Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 36 - Time Out

Happy Pride Month, everyone! My exams are done, and freedom sure does taste sweet. I'm gonna see if I can manage weekly updates on both my books for the whole summer. Dedication goes to @TotallyDapper this week for all your wonderful comments <3

"I did not get her pregnant," Mort spat at me.

I threw an arm around his shoulder, because the fury and denial were so obviously a front for mind-numbing fear. "Oh, you did. She hasn't been in bed with anyone else, and she can prove it."

Up ahead, Eira started snickering for the third time. Ebony, perched on her shoulder, echoed with a kraa kraaa. Lee was chewing on his lip to hide a grin. All of us found the situation thoroughly amusing. Everyone except Mort, that was. We were heading across the courtyard to visit my sister's little pet project, since she had finally decided I was allowed to see it.

"Don't care," he snapped. "It weren't me. I took the pill! In front of her, too!"

Eira made a face at him. "You stopped to take a pill, and then sat with her for half an hour to wait for it to start working? That's so ... romantic."

"No, of course not. I took it afterwards," Mort said, rather scornfully, and I tried to resist the urge to slam my forehead into the stone walls.

"Mort, it ain't gonna work for a guy after you do the deed," Lee interjected through a groan. "Come on, buddy, think about it."

He did. He stopped to think about, his face screwed up like a wet flannel. Eventually, he seemed to come to the conclusion that Lee must be right, or he just gave up and took his word for it. His ignorance on the matter shouldn't have been surprising, since sex education was blatantly lacking among rogues. That the girl hadn't known either ... well, that was just plain unlucky.

"Well, it don't matter anyway, because she's gonna get rid of it, right?" he went on.

That was a step too far. I cuffed him around the head, sharp and brutal, because there were some allowances I couldn't make. Young or not, absentee parents or not, he was being a shit. Mort eyed me sulkily, rubbing his ear.

"That's not your decision," I told him roughly. "It's hers. And if she decides to keep the kid, you can damn well pull your finger out of your arse and do some parenting. It's not going to kill you."

"Easy for you to say. You didn't get no one pregnant," Mort muttered. The sullenness hadn't gone, but some of the initial raw panic had faded away. We had reached the stairs to the cellars by then, and we descended in single file.

"It's right down here," Eira called from the front. I resisted the urge to tell her that I knew — that I'd guessed and several of her digger minions had spilled the beans to my prostitute friends anyway. It had been one of dozens of useful titbits they had fed me in our last meeting, and I had repaid the favour by providing the most expensive wine Asda had to offer and another wad of twenties. Ian was still a work in progress, but they didn't seem to mind the delay.

We turned left at the bottom of the stairs, passing a crowd of the people who had chosen to sleep down here, single mothers and children mostly. They watched us with wide eyes, every conversation fading to silence at the arrival of the four strange intruders. The kids were grubby, sullen and hard-eyed.

"Is that where you want your kid to grow up, Mort?" I asked him through the link.

He shook his head, albeit grudgingly. "I'll, I dunno, pay child support money and whatever."

"It's gonna take more than money to raise a child, Mort," Lee muttered. "My Dad spent hours and hours drumming life lessons into my thick skull, and look — I still turned out like to be an insolent little piece of shit. Dafydd had to spend five years knocking my head out of my arse."