The Mark of Cain (48 page)

“Yes, couldn’t that be determined to mean that, with
prayer and the word of God, then marriage is…well, you get the idea,” he said,
not wanting to spell it out too loudly lest Hara and her confused orbs should
get what Inac was doing.

Father Carroll obviously understood though because
he said, “The good book
also
says, ‘And every one that hath forsaken
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife
, or children,
or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life.’”

Inac felt a large smile spreading across his face as
his gaze oscillated between Father Carroll and Sister Kelly. “But do you still
inherit that if you have a wife in everything but name? I’m just wondering what
you consider marriage to be. Is it the act of having a wedding and getting the
paperwork filled out, or is it the intentions of the heart?”

Father Carroll was so angry his face was beginning
to splotch. But it made Inac feel better. So far they had treated him like
Satan himself, so they deserved to have the tables turned around on them and to
be responsible for their own iniquities. They pretended like they were perfect,
yet they were human, which meant that they were far from perfection.

Suddenly, the Father smiled, and Inac couldn’t help
but wonder what kind of fun game the two of them were about to play.

“You seem well-versed in scripture, Mr. Adamson,”
Father Carroll said.

“I am, thank you,” he replied, unsure where this was
going.

“When I was a boy, I remember reading the Bible for
the very first time. Parts of it had especially called to me. I enjoyed most
every story, but there was one that was a favorite of mine.”

Inac wanted to yell at him to get to the point, but
he kept his mouth shut, only “patiently” gesturing for the old man to go on.

“My parents would read Genesis to me every night,”
he said. “It made me very curious about your parents. What were they like?”

Inac arched a brow in surprise at having been put in
his place. At the same time, the whole table seemed to freeze, each pair of
eyes that had been carefully avoiding staring at their showdown were no longer
being discreet about it. The room was large, filled with long wooden tables
like the ones he’d had in his castles and fortresses during the Dark Ages. With
the priest’s question, the only noise in the massive room now came from
children’s tables. Inac had known that one of the priests or nuns would
eventually bring up “Adam” and “Eve.” And could he really blame them when so
many of their beliefs began with his parents’ creation?

Inac didn’t want to answer the question, but Hara
was looking at him in a way that changed his mind. She was genuinely intrigued.
And she