A Daughter's Love - Book 2 The Frencolian Chronicles (complete)

Chapter Six

Jobyna was throwing a tantrum! She was over her fever but in the process of being 'cured,' the house-hold revolved around her.

"I don't like our father! I want to go and live in my secret castle!" Her lips set into a pout but Jobyna remembered, her father had found her there.

Ellie spoke firmly. "You're being ornery Jobyna Chatelain! You're always ornery! I don't know how you get away with it all the time. Sometimes I feel I should scratch your eyes out!" She reached to tie the ribbon in Jobyna's hair but again the younger girl pulled away.

Ducking quickly out of reach, Jobyna ran from their room.

Ellie shouted, "I hope Father gives you a good whipping like John's father gave him one day!"

But the small girl had gone and Ellie found that she was talking to herself. "Spoilt little brat!"

A few days later, Sir Louis arrived at his manor house, with Theon, to find his household in a state of chaos, his younger daughter missing.

Sabin privately informed him that Jobyna had moved out a few days ago, to live with the shepherd and his family. She had packed a trunk and announced she was going to live at the shepherd's cottage. 

"Shepherd John will be my father from now on," she declared.

To the harassed Elissa's amazement, her husband did not set off after Jobyna but discussed her with the young evangelist.

"The evening meal will go ahead without our youngest daughter," Louis announced, "and we will visit her tomorrow before Brother Theon presents his message to the Chanoine villagers."

Elissa studied the evangelist, 'Brother Theon.' He seemed an ordinary enough man, much younger than she expected. She was not sure what she had expected —certainly not the crowd of 'extras' traveling with Theon everywhere he went. There were messengers, scribes, helpers and 'followers'. None was armed and certainly didn't appear to be wealthy, nor did they appear to be poor.

They're clean and tidy, she thought. Elissa realized it was their short hair and well-trimmed beards, their bright eyes, the happiness that radiated from their faces that combined to make such a difference.

Over thirty traveled in Theon's company, and Sir Louis insisted they occupy the guest rooms at the manor house.

Elissa glared at her husband as he spoke earnestly with Theon. As she had expected, her husband was not planning to stay at the manor house. But neither was he going to Frencberg.

Sir Louis informed his wife he would travel around Frencolia with the Evangelist to guide him along the best routes to would cover all the towns and villages without back-tracking too much.

He would join Theon after visiting Frencberg and go to Westbrook and Samdene with the Evangelist. Sir Louis added, "It will be good for Frencolia to see that the evangelist has the support of the royal cousin."

"Do you really mean to return here, to Chanoine and stay for a year?" Elissa asked.

"I have Leopold's Official Permission, Elissa," Louis' brown eyes sparkled into his wife's hazel gaze, "and I'm more than ever convinced that I'm doing the right thing. I'm praying that my stay will be much longer than a single year."

"You seem ... different." Elissa said at last.

"I am ... different," Louis claimed, once more meeting the scrutiny behind her eyes. "I've found what I've been searching for all of my life, but there's so much to learn and so little time in which to learn it all."

These words mystified Elissa but she had no time to ponder.

Organizing the many guests into their rooms; interrupting Luke and Marcus as they yelled at each other and came to blows; preventing Louis Junior from riding out to demand Jobyna's immediate return home —when the time came for the children to bed before the guests retired, Elissa was exhausted. Although needing sleep, she looked forward to talking with her husband.