Page 19 of Triplets for the Dark Elf

Was that really her?

11

ANNALISE

Work is just as tiresome as ever so I’m relieved when it’s over and I can go home to my babies. I can’t wait to see how their day was, what they learned and what they did.

Lucy keeps an eye on them and a few other kids during the day. She sometimes picks mine up from the cottage if I’m working early and takes them back to hers where a few other parents drop their kids off with her. Otherwise, I leave them with her on the way.

I pay her for it, of course. It wouldn’t be right to make her do that without some compensation—especially after all my friends did to help me during my pregnancy. But she refuses to take much, telling me that she knows I’d do the same for her.

I couldn’t possibly have done all this without Lucy. There’s no way we would have survived. I’m eternally grateful for her assistance. She is honestly like family to me now. Same with Daphne.

The triplets are still playing with their friends when I arrive and my daughters wave while my son is busy terrorizing another little boy with a block.

“How were they?” I ask Lucy, who is currently feeding a smaller girl some mashed burgona from a spoon.

“About the same as always,” she says. I wince. So, little terrors then. She sees my expression and grins. “I’m just teasing you. They were good. I promise,” she reassures me.

“Thank the Mother,” I say with a sigh.

“Though...there was a bit of an incident,” she adds, wiping the baby’s face with a cloth. “Some of the other kids started talking about Maeve’s skin color. There were a lot of questions. I managed to redirect them with storytime but yeah...”

I sigh. I knew this would be coming eventually but I hoped that it would be much, much later. Like when they were teenagers and I could explain adult-type decisions to them more easily.

“You know that Daphne and I have never pried, never asked what happened,” Lucy says. “And I know you don’t want to talk about it but it’s only a matter of time before the kids want to know.”

She’s right. It’s going to become harder and harder to disguise a half-dark elf child in a human settlement.

“Thanks for redirecting the kids’ attention,” I say as I head over to pick up Hazel, who is currently working on a wooden puzzle with her tongue poking out from her teeth. “Let’s go, Hay-Hay,” I tell her.

“No fank you,” she says, grinning up at me. I try not to laugh at that and scoop her up anyway. Maeve is playing with a wax pencil, scribbling on a piece of old parchment and she puts it down and walks over to me and Hazel without complaint. I wonder if she’s ready to go because of the questions she got about her skin color today.

Trying not to dwell on that, I manage to get Hazel on one hip, Maeve on the other, and now I just have to wrangle Indie-Boy away from the blocks. He’s the most reluctant to leave but I manage to get him to go by promising him a treat after dinner.

Bribery really is the best option sometimes. The triplets are tired from spending all day at Lucy’s so by the time we get home, I immediately start dinner. Daphne is working a night shift at a theater where she is a waitress so it’s just the four of us tonight.

I make quick work of warming up some of the leftover cheese and pasta casserole and chop up a few cryots on the side. Pouring three glasses of juice, I carefully bring them over to the table. Hazel leads the three of them in washing up at the sink on their little wooden stool and they sit at the table obediently, waiting for their food.

“Good job on washing up!” I tell them as I dish out the food. “You all did it so well, without a single complaint!” Praising their good behavior works better than scolding them when they’re naughty, I’ve learned.

“Mama, I good today,” Hazel says as she carefully uses her spoon to feed herself. Indie is attacking the food with his fingers and Maeve is alternating between trying to use her spoon to scoop up the food and then using her fingers to push it onto the spoon when she gets frustrated.

“Yeah?” I ask, watching them while trying not to laugh when Indie drops a cryot slice back onto his plate.

“They ask-ed Mae-Bae lots of questions and I say be nice to Mae-Bae!” she tells me.

“Good job!” We’ve been working on being nice to our sister and brother with her.

“Mama, why no look like Nindee and Hazey?” Maeve asks, looking at her skin.

“You look like me but with darker skin!” I say, trying to keep my tone light.

“I look like Mama?” Maeve asks, amazed.

“Mama has blue eyes, like me,” Hazel insists.

“Why my eyes no look like Mama?” Indie demands.