’s a long trip, and that far north, it gets much colder. There’s a wet nurse in the city. At this point, she might be feeding babies in exchange for whatever food she can get in return. Not many have much money. We’d pay and feed her here.”
Lumi had imagined taking her because they’d traveled while she was only days old. It had been out of bare necessity. Taking her far north wasn’t a good idea.
“You could stay and let me do it,” said Jaki.
Lumi bit his lip as he stared at Jacqueline who was kicking her feet in her loose blanket. Her little tail twitched now and then. The idea of leaving her at all made his chest tighten. At the same time, it wasn’t fair for Jaki to go and do it by himself. He’d done so much, and he’d be going to war too without him. Lumi hadn’t lifted a sword in years, and he’d be a liability on the battlefield.
“I’d rather go with you and see this done. It’s not that I don’t trust you’ll do it. I just want to be with you.”
“You don’t have to if you want to stay and rest.”
“I’ll go. I don’t want to leave her, but we're doing this for her too. This is a bit in our lives we can close for good by returning the Crown to Rinder. We should do it together.”
Jaki nodded. “All right. Mary could watch her here. She’d likely appreciate the pay if we ask, and she could eat here. I’ll have her see about the wetnurse today.”
Lumi nodded. “All right.”
“If Mary can’t watch her, I think the physician would agree. She’s a good woman.
“Why not the physician and Mary? With a wet nurse, they could take turns so nobody gets too worn out, and if someone needs Mary’s skills, she can still go. I’m sure others like her, and we shouldn’t make her completely unavailable.”
“True. I’ll speak to them after breakfast.”
Lumi had a bath while Jacqueline rested in her basket on the floor so he could keep an eye on her. He hadn’t bothered to look at himself much, but when he was drying off, he noticed himself in the long looking glass on the wall of the privy room.
He really noticed himself.
Jaki had marked him, and while he hadn’t proposed in a grand way, which didn’t seem like Jaki’s style anyway, they’d be getting married.
