“Miss Livia, you are not to disturb your mother again,” The old nanny tells the young miss sternly. She picks up a book with her wrinkly hands and places it in front of Livia after flipping to a specific page with numbers on them, “Now, I think it is time we started learning how to count to one hundred.”

Then the old nanny turned away and started writing numbers on the board while calling them out at the same time.

Young Livia kicks her feet under her desk and pouts. She already knew these numbers. The old nanny was new. She did not know what Livia had already been taught and what she had not.

“Miss Livia, please repeat after me,” The old nanny tells her, and points to a number on the board. She repeats the number and waits patiently for Livia to echo it back. The lesson continues on in the same manner, and Livia quickly grows bored and begins to doddle the moment the old nanny turns her thin back.

Livia draws a picture of her mother to the best of her abilities with colored pastels. She is careful to color in her mother's makeup and hair with the most vibrant colors available to her. As the old nanny's voice becomes background noise, Livia contemplates who to draw next.

She draws her father and admires his purple eyes on the parchment. It was the same as hers! She also really liked the color purple! And black! Her father always wore black! Sometimes her mother did too. Especially recently. So, Livia made sure to draw her parents wearing similar clothes, because that is what married people did. Right? It made sense to her.

She nods to herself with a little grin and begins drawing herself in between her parents, her tongue sticking out as she concentrated on her artwork.

“Miss Livia, are you paying attention?” The old nanny asks when she forgets to answer, beginning to turn her way.

Livia jumps a bit, and her eyes widen. She blinks rapidly before squinting at the chalkboard before her.

“Twree,” Livia says, seeing the math problem on the board. She even holds up her fingers to emphasize, beaming.

“It is three, Miss Livia. That is the proper way to say it,” The old nanny says, frowning.

“Three,” Livia parrots perfectly.

The old nanny nods in approval, not smiling once, before she turns her attention to the board again, “Let’s move onto the next problem...”

And on it went. Livia was careful to keep one ear on the droning nanny, while she finished her picture and even signed it with her name in purple pastel.

Soon, the last lesson of the day was finished, and she was pushed onto another nanny to be fed dinner. Only, they refuse to let her take her artwork with her. When the old nanny tries to reach for it, Livia tucks it safe to her chest and snaps her jaw, scowling.

The old nanny quickly removes her hand, frowning severely, “Miss Livia! A young miss such as yourself does not bite!” She all but yells and attempts to snatch the parchment from her again.

The moment her thin, wrinkled fingers come back into close proximity to her, Livia does not bite them. But she does smack them away as hard as she can and take a few retreating steps.

“This is mine!” She screams, “I made it for mummy and daddy! You can’t take it!”

“Miss Livia!”

“Madam, please. The young miss means no harm,” The young nanny says, stepping in between them when the old nanny reaches out to roughly grab at the toddler's little arm.

“She may mean no harm, but she shall cause it,” The old nanny hisses, “Step away girl. The Lady and the Lord would not be pleased to see what their daughter drew.”

Livia does not know what else the other two said after that. She ducks under the young nanny’s arms and darts out the door while screaming behind herself, “No! It’s mine!”

“Miss Livia!”

“Young miss, please don’t run!”

Too late.

She is quick on her small feet and turns a corner after running down the long hallway. From her lesson room, she remembers how to get to her mother’s room. And that is exactly what she intends to do. She rushes past servants and maids, ignoring all calls of her name, and ends up outside as she tries to access the north wing of the Valentine estate.

When she sees male servants quickly rushing after her, with the old and young nanny hot on their tails, she darts through the garden.

Livia huffs and puffs as her little legs work at full speed. She is quickly becoming tired so she tries to find a place to hide. When she notices a small opening in a green bush, she ducks and crawls under it.

A second later, a couple of pairs of feet run by as her name is called frantically.

Livia covers her mouth and scoots further back.

She remains unnoticed and intends to wait a couple more seconds, but then she feels something tickle the back of her small hand. When she looks down, she sees a fat, hairy black worm and lets out a terrified shriek while shaking her hand frantically.

She crawls out of the bush and the moment she is on her feet; she clutches her artwork to her chest and runs once more even though she is tired. With her eye squeeze shut and a yell still shaking her vocal cords, she darts off blind in a random direction, focused only on getting away from the disgusting bug as quickly as she can.

