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Daeon asks,
"Our father loves you
*despite* what you are? Isn't it usual for a father to
love his
daughter, even a step-daughter – especially this father? What do you
think
is so very bad about you that makes our father's love so special?"
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Robin squirms a little in her chair before answering. "It may not be unusual for a father to love his daughter. But Dad and I are hardly usual people in usual circumstances so, yes, I do think it's special that we love one another. There're a *lot* of our relatives who can't say the same." A wry smile cocks Robin's lips. "As to what's so very bad about me? It probably started by just being a major pain in the derriere. There just aren't that many kids in Arden. And even fewer uncontrollable hysterical wild girls." Robin shakes her head in reminiscence. "I still remember the time I set fire to the feed sheds. Dad was so... good about that, he really was." "Then, of course, I grow up into a uncontrollable hysterical adolescent. Can you imagine what that did to the guys!?" She laughs sadly. "There were a couple of... sudden retirements there for a while." Robin's green eyes get distant. "Then... he puts on the Pattern." She looks over to Daeon. "Now, the little girl who throws temper tantrums and the adolescent given to screaming fits has the power of life, death and destiny in her hands." Robin's face gets very still and she drops her eyes to the hands folded in her lap. "I... I've made some bad mistakes. Done some horrible things. All because I couldn't control my feelings, control my self. And yet there was Dad – always pulling me out of the fire, always cleaning up after me, always hugging away the pain." "Sometimes... sometimes I worry that he has grown more self-controlled and more rational, just to balance against my moods and terrors." She frowns sadly. "And yet," a beautiful smile lights Robin's face, "he still loves me." |
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