Bourne couldn't help beaming at his daughter's praise. "See? I am pretty enough to be a princess!" Then he raised an eyebrow at his children and winked. "But I am not half so pretty as your mother." To punctuate this statement, he neatly tipped Cedrych off his lap, tugging Rona to take the small boy's place. He kissed her tenderly.
"But rest assured, the dress, while yours, is not secured at the back," he went on. "Little fingers were unable to negotiate the laces and stays.
Cedrych, though loathe to join in such a girly game, had resigned himself to the idea that everyone was playing teatime today, and slumped at the table with his cup in his hand, gloomily pretending to sip from it every time Bourne did.
"Sit up, bad boy," SigrĂșn chastened him. "No belbows on the table."
Bourne had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the hilarious juxtaposition of his daughter's stern tone and her mispronunciation.
"I have to go out tonight," he said under his breath, his voice only loud enough to be heard by his wife in his lap.