on my arms was tingling, and I was much too hot inside the borrowed dressing gown. I said, “Never mind that. Fruitful, he’s right. Let him carry you upstairs. He did already carry you to the fence, and Dad saw him do it. It’s done.”
“But if Uncle Aaron tells him where we are,” Fruitful said, “Gilead will … It’ll be worse. You know it’ll be worse.”
“No,” Gray said, and however relaxed he’d looked earlier, he wasn’t looking that way now. He looked scary again, in fact. “Whatever you’re thinking he’ll do, he won’t. I told your dad to bring it on. I meant it, and he knew it. If this wanker turns up here, I’ll tell him the same thing. And if he does bring it on? I’ll make him sorry.”
“Which would be wonderful,” I said, “if you were going to be there. Of course he won’t come here. He’d have no idea where we were.”
“Number plate?” Gray asked.
I said, “What, they’ve got someone to trace it? All right, not beyond the realm of possibility. But you notice, he hasn’t turned up. And tomorrow, in Dunedin, I’ll be with you, Fruitful. I don’t have a number plate anymore, because I don’t have a car anymore. Silver lining, eh. I have a new name that nobody knows, and so will both of you. I’m untraceable, and Uncle Aaron isn’t going to tell anyway. Why would he? Why would anybody ask him?”
Fruitful looked down, and I said, “Oh, wait. You said. Somebody said. What exactly did you—they—say?” I had those prickles on my arms again, and I couldn’t get a deep enough breath.
Gilead had no power over me. He had no power over Fruitful. Not anymore, not unless we gave it to him. A separation, a dissolution two years later, and it would be done, same as it had been for me. He wasn’t living rent-free in my head for one more day. I’d evicted him.
Gray said, “Whatever she said, whatever Uncle Whoever said, whatever anybody did, just now, Fruitful needs to go upstairs, put her ankle up higher than her heart, take a couple of anti-inflammatories, and get some ice on that bruising. You know that, Daisy, and so do I. These girls are done in, and so are you. The dramas can wait until tomorrow. Now, everybody needs to go to bed.”
I said, “I so want to say that I’m the nurse here, but as it happens, you’re right. But I’m still not loving your high-handedness.”
Did he respond gracefully? Of course not. He said, “I know I’m right. I’ve strained and sprained and torn about everything possible in my body about as many times as it’s possible to do it, that’s why. I know what it’s like to have taken all you can take, too. And I’m still not going to pick you up without your permission, Fruitful. I’m going to ask you instead. May I take you upstairs and set you down on the bed so your sister can treat your ankle?”
Fruitful looked between Gray and me. Obedience had her hand over her mouth. Honor was just looking interested, and possibly pleased. I was opening my mouth to ask how he’d strained and sprained and torn all those bits of him, and then I was closing it again, because now wasn’t the time. Also because if I did, he’d be asking me questions, and he still looked too angry, under the surface. I didn’t trust angry men.
Going to bed. That was it. Going to bed sounded brilliant.
When nobody said anything, Honor said, “I can come up along with you, Fruitful, and get you settled. Gray can be a bit hasty, swearing in front of his mum and all, but he’s not going to hurt you. He’s a pretty good fella, take him all in all.”
“Cheers for the ringing endorsement,” Gray muttered, but she just laughed.
“OK,” Fruitful said. “But only because I feel stupid now.”
Gray smiled at her with heaps more sweetness than he’d shown me. “That’s my girl. And no worries about telling the truth. Always better to tell the truth, eh. If a man can’t cope with that, it’s his problem, not yours. Keep that in mind. New rules.” After that, he crouched down, got one arm behind her shoulders and the other under her knees, and told me, “Mum will show you where the icepacks are. Got a freezer full of them, haven’t I,” and headed up the stairs holding my sister.