A Price Above Rubies

Chapter Two

Hilal watches her little girl digging in the dirt next to her happily humming a song she'd heard Leon sing in the bath a few times.

"I think I like the red ones best, Mama. They're gonna be so pretty!" Acelya thinks a moment and then pats the dirt with her small hand as if mollifying it. "But I love the other colours too," she says as if afraid she was going to hurt the other flowers feelings when they grew.

Hilal is still amused that despite being named after the azalea flower, her daughter's favourite flower is the lily.

A ball bounces off Acelya's shoulder and the little girl turns with a scowl. "Yorgo! Go play somewhere else! You're gonna mush my flowers!"

Yorgo rushes over and grabs his ball, looking at the ground in confusion. "No flowers."

Acelya purses her lips and rolls her eyes in a mimic of Hilal expressing her annoyance that for a moment Hilal has to struggle not to laugh and is so glad that Leon is coming up behind their son from another direction and can't see the little girl's expression. He would surely comment on the similarity of the look.

"Well they not born yet, dummy!" Acelya insists.

Yorgo scowls back, looking like his father. "Not a dummy! You a d-"

"Nobody call is allowed to call each other dummy," Hilal insists. "Now Acelya, apologize to your brother for calling him that."

Acelya's eyes widen. "He called me one too!"

"Technically he almost did," Leon points out. "Now apologize."

Acelya huffs and smiles with such feigned sweetness that Hilal has to bite her cheek not to laugh. Both she and Leon have made it clear that if their apologies are said in anger than it doesn't count and they'll have to do again. "I'm so sorry, Yorgo and I really really mean it."

"Sorry for what?" Leon presses, tossing Yorgo's ball from one hand to the other.

Acelya gives a little grunt of annoyance and Hilal has to lower her head because she knows if she looks at her husband they will both start laughing and that isn't the best idea when you're trying to discipline your children.

"For saying the word dummy. It's not nice. Though, Daddy. I heard a even worser word when we went to Uncle Yakup's and that man pushed that other man and called him a sumbitch. I dunno what that word means but it made the other man so mad that he hit the man with a bottle over his head. Then Auntie Yildiz came and got us cause we weren't supposed to be in the front with the people who were eating but I liked the music so Yorgo and me sneaked out, so I didn't get to see if the man apologized for saying the bad word."

Hilal stares at her husband whose eyes are wide and his handsome face is beet red.

"You snuck out while your Aunt Yildiz was taking care of you?" Leon asks his daughter.

Acelya blinks and bites her lip as if realizing she'd perhaps made things worse for herself. "That's not the important part of the story, Daddy."

Hilal coughs in her attempt to choke back a laugh even though she is most definitely not happy with her rebellious little children.

Yakup's tavern is respectable enough but occasionally some of the less respectable friends he has made over the years do business there and he lets them because it keeps his business from being targeted, partially because of his relationship with his Greek brother in law.

Neither Leon nor Hilal can really fault him for it and really, some of the men really do have their own certain codes of honor even if they do walk on the wrong side of the law.