Page 36 of The Sin

He stripped his coat off and tossed it onto the couch. “There are.”

“Babies are being born here.” I stirred and removed the pan from the heat. “I met a pregnant woman today.”

He didn’t comment, just stood a few paces from me, dragging a slow hand through his hair. That’s when I noticed the strain at his jaw and the tiredness in his eyes.

“What’s happened now?” I demanded. “You look terrible.”

“There was an incident at Sector Five.”

“Trouble?” I asked, imagining a whole horde of those scary Outerlanders storming the bridge.

He shrugged, then shook his head. “That’s not the problem. I didn’t make it to Capra in time to leave my truck at the station and get the train back here. I planned to walk you home tonight.”

I wasn’t ready to go home. “So I stay here one more day. How is that a problem?”

“You have to be in Capra tomorrow,” he said. “Julian called this morning. We’re invited to dinner tomorrow night.”

I’d grown quite fond of Councilman Julian Edgar. I’d once thought Miriam, Daniel’s mother, was a distant, cold fish, that his father brought the love and warmth into their family. I’d even had serious doubts about stealing Julian’s handprint for the Sisterhood.

Then I’d learnt that he’d sent his own wife into rehab. Miriam wasn’t cold or distant, she was just an empty shell left over from whatever they’d done to her. She potted about in her greenhouse and floated around like a will-o’-the-wisp, barely present, barely a person.

Julian Edgar had done that to her.

He’d done that to Daniel, taken a mother away from her son.

That’s who Julian Edgar was beneath the charismatic charm and warm persona.

My shoulders tensed with restrained anger as I hunched down to search through the pots and pans drawer for a pasta pot. There was a rusted baking tray and another pan big enough to fry one egg.

Great.

I grabbed the pan and straightened. “What about my house arrest?”

“We’re making an exception.”

“You’remaking an exception. I’m not!” I rinsed the pan and transferred the sauce so I could use the larger pan to boil the pasta. “You’ll just have to politely make my excuses.”

Or not so politely. At this point, I didn’t give a crap.

“I already tried,” Roman said. “Julian insisted. It’s safe to assume tomorrow’s dinner isn’t solely a social event. He wants a face-to-face with you, probably to satisfy himself that you’ve been adequately tamed.”

“So Jessie’s not allowed to visit, I can’t see my parents.” I put some extra muscle into rinsing out the sauce pan. “But Councilman Julian Edgar shouts and everyone jumps.”

Roman ignored that. “I’m returning to Capra tonight. I’ll sleep at the cabin and catch the morning train. We can walk back during the day. It’s not ideal, but it’ll have to do.”

“Do I have any say in this?”

He ignored that, too. “I want to leave as early as possible. It’s a three hour walk, and the afternoon train won’t be due until about four, but I’d rather give us more time than less.”

I ran water into the pan. “What if I refuse?”

“Georga.”

“No!” I slammed it down on the hot plate, hard. Half the water splashed out. “All Capra has given me is lies. I tracked down Jenna today. I didn’t actually get to see her, but I left a message at her work place. She’s a teacher. Did you know that?”

I shot him a quick look without really looking, I was too busy dumping the pasta into the pan with a flourish of disgust. “Women work here. They teach. They have stalls in the market. They serve behind counters. They fall pregnant and have babies. They have boyfriends! They’re living like the fertility plague never happened.”

“It did happen,” he said quietly, so quietly, I wouldn’t have heard if he hadn’t snuck up to stand right beside me.

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