Page 115 of Kiwi Sin

He said, “An OK substitute for that ring, then?”

“Better,” I managed to say. “So much better.”

It took a long time to get around to serving my plum tart.

When I did, though … it took even longer to finish it. Not just for me. For everybody.

* * *

Gabriel said,“I have something I need to tell all of you, that my dad just told me. I wish it were a pretty story. It’s not. It’s about your sister, Dove.”

He started to talk, and the forks went down like dominoes. First Daisy’s, then mine, then Gray’s, then Priya’s. As for Gabriel—he never picked his up.

Daisy said, finally, “Bloodyhell.”Blankly.

Gray said, “I can’t believe it. That bastard. Thatarsehole.I wish I’d killed him.”

“Who?” Daisy asked. “Gilead, or the Prophet?”

“Both,” Gray said, and his face was grim. I didn’t think he was joking.

Priya said, “So Dove is …”

Oh.I said, “Does that make it … not possible, Daisy? For you to want her with us? To love her, if she’s Gilead’s? What about Frankie? How’s she going to feel?” I thought of something, then. I looked at Gabriel, then hesitated.

He said, “She can live with us.”

I couldn’t even say anything. I just held his arm and eventually said, “I love you,” again.

Daisy said, “Of course it doesn’t matter.” She pushed at her hair, though, and looked so tired. “We’re all Dad’s daughters, and Dad isn’t much better than Gilead, and I love all of you, don’t I? I don’t believe there’s any such thing as tainted blood. I don’t know Dove—she wasn’t born when I left—but …”

“She’s like me,” I said. “She’s not like Gilead, and she’s not like Frankie. She’s like me, and she’s like … like Mum. Sweet, and soft, and kind.” Suddenly, it was all too much. The tears were there in my eyes, wanting to spill over. I was getting married to the most wonderful man I’d ever met. Would my mum even know?

Gray said, “Of course she’ll live with us when it’s time, as long as it’s all right with Daisy. We have the place, and we should know how to do it by now, after all this practice. Besides, Dove will have her other sisters to help.”

He looked at Daisy first. Daisy nodded, I said, “Of course,” and Priya said, “Of course we want Dove. She’s thebaby.”

Gray went on, “I’m trying to think how this knowledge changes things. The situation, I mean, and Mount Zion opening up, if it really is.”

“I think it does change things,” Gabriel said. “I need to talk to a lawyer, though, to be sure.”

“Luckily,” Gray said, “we know some lawyers. What’s your idea?”

Gabriel told us.

49

INTO THE LION’S DEN

Oriana

On Friday, I went to school and said goodbye to Aisha, hugging her and saying, “I’ll still see you, if you come home with Priya.”

“It won’t be the same,” she said, and I knew it was true. Aisha and Priya would go to university, would become airline pilots or accountants or lawyers, and I’d be glad to see it, but I knew what I wanted to do, and it wasn’t that. I told a couple of my teachers I was leaving, registered their disappointment or their unsurprised resignation, and didn’t feel a bit bad.

After that, I waited outside the building for Daisy and Aunt Constance. When Daisy’s car pulled up, Patience opened the back door of the car for me to climb in, and we drove to the police station and made a complaint against Valor. It wasn’t fun, but Daisy held my hand. Besides, I kept thinking of Frankie on that day when we’d rescued her, lying on an examination table, bruised and battered and nearly broken, having her most private areas photographed and examined andsampled,and giving the statement that jailed Gilead. She hadn’t even been as old as me that day, and she’d been through so much worse than this.

I made my statement, and when the woman officer gave it to me to read and sign, my signature didn’t wobble.