Free The Thunder Lord: The de Shera Brotherhood Book One (Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood 1) by Kathryn Le Veque Page B

meant these little girls were motherless, just as she herself was fatherless. Jeniver bit back the tears as she thought on their terrible connection, all of them having lost a parent.
    “My puppy does not have a name,” she said, fighting off the sorrow by focusing on something more pleasant. “Will you help me name him?”
    The girls nodded eagerly. “I want to name him after the sun!” Violet announced.
    Lily, who wasn’t quite as verbal as her sister, tried to interject her opinion. “Dog!”
    Jeniver grinned. “Shall we call the puppy ‘dog’?”
    Lily nodded while Violet shook her head vigorously. “Nay,” she said flatly. “I want to name him Brightly.”
    Jenifer’s eyebrows lifted. “Brightly?”
    Violet was determined. “After the sun,” she said, pulling her nibbled fingers out of the dog’s mouth. “Isn’t that a nice name?”
    Jeniver didn’t want to hurt the child’s feelings but it wasn’t something she was apt to name her dog. “But he is black,” she said. “He does not look much like the sun to me. He is a very black dog.”
    Violet was back to petting the dog but she was also eyeing Jeniver somewhat. “You speak strangely,” she said. “Why do you speak like that?”
    Jeniver knew the child meant her Welsh accent and was not offended. “That is because I was taught the Welsh language before I was taught your language,” she said. “Our words are different from yours. Sometimes that makes the words in your language sound odd when I speak them.”
    Violet absorbed that explanation. “Where do you come from?” she asked.
    Jeniver’s smile faded as she thought of a home she might never see again. So much about her life was uncertain at the moment. “Wales,” she said softly. “I live in Wales in a place called Rhydilian Castle.”
    Violet was somewhat interested. “Do you have sisters like me?”
    Jeniver shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “It is only me and my father. Much as it is only you and your father. My mother died when I was young, too.”
    Violet tore her gaze away from the all-precious puppy to look at her. “My mother died a while ago,” she said. “She fell off her horse. Papa does not let us ride horses anymore because Mama fell. I had a pony but he gave it away.”
    Jeniver read bigger implications into that statement. The earl, obviously terrified for his children after the death of their mother, took away the very activity that had claimed her. A reaction like that told her that the man was very protective over his children, with deeper feelings involved, much as her father had been. Men of this day and age didn’t usually become so attached to their children, much less girl children. Most fathers she had known or seen had been rather callous towards their young offspring, but the earl evidently wasn’t one of those. The earl apparently cared for his children a great deal.
    “Does that make you sad?” she asked Violet.
    Violet nodded. “I loved my pony,” she said, somewhat dejected. “I… I love your puppy, too.”
    So they were back to the puppy and Jeniver thought she detected a hint of suggestion in that comment. She knew the girls loved her puppy but she wasn’t going to give it to them. She loved it, too.
    “I know you do,” she said, realizing it wasn’t what Violet wanted to hear. “You promised to help me name him. Well? What will we decide?”
    Violet was bordering on a pout because she hadn’t been given the puppy. Frustrated, and unable to hide it, she shrugged.
    “He’s just a black dog,” she said, unhappy.
    Jeniver fought off a grin. “But he is a strong and mighty dog,” she said. “We must give him a strong and mighty name.”
    Violet gazed at the puppy she could not have. “He’s dark like… like the storm clouds,” she said. “He is the color of angry rain clouds.”
    Jeniver looked at the puppy. “A storm cloud,” she muttered, more to herself. “Mayhap we should name him after the storm gods. They are