Read Online Everfair by Nisi Shawl - Free Book Online Page B

hers.
    â€œHe wanted the other three as well, but I stopped him.”
    The other three. Lily, George, and—“Rosalie, too?” Ellen’s daughter. As the world reckoned these things. “Rosalie and Lily and George are—are coming? Here? But he—” She had to make it make sense. Never much interested in the girls, Laurie’d always taken great pride in fathering his two boys. “He would want George. So why? Why—”
    â€œGeorge refused to go back.”
    Which would hardly have been an impediment. There must be more. The red-tailed parrot scolded them from a high, safe branch. She caught a glimpse of leaves rustling as it hopped from one perch to another. Then her eyes went back to Jackie’s face, seeing it clearly now: jaw held grimly square beneath his brown beard. Eyes glazed with tears under brows jutting low like protecting bluffs.
    The parrot squawked indignantly. It disliked having to roost near the trees’ tops, but wouldn’t descend any lower with Jackie about. “Come inside.” As Daisy invited Jackie in she realized this was their first time alone together in compromising circumstances, despite months of travel. She was ashamed to have such a conventional reaction to his presence. They were old friends. But a divorce changed things.
    She took the bed as her seat again, defiantly. “There is something you’re afraid to tell me.”
    Jackie laughed ruefully. “I only thought about it afterward.”
    â€œSit down. Please.” She indicated the stool.
    He did. “It was easy getting that blight—getting Laurie to leave Lily with me, and he was practically silent when Ellen protested letting Rosalie stay behind, feeble enough protests anyway … He wanted George, though. His oldest, primogeniture, you know, a powerful idea even if it is a legacy of feudalism and tainted beyond— But never mind all that. Thing is, George very much wanted to stay in Africa. Fourteen, almost a man—why shouldn’t he? And I knew you’d miss him. So I—” He covered his forehead with one large-palmed hand.
    â€œSo I lied. I claimed George as my own. My son.”
    Daisy took a moment to work out what he meant. Then she blushed, which made her furious. “You told Laurie we’d had intercourse.”
    â€œIt was possible—theoretically.”
    â€œYes.” That conference fortnight at Jackie’s estate, the right number of years ago. Laurie had insisted on a separate room. Daisy could have slept with Jackie one night or many; he was just a short walk down the passage’s soft blue carpet.
    â€œDon’t be angry. Please.”
    â€œI’m not. But you think I ought to be?”
    He hesitated. The hand came down from his face and he gazed at her, unblinking. “Adultery will make his claim of your unfitness as a wife—more difficult to dismiss.”
    Ah. Laurie’s adultery had never mattered. Hers, however, was grounds for divorce. “But I don’t wish to dismiss his claim.” Let they two be put asunder. She had loved her husband, once. But now, Lisette …
    â€œDon’t you see? Such a character flaw as that? If George or Rosalie or even Lily is ever found within British jurisdiction again, their father will take them away from you instantly. They’ll be his. No recourse.
    â€œI am sorry.”
    â€œYou’re right.” Appalled, she felt the numbing cold run off and drain away. “You’re … right.” Oh, her heart, hot and dry and hollow—but they were coming here, coming now, all but—“Laurie Junior? No hope they’ll let me have him? If I fight?” Solicitors and pleadings, long, weary months of it, and that would mean leaving the three older children here, or taking them with her into jeopardy.
    â€œNot a single judge on Earth will award him to you now.” Which was only what Daisy knew already.