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Of the Fells

"Papa! Vergognatevi." Val said as she entered the kitchens, grinning at her father as she took a seat at Chessie's old wooden table. "Ma would tan your hide if she saw you right now."

She smiled at Chessie as a warm meal was placed in front of her and the cook kissed her cheek.
 
"That is, if she could resist my charm long enough to do so," Vincenzo grinned as Chessie served up Valentina's meal.

"Shame on you, Val, missin' another meal. Y'do it almost every other day! I'm almost inclined t'believe y'don't like my cookin'," Chessie chuckled.
 
"Papa certainly keeps me busy, Chessie. I blame him for my missed meals." She commented as she picked up a fork and dug into the food that had been placed in front of her. "And you know I love your cooking, Chessie. I always have and I always will."
 
"Hardly, love. You keep him busy now tha' you're older." Chessie sat down to enjoy a cup of tea. Vincenzo let them be to go check on Julia and Brogan, and soon Theo entered, looking a bit tired and fairly dirty. Chessie chuckled at him and wetted a towel to clean his face. "What've you been doin', lad? Rollin' in soot?"

"Shovelin' coal," Theo smiled softly.

"Close enough," Chessie cleaned up his face and hands. "Sit, I'll get ya a tankard."

"Thank ya, Chessie," Theo watched her go and looked to Valentina. "Hiya, Miss Val."
 
Valentina looked up at Theo with a blush on her cheeks as he suddenly turned his attentions towards her. She gave him a smile and glanced towards Chessie as she pulled a tankard free from a cupboard and filled it with sweet Inverness ale.

"Hi, Theo." She said softly. "I hope that you slept well last night."
 
"I did. I saw ya come back early this mornin'... everythin' alright with tha' boy y'went off t'help?" He thanked Chessie softly for the ale, but he listened intently for Valentina's answer.
 
"He was off chasing his hound through the woods yesterday while his mother worked in the market. He has a cold and will be just fine." She said with a smile as Chessie took her seat again and Val continued to eat under her watchful gaze.
 
Theo nodded, glad to hear it'd gone well. After she'd eaten, Theo walked out with her and down the smaller hall to the front great hall. "D'ya know 'ow th'keng's doin'? An' the queen?" He seemed constantly worried about them, but Valentina would notice he seemed more concerned about Julia despite Brogan's near-death.
 
"They are both on the road to recovery. My brother is too hard headed to die and Julia simply won't let him do that." Val said as they walked through the winter air to the great hall. "Hopefully Annie will see them today. I know she's been worried."
 
"I jus' left Annie with Miss Kitty. She'll get a chance t'see 'em I'm sure." Theo then looked down at Valentina. "An' yerself? I 'ope stayin' out so long didn' leave ya too exhausted." He sat down with her before the main hearth.
 
"Oh, no. I'm use to long nights. Since my Papa has gotten older, I like to take the cases for him so he can rest." She said softly, settling into a chair before the fire. "But he's sending me to Normandy soon with my brother and his family."
 
"Well tha's good. I 'ear Normandy's a fine place fer adventure. An' wine, if y'like," he chuckled. "Y'did say y'wanted t'see more o' the world, aye?"
 
"Yes, I do want to travel, but I don't want to leave my Papa behind with all this work. Spring is the worst time in Inverness for illness and injuries." Val confessed, glancing at Theo as he tried to get her excited for her trip abroad.
 
"If yer Da's confident 'e can 'andle it, them I'm sure 'e can."

"Tha's right," Valentina heard her mother's voice as she came to join them. She'd left Ciaran and Annie with Marri and Durban. "'E used t'do it all by 'imself in a massive city in Italy, love, 'e can 'andle a little town." Vincenzo apparently had told her he was sending Valentina with Durban.
 
"So I guess I have no choice since you're all ganging up on me." Valentina said as her mother joined in the conversation. "Ma, you know I don't like the idea of leaving you."

She had always had anxiety when she was parted from her family. It went back to her childhood when she'd been raised by a family friend, sent off to her father every summer.
 
"I know, little love," Kitty came to sit beside her. She'd called all her children 'little love' at some point, but she'd never stopped with Valentina, even if she wasn't little anymore. "And I know tha's partly my fault, but th'truth o' the matter is that ye've got your whole life t'be here in Inverness, an' I'm no' even fifty yet. Ye've got a good 'nother few decades 'r so with me. Enjoy yourself b'fore you're too old an' 'ave a whole family o' yer own t'tend to. Have your adventures now, because one day when ye've got yer own little ones, it'll be a whole new adventure tha' won't leave much time for other sorts."
 
Val glanced across the table at Theo, wondering what he must think about a woman approaching nineteen who needed so much supervision and encouragement from their family.

"Ma, this is Theo." She said, introducing the man that had saved Annie and Ciaran and Julia. "Theo, this is my mother, Lady Katherine Ghis."
 
"Julia told me about you," Kitty smiled to Theo, and instead of a usual greeting, she leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Thank ya, darlin'."

Theo flushed ever so slightly out of surprise, but he smiled softly to Kitty. "Nothin' t'thank me fer, ma'am."

"Of course there is, lad. Y'kept my grandbabies safe and got m' bullheaded son an' 'is wife out o' th'worst trouble they've e'er been in." She then smiled to Valentina. "He's sweet. 'Andsome too." She'd long since learned how to embarrass Valentina thoroughly and loved it.
 
"Ma..." Val said, her cheeks blazing hot as she looked at Theo quickly and then at her mother. "Silenzio."

Her family had the knack of making her feel so incredibly embarrassed at the most inappropriate times. At least with Kayla they respected her gentle nature. Valentina always felt like they went out of their ways to watch their youngest sister blush.

"Isn't Papa looking for you about now?" She asked her mother.
 
"Yer father's checkin' in with Julia an' Brogan, then 'e's off t' check on Gabriel. Little lad managed t'break 'is arm fallin' off a horse this morning." Vincenzo, of course, hadn't told Valentina because he had wanted her to sleep and enjoy a little time to simply socialize. He knew that the Ghis siblings, Valentina included, were very much overprotective of their other siblings and neices and nephews and children, and Valentina would've run off immediately to tend to Gabriel.
 
"Gabriel broke his arm? Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, pushing herself out of her seat immediately. "I'm going to check on him myself."
 
"He's perfectly fine," Kitty caught her daughter's arm. "Sit. You worry worse than both 'is parents combined."

Just then, Vincenzo entered and approached as Kitty motioned him over. "Hm?"

"Love, tell yer daughter tha' Gabe is jus' fine."

"Perfetto," he nodded. "Settle down, Val."
 
"Papa, you should have told me. I could have helped you." Again, Val's cheeks burned brightly as she glanced towards Theo, a little perturbed at how her parents treated her.

Some days she felt like the woman that she was but others she felt like a small child in their eyes.
 
"I can put on a cast with one hand and my eyes closed, cara mia." Vincenzo kissed her forehead. Theo seemed to be purposely distracting himself in order to spare Valentina too much embarrassment. He secretly chuckled. Valentina's youth and her old soul were very evident, but she didn't seem to understand that her parents weren't treating her like a child, they were simply trying to teach her to tend to her own life for once.
 
Last edited:
"Lo non sono una bambina, Papa." Val muttered softly, looking at her father with that embarrassed and sheepish look that she seemed to wear so often around him.
 
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