To Stand Beside Her (43 page)

“
Did you hear that
?
” Phillip
yelled
,
r
un
n
ing
back onto the stage and miss
ing
the next question.

“Is he?” Lady Pillas asked.
Nalick did not need to answer as all three knew the truth.
Lady Pillas wiped the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said
,
quietly before he
r
husband comforted her as they walked away.

“
Leila
, I get to learn how to ride a horse,” Phillip said
,
running up to Leila who was still holding the two children that were reaching their limit of behaving and sitting on her lap.
Tim wiggled more and more.

Leila sat him on the ground while still holding Ruth.
“Go tell Nalick your new story,” she
told
the young boy
,
who was more than happy to run over to Nalick who was talking to someone else.
Nalick lifted him into the air
,
and
Tim
cheered.

“I wonder what else I get to learn
…
,” Phillip added while picking up Ruth who
had
quit wiggling and fallen asleep on Leila’s lap.

“Trust me, I’m not the person to ask,”
Leila
replied
,
st
an
d
ing
next to Phillip.
“Let’s go back upstairs
. Maybe you can talk to Theo or Macarius about lessons.
”

Once upstairs, Leila took Ruth from Phillip and laid her in Leila’s bed.
Tim occupied himself with the toys lying around the room as Phillip and Nalick talked about what Phillip would be doing for his training.
Leila drifted off to sleep watching the men sit and talk at the table.

Nalick and Phillip let Leila and Ruth sleep until dinner time.
While they were asleep Tim had
joined them.
Nalick did not want to wake them as all three were cuddled in the bed together so peacefully.
Gently he picked up Ruth and rocked her in his arms as he softly called her name.
With a yawn she opened her eyes and giggled.
Nalick set her back down on the bed and soft
ly
shook Tim’s foot.
Tim sat up and both children began to tug on Leila.
Leila smiled and kept her eyes shut.

“
Lei
, wake up
.
” Tim patt
ed
her face.

“
Lei
,” Ruth said also tugging on her hand.
Reluctantly
,
Leila got up for yet another formal dinner.

Nalick brought his entire new family to their first formal dinner.
He had expected them to sit still for only a minute and then begin to run, but they stayed in their seats the entire time.
The three children sat between Nalick and Leila at the head table and were quite amused by the amount of people that came to the dinner.
Following the dinner, Leila took the two younger children back to their quarters and put them to bed.
After all the excitement, even with their naps, the children went right to sleep.

On her way back to the meeting room, Leila took a detour outside to the training courtyard.
F
or the first moment since she brought the children home, she was truly alone and could clear her mind and think.
If she returned to the party, she would not be alone.
Leila walked to the center of the empty courtyard and looked into the sky.
Everything in her life at the moment seemed to be working out for the best.
Leila stared at the stars.
Her life was never that easy and she felt unsure of what was truly bothering her.
What does Nalick know about the future he is too afraid to tell me
?
she
wondered
.
I
t
was
hard to believe in fate.
Leila
wanted to be in control of her own life.
Anatolio watched from the shadows
.
Leila
was cold.
As he approached,
Leila
did not move and he gently wrapped his outer shirt around her shoulders
,
pressing his body close to hers to warm her
.

“It’s a little to
o
cold to be standing out here,” he said to her.
“Besides you’re not dressed to be standing outside.
I think
those dresses are made for day
time or indoors.”

“I suppose I am not dressed to train you right now,” she replied
,
and he laughed.

“You really should get back inside before Nalick
becomes
concerned that you are gone,” Anatolio suggested.

“I know,”
Leila
replied but didn’t move.
“Do you believe in fate?”

“Yes,” he replied quietly.

“So you don’t think we have control over our own lives?”
s
he wondered.
“Doesn’t it scare you to have no control over how your life turns out?”

“You know how you don’t fear being kidnapped
?
”
Anatolio
explained.
“I don’t fear that I can’t control the way my life turns out.”
Leila wished she could just s
it by and let her life make its
own decisions
,
but she just could not let go of the chance to make the decisions herself.
“What’s meant to be is meant to be.”

