Another wave of guilt went through her when she realized she’d been more interested in pleasing Morris in her choice of profession than because of any real sense of heritage. And the worst of it was, he hadn’t been particularly pleased--not when he discovered she would be employed by the gov he hated with a passion.
Morris snorted, but to her surprise dismissed it after that short spurt of disapproval. “I wish you hadn’t, but it’s done now and you’re stuck with it. If I catch you going down to that place again, though, I’ll tan your backside for you! You might think you’re too grown up for it, but you’re still my baby girl!”
Lena was torn between amusement, love, and indignation at the threat. “Just to see Nigel sometimes. I promise.”
To her surprise and alarm, his face crumpled. “Not even for that, Lena. Promise me you’ll stay away from that place. I know you think my hate has turned my mind, but there’s something going on there.”
In a general way, Lena tended to turn a deaf ear to all of Morris’ talk about conspiracy, but there was real fear in his eyes that sent a current through her. Anger followed it. “That guy that was here--he’s a rebel, isn’t he?”
Morris turned so pale Lena was alarmed. She jumped to her feet and rushed to him. “Morris?”
With an effort, he seemed to recover himself, but she was more alarmed than reassured when he pulled her down on his lap and cuddled her just as he had when she was a small child. “There are rumors.”
She was way too old to behave like a little girl, and Morris was too old now for her to be planting her weight in his lap, but he’d scared her when he turned so white. She’d been certain it was his heart. Instead of struggling up, she settled against him, nestling her head against his shoulder. “There are always rumors,” she murmured soothingly. “I’m a historian, remember? I may not have been around until after the hundred years of storms and the famine riots, but I’ve read all of the documentation. It was nature that caused the famine. The gov did all that was humanly possible.”
Morris made a rude noise. “Sure they did. It was for our own protection that they rounded everybody up into camps. I taught you to think for yourself, baby girl, not to just believe whatever crap the gov decides to feed the public.”
“I do think for myself. Everybody was responsible for the imbalance of nature that caused the hundred years of storms. Maybe the gov had a hand in it because they were more focused on the economy than the environment and didn’t protect us like they should have, but they didn’t make the storms. And it was the storms that made it impossible to produce enough food to feed people.”
“The gov was responsible,” Morris said irritably. “They taught people to behave like children and let them make all of the decisions for them--and they made the wrong decisions! Those poor decisions were directly responsible for the imbalance that caused the storms. And they didn’t stop there. When the people were starving and fighting for survival, they turned our armies against us.”
“I know. You’re right,” Lena said quietly. “But that was a long time ago. Most of it happened even before your time. Things have changed.”
Morris stroked her back soothingly as he had when she was a child. “They have at that, but not for the better.”
ChapterTwo
Three weeks later
“You’re starting to scare the shit out of me, Morris,” Lena muttered, chaffing her palms along her upper arms as she paced his tiny living room and stared out of the grimy window at the streets below.
“Language, Lena Marie!” Morris growled.
A mixture of guilt, amusement, and irritation flooded Lena. She turned away from the window to study him. “I learned it from you! Quit trying to distract me. Are you in to something?” she asked, returning to the couch and sitting down to face him.
Morris frowned, studying the worn patches of rug beneath his feet. “When did you get to be the adult around here? You think I’m so old you can boss me around like a child?”
This time only guilt and irritation surfaced. She couldn’t tell if he was up to something or if it was just the same old Morris, still predicting the end of the world by gov conspiracy. It didn’t matter what happened, or who was responsible, or even if anyone was responsible. Morris always picked every event apart and discovered the gov’s hand in it.
She couldn’t decide why she felt like this time it was different.
She hadn’t been able to sleep easy since she’d visited him last. Morris had always been protective. Ever since the day he’d found her and her brother, mostly starved, and hiding in an alley because they were too scared to come out and even look for food, he’d been fiercely protective of them, especially her, either because she was the youngest, or because of his old fashioned views on ‘weak’ females.
There’d been something unnerving about the way he’d behaved the last time she’d come to visit him though, something she couldn’t figure out, but also couldn’t put out of her mind.
Ok, so she also couldn’t get that blond god out of her mind either and maybe, somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d more than half hoped she’d run into him again.
Morris wouldn’t be happy about her interest in him, though, and she didn’t quite dare bring him up.
It occurred to her that she had the perfect excuse for bringing the stranger up, though. “That guy that was here when I came last time--is he trying to get you mixed up in something?”
Morris gave her a wide eyed stare of innocence and then frowned, as if he was struggling to recall an elusive memory. “What guy?”
Lena gave him a look. “The one that manhandled me at the door. I’m not buying this, Morris.”
Morris gave up the attempt to pretend his memory was faulty. “Seemed to me you was doing a bit of wallowing there. What’s your interest in my neighbor?” he asked sharply.
Lena felt a blush rising in her cheeks in spite of all she could do. “Nothing as long as he isn’t trying to get you in trouble,” she lied.
