He did hear of it. Baron Jeffrey Swiftheart arrived at our home the very next day at noon. I did not even get a chance to greet the man before he glared at me. "Show me those bastards." he said icily. I just shut my mouth and led him straight to the children. He looked at them and snarled. "These abominations are your children, yes?" he asked. I got on one knee. I looked him in the eyes. "These are my children and I am very proud about them. I will do everything in my power to make a knight out of each and every one of them." I said. He rolled his eyes at me. "What has your wife said of this? I can't imagine she was pleased at the news." he wanted to know. "She would not allow my daughters to be trained to be knights. I needed a male child to be my heir. Now I have 4 heirs. Grissell might be upset, but I won't hear any complaints from anyone that would refuse the more natural alternative. It is not their place to lecture me about how I manage my household." was my response. "So these creatures will have your name then!? It is bold." he said. "I am a phantom thief. I'm very bold."
I was not going to back down here. Being a father meant standing up for my defenseless children. He looked at me and then the 4 children. "I wonder which abomination would be worse: halfbreed knights or female knights?" he asked out loud. "I won't encourage you, but you seem to find a way to make things work for yourself. I certainly won't provide funding for half breeds to be trained to be knights." he said. That was fine with me. The capitol had a tourney circuit. If my sons were great in combat, they could be good fighters. I was a fighter there. Sir Killroy would not be a top champion forever. He had fell off ever since he had to take care of his mother. By the time they were ready, a whole new generation of fighters would be in the arena. In the meantime, it was time to raise all my children well and set them up for success. I had funds to do so on my own. He left me and Bonnie looked at me in confusion. "Why do all of the people you bring to see our pups hate them?" she asked me. I just shrugged my shoulders. "They are my masters. I owe my loyalty. I don't care what they say."
After that, it was time to buckle down and lead my family. People would laugh at me and my wife. I glared and threatened to beat them up. That got most of them to back off. The few that did want to fight were obliterated easily. I was not going to go easy on fools like that. Yon and Alard were very upset with me when my wife told them. It was not something I could hide. Both men wanted to fight me for the honor of Grissell. I really could see where they were coming from. Since they wanted it so strongly, I decided to give them a shot. We brawled a bit. I won. Obviously, I would. I was a combatant. They were builders. "How can you do this to your own wife!? She's been nothing but faithful to you!" Alard spat at me from the floor. Yon was still laying on the ground. I helped Yon stand up. He was barely conscious so it was a while before I was comfortable with letting him go. "Why are you being so nice to me!? We're angry with you and how you're treating her, Collin." he demanded. "You are the uncle of my 3 daughters. Your father is their grandfather. I want you in their lives." I said.
Just doing things seemed not to work. I was going to have to lay it all out on the line. "I don't hate you guys. I am giving you free lessons to read and write because I want you to have more opportunities going forward. Grissell's wish was for me to take a mistress so that I could have male children. The only other alternative would be for me to raise Johna to become a knight. She is my first born child." Both of them looked scandalized. "You didn't tell us you said it was okay to lay with others besides you, girl!" Alard hissed, turning to his daughter. She flinched from the tone. I quickly got between them. "It's no one's fault! I brought it up a month after Molly and Holly were born. It was a choice she made in the moment. I will hold her to her word; not because I hate her, but because I respected her enough to give her the choice. It obviously hurts to see your spouse bring bastards home. That is why they live in a separate house from us." Alard's face softened a bit as he looked at her now. "You married this man. A scoundrel would have let you die just to move on. You chose this life now."
