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“Nesta, don’t you want to meet your new baby sister?” Mr. Archeron coaxed.
Mrs. Archeron, who had just given birth to the baby a few days earlier, was lounging on the sofa, Baby Feyre in her cradle nearby.
Mrs. Archeron would have been satisfied to have stopped after Nesta, although all of the couples in their social circle had multiple children, and so along came Elain, whom she discovered she was expecting when Nesta was still a baby, and then Feyre.
Three-year-old Nesta narrowed her eyes.
“I know Elain already,” Nesta said. She was sitting in a little wooden chair and staring at her parents and youngest sister with disdain.
“Elain, stop that!” Mrs. Archeron scolded the two-year-old, who was reaching for a vase of flowers on a nearby end table.
Mr. Archeron rushed over to Elain and scooped her up.
Elain made a noise of frustration and Mr. Archeron set her in her high chair and set a small toy in front of her.
“But you don’t know Feyre,” Mr. Archeron prompted.
“Don’t want to,” Nesta pouted.
“Oh, let her be,” Mrs. Archeron sighed. “A baby isn’t much of a playmate anyway.
“I know, dear, but she can’t avoid Feyre forever,” Mr. Archeron said.
Mrs. Archeron said nothing. Nesta had now gone over to the bookshelf and pulled a random novel off the shelf. She sat back down in her chair and pretended to read the book, scowling the whole time.
Mr. Archeron couldn’t help but smile slightly at his eldest’s anger, and decided to leave her be. Besides, Elain had grown bored of her toy, tossed it to the floor, and was being reprimanded by her mother once again.
Mr. Archeron scooped her out of the chair and held her on his lap in a chair near his wife.
Soon, Mrs. Archeron sighed and sat up, she got Feyre out of her cradle and began nursing her.
Once their older daughters were in bed that evening, Mr. and Mrs. Archeron stayed up a while longer with Feyre before she was returned to her cradle and the couple soon turned into bed themselves.
***
One day, a few months later, Mr. Archeron was in the bathing room while Mrs. Archeron had begrudgingly taken Elain off to change her into a new dress after she’d spilled on herself.
That left Nesta alone with the baby.
Feyre. Feyre had been what her parents decided to call her youngest sister.
She’d never even asked for another sister. Why hadn’t they asked her, “Nesta, would you like another sister?”
Nesta would have said “no, Elain is fine for me.”
To be fair, Elain could be a fun playmate sometimes, but she also didn’t know anything! When they played games, Nesta had to say, “okay Elain now this is what we’ll do: I will take the doll and push her in the carriage, you follow behind.”
And then Nesta would be pushing her baby doll and talking to Elain, as though they were taking a nice morning stroll, only to turn around and see the girl picking wildflowers.
***
Feyre here, well she was even more useless. She couldn’t walk or talk, she just laid there in her cradle sleeping and if she wasn’t sleeping she was crying so loud Nesta and Elain’s ears hurt - and then Elain would cry, too.
Still, though, Elain seemed somewhat endeared by her younger sister. Finally, someone in the home smaller than her! Elain sometimes tried to share toys with Feyre, or hand her crushed wildflowers she snuck inside.
The worst thing about the baby, though, was the stench that emanated from her sometimes. It was…bad.
“I use the bathing room like a lady,” Nesta informed Feyre.
Feyre said nothing.
“What can you even do?” Nesta asked. Mama and Papa and Elain were taking forever! This kid couldn’t hold a conversation if her life depended on it.
Out of frustration, Nesta pointed at the baby.
“I don’t like you,” Nesta scowled.
And Feyre, Feyre had the audacity to look at her eldest sister and SMILE.
And then she giggled.