Down to his knees he went.
Someone was yanking the little girl out of his arms, who began screaming. Essien tried to grab her, because she was surely terrified, but there were two more heavy blows against his back. A third one hit him across the back of the head, but he was already falling forward, so it mostly glanced off. Still, stars burst in his vision. His survival instincts kicked in, and as he went down, he lashed out a big, booted foot and caught whoever was behind him in the legs.
Another shriek as his attacker hit the ground.
By this time, he was on his knees, launching himself at whoever had assaulted him. He could hear the little girl screaming, but he couldn’t take the time to tend to her. He was in a fight, clearly someone who was trying to disable him, and he wasn’t going to be an easy target. In the midst of the tussle, he came down on a soft, small body, his big hand on the area of the head and face. When his palm came down on a chin and mouth and maybe a nose, he heard another scream, muffled this time, but he really couldn’t see who it was because of the stars in his eyes from the blow to the back of his head.
A hand came up and a bony finger poked him in the eye.
Grunting in pain, he faltered enough that the same finger went up his nose. It jabbed him right in his left nostril, so hard that his head jerked back in pain and surprise. As he staggered back, hand over his face to get away from the poking fingers, the hands that those fingers were attached to began slapping his head and face.
“Get off me!” the woman cried. “Get… off… getoff!”
She punctuated the last four words with a slap. Realizing he was wrestling with a woman, Essien quickly leapt to his feet, backing away and trying to clear his vision.
“What was that for?” he demanded. “Why did you attack me?”
“How dare you abduct my daughter!” the woman said angrily. “Youstoleher!”
He blinked, several times, trying to focus on the woman, but he noticed a big piece of wood a few feet away, something he suspected she had used as a weapon.
“I did not steal her,” he said. “I found her sitting on the ground with bloodied knees. She said she had been chasing her dog. What a poor mother you are to let that infant run around alone, chasing a dog.”
The woman gasped in shock and outrage about the time his vision cleared and Essien found himself looking at a glorious vision. She was positively exquisite as she clutched the little girl against her.
“I did no such thing,” she said indignantly. “She ran off and I have been looking for her ever since.”
He blinked again, clearing his eyes as much as he could and raking his hair out of his face. He was fairly enraged himself, and he faced off against the woman who had swung the wood at his head with exceptional accuracy.
“She ran off because you are a poor excuse for a mother,” he said sternly. “How could you not keep this child so close to you that she could not possibly run away? You should be ashamed of yourself.”
The woman was growing increasingly angry. “You do not know what you are speaking of,” she said. “You are an ignorant brute.”
“And you are a worthless female.”
The woman’s face was turning red and she opened her mouth to clap back, but she refrained. Clutching her child against her chest, it was clear that she was stewing.
“Worthless or not, I shall report you to Lord Hereford,” she said. “We’ll see what he has to say about a man like you who steals children.”
“Good,” Essien said with enthusiastic irritation. “Tell him. Tell him that Essien al-Kort found your child alone and injured in an alleyway and was attempting to help her find her mother. Tell him that you let your child escape your custody and thatyouare at fault here. Not me, lady. I’ve got better things to do than argue with a fool, so leave me out of your dramatics. The next time your daughter runs away, I hope she doesn’t run into someone who will truly do her more harm than your carelessness has already caused.”
With that, he turned and headed toward the main road. He was just drawing near when a little dog suddenly appeared in his pathway. He would have tripped over it had his reflexes been any slower. When he staggered, putting out a hand to brace himself against a wall and keep his balance, the dog stood on its hind legs and began to dance around in a circle.
“It’s the dog!” the little girl shrieked. “Look, Mama! The dog!”
The child wormed her way out of her mother’s arms in a flash, running for the dog as the little animal danced around. She descended on the pup, squealing with delight, before putting her arms around the little creature and hugging it.
Hand still braced against the wall, Essien watched the entire thing. It occurred to him that this was the animal in question, the whole purpose of the bloody knees and enraged mother. A dumb, adorable pup and his equally adorable owner.
Things were becoming a little clearer now.
“And that is your dog,” he said quietly. “I suppose he was here all the time.”
The little girl nodded eagerly, hugging the pup as it licked her face happily. She was so joyful that he found himself snorting at her, shaking his head at the ridiculousness of the entiresituation. A little girl, a little dog, and it was clear how attached to each other the two of them were. He was starting to see just how she might have slipped away from her mother, loving the dog as she did. Now he was starting to feel the least bit remorseful for what he’d said.
Maybe it hadn’t been the mother’s carelessness, after all.
“It is not even her dog.”
