章 47: Getting Back To Normal
The next morning Raine was practically inconsolable as Vivian gave her a bath. She had started crying the moment that they got out of sight of her mother, and while Vivian had been hoping that the warm water would help calm her, it didn't seem to be helping in the least.
"Oh Raine... Don't cry."
Vivian gently wiped the tears away from the cheeks of the little girl, but this did not help them stop. Raine responded by wrapping her arms around Vivian, splashing the slave with the slightly scented bathwater that she was currently in. Mae had instructed Vivian to clean Raine up and then take her down to the nursery to play, and even though Raine had violently resisted the request, Mae had managed to talk to her until she finally agreed.
It was clear now that even though Raine put on a strong face for her mother, she was still worried.
"Do you not believe your mother when she says she'll be fine?"
This produced the desired effect that Vivian had hoped for in Raine: Raine thought the world of her mother, so to even contemplate her mother lying was something that would just never fly in her mind. Raine shook her head in response and as a result the sound of her crying began to get less prominent, but she still kept her face buried against Vivian.
"If not that then why are you crying?"
Raine was silent for a couple moments, but Vivian was patient, using this time to gently splash the water along Raine's back to both clean and soothe her. The action seemed to be working, because after a little bit of that Raine finally spoke up.
"Why do so many people hate my mother?"
Oh.
Vivian looked down at Raine to see the little girl looking up at her with pure earnest desire in her eyes. It wasn't something that was so easy to answer for Vivian though; she just couldn't do what the lady did by being completely candid with her young daughter. It just didn't feel right to discuss such heavy topics with children. At the same time though, would it be wrong of her to omit them and leave Raine less prepared for the cutthroat nature of the noble world?
Raine had already heard plenty in the Dominion against Mae, likely through Markus, but now she'd also seen concrete evidence against Mae. Raine had been witness to attempted murder and Vivian couldn't imagine that was something that was easy to handle. If someone had tried to kill Renard in the night while she was sleeping near him... A shiver ran up Vivian's spine as she imagined that, and she promptly pushed it back down into the deep recesses of her mind.
Raine though... Raine might not be able to do that so well.
Letting out a soft sigh, Vivian gently brushed out Raine's long hair as she carefully chose her words.
"Not everyone sees what we see when they look at your mother, Raine. To a lot of people she is scary because of how much money and power she has. And her power doesn't just apply to the Terra Kingdom: she has a decent amount of sway in the neighboring countries as well. Others can see her as a threat to their own ambitions, or maybe they just don't feel comfortable having her around. Whatever the case, to them it would be so much easier if your mother just didn't exist."
"B-But she's not scary... She's not mean at all!"
"I know that, and you know that, but people who don't know her might assume that she is both scary and mean."
"Then they should get to know her!"
"But what if they don't have the opportunity or time to?"
Here was a question that stumped Raine, and her face scrunched up in a way that made it look like the tears were quickly coming back.
"I don't... I don't want people to want to kill her."
As Raine said this, the tears that had been building started up once more, and Vivian simply held her as she cried, gently rocking back and forth to help soothe her. As much as Vivian wished there was a simple solution to make people not want to get rid of Mae, there really wasn't one. They couldn't just stick Mae and whoever she was quarreling with in a room and tell them to hug and make up, in fact it wasn't even entirely clear who the other person was half the time.
Only after Raine's crying had died down a bit did Vivian speak again.
"I also don't want other people to kill her, and I imagine your mother doesn't want to die. It's unfortunate that other people can't seem to like her like we do, but there are enough people wanting Lady Dandridge to live that I think she'll be ok. Just continue to support her with all your heart, Raine. That's what she really needs right now."
Raine let out a soft hum, making it pretty clear that she'd exhausted herself quite a bit after crying so much this morning. She'd cried earlier when presented with the proposal of leaving her mother, and she had cried again once she'd separated from Mae. Still, the crying seemed to have helped lull her into a sense of comfort, and Vivian softly kissed the little girl's forehead.
"You are such a sweetheart for worrying so much about your mother, she is lucky to have you."
The little girl still didn't say much of anything, and when Vivian separated from her enough to finish the washing Raine didn't fight the motions. She looked about ready to go back to sleep, to be honest, but Vivian couldn't just let her go back to sleep after getting her ready for the day. So as Vivian washed her up and did her best to erase the evidence of the tears, she talked about the various things that Raine had done with Markus and Breida. Through this gentle coaxing, Raine began to talk about what they might do today, and by the time she was all clean, there was a bit of brightness on her face; she seemed to be looking forward to heading to the nursery instead of dwelling so much on what happened last night.
As Vivian attended to Raine and put on her clothes for the day, Renard's words began playing back in her head. He had said that what he saw was that Vivian was the one that Raine could be truly comfortable around. Comparing what had just happened to how Raine had acted with her mother, she couldn't help but feel like there was some truth to that. Raine felt like she had to put up a strong face for her mother, but the instant it was just her and Vivian she had broken down crying again. Was she... Was she really that important to Raine despite all her inadequacies?
Looking down at the little girl that was now holding her hand, Raine noticed this action and looked up at Vivian. The tentative smile that graced the little girl's face almost brought tears to Vivian's eyes, and she returned that smile with one of her own. Raine's grip tightened briefly on Vivian's and then the two of them headed off towards the nursery.
This tender little moment was broken when they stepped into the nursery and Raine released Vivian's hand to run over towards Markus and Breida who were currently playing with some blocks with Neri. Neri greeted Raine with a smile, but stood up to let the small group of children play amongst each other, though Vivian did see the slight look of concern that Neri gave Raine. As much as Vivian had tried to wash away the evidence of crying, it wasn't all gone.
Moving over towards Vivian, Neri lowered her voice so that the children wouldn't hear them.
"What happened?"
The question showed complete ignorance on Neri's part about what had happened last night, and Vivian wasn't entirely sure whether that was done on purpose or not. Mae had called up Jiera that morning, but Vivian wasn't entirely sure what Jiera would choose to divulge to her slaves. In the end, Vivian didn't feel like it was her place to tell Neri about the potential disasters of the house, so for now she would leave Neri in the dark. Giving her fellow slave a little smile, Vivian waved her hand nonchalantly.
"Oh Raine was just a bit fussy this morning. You know how it goes I'm sure."
Sure enough, a look of understanding passed across Neri's face and the two caretakers silently commiserated with each other on that point. After a couple moments of watching the children, Vivian commented that she was going to go and find something for them to do while they watched the kids. As Vivian went to leave though, the small voice of Raine was heard from across the room.
"Vivian!"
A little startled to be singled out like this while Raine was actively playing, Vivian looked over to see the girl looking at her with such desperation that it just about broke her heart. Was Raine so upset about not being able to spend time with her mother that now Vivian was the one she was latching onto?
"Come play with us!"
Raine's lip trembled a little as she said this, and Vivian wasn't about to resist that face. Telling Neri that she could go and find Kyrie if she wanted something to do, Vivian moved over towards the children and settled down on the ground next to them. It would seem that Vivian wasn't going to be terribly productive until Mae made her way down to the nursery, but Vivian found that she didn't seem to mind today.
With a light heart and a smile on her face, Vivian picked up some of the blocks in front of her, and soon a smile was spreading across Raine's features again.
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