“Red,” Riley answered. She continued to watch Jeremiah as he sat down, explaining his reasons for the surprise. It made sense and she appreciated it but it did suddenly feel kind of real—the idea that they would be making a family together. The whole baby thing had felt so theoretical, like some sort of transaction to get done and once the baby was out, she had done what everyone wanted, she didn’t even consider that they would have to raise the baby together. In some ways, she didn’t have to raise the baby, there were always nannies and staff who could take care of the child, but was that really the kind of mother she wanted to be? Her mother didn’t raise her that way and from what Jeremiah said, he had no intentions of doing that either.
“I didn’t know you were so into the family thing,” Riley confessed. “I figured most old-fashioned vampires preferred the ‘leave it to the nanny’ mentality.” Taking care of a child was labour intensive and labour was for the poor, after all. “To be honest, I never thought much about having a family. My mom didn’t really talk about it. I figured it was a sore spot for her since… well… me.” She wasn’t exactly the ideal child by pureblood standards and she knew it hurt her mother to not be able to give Riley that loving family that she believed she deserved. “But I like that… having a warm family for them to grow in.” She genuinely smiled, very open to the idea.
“Are you sure this isn’t just another one of David and my mother’s schemes to get me pregnant though? It’s rather swoon worthy, Lord Wallace.” she joked. She trusted Jeremiah to be on her side by now. They were the partnership her parents wanted and it was their own little way of rebelling by not giving into every single one of the royal couples’ desires. “Because I can assure you, our bedtime activities is enough convincing,” she winked.
The bottle of red wine was picked up upon her choice to open it and pour it into the two glasses that were waiting on the food filled table. Ofcourse the food was infused with blood as usual. Jeremiah got up to lift the lid off a pan of soup as a starter, though she could pick whatever she liked. “Why wouldn’t I be? I come from a family of nobility but was raised pretty normal, aside from all the training since it was expected of me.” He said, listening to her every word. “Can’t have been easy for you, your biological father not being here.” He meant that in two ways, one being as he said it and two being having to deal with David as a stepfather, a role the prince didn’t just accept easily.
He sat back in his chair a little, taking a sip. “The thing is that I’ve raised a child, the first few years of David’s life I took on the parental role because his father… well, can’t really call him a father. The King hated the baby from the start which will forever not make sense but he doesn’t make sense in general so no surprise there. Once he figured out that David looked to me like a father, he sent me away and out of David’s life for years on missions leading his army. When I finally got to return, David was close to adulthood and I saw what years of… emotional neglect, to put it mildly really, could do to a child. For a child not to have a warm nest. I came back to the monster the King had created.” Jer just smiled at her remark.
“So no, not a scheme, but something I want, as I refuse to let any child of mine grow up believing that he or she is unloved.” Jer never liked to talk much about the past but he knew he needed to open up more so he was trying. “I have no complaints about the bedtime activities.” Jer said with a chuckle before having some of his soup.
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