It isn’t long before she bumps into something firm and falls to her butt with a small ‘oomph’.

Young Livia would cry out an insult if she wasn’t too busy just crying.

“Oh, my!” A female voice says.

“...Livia,” A male voice joins it, sounding from right above her.

The young miss straightens upon hearing it and rubs at her eyes to clear her vision. When she blinks tears from them and her view clears, she instantly lets out another sub as she scrambles to her feet.

“Daddy! I was scared! It was a bug!” She cries and hugs his knees, momentarily forgetting about her art, which lays abandoned and crumbled up behind her.

“Livia,” Her father repeats and then does nothing as she wipes her tears into his pants, hugging him tighter.

“My lord...” The female voice says but trails off.

Livia snuffles and peaks out and up. Then she catches sight of a fat belly and bright white hair gleaming prettily in the afternoon sun.

Lily.

The stranger. The introodur.

Livia doesn’t really understand what ‘introodur’ means. But her mother said that word once. And then she heard it a lot more when she had been walking towards her lesson in the halls, by the servants. And right after they said the word, they called the stranger's name. Livia concluded they must be connected!

So, she points her pudgy finger and parrots it, “Introoodur!”

Lily flinches, her small but kind smile falls right off her face.

Livia sniffles in confusion, blinking once. Then she recalled another word that had been said. By her nanny’s when they thought she was sleeping and they would linger in her room, huddling by the fire as they leaned close and whispered loudly.

“Misterresst!” Livia carefully pronounced the word to the best of her abilities, still pointing. Her attention leaves the stranger when her father bends down. Livia smiles watery and reaches up, thinking he intends to pick her up and comfort her like her mother always does when she cries, but she is startled when she is instead pushed away.

She stumbles back, nearly falling again, and stands a few away.

She blinks and stares up at her father, uncomprehending.

What?

Why?

“Daddy?” She calls out, reaching out her arms, but the expression on his face has them wavering in the air. Before she could call out to her father again, he turns away from her and places a gentle hand on the stranger's shoulder.

“Lily, do not listen to her. She does not know what she speaks of,” Her father says.

Lily had her head bowed low; her arms wrapped around herself as she turns her face away from her father.

“How does she even know such words?” The stranger asks in a weak voice before she hugs herself tighter.

“Daddy,” Livia calls out, still confused. Why wasn’t her father turning her way? Didn’t he see she was upset? She takes a step forward, and hers a small crinkle under her foot. She looks down and notices her art

It had dirt on it and was crinkled from her clutching at it tightly when she had been running, but even so. The toddler bends down and picks up, dusting off the dirt, and smiles.

That’s right! Her father was here! She could show it to him now! Who knew how long it would be before she sees him again?

“Daddy! Daddy, look!” Livia calls out and holds up the picture with a proud grin.

“Lily, please. Look at me,” Her father says, his back towards her.

“My lord-”

“Luvien. It is just Luvien, Lily.”

“Daddy!” Livia toddles forward, and reaches out, intending to tug at his pants leg to gain his attention.

“Daddy-” Her hand is slapped harshly away.

“Do not touch me!” Her father hisses, turning to look down on her with eyes that mirror her own. Only, they looked angry. Really angry.

Livia gasps and flinches back. Her hand wasn’t the only thing that stung.

“Lord Luvien!” Lily practically shouts and quickly moves around her father. Before Livia could register it, the stranger bends down and picks her up.

“Here, let me see, does it hurt?” Lily asks, turning over her small hand in her own, inspecting it closely. Livia was too stunned to say anything, wondering when she had gotten so high up. Her fingers cling on to the one that holds her on instinct, and her legs press into the fat belly.

“It's just a little red,” The stranger says, patting her hand gently, “Hopefully the hurt will go away soon.”

And then Lily cuddles her close and glares at her father, “What is wrong with you?” She hisses.

Her father stares at them in shock for a second longer, before his face closes off.

“You should not be carrying her,” He says, his eyes only on Lily, “You are too far along. It is dangerous.”

Lily huffs, “If I can tend to my lands while pregnant, carrying a small defenseless child is nothing.”

Father's face falters, “Lily-”

“No,” The stranger says, bouncing Livia on her wide hip as silent tears fall down the toddler's face. Livia wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation. Her gaze was on her fallen artwork. The faces of her mother and father scowl back up at her, crumbled.

