The nobleman looked disappointed. Shot down for both mother and daughter who would have seen the day. Still, this mother didn’t even look old enough for half of these kids. “Fine, I’ll give up for today.” He picked up the flowers and the candy thrust them into Ezili’s arms before kissing her cheek and walking away.

Ezili’s face was bright red. “He just… He just…” She stuttering and Simone looked rather displeased. She and Lucas had stolen kisses for sure but they had always just let it happen. That was out of the blue! People did that out of the blue! “Rex!” Ezili let out a little whine with little tears in her eyes. She had never been kissed by anyone but Lucas or her parents. This was weird. It was wrong to her.

As Rex started to go Simone grabbed him by the collar, “Just let him go. If he comes back or does anything else you can do whatever you want to him. Lucas, why you don’t get some hot chocolate with Ezili? I know the cook was making some for Fiori. We can go to town another day for pastries, right now I wouldn’t trust you two alone there.”

Simone was watching the figure go off in the distance. “Are you alright Ezili?” She nodded silently before running over to Lucas and hugging him.

Lucas took Ezil’s hand and squeezed it as they went inside. There was a lot that had happened, and it was time to settle in for the night.

With the situation settled, days passed without incident, and soon Lewis found himself in Benin with Ezili for one of her usual dance lessons. Rex had tagged along to the main island, but had wandered off in search of his own adventure, leaving the two alone. Simone had gone into town earlier that morning, and was still probably wrapped up in town hall meetings, as usual around this time of the season. With trade being the way it was, it was always around now that they tried to increase taxes for every little reason.

The lesson went well, as usual, and Ezili was proud of her performance that day, and was happily prancing about the town with Lewis following. They had hours to kill before the next ship home, and had planned on meeting Simone soon for lunch. For the time being, though, they were wandering about the town with no real destination.

“Did you have anything you wanted in particular for lunch, Ezili?” Lewis asked. Despite her small frame, she could pack it away with the rest of the boys. She probably burned a lot of energy dancing. “And what about Lucas. What do you think he wants?” Lucas wasn’t the pickiest eater, but he was always quiet and never really said much about his favorite things.

Simone was fighting with the town in general and after the years they had come to acknowledge she wasn’t really a woman to be fought with. She was gracious though and agreed to little things here or there but would also demand cuts. “Fair is fair after all.” Which would lead them to realize after they were down that she had actually lowered their taxes for the year. The woman was good with her tongue and that silver-tongued merchant wasn’t much better.

Ezili had on a cute little cloak that was keeping her warm and her dance outfit was underneath. It was short but still covered her a good bit. It was in her favorite colors blue and purple. She was so happy she was almost skipping. The teacher had said she did very, very well which made her more excited than usual as she liked praise a lot.

“He would like anything with bacon,” Ezili said with a sly smile as she put her hands together and thought. “I would like a fruit parfait though~ The big yummy ones from the food stall! Though… maybe that can be for dessert I am awfully hungry.”

Simone swooped in and threw herself on Lewis’s back. “Oh… My gods. They are brutal. They talk on and on with legal wording trying to tax us for everything. A child tax really? I got our taxes lowered by five silver they didn’t even know they got swindled until afterward. They are really going to nail us next year,” Simone chuckled a bit. She wrapped her arms around Lewis’s neck. “What are we deciding on?”

“Lunch Mama!” Ezili was super pleased with herself. “Oh! What about lamb chops for lunch!”

“Child you will eat us out of house and home,” Simone laughed a bit.

“There’s a butcher shop that’s next to a small eatery down the road here. I hear they do deals on freshly cooked things all the time,” Lewis said. “If we’re lucky they may have lamb. We can pick up some bacon for Lucas and cook it when we get home.” He looked around for a moment. “Rex is here somewhere. I doubt he’d want to miss lunch, but he at least knows to meet us at the docks later.”

The family made their way to the eatery, and with a bit of surprise, Rex found his way in to crash the meal. It was a fun time, with Rex expositing his adventures to everyone at the table, with a dash of embellishment. When he was finished, he asked how Ezili had fared in her lessons, in which the girl proudly stated that she had been praised, and Rex gave a quick mock applause.

“Great job sis,” he said as he bit into his rather large chunk of beef without cutting it.

“Chew your food, Rex…” Lewis said as he tenderly ate the meal in front of him. “You’ll choke if you aren’t careful…”

Simone sighed a bit at the mess that Rex was making. They were at least having a good time and the boy never missed a meal. Ezili seemed amused with Rex’s antics and it was one of the few times she paid attention to him. Of course, Lucas wasn’t around so her attention could go elsewhere. She was head over heels in love with the poor boy.

