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Of the Fells

Val let out a long sigh as she looked at her father, knowing that she needed to pay more attention to things around her. It was her greatest fault, one that had served her well in times of war, but that night she felt guilty for bringing it up to the man who had obviously lost everything.

"I guess I should apologize to him." She said softly as she stepped forward to hug her father tightly. "And I should learn to pay closer attention. Like you've always said..."
 
"You pay plenty close attention, just too much to one thing," Vincenzo chuckled softly. "Ah, cara mia... what am I going to do with you? Ashelin raised you up to be such a lovely woman. I don't tell you often enough that you're as beautiful as your mother and wonderful as they come." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. Her father, despite his distance, had been a vital part of her upbringing. Kitty would secretly save money to send her to Italy every year to spend a month with him, and they had such a perfect relationship that sometimes they didn't even need to speak, which was particularly useful when they were dealing with emergencies. They were as close as could be. Vincenzo being a traditional Italian, he'd always kept family and love closer to his heart than his work and he was trying to make sure Valentina did too. He often told her, 'your job cannot be done if there is no heart left behind it', meaning she needed her family and their love to keep going.
 
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"You worry to much about me, Papa." Val muttered as she pressed her cheek against his strong chest. "You know that I'll always be right here, taking care of everyone here in Inverness. It's my destiny. I know it."
 
"Your destiny is to be happy, mi amore, and that means giving the job to someone else occasionally so you can have your fairytale ending like your Papa," he smiled down at her with that. He'd always believed he had gotten his 'happily ever after' the day that he arrived in Inverness to treat Kitty and she improved so dramatically. Many people had speculated that her sickness had been worse because she was heartsick as well.

"Now, go on. I don't think young Theo needs an apology so much as he needs a friend."
 
"Perhaps one day, Papa." She murmured softly, knowing that there were few men in the realm that were interested in a woman like her.

Val was different from all the others. She was tough, she was smart, she was also self conscious and very insecure, especially when it came to her deafness. No one outside of a choice few knew that she had no hearing in one ear. It gave her an appearance of aloofness to some, carelessness to others, but she tried her hardest to get over it.

"I'll go speak to him. I promise." She said as she kissed her father's cheek, giving him a smile as they parted ways and she went to find Theo.
 
Valentina would find Theo outside in the Keep's small garden. It would be expanded in the spring by Brogan's order for Julia and his children to spend time in, but for now, it was small and covered with snow in the dark night. The blizzard only days before had left the Keep and town covered with several feet of snow, but the garden with its high stone walls had much less and hadn't suffered the drifting effects of the wind. Theo stood in the snow near the garden's single, massive oak tree on the side that wasn't veiled with snow driven to freeze against it in the wind. He seemed calm and at ease, but to Valentina whose job was to know when something was wrong with someone by looking at them, once she focused on him she could see the signs of his agony. His shoulders were slumped low and he didn't stand up straight. His muscles seemed lax as if unwilling to put forth any effort.
 
Val stood in the entrance to the garden for a long moment, wondering if she should intrude on his privacy. Theo seemed to have suffered greatly in his time away from his home land and there was probably little that she could do to help that. Still, she thought to herself, she was going to try.

"It's too cold to stay out here long." She said softly. "If you come back in the keep, perhaps we can sit in front of the fire and talk."
 
"Talk...?" Theo looked up as if confused by the idea. "What about, lass...?" He didn't guess she'd figured out why he had refused to talk about his family. But, he didn't seem to want to be rude and say no, so he quietly stepped inside with her. "It ain' cold... 'ardly at all," he murmured. But as a man from the far north, it was understandable that such cold was little bother to him.
 
"Oh..." It was all that Val could muster as he asked her what they would talk about. "I...I don't know actually..."

She actually blushed when he mentioned that it wasn't cold at all to him. She felt like a fool. She hadn't listened to anything about him. Or perhaps he had said just that and she hadn't heard. Either way, she wanted to melt into the floor, but she forced herself to stand her ground.

"We don't have to talk, I suppose." She said softly. "I just thought that you didn't want to be alone right now."
 
Theo then gave her a smile, letting her know that he understood she was doing her best to be kind and welcoming. "Hones'ly... I don't." He then offered her his arm like a proper gentleman, like her brothers often would, to escort her. Even if she was more of a tomboy and didn't like dressy clothes and dainty ways, they all treated her like a lady. A woman fully-fledged and independent, but a lady too.
 
Valentina took his arm as it was offered, looking up at him with a curious glance as they started back through the halls of the keep until they were at her private rooms. She allowed them both to enter, closing the door behind them as she motioned for him to take a seat next to her roaring fire.

"Would you like some tea? I'll brew some for us both if you want." She said softly as she walked towards her bottles of herbs to select the ones that she wanted.
 
"Awful kind o' ya, Miss Val," he repeated the name he'd heard Annie use. "Yes please." As he watched her, he offered a smile. "Wha's Val short for? An' what's that language y'were speakin'?"
 
