Claimed by the Desert

Chapter Three

This chapter is dedicated to @brittonshay for the awesome cover she made for me! Look at it, isn't it just fantastic?

Chapter Three

 "Vera. Vera, wake up."

"Hmm?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes. Through her somewhat bleary vision Vera was able to make out her father standing over her, a frown marring his usual cheerful face.

"You fell asleep in my chair," he said. "You haven't done that since you were a little girl."

He looked at her with concern. "I remember you used to say that sitting in it made you feel safe when you were feeling scared. Are you alright?"

Vera smiled at him and cringed. "You're going to laugh at me, Papa."

He shook his head and mocked hurt. "I would never!"

"It was the book you let me read," she began. "You were right, it spooked me a bit. And Halsten was gone to the market so I was here alone. I knew coming here would make me feel better."

She looked up to see her father's shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

"I knew you would laugh! Shame on you!"

"I'm sorry, but you do get yourself worked up over the smallest things," he said. "It's only legend Vera; none of those creatures you read about are real."

She flushed slightly in embarrassment. "I know, Papa. I'm not a little girl anymore and I don't believe in fairytales or monsters. It was just a moment of foolishness. I'm fine now."

Her muscles ached horribly from being cramped in the chair for so long. "Somehow there seemed to be less soreness the last time I fell asleep in this chair."

"That was before you gained nearly a foot in height in a single year," he said. "You're taller than your mother was at nineteen, that's for sure!"

Vera stopped stretching her sore muscles and turned to face him. Her father rarely ever spoke about her mother anymore, not that she blamed him. Her parents had been very much in love and after her mother's death he was a broken man. He had given up his career as a brilliant solicitor, running off to Egypt and leaving Vera behind with a nanny. He eventually became an archeologist and Vera would visit him periodically when she wasn't in school.

"Really?" she asked, almost fearing he would realize what he had said and clam up again. "I can't remember her much anymore."

"She was taller than me by only a small margin, but you, my towering Amazon, have surpassed us both!"

Vera felt a bit self-conscious at his nickname for her, but she knew he had meant it as a compliment. Her father had always praised the fact she was unique, saying she was an almost perfect combination of his and her mother's looks. Vera had received her father's golden, curly hair and her mother's slim figure and tall stature. When her friends and cousins teased her for not conforming to what girls her age should look like Vera always tried to remember the compliments her parents always gave her.

Her father's face had turned thoughtful and she could tell he was recalling all the fond memories he had of her mother.

"Have you had dinner?" she asked him as she made her way toward the door.

He shook his head. "Halsten was making French onion soup while I was downstairs. He said dinner should be ready in around an hour."

As her father's valet, Halsten's job description didn't include cooking, but seeing as neither she nor her father could even manage to boil water and they couldn't afford more help, the task usually fell to him.