‘Yep,’ said Eden.
She clicked her sister’s seatbelt open, grabbed one of Indy’s hands and put it around her coffee.
‘Get this into you, you’ll feel better.’
‘I’m just so tired,’ said Indy but her face was clouded over.
Eden wondered what Indy was hiding but decided not to investigate. She was tired too and not up to family drama.
‘Of course you’re tired; you’ve a job that gets you up at all hours. I’d be tired.’
‘I know, but I love my job,’ said Indy, holding on to her coffee, still with her eyes closed.
‘You can love something and it can be tiring,’ Eden said equably.
It was what Agnes, her mother-in-law, always said to her: ‘Politics is wonderful, but tiring, just remember that.’
Agnes had said a lot of other things, including the fact that the tiredness that came with having children didn’t kill you and the like. There was no doubt Agnes was very keen for Ralph and Eden to start a family. She would, Eden thought with a sigh, be waiting.
‘Come on, take a few big gulps of that, it’s got two shots,’ she said to Indy.
Indy didn’t move.
‘Lucinda.’ Eden could do a very creditable impersonation of their mother in full commander mode.
Her sister’s eyes shot open. ‘You’re scary.’
‘I know,’ said Eden, smiling. ‘That’s why I’m in politics and you’re a midwife. Somebody told me midwives are pit bulls with lipstick.’
‘That was rude,’ said Indy, outraged.
‘Aunt Sonya.’
‘Ha!’ Indy laughed, offence gone. Sonya was a nurse, so she could say what she wanted.
‘You do have to tell people what to do,’ said Eden. ‘It’s very important knowing when to say, no, this is how we’re going to do it. I think it must be like being a surgeon; you’re God or Goddess at that exact moment. What you say goes. Like not letting dogs into the delivery room,’ she added.
Indy laughed again.
‘I shouldn’t have told you that, you do not know these people. That was just a random bit of a story, I’m not supposed to tell you things.’
‘What, like, midwives anonymous?’
‘Yeah, exactly,’ said Indy.
They leaned against the car and looked at the hotel.
‘It’s so pretty in this light, isn’t it,’ said Indy dreamily. ‘Do you remember everything?’
‘Oh, I remember so much,’ said Eden, taking a deep gulp of coffee. ‘It was wonderful and different, made us resilient.’
‘That’s for sure.’
‘Having to clean bedrooms. We broke the child labour laws, I’m pretty sure about that,’ said Eden.
‘Nothing wrong with a little bit of child labour of that sort,’ said Indy. ‘It was nothing very much, a bit of scurrying in and out of the dining room carrying toast and extra butter to people. You know we weren’t down mines or anything.’
‘Excuse me, I was scrubbing bathrooms when I was eleven.’
