Page 90 of Kiwi Sin
“Talking people into things they can’t afford,” I said. “That’s whatI’dcall it.”
“Everything’s financed,” Uriel said, “so why not? So they pay a bit more each month, and have to make those payments for another year. They’re getting more for that money, and you aren’t ruining anybody’s life. If they can’t pay, the bank takes the thing back, that’s all.”
“That’s usury,” Raphael said, looking unhappier than ever. “And Valor is—”
“Obviously you don’t like him,” Uriel said. “Because he’s got his own ideas, is why. And I know Gabriel doesn’t like him. He told me you nearly broke his nose and got him sacked, just because he flirted a bit with Oriana,” he told me. “He’s better off, he says, and you did him a favor, in the end, but she’s not your wife or your sister, and we’re not in Mount Zion. She’s allowed to talk to a man, and what do you care anyway? Don’t tell me you want Oriana when you could have Patience. She’s pretty as she can be, yeh, and she’s got a body that was made for a man to get his hands on, butshe’snot looking for adventure, and she’s not any kind of challenge. Her sisters, now …”
I pretended a calm I didn’t feel. The look of Oriana, pressed up against the porch. The way she’d cried when I’d held her. The shame on her burning face when she’d told us what Valor had done. I said, “My life isn’t your business. I’m not telling you what to do, am I? Go sell farm equipment if you want to, but Valor’s not a good man, even if he was your mate growing up. And stop talking about Oriana like that.” I wished I could say more, but this was Oriana’s story, not mine, and to my brothers and my dad, it would be her shame, too. I couldn’t put her in that spot. “If you’re relying on Valor to help you,” I went on, “you’re looking for help in the wrong place. Valor’s never done anything that doesn’t benefit himself. Patience left Mount Zion because she was going to have to marry him!”
Uriel said, “So? Sheisn’tmarrying him, is she? Not until he’s actually earning that good lolly, anyway. You don’t like anybody who wants to have a good time, that’s all. Fun is sinful, and all that. Well, Glory and I think differently. We’re not moving into a house with Mum and Dad, but Dad’s already looking anyway.”
“Why?” I asked. “Didn’t you tell him how you felt about it?”
“Of course I didn’t,” Uriel said. “In less than two weeks, we’ll be done here, and I’ll be back working for him. I’m not burning my bridges. It’s better to have a year of work history before you make a move. And not to get sacked.”
“What about you?” I asked Raphael.
He looked uncomfortable. “Radiance and I don’t want trouble,” he said. “With Dad, or with anybody else. We’re happy here, and I’m happy working for Gray. I’d have said you were, too. What’s this all about, really?”
I said, “That I do want to marry Oriana.” How long would it take for them to find out, once Priya talked to Patience? “Dad’s against it because her family’s too worldly, and Daisy’s against it because our family isn’t worldly enough. Everybody’s against it but Gray, and you know he’ll back up Daisy.”
“And you don’t want to lose your job,” Raphael said.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to lose my job, and neither do either of you. So for now, let’s justdothe job. We’ll finish this the very best we’re able to, and when we have, I’ll talk to Dad again. It’s twelve days,” I told Uriel when he would have said something. “He isn’t going to find that house to rent in twelve days.”
“What’s going to magically change in twelve days?” Uriel asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’ll think of something.”
38
THE WAITING GAME
Oriana
At seven-thirty Thursday night, my phone lit up with a text.
Aisha. It wasn’t the usual half-complaining thing, but instead,WE’RE HOME!!!!! Ring me!
I went outside first, to a garden bench where I picked up my knitting and started a new row on my circular needles before I hit the button. That was because Priya was in the caravan, which meant there was no privacy. Ididlike having other people around me, but sometimes …
“Why?” Aisha said when she picked up. Not “Hello,” like most people, or even, “Oriana, hi!” No, just, “Why?”
“Why what?” I asked, my fingers already working. I’d started Gabriel’s jumper on Sunday. I would have started it Saturday night, since I hadn’t got to sleep for hours, but the light would’ve woken Priya. It was a top-down knit, so I didn’t have to pay much attention. Stockinette stitch was about as easy as knitting could be, and I was done with the increasing and was knitting the chest now.
I’d started it, because I’d finally measured Gabriel for it. Down in the caravan, after that confrontation.WithoutPriya, for once, because Daisy had said, “Help me with the washing-up, Priya,” and given me a meaningful look. Of course, the look probably wasn’t,Here’s your chance to put your hands on Gabriel!More like,Here’s your chance to tell him goodbye, because this is all wrong for your future and is causing so much unhappiness to everyone,but for once, I wasn’t being guided by anything but my own sinful stubbornness, and I’d measured him instead.
I’d done his arm length first, concentrating hard so I wouldn’t get flustered, and had got flustered anyway. He’d smelled clean, like cotton and soap, and his shoulder had been hard with muscle under my hand. I’d managed, though. I’d even managed when I measured his chest, though I had to get closer for that and felt like I could burn to cinders, feeling him so close to me. As for him? He was standing stock-still, barely breathing, and I wanted to think that was because of me.
Gray asked us to wait to decide anything,I reminded myself.At least until the house is done, because that makes everything so complicated. Which is better than what everybody else wants. The least we can do is go along with that.I said, “One hundred seventeen centimeters,” a little breathlessly, and turned away to write it down.
It isn’t like you didn’t know his chest was broad. Stop it.
His hand onmyshoulder, then, and his voice saying, “Oriana.” With something in it I hadn’t heard before.
I said, “Let me … let me get your waist.” And wrapped the tape around him again. Standing close. Looking down.
He said, “I can’t,” and I jerked my hands away. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was holding the tape measure, because I pulled him into me.
