“They didn’t tell us anything. We figured it out,” Louise added cautiously. “Our blood types are wrong to be their naturally conceived children.”
“The paperwork only has lot numbers on it,” Anna murmured as if it were something the twins shouldn’t hear. “I suspect Esme pulled material from a sperm bank.”
“I am interested in who she selected to father her children.” Ming didn’t lower his voice; he acted as if the twins weren’t present. “The DNA scans were interesting. I’m having more detailed tests run on them.”
“I can’t imagine what Esme was thinking. Why go through all that pain and angst if she wasn’t going to stay on Earth? Was she afraid she was going to have an accident like Lain and be stuck on Earth, unable to bear children? It breaks my heart that she never told me that she was afraid. And to think, that she sat right here, a week before she went into orbit and never breathed a word about what she’d done.” Anna gave a sad little laugh. “After she left home for that last time, I had several vivid dreams about her hiding babies in a cabbage patch. Every night, a different woman would come to the garden and steal away a baby.”
Ming looked at her sharply. “You did not tell me about those dreams.”
“I thought it was utter nonsense.”
Ming breathed out what might have been anger. Whatever it was, it didn’t touch his face, but his eyes were ice-cold. He motioned to Celine, who was hovering by the door. “We’ll eat now.”
They sat at a round table with exactly four seats. Even if Tristan had stayed for breakfast, there wouldn’t have been room for him. A female that Louise hadn’t seen before rolled a cart into the sunroom and produced plates out from under silver covers. She had lush red hair woven into a long braid. Like Celine, her beauty marked her as an elf even though there was no sign of elf ears.
“This is Nattie, our cook,” Anna introduced the female.
The dishes were identical in content. Each had a split-grilled fish with a poached egg, a small mound of cooked spinach, a dark slab of bread, a wedge of lemon, and a yellow flower of something. The skin and head were still on the fish, and it stared up at Louise with reproach.
“This is breakfast?” Jillian didn’t like runny eggs, and the yolk glistened like a drop of honey in the morning sun, ready to burst open.
“Yes, dear.” Anna picked up her silverware and started to dissect the grilled fish. “The skin comes off easily and the filet is exposed. But be careful — there are bones underneath.”
The yellow flower proved to be a very nice buttercream. The dark bread had a strong sweet flavor to it, some odd cross of rye and molasses, which was acceptable, but Louise would have liked toasted wheat instead.
“The lemon is for the spinach.” Anna demonstrated, squeezing the juice onto the mound of rich green. “It’s very good for you. It’s a very balanced breakfast.”
Was this a typical elf breakfast or some kind of weird take on breakfast for immortals? Every part of it was well-cooked and tasted fine but was just too strange after a night in an unfamiliar bedroom. Louise nibbled at it, thinking of the contents of the pantry. Everything in the kitchen had been strange and unappealing. It did not bode well for future meals. They might starve to death here.
In the end, it had been smart to leave Nikola in their room. Anna took them straight from the table to clothes shopping. Louise felt he’d be safer and happier in their room than dragged through dozens of new places, unable to ask questions or comment on their surroundings.
“I want to change into my regular clothes first!” Jillian obviously wanted to warn Nikola that they were going to be gone for a long time.
“You both can change into the first dresses that you like.” Anna had a hold of Jillian’s wrist when she announced her plan. She used her hold to gently but firmly tow Jillian toward the front door. “It will make it easier to deal with the sales staff if you’re wearing something better than your normal clothes.”
Celine appeared in the foyer, blocking the stairs back to their room. Louise had little choice but to follow behind Anna.
It was still raining outside, a downpour that well reflected Louise’s state of mind. The limo waited under the shelter of the portico with two elves in black suits pretending to be men. Considering that the car could drive itself, two drivers was extreme overkill.
Louise tried to get a better idea of the neighborhood where the mansion was located, but the rain smeared the windows.
Anna outlined her shopping plans, ending with, “Until we can get things settled out, you’ll need dresses, socks, and underwear.”
“We like T-shirts and pants,” Jillian stated firmly in Peter’s voice. “Dresses are sissy.”
“We will get those, too,” Anna said as if she’d won some point. “If we have time, we can look at furniture for your bedrooms. We’ll remodel Esme’s room and then Lain’s, so you both can have your own space.”
“We like being together.” Jillian leaned forcibly against Louise to underscore her point.
“And we like the room we’re in.” Louise liked to imagine Esme was protecting them in her old bedroom, even though she knew that was impossible.
Anna breathed out a small sigh. “I indulged Esme’s grief after her father was killed and Lain had her accident. I let her make that room into a cave and fill it up with so much escapist whimsy. I thought it was good for her, hammering nails instead of heads, but looking back it seems exactly the wrong thing. It was the beginning of the end.”
Anna spoke as if Esme was dead instead of just in another star system billions of miles away. The colony sent audio updates on a regular schedule, delayed by nearly five years. Esme’s ship would have arrived nearly eighteen years ago; had she not sent messages home?
“She’s not dead,” Louise said.
“To me, she died the day she jumped out of Earth’s orbit. She’s lost to me. That damn gate has stolen all my baby girls from me. I hate it.”
“What about—” Louise caught herself. She and Jillian shouldn’t know anything about the rest of the family. How could she salvage her question? “Were Lain and Esme your only kids?”
“No.” Anna didn’t seem to notice how horribly the question was cobbled together. She sighed and looked out the window, although it was so hazed by rain it was unlikely she could see anything but her own blurred reflection. “I wanted rafts of children, and Edmond was more than willing to indulge me. After several — failures — we had two little boys. The doctors said I wouldn’t be able to safely have any more. We talked about using surrogate mothers; India had a booming business in it at the time. We went so far as to take the first steps, and have some eggs harvested and fertilized. I still dream of the little girls they might have been; the grown women they would be now. The doctors said, though, that the genetic testing showed that all the girls had inherited the same genetic illness as our little boys.
“Our two little boys were so ill. They didn’t sit up until they were nearly one and didn’t start to walk until they were three. They were always so small for their age. When they were twenty, they were smaller than you are now. I couldn’t bear to subject more children to that, and Edmond agreed. I had the embryos disposed of.”
Louise stared at her. Bitter sorrow and self-blame were obvious in her voice. Anna didn’t know. She didn’t realize that her sons were half-elves. It took a hundred years for elves to reach “adult,” so it was probably no surprise to Edmond that the boys had grown so slowly. He had left his wife believing that somehow she was responsible for their lack. How had he fooled Anna for so many years? Had she never considered it because when the boys were born, elves were still mythical on Earth?