“And you never said what you wanted me to do. Do you want me to clean the house? It doesn’t seem to need it.”
“I suppose you performed a thorough inspection.” He looks at me quizzically, as if this were the first time he’d actually thought about what I’d do all day. “Let’s start with weeding out the vegetable garden. Grace wants us to be self-sufficient.”
“And supplies? Grace said you would bring some stuff over.”
“Come to dinner tonight, and you can take it back after.” He holds out his hand again and pulls me into a hug. His right hand rests firmly on the small of my back, and I can feel his muscles through his shirt. “I’m so happy you’re here. Welcome, Brie.”
I’m waiting for him to step away when I hear shots ring out, and I fall to the floor with a scream.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Sorry about that, darling,” Grace says.
I’m sitting at the dining room table, picking at the tofu on my plate. There’s a salad, but no carbohydrates to be seen. I wonder if this is how they both stay so impossibly trim.
“It was research. You understand. I can’t very well write about firing a gun if I’ve never done it, can I?”
It seems to me that she ‘very well’ could. She’s presumably never murdered anyone, either, but that doesn’t stop her from writing about it.
“She thought someone was trying to kill her,” Bradley complains. He’s right. I did think some backwoods militia was coming to take us out. That, or Neil was coming to take me home.
“I think I’m a natural.” She waves her fork at Bradley. “Got you right in the forehead. Kill shot.”
“What did you say?” I say, unable to conceal my shock.
“She’s printed out pictures of my head to use as target practice,” Bradley explains. “She considers it amusing.”
“Come on! It is amusing. That’s the problem with academics. You’re so serious.” Grace turns her attention back to me. “You understand how it is, as an orphan. Death doesn’t have to be thisbig thing. It’s just a fact of life, like sex. Sex, death, birth. You can’t distance yourself from any of it. It’s unhealthy.”
I don’t know how to respond, so I nod slightly and slice through another carcass of tofu.
“What did you do with your inheritance, by the way? This is a big issue of contention between the assistant professor and me.”
“There was no money,” I say. “Mom never had much, and she quit work when she got diagnosed with cancer. I was seventeen, but supported us both for six years, waitressing and looking after her. We just had the house, but with the cost of the treatment, the hospitals…”
“They took it all, didn’t they? Bastards,” Grace says, cutting me off. She’s talking to me, but looking directly at Bradley. “I’m a bit different. I come from a very wealthy family. My grandfather worked in the oil business, and so did my father. My generation all have trust funds. I’m the only one who refuses to profit from the destruction of the planet.”
“The oil’s been used,” Bradley says. “You’re not stopping any emissions by not touching the money.”
“It's the principle.”
“Principles don’t pay the bills.”
“Only you would think of principles in terms of economics, Bradley,” she snaps.
“Don’t start.”
I should leave the table, but with no food at the cottage, I need to eat while I have the chance. I take another bite, then force a smile at Grace. “This is great.”
She frowns at me, then resumes waving her fork like a conductor.
“I couldn’t bring a child into this world. You’re a scientist. You get it.”
Was I a scientist? I only had an undergraduate degree, and I’d never actually done original research. At any rate, I’m notsure the correct scientific conclusionisto stay childless. “I’m not sure.”
“You will be. When you grow up.”
“Don’t be rude,” Bradley says, his voice raised. “She’s nearly thirty.”
