Mated Enemies

LUCIEN

“Princess!”

“Yes daddy!”

“Come here!” She sidled-floated towards me with that impishly adorable look that I find hard to resist. “What did you do to your brother?” She sighed with a put upon look on her face as she twirled from side to side.

Why couldn’t I have all boys? Is it too much to ask? As if the mother isn’t enough of a handful I’ve been saddled with her carbon copy. I’ve asked my father in law more than once if his daughter, my wife, was anything like mine. His sage advice is always ‘it gets worst’. How much worst can it get?

She gets into everything, throws a fit when she doesn’t get her way, and because she’s everybody’s princess, she gets away with it all. I keep telling myself I should break her out of her bad habit while she’s young, but all she has to do is bat those lashes at me and I cave.

And I thought my son was going to be the problem. Then again he was until she came along. So maybe she’s Natalia’s retribution for stealing my son, because our daughter doesn’t have a female bone in her body. So when Natalia tries to entice her with her shopping days and spa retreats my little angel comes to me to hide.

The other side of that is that she wants to do everything her brother does, which is the reason for me calling her into my office for the second time this morning. “Well? I’m waiting.”

I already knew what she’d been up to but I waited for her to tell me. One thing about her, she never lies and never tries to shirk responsibility for her actions. Maybe because there’s never any repercussions.

“Daddy, guess what.”

“What?” I wonder what tale she’s going to weave to make my eyes cross before I completely forget what it is I called her in here for. I’m not sure where she learned it, or if it’s just my inherent need to spoil her, but ten seconds after she’s misbehaved I tend to forget what her infraction had been.

“Dami won’t let me sit with him.”

“Sit with him where Giovanna?” She mumbled her answer but I didn’t need to hear, I already knew. “We’ve talked about this, your brother’s classes are for the future monarchs of our kingdom…”

“I know, I know, but why can’t I be one?” I want to have this argument for the one-thousandth time. I think her mother puts her up to it. I took my time and explained to my four-year old daughter once again why she could not rule the sky kingdom knowing good and well how it was going to end.

In a few minutes she’s going to crawl into my lap, stick her thumb in her mouth and tell me everything that’s wrong with what I just told her. So said so done.

She spends too much time with her aunts in the earthly realm and they fill her head with nonsense, especially the bitch, who I’m sure does it purposely just to make my life miserable. Just in time I heard Vespasian outside in the outer room calling out for her. Good!

She jumped down off my lap and ran out the door to her favorite person leaving her father behind to wonder where he’d gone wrong. Shoot, I didn’t even get her to admit what she’d done to her poor brother this time. Last time she’d burned him and claimed she was testing out her dragon.

Damien thank heaven is a well-rounded well-behaved little dragon while his sister is… well she’s her mother’s child. She has no fear of anything or anyone, something that is encouraged by her great grandfather who has an unusual fondness for the child that he lets run circles around him and do things not even I or her brother ever could.

His reasoning is simple; she’s not the future ruler of our people and should be afforded some leeway as his only great granddaughter. There’s no such thing as scolding her either because once those big green eyes fill up with tears my heart melts and I pick her up and apologize to her for whatever it is she’d done wrong.

Her mother claims I spoil her but I can’t help it, she’s the spitting image of my wife something that strikes pride and fear in my heart on a daily basis. At least Vespasian seems able to keep her occupied and out of trouble doing who knows what.

I knew what she was up to five minutes later when Bellaque came barreling into the room and made a beeline for the desk, which is his new hiding place. “Giovanna, you cannot ride on the lion’s back that’s why we got you a horse.” What will she think of next?

I saw her shadow disappear from behind the door and she went off to do the next thing whatever that was, leaving me in peace and quiet at least for the next little while until her mother came back from visiting with some of the wives of the nobles.