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The way she perches on the edge of his desk in the evenings is familiar enough to be distracting enough that the first thing Martel does when he comes into his study is displace her. (Lillias sinks her nails into his arm when he does it and he's fairly certain that wasn't wholly surprise, so he lets go a lot faster than he'd planned to. The words ( Read more... )

"I don't understand why you dye your hair now. You never used to."

"Lillias."

"And you cut it."

"Lillias."

"The white braid? I liked it very much. It suited you."

"Lillias, I'm not twenty-five any more."

"And your roots are showing."

"Get out."

The thing is that Martel has always had trouble denying his daughter anything. He knows that he isn't the best father, that he's not even a very good human being most days; he knows that it's not that he can't live a safer life but that he won't, that most every time she's in danger it's his fault. When you consider the twists of paternal guilt, it ( Read more... )

Several things rapidly occur to Lillias after colliding with Martel's chest. First of all, she has to do something about the walls by her gate. Secondly, as much as she'd prefer to walk directly into Martel rather than, say, a brick wall - he's equally likely to make her stumble. Thirdly, gentleman that he is, even after he's realized who it is he' ( Read more... )

Unlike his hurried exit from England, Martel didn't leave Corsica for any pressing reason beyond a broken heart, severely bruised pride and a truly remarkable temper - and so going back, when he needs somewhere safe and out of the way for himself and more importantly Inga to be a while, makes perfect sense. To him, anyway; it makes less sense to ( Read more... )

Everything that's wrong in Martel Lefevre's life can ultimately be traced back to the man himself, and it is this awareness that curbs some of the more creative swearing he would otherwise be employing right about now. It's either that or the six year old, carrying a shirt down from upstairs and shoving it at him because small children don't really ( Read more... )