“Yes, please before Rhenakos accuses us of child abuse,” Simone chuckled a bit and helped Ezili with her lamb chops. At least she wasn’t a messy eater like the guide who everyone had become acquainted with now.

Simone just had a small soup but she wasn’t much of an eater like Ezili was. She was watching Ezili demolish the food in front of her. “You must be exhausted after that lesson Ezili… I’ve never seen you eat like this.”

“I’m just really happy! I skipped all the way here so I’m more tired than normal!” Ezili took a sip of her drink to help with the food and Simone chuckled a bit.

That was when some lobster was brought over, “Miss, this is from the younger man at the table in the corner. He is wondering if you would go on a date with him. To which miss he didn’t say but he did say he likes older women just as much as the young ones.”

Oh no… Simone looked and sure enough…

Lewis looked in disbelief as the lobster came up, and put his head in his hands as the waiter explained where it came from. Rex was glaring at it, and tightened his fist around the fork that he had been eating with. Yet again, this idiot boy was trying to woo Simone and Ezili. Again.

“Kindly return it,” Lewis said with a smile as he paid the waiter a few extra silver. “Unfortunately, we don’t really eat much seafood….they’re…friends.” It was a clear and decisive no from both Simone and Ezili, which should have been the end of it, but as per usual it never was.

Rex excused himself to the bathroom after a few moments, and disappeared. Almost the exact moment that the door closed, the bold and brash boy practically sprinted to the free seat next to Ezili, and found himself across from Lewis. The assassin was staring at him with his usual death glare, but he seemed wholly unfazed by it.

“It would seem you’ve stolen my son’s seat,” Lewis said with a dull tone. “I would ask that you remove yourself, and go back to wherever you came from before I call the guards for harassment…”

Simone’s eyes turned to a death glare towards the boy and Ezili looked mighty uncomfortable as she took her chair and scooted away. “Now, now don’t be like that Miss. You are far too pretty to be running away like that.”

“I’m taken.” Ezili puffed her face a bit and looked a tad more determined than usual.

“Nonsense… by that bookworm? How special can h–” The boy was interrupted by Simone who slammed her hands on the table and stood up. There was silence for a moment before Simone started to cough and her hand showed visible blood.

An older noble who had walked into the establishment ran over, “Mrs. Terrowin!” He was quick to help her sit back down and hand her a handkerchief for the blood. “You must really watch your health! You know that you aren’t well sometimes!” It was one of the nobles in charge of watching the progress of the island and he knew Simone very well by now.

“My apologies Lord Capell,” she started to cough into the cloth given to her. “I was feeling rather faint due to stress you see.” One of the waiters of the restaurant ran over with a pitcher of water and got her a drink.

“Stress? Is it the food here? My brother-in-law happens to own this place,” he was kneeling by Simone who held a gentle smile on her face.

“Oh, nothing like that,” she looked at the boy and frowned, “it’s just that this boy… He hasn’t left my Ezili alone and you know how her and Lucas are. Despite my husband… Oh silly me, you haven’t met my Lewis. My manners are dreadful.”

“Nonsense! You aren’t well and I’m sure your husband just wanted you to get out and about for a change while feeling weak.” He was patting her hand and gave Lewis a smile. “We can have formal introductions another time. I’ve only been trying to get you to tell us when he would be home!”

“You know how a job like his can be~” Simone patted his hand in return.

The lord stood up and his demeanor changed towards the boy, “I know you rather well.” The color had drained from the boy’s face as he stood up.

“She’s faking it! She was fine until a minute ago!” The boy accused Simone.

“Because you stressed her. You should know Mrs. Terrowin’s health is very fragile and it takes everything she has to care for her children. You should be ashamed of yourself stressing not only her but also her husband who is home from business for once! Pierre!” The lord shouted. “Remove this boy and his family from place! Please, pay for the Terrowins’ meals on my behalf. I’m so sorry that this has happened… I’m also sorry about the meeting today. I can’t imagine that helped at all.”

“Oh, it was no trouble. I’m quite used to those ruffians at this point,” it was almost as if Simone’s entire personality had changed for the situation. Her children were used to this.

“You have one hell of a wife Mr. Terrowin. She argues better than any Lord on the council, you should take pride in that,” the lord laughed a bit and said his good-byes before departing for his table.

Ezili leaned in, “Are you ok?”

“Oh, I’m fine… I used a bit of fire magic on myself to make myself cough blood,” Simone whispered and winked. “It pays to be an ailing wife you see.” She took a drink of water and sighed a bit as the family hollered about how unfair it was to treat nobles like them like this. “It’s quite noisy out here today Lewis~”

“You’ll pay for this!” The father was yelling now and Simone sighed a bit.

“Like father like son. No wonder he’s an asshole… Also, where is Rex?”