Part 52 (2/2)
”How's our girl?” he asked, changing the subject.
”Sleeping for now. She'll be hungry soon.” Marianna shook her head as if in disbelief. ”She's always hun- gry.”
”That's a good sign, isn't it?”
”I suppose so.”
”Is she big for a girl baby?”
”Is she going to grow up to be Talented, that's what you man, isn't it?”
”Well, it's a natural question.” Jarrod replied defen- sively.
Marianna's hands plucked at the coverlet and she watched them as if they belonged to someone else. Then she lifted them in the equivalent of a shrug and looked up at him. ”There's no way to tell. They don't start growing tall until they're six or seven. At least that's the way it was with Joscelyn.”
”You'd rather she wasn't Talented, wouldn't you?”
”Frankly, yes.” She was blunt. ”I've already got one child who's going to be a Magician, I'd prefer that this one stayed home. Besides, it would make things harder for her. I doubt that young female Magicians are much courted, or have an easy time finding playmates.”
Jarrod nodded, not knowing what to say. ”It's a shame that Joscelyn couldn't be here for the birth,” he ventured.
”I know,” she said. ”I thought about it, but, given
290 his record, plus the fact that he came to the wedding, I didn't think that Dean Handrom would take kindly to the suggestion.”
”I'm sure you're right,” Jarrod concurred.
”But what I wanted to see you about was the baby,”
Marianna added.
”Her being a Magician?” Jarrod asked. ”We can't do anything about that. She'll either turn out to be Tal- ented, or she won't.”
”No, silly, not that. About calling her 'the baby,' 'the child,' 'the girl.' It's time that she had a name. Do you have any preferences?” She glanced up at him. ”There's no need to look so surprised,” she said.
”I'm surprised at myself. The fact is that I really haven't given it thought.” He smiled sheepishly. ”The fact is that I had sort of a.s.sumed that it would be a boy.”
”Are you disappointed?”
”Not in the least,” Jarrod said with conviction. ”I loved her the moment I saw her.” He noticed her smile and misinterpreted it. ”How about you?” he asked. ”I know you wanted another son to continue the line.”
The smile widened. ”We'll just have to make sure that Josceyin marries and has children. Still, that's in the future. What we have to decide on now is a name.
If it had been a boy, I wanted to call it after my father, but I don't have any strong preferences about a girl's name.”
”That reminds me,” he said, ”I rather expected that your father would be here by now.”
”He's on his way. It takes a little longer without a unicorn.”
”We could call her Daria,” Jarrod suggested. ”It's got an nice sound to it.”
Marianna's eyes lit- ”Daddy would love it,” she said, and then paused. ”There's only one problem.”
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