Val didn't hear him speaking until she turned back around with a soothing mint bottle and noticed that Theo was finishing a sentence. She stopped short and suddenly blushed deeply, looking at him with an apologetic gaze that she had perfected in her life time.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" She asked him softly as she moved towards the fire, filling a kettle with fresh water before she placed the leaves inside to steep before she placed it over the fire.
 
"I asked ya what Val's short for. An' what language y'were speaking with yer father. I 'ssume 'e's yer father." Theo didn't seemed bothered by it at all. He was a soft-spoken man, so he figured he'd been too quiet. "It's a really lovely sound, tha' accent."
 
"Valentina." She said, taking a seat beside Theo as they waited for the tea to boil. "Valentina Lucina. My Ma wanted to give at least one of her daughters a name of her chosing. My Papa didn't seem to mind at all."

"I was born in Italy. English is my second language and I speak mostly Italian with my Papa. He was born and raised there." She commented, knowing that she was opening up to him in a way that she did with few others.
 
"Italy..." Theo had to think about that one. On his little island, they didn't put much stock in things like geography and foreign culture. "Ah... famous fer... th'Pope, right?" He questioned. All he knew was that the Pope lived in Rome and Rome was, as he understood it, in Italy. "I'm sure it's got plenty more but, we never studied much o' the world outside th'isles back on Kent Island where I'm from."
 
Val laughed softly, covering her lips with her fingers as he mentioned the pope. Her father had worked to bring care to the dying and poor in the churches, but he had never put much faith in religion. He was a free spirit and she had been raised much the same way.

"Yes, we have the pope there." She said as she finally lowered her hand from her lips and looked at Theo was if he were the most delightful person in the world. "And so many other things. Perhaps one day you will have to come along with Papa and I when we go back."
 
Theo seemed rather enchanted by such an idea, and surprised she'd suggested it. "Huh... I ne'er gave much thought t'travelin'..." With a chuckle, he added, "I'd be e'en more out o'place there than I am jus' bein' here." Despite the sadness that she knew he held quietly inside, he seemed like a merry and soft-spoken man with a heart of gold. The only man she'd ever met like him was her Uncle Seamus. He wasn't really her uncle, but that didn't matter. She'd met him several times, staying in his home in Normandy on her way down to Italy to stay with her father every year as she'd grown up. The vintner was a fine man, but in looks and carefree attitude, he was entirely unlike the Ghis House he'd been born into.
 
"The more out of place you feel, the more fun travel can be." Val said with a twinkle in her eye as Theo thought about her offer. "Far off places you thought you would never see. Greece, Egypt, Mongolia. I've always wanted to go to Mongolia and my brother has sworn he would take me with his family."

The kettle on the fire started to whistle softly, Val ignoring it until it became stronger. She hopped from her seat them, gathering the thick mugs before she poured one for herself and one for Theo.
 
"Yer brother?" Theo tilted his head. "Durban, wasn' it? Th'one who went off so far?" Valentina had only been a little girl when Durban had been banished, but when he returned for the first time after Tamblin's death, he'd changed so much that none of the siblings had recognized him at first in his strange Mongolian clothes and long hair and beard.
 
"Yes, Durban. There are six children in this family. Durban is the eldest, then Selena a year after him. Brogan came after them, then Boar then the twins and then myself." She said, knowing that her family history was long and complicated. "I'm only their half sister though. Our Ma bore us all."
 
"Yer Ma's a lovely lady," he commented, though at first it wasn't certain how he meant it. "I've 'eard about 'er all my life. People comin' from the main isle bringin' news would talk about 'ow she was th'most patient an'lovely lady in th'isles. They say Lady Julia's fit t'take up that mantle after her. I'd agree... Lady Julia was kind, despite all tha' happened t'her an' 'er children." Valentina still didn't know what all had happened. Vincenzo had refused to tell her, saying Julia had asked that no one else find out.
 
"Julia is a good woman who deserves all the things that life has to offer." Val answered, knowing that it wasn't her place to know all the secrets that had happened in Wick.

Val sipped from her mug of tea before she looked at Theo and cocked her head in the way that she did when she was studying something important. "Tell me about your home. I have never been that far north. Brogan said it isn't safe right now."
 
"It ain'... not with Sarah there, takin' over fer Arland now that 'e's dead. 'E was a good man til she showed up. 'E fell in love an' never questioned a thing she asked of 'im." Theo sighed deeply. "I know what it's like t'wanna be at yer love's beckon call, but... he turned into a monster."
 
Love. That was one area of life that Val had no experience in. There were men in Inverness that had expressed interest in her, even one that had asked Brogan for her hand in marriage, but no one seemed to suit her. She had a way about her that was infuriating for some men. Perhaps one day she would find love, but at the moment she was content with her little life the way that it was.

"Are the fells really as beautiful as they say?" She asked him softly, taking another sip from her mug.
 
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