“She is just a child!” Lily snaps, “Your child! I can’t believe you would dare to hit her!”

“...It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have,” Her father states, his tone grim.

“But you did it anyway,” Lily says, and there was something in her words that had Livia dragging her eyes away from her art to stare up at the stranger.

She had never heard anyone talk like that to her father. Even her own mother never sounded like that.

Livia stares up at Lily, her tears drying on her cheeks, wonderingly.

“Once again, your temper got the best of you,” Lily says, staring at her father with unwavering eyes.

Judging him.

“Lily,” His father says, his face clouding over, falling.

Lily just shakes her head, dropping her gaze, “I should have never come here,” She whispers.

“What is going on here?” A voice cuts through the air like a dagger.

Livia perks up instantly and tries to launch herself out of the strangers' arms, reaching out with her own short ones.

“Mummy!”

Her mother stalks forward a thunderous expression, her black nightgown falling off one shoulder as she heads straight for Lily.

Her father soon blocks her view of her mother, and Livia scowls. Then she notices that he is stepping on her art and screams, knocking everyone's attention towards herself as she struggles in the stranger grip.

“No! Move daddy! You are ruining it!” Livia shrieks and kicks out her legs.

“Livia, please calm down,” Lily says, and holds the toddler away from herself when a stray kick lands on her stomach. She winces a bit and tries to keep her hold of the young miss as Livia's head turns and cranes down, focus on something on the dirt.

“Get your hands off my daughter!” Her mother snarls furiously, attempting to move around her husband, her eyes trained on Lily like a lioness eyeing up a threat to her cub.

Before anything else can happen, Livia is suddenly raised up and out of the stranger's hold and places on a slim hip. She pauses mid flail, blinking as the ground suddenly comes close as her father bends down and picks up her art. He hands it to her without a word and her round fist closes over the paper possessively.

Completely forgetting about the previous events, Livia shoves her art up her father's nose and beams, “Look, daddy! Look what I have drawn!”

Her father cranes his neck back to view the parchment better. He ignores the other two women standing on either side of him as he takes in the picture his daughter had drawn.

Livia points, “This is you,” She tells them, then moves her finger, “Mummy, Me, and Baby-son,” she tells him happily and tries to move the picture closer to him, so he could see it better.

Her father stops her by putting two fingers at the edge of the wrinkled parchment, keeping it still. Then his arms become stiff around her, his flat expression flickering.

“...Baby...son?” He says, his voice low, barely a whisper.

Livia just grins, and nods, “Baby son!”

Then movement catches her eyes and her grin dulls when she sees her mother stumbles while clutching her stomach and covering her eyes.

“Baby...son...” The stranger says behind her, her voice faint, but Livia does not turn.

“Mummy?” Livia calls out, worried.

Her father turns to see what she did. Just in time to catch her mother at the elbow when she almost falls. Livia is quick to try to get closer to her mother when she comes into reach. She pets at her mother's wild hair, trying to flatten it down while saying ‘shush shush’ like her mother does when she was upset.

“Oh gosh,” Lily says.

When Livia looks up to her, she only sees her back as the stranger flees the scene, looking pale and sick. The young miss promptly puts this out of her head and raises her picture again when her mother uncovers her eyes. Livia does take note of the tears in them and the red puffiness, but she was so used to seeing them by now, it didn’t really register. Her mother was always crying.

Livia figured since her attempts at comforting didn’t work, she would try to distract her. With a pretty picture! Then her mother would have to stop crying, right?

“Look mummy,” She starts to say, but her father shushes her.

“Your mother will see your picture later,” Her father tells her when she scowls up at him.

“Miss Livia!”

“Lady Lynette!”

The servants find them.

Her mother is escorted away by the two maids with the same face. She does not say anything else to either Livia or her father.

When her nannies try to take her away from her father as well, Livia throws a fit. She bites and claws at them, all while sobbing that she did not want to leave her father.

After the third attempt to pull her away ends up with one nanny getting a small foot to the chest, her father puts an end to it with a simple, “It’s fine.”

Livia sniffles, then her stomach growls. She clutches the picture of her family close as her hands bunches up her father's shirt and says, “Daddy, I’m hungry.”