Adabella was so red in the face that she was in danger of bursting into flame at any moment. “Flowers,” she said.
“Flowers sound lovely,” Essien said. “What else?”
Adabella thought on the question. “Cats,” she said. “I like cats.”
“Do you have a cat?”
Adabella shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “They make Mama sneeze.”
Essien looked at Catalina. “And you think your nose is more important than your daughter’s happiness?” he teased. “For shame.”
He said it so dramatically that it was clear he was teasing her, and Catalina went along with it. She laughed softly.
“I like cats, I truly do,” she said. “But my nose does not.”
“What about puppies?”
“Puppies are not so bad, fortunately.”
Essien held up a finger, begging for patience. There was a stable behind him, a long, permanent structure used when there were tournaments or when storage for grain or other things was needed, so he disappeared inside. Catalina looked at Adabella questioningly and the girl shrugged her shoulders. Neither of them seemed to know where Essien had vanished to. But he emerged a short time later carrying something. Catalina didn’t really see what it was until he was just a few feet away, and by then he was extending it to Adabella.
It was a puppy.
Adabella squealed in delight as Essien carefully put a puppy in her hands. It was a long-legged puppy, perhaps a couple of months old, and it licked Adabella’s face furiously, much to her delight.
“One of the stable dogs had a litter of puppies,” Essien said, smiling as he watched the happy girl and equally happy pup. “I saw them yesterday.”
Catalina wasn’t quite as happy as Essien and her daughter seemed to be. She watched with uncertainty as Adabella hugged the puppy, clearly thrilled with the pet. There must have been something in her expression that suggested disapproval, because she heard Essien’s low voice.
“Did I do wrong?” he asked quietly. When she turned to look at him, he smiled apologetically. “I can take him back to his mother. I just thought she might like to play with him.”
Catalina softened a little. “She would like very much to play with him,” she said. “But I am not certain we can keep a puppy. My father has dogs, but they are big and mean. I am afraid they might hurt it.”
Essien was watching her carefully. “But you have no objection to your daughter having a pet?”
“Not really.”
“I know I should have asked first,” he said, his tone soft. “I did not even think to. I will not do it again.”
Catalina shook her head. “You are forgiven,” she said. “But we should probably leave the dog with its mother.”
Essien understood. He’d been impulsive in giving the child a dog. He realized that now. But at the time, he’d simply wanted to make her happy. She seemed like such a solemn little thing. He was precluded from replying, however, when the shouts started up again on the tournament field. Addax was ready to go against Jonathan again and the marshals were preparing to drop the flag.
“Come,” he said quickly. “My brother is about to compete. We can see it from the edge of the field.”
He grasped Catalina by the hand and pulled her along. That had Catalina grasping Adabella by the sleeve, towing her daughter and the dog behind her. They made it to the edge of the arena just as the flag dropped and the horses began to charge. The crowd was on their feet, cheering and yelling, as the riders approached one another.
And then the contact happened quickly.
Addax had been sitting high in the saddle, with his lance higher than usual, which had Jonathan aiming for his left shoulder. But as they came close, Addax suddenly lowered his profile in the saddle by hunching down, dropping his lance, and planting it right into Jonathan’s abdomen. Addax threw his weight behind the lance as well, which meant Jonathan was hitwith everything Addax had right in his center of gravity. Addax’s lance shattered, Jonathan’s lance glanced off Addax’s head, and all of that pressure shoved Jonathan off his horse, backward.
He hit the ground in a heap.
The crowd went wild.
“Stay here,” Essien commanded softly.
Catalina grasped her daughter and pulled her well out of the way of the men rushing out of the staging area as Essien ran out onto the field where Addax was coming around by the lists, lifting a hand to the crowd, and Jonathan was flat on his back, barely moving. As Catalina watched, Essien reached Jonathan and bent down over the man to see to his condition. It took a few moments before Essien and a few other men were able to pull Jonathan into a sitting position. The crowd, seeing that he was at least able to sit up, cheered for him.
