The question stopped her. Slowly, Catriona reclaimed the seat, frowning at the little girl. Dorothea continued along as if she hadn’t spoken at all.
“I… ...have,” Catriona responded tentatively. “Have you?”
Dorothea’s hand still. Her eyes shifted up to meet Catriona then back to her paper, but she didn’t resume her drawing. Slowly, she shook her head.
Catriona felt her heart splinter at the sight. She was tempted to reach out and take her hand, but she didn’t know how Dorothea would respond. “Would you like to go see him?”
Dorothea shook her head again. “I think he’s busy. Daddy is always busy.”
“I’m sure he is not too busy to spend time with his daughter,” Catriona tried to assure her, but she didn’t know how convincing she was seeing that she hardly believed herself. “Why don’t we go and seek him out?”
“I don’t want to bother him.” Dorothea continued drawing. But then she paused again, eyeing Catriona curiously. “Daddy is a very important man, so I don’t want to bother him. But you don’t look like you’re very busy, even though you married Daddy.”
Catriona sighed. “Quite the dilemma, Dorothea. I find myself lacking in things to do which is why I thought to pay you a visit. I’d hoped you’d keep me company.”
“But you have Nina.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Nina likes to sleep,” Catriona whispered loudly, and it earned her a tiny smile. “She isn’t the most active of partners.”
Dorothea looked over at Nina, who had chosen the spot by the door to take her nap. The sight brought a brighter smile to Dorothea’s face, and when she looked back at Catriona, her eyes shone.
“Would you… like to draw with me?” she asked. Her sudden shyness tugged at Catriona’s heartstrings. She would have said yes to anything right then and there.
“Of course,” Catriona chirped with more enthusiasm than she felt. She would love to draw with Dorothea, could think of no better way to pass the time than with the neglected little girl who seemed to have grown accustomed to her loneliness, but she couldn’t ignore the smoldering anger within. How dare Joseph berate her for commenting on his parenting when it was so clear he didn’t know what he was doing?
Dorothea got to her feet and padded over to the small bookshelf nearby. Nina lifted her head to watch as Dorothea fetched a clean sheet of paper and a pencil before returning to the desk.
“What should I draw?” Catriona asked her.
“Anything you wish to,” she responded. “I’m going to finish my rose so that I can give it to Daddy before dinner.”
Catriona smiled even as her heart twisted in her chest. “I think he’s going to love it. Does your father enjoy roses?”
“I think so,” Dorothea answered with a small nod. “He always liked to have roses around when I was younger. They were everywhere.”
“Is that so?” Catriona couldn’t recall seeing a single rose in the manor. She didn’t even think there was a rose bush in the gardens.
“But I think Daddy forgot that he likes roses,” Dorothea went on. “Because he’s so busy, he doesn’t have the time to think about roses, so I’m going to draw this one for him and put it in his office.”
“I think he would like that.” She hoped.
“What kind of flowers do you like?”
“I like them all,” Catriona told her. “I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite.”
Dorothea perked up at that, another smile playing around her lips. “Me too! But Daddy says that I should try to choose one. So today, my favorite flower is the tulip. I think I will draw myself one after I am finished with this. Have you seen a tulip before?”
“I certainly have. They are quite lovely.”
“They truly are! Though I have only ever seen them in books. Daddy doesn’t have a lot of flowers here.”
Catriona ran her pencil over the paper, not really planning on drawing anything in particular. She’d never been particularly good at it. Certainly not the natural talent that Dorothea clearly was.
“We should have him plant a few then. Or would you like to do the honors?”
Dorothea blinked at her. “I should plant the tulips?”
“And the roses and the carnations. And whichever flower you chose as your favorite for the day.”
