Wild Swans - Jessica Spotswood Page 0,16
got knocked up again and dropped out. I was sick, Daddy. I was sick and I was sad!”
“You were selfish. You walked out on your own child.” Granddad’s voice is like a whip. “I made some mistakes too. I’ll admit that. But Ivy—she’s a good girl, Erica. Smart. Healthy. Strong. I can’t let you come in here and ruin that.”
“Healthy? Please. She’s grown up here, hasn’t she? With all this?” I can’t see through the wall, but I bet Erica is pointing at Grandmother’s twisted paintings or at Dorothea’s portrait. “With you? I bet she’s dying to get out of here.”
It takes a second for Erica to realize the cruel double meaning of her words. “I-I didn’t mean—”
“Ivy’s happy here,” Granddad insists.
“Sure.” Erica lets out a sour little laugh. “You keep telling yourself that.”
My heart pounds. She doesn’t know me. She doesn’t care whether I’m happy. She’s just trying to hurt Granddad, and I will not let her use me as a weapon against him.
I stalk into the library.
“Don’t talk about me like you know who I am or what I want.” I glare at my mother. “You don’t know one single thing about me.”
Her gaze meets mine. “I know you’re a Milbourn girl,” she says. “And I remember everything that goes along with that. The lessons. The expectations. The gossip.” She raises her eyebrows. “What’s your talent, Ivy? What do you do?”
My name in her mouth is like spoiled milk. The question lingers in the air, curdling.
“Nothing. I don’t have one,” I say flatly.
For once, Granddad doesn’t contradict me.
“Really?” Erica’s face softens. “Well, good for you.”
“Ivy.” Granddad reaches out a hand, but I shy away from him. “You don’t have to go along with this. It’s not fair for her to expect you to lie to your sisters.”
But his expectations are fair? Asking me to spend the whole summer with the woman who abandoned me?
The traitorous thought winds its way around my heart and squeezes.
Granddad has done everything for me. Raised me. Loved me. If I asked him to choose, he would choose me. He would send them away. I know that.
But this is his chance to make things right with his daughter, no matter how awful she is, and to get to know Isobel and Gracie. I won’t take that away from him. I won’t be like Erica, putting herself first and not caring about the casualties she leaves in her wake.
I turn back to my mother. “No, it’s not fair. But if you want to tell the girls I’m their aunt, you go right ahead. I’m not going to be the one to tell them the truth. It’s a stupid plan though.” She flinches at the word stupid, and I feel a small, petty pleasure at hurting her. We are far from even. “People around here have long memories and big mouths. My sisters will find out. And when they do, they’ll hate you. Just like I do.”
“Ivy—” Granddad catches at my elbow.
I shake him off. “I’m fine. I’m going for a swim. Call me when supper’s ready.”
I brush past my mother and head out the door, across the backyard, and down the sandy path to the beach. Earlier, I threw on a blue sundress over my bathing suit. Now I shuck it off and dive in. The cold water is a welcome shock.
All my life I’ve worried I would end up like my mother, but I was wrong.
Erica and I have nothing—nothing—in common.
• • •
I’m lying on the dock, staring up at the clouds, when Alex comes.
He stands over me, casting a shadow. “Hey. Ma says supper’s almost ready.”
“You see that cloud?” I point. “Doesn’t it look like a bunny rabbit?”
Alex cranes his neck. “Nope.”
I huff and sit up. “You have no imagination.”
“You have enough for both of us.” He plops down next to me. “How’s it going?”
“Erica told my sisters I’m their aunt.”
“Seriously?” When I nod, he covers my hand with his. His fingers are warm against mine, still cold and pruney from being in the water so long. “What’s the Professor going to do?”
I take my hand back and squeeze the water from my ponytail. “He said she has to tell them the truth or they can’t stay. She said if we don’t go along with it, she’ll leave. I told her to go ahead and lie. I don’t care. They’re going to find out… I just want a chance to get to know my sisters.”
Alex is sitting nearer than he needs to. Our