To Stand Beside Her (51 page)

“Bring Timmy too,”
Ruth
added.
Leila picked up the sleeping Tim and held onto Ruth’
s hand
while
walking them
to
their
bed
room.
Ruth quickly climbed into the bed and chose where she wanted to sleep as Leila laid Tim down in Nalick’s spot.
Leila
lay
down beside Ruth and watched the little girl go back to sleep.
H
er mother was right.
Everything was happening so quickly, but
Leila
didn’t want to change a single
thing
.

Chapter
29

“Do you eat like this every morning?” Kay asked
joining Leila the next morning
.

“Mauve likes to ov
er
do it from time to time,”
Leila
explained.
“Most of the time it is to get me in a good mood before she is going to tell me something I don’t want to hear.”
Leila was right as after the meal Mauve brought by the schedule of events leading up to the wedding and following the wedding.
Selma
and Kay enjoyed watching
Leila’s
expressions as the list was read to her.
M
ost of the list was events she didn’t want to do.
Mauve didn’t notice her disappointme
nt and was thrilled to show
Leila
off
to all the guests that were coming.

Nalick returned in the afternoon.
Leila heard the door open to their quarters
,
but she did not check to see who it was as it was still early afternoon
.
Leila
was not expecting Nalick to return until night time.
She was surprised to see the younger children running by the doorway and then realized who had entered the room.
Leila left her mother and friend and also hurried to the guest neither of them saw.
Selma
moved to the doorway and watched her daughter greet her future husband.
Nalick picked up both the young children one in each arm and began to walk back to the balcony, but he stopped as he suddenly saw Leila’s mother.

“I thought
…
”
Nalick
said
,
but stopped as he looked from Selma to Leila.

“We came early but the men stayed home,”
Selma
explained to keep her future son-in-law from telling the secret of why the men stayed at home.

“Well, welcome to Lior,”
Nalick
said while still carrying the two small children.
“Has Leila shown you around?”

“Just the palace,” Leila replied.

“Give Roger a few more days
,
and then you can take them into town also,” Nalick replied as he set Tim down who ran back to his toys but continued to hold Ruth who wouldn’t let go of him.
Roger had brought her mother and friend to Lexia
,
but
Leila
had not seen him since she returned.
I
t
was
odd as he was always there to greet her when he could and she now realized that he was busy with something.
“I saw that Phillip got his horse,” Nalick added.

“Mauve gave me the schedule for next week.
Do we really need to have a formal dinner each night leading
up
to the wedding?”
Leila
asked.
S
he didn’t enjoy the dinners, but they had many guests they needed to greet before the wedding.

“Sorry, but I thought by having several smaller dinners
,
it wouldn’t be as bad,” he explained
,
but
Nalick
could see any formal dinner
,
to her
,
was going to be bad.

The week passed quickly
,
and Leila was so happy to have her family to visit
ing
that
she forgot about the conversation she needed to have with Nalick.
By the end of the week, Leila’s father, brothers
,
and their families arrived with the help of Roger’s sons Henry and Lars.
There had been times since Erich died that everyone in her family doubted Leila could be happy again.
Leila glowed any time she took care of the children and any time she was in the presence of Nalick.
Leila returned to her own room to gather up her children to meet the rest of her family.

Leila returned to the guest quarters holding Ruth, who immediately hid her face
upon
seeing
all the people in the room.
Phillip
and Nalick followed behind her carrying Tim
,
who was trying his best to get down and run around the new room.

“Everyone, I
'd
like you to meet our children,”
Leila
said to her family.

“This is Phillip,”
Nalick
pushed the older boy ahead of
himself
introduc
ing
him.

“Nalick has Tim.” Everyone laughed as Nalick tried to hold onto the rambunctious four
-
year
-
old.

“And this one here is the youngest, Ruth.
Can you say hi to everyone Ruth?”
Leila
asked the child whose face was still hid
den
in her chest.

Nalick sat Tim down who proceeded to run around and shake everyone’s hand while telling them his name.
Then Leila introduced everyone for Phillip’s sake and to remind Nalick
,
who could recognize the faces but not all the names.

“My brothers are there, Nael and Leon, and their wives Gisela and Sabine.
My nieces and nephews and now your cousins are Dierk, Cara, Carl, Gabi, and Karin.
The last person is my father Dirk.”
Phillip nodded trying his best to remember everyone’s name
,
but the light haired people standing around
easily confused him
. Tim grabbed all the cousins near his age and began to pull them to the door.

“Can we go play with the toys?” Tim asked once he had Luca, Carl, Gabi, and Cara grouped at the door.

“Sure,” Leila said
,
and he pushed open the door and ran back to their room of the palace while the other children followed.

After visiting for hours,
Leila and Nalick returned to their room to find that Gabi and Carl had fallen asleep.
Leila and Nalick returned her nieces and nephews to her brothers
first
before returning to their room to find Ruth and Tim already in their beds waiting to be tucked in.
Phillip was leaving Ruth’s room as they arrived.

“Mom, you sure have a big family,”
Phillip
said
he closed Ruth’s door
.
Leila followed
Phillip to his room
as Nalick went into Ruth
’s
room.

“That was fun,”
Phillip
said as he closed his eyes.

“Goodnight Timmy, goodnight Phillip,” Leila said before leaving and crossing to Ruth’s room.
Ruth was already fast asleep
,
and Leila did not want to wake her.
Nalick said goodnight to the boys before he returned downstairs with Leila
,
who had climbed into bed herself.
Nalick tried to build up the courage to talk to her
,
but he could see she was almost asleep.
Leila reached up and tugged his arm.

“Come to bed,” she said.
“We can talk in the morning.”
Nalick nodded before joining her.
T
he closer it got to the wedding
,
the harder it was getting to talk to her.
Reluctantly
Nalick
fell asleep.

Surprisingly
,
Leila woke the next morning to find everyone
still
asleep.
Quietly she crept out of the bed and dressed into practice clothes.
S
he had a lot of nervous energy built up as her hectic wedding schedule was about to begin that night with a formal dinner to greet more people she had never met.
Leila
quickly wrote a note and left it on the table.
She
laughed quietly to herself and observed
that
for once Anatolio did not see she was leaving.
Easily she slipped out the door and shut it soundlessly behind her.
As she walked down the hallway
,
the door to Roger’s room opened and the older man stared at her with an all-knowing expression.

“Running off without taking Anatolio with?”
Roger
asked as he too noticed the young man was not following Leila.

“I’m not going anywhere outside the palace.
I am just heading to the training grounds to practice a little and burn off some energy so that I can sit peacefully through tonight’s boring dinner,”
Leila
explained like a child that had been caught sneaking a cookie before dinner.

“Would you mind if I join you?” Roger asked.

“Not at all,” she replied
,
taking the arm he offered her.

“So are you really ready to get married?”
Roger
asked as they weaved between corridors making their way to the courtyard.

“Ready as I
will
ever
be,” she replied with a grin but noticed he didn’t laugh.

“Yes,” she said more seriously.

“
Y
ou are willing to take the good and the bad that comes with getting married?”
Roger
asked
,
testing to see if Nalick had finally talked to her.

“Of course, but I can’t imagine anything getting worse than it is now,”
Leila
referred to being kidnapped.
“They already know where I am, so it doesn’t matter if I get married.”
Nalick
had not told her yet.

As they walked into the empty courtyard Leila let go of
Roger’s
arm and walked to the center.
The courtyard was empty and Leila was alone.
She closed her eyes
,
feel
ing
the rays of the sun pe
e
king over the walls.
Leila stood still
,
and Roger watched her.
S
h
e would never lo
se her free spirit.
Roger cared for
Leila
like a daughter
.
Roger
was eager for Nalick to tell her his secret
,
but there was no way he could force him.
Somehow
even
part of Roger didn’t want her to know.
He could not blame Nalick for not wanting to make her sad.
Leila smiled
,
finally open
ing
her eyes
to
Roger staring at her.

“So
,
you’re
going to be my spa
r
ring partner
?
” she asked
,
playfully pretend
ing
to punch him.