Turning her head sideways and up to look over her shoulder,
Leila stared the young man with her.
She could not understand how he could be so calm with not being in control of his life.

“I’ve never had much say,” he
continued to explain
.
“Maybe if I was as free as you are
,
I would not like the concept of fate, but since I have never had control, it makes no difference to me
now
.”

“Let’s get you back to the dinner,” Anatolio said putting his arm around her and directing her to inside.
“Y
ou can’t sit and worry about lo
sing control of something you have never had control of to begin with.”
Leila smiled
,
realizing that
the young man’s words actually comforted her.
As the neared the door to the meeting hall, Anatolio let go of her and faded into the background.

He might even be smarter than his years also.

Inside the hall, the music had already started playing.
Leila made her way back to the table and found Nalick was walking around the room introducing Phillip to everyone.
She could see how proud both Phillip and Nalick were and happily sat and watched them.
As the music changed, Phillip ducked away from Nalick and ran over to Leila
,
dodging people and table
s
as he ran.

“
Leila
,”
Phillip
said panting from running across the room.
“Can I have this dance?”
Phillip caught his breath.
Leila recognized the music and accepted his outstretched hand.

Leila and Phillip danced two songs before Nalick cut in.
“Do I get a chance to dance with her too this time?”
h
e asked.
Phillip nodded and ran back to the head table
.

As the night wore on, Leila excused herself and Phillip from the party before she took him back up to their rooms.

“So do you think this is an okay life?” she asked him
on their walk through the empty hallways
.

Phillip grinned ear to ear even though he was exhausted. “It’s great.”
Leila walked upstairs with him and checked on Ruth and Tim who were sound asleep in Ruth’s bed as Phillip went to his room.
As she approached the top of the stairs to go back down, Phillip came out of his room and ran over to her.
He quickly hugged her.

“Thanks,
M
om,” he said before running back into his room and turning the light off.
Leila walked back down to her own room.
I
t
was
strange to be called mom.
Her life had not turned out as she had imagined, yet it was so much better than she could have ever guessed.
Could this be my fate?

Chapter 2
4

The next week
Leila
started a new schedule.
Leila began training Anatolio again in the afternoons after she put Ruth down for her
midday
nap.
What had started as a training session with just Anatolio had escalated until by the end of the week she had fourteen men working with her.
As the days progressed, more men started to show up to watch as they had done before.
Those that arrived early were brave enough asked to join in
.

After the last training session of the week, Leila was finally ready to test her leg to see what she was still able to do
but
did not want to do it in front of an audience.
While Ruth and Tim were busy playing with Elena, Leila changed and snuck off to the garden on the roof.

Leila started by slowly stretching
,
and there was some limitation to her recovering leg.
I
t would not be a problem
,
but she need
ed
to stretch every day for the following few weeks to get it back to equal with her other leg.
Leila took the time alone to plan out the following weeks.
It was still three weeks until the wedding
,
but her family would be arriving in less than a week.
Roger had sent her a note to give her the day he planned to be there and to again warn her to be careful.
Leila was excited to see her family, but also worried that they would not like it in Lexia.
She remembered her first run into the city and how she asked Erich why someone would purposely live there.
Leila chuckled at how ironic her question had been.
Over the years she had gotten use to Lexia, but she doubted
that
on their first trip to the city her family would find it too inviting.

Leila slowly moved her leg
,
roll
ing
her foot from side to side.
She could not feel a difference but she would not know until she tested it more.
Leila began to make a mental list of what needed to get done before he
r
parents arrived.
She
stood and stretched her leg more.
She was being over cautious
,
but she was
like this
every time she recovered from a major
injury.
Leila stood on her uninjured leg and pulled the other to her chest.
She could feel the tightness in
it
.
Cautiously
,
she rever
s
ed her legs and stood on her bad
one
while pulling her
other
up past her head.
Slowly she began to run through her set
of
exercises.
Ex
cept for two moves, everything seemed to be normal.
In the shadows near the wall she could tell Anatolio was watching her.
He did not interrupt her as she continued to run through the exercises again.