Nine Shillings

Don't Let the Monsters Get You

London - 1842

'Daddy!' Mary and Merry's shrieks were ear splitting. 'Daddy!'

They ran out of the library and threw themselves at him.

'I'm barely through the door.' He crouched down and hugged them. 'Oh, my girls, I missed you.'

'You shouldn't go 'way then,' Mary snapped.

'No, I shouldn't,' he said, holding them like he'd been worried he'd never get to again.

I took Josef's hat off and put it on the hat stand before it got knocked off. Unlike Bran, Josef's clothes usually looked like they'd never had a string of previous owners and he preferred to keep it like that, as far as parenthood allowed.

'An', an' shouldn't argue with Pappy 'cause you love each other an' makes you sad,' she said.

He gave her an exaggerated frown while Merry clung onto his neck like she was never going to let go and he whispered, 'Should I not argue with Mummy?'

Mary giggled. 'It's funny.'

'It is.' He gave her a mock solemn nod, grinned, and kissed her cheek.

'I was worried monsters would get you, Daddy,' Merry said.

He rubbed her back. 'Hey, monsters won't get me. They wouldn't dare. Mummy would beat them up.'

'An' you've got t'tell us when you go an' come back,' Merry added.

'I will.' He squeezed them tight then got up, lifting them both with him as if they weighed nothing. 'Oh, you're getting big. Did you grow while I was gone?'

'Hi, Dad.' Millie walked across the hallway, nose in a book, feigning too grown-up to be concerned but if she hadn't been she would've stayed in the library.

'Hello, sweetheart,' Josef called after her. 'Missed you.'

'Of course, you did,' she called from the drawing room.

'I think we should have a big cuddle and you can tell me all your adventures,' he said to Mary and Merry.

Bran came out of the library.

They stared at each other. Even the children went quiet.

Bran strode up, wrapped his arms around Josef and the children and slapped Josef on the back.

'Big hug!' Mary announced and squeezed Josef's neck with one arm and Bran's neck with the other.

'Big hug,' Bran agreed.

'Pappy's not angry, Daddy,' Merry said, around sucking Patches' ear.

Bran didn't agree.

Josef cleared his throat and shifted as if he was adjusting the girls' weight. 'Come on then.' He carried Merry and Mary into the library to regale him with tales of his adventures.

Bran came over to where I was leaning against the front door. 'I'm still angry at him.'

'I know.' I patted his chest. 'You have every right to be.' I smiled. 'But you love him too.'

Bran blushed and looked away. 'That doesn't... It doesn't bother you?'

I cupped his cheek and caressed it with my thumb. 'Chuckaboo, seven hundred years, it's obvious.' Asking if it bothered me seemed a little contradictory, given he knew I'd been with women, but there was that voice in his head always picking at him and saying he was dragging me down. 'No, it doesn't. It never has. It never will.'

He put his hand over mine and kissed the heel of it.

I gave him a quick kiss and lowered my hand. 'I really don't know what you two did without me.'

He chuckled. 'I don't know either.'

I tapped his nose as if I was going to say something mischievous then said, 'I don't know what I did without you either.' I gave him a quick kiss then walked away leaving him staring at the stop where I'd been standing.

And it was true. I didn't. Life was so much better with our odd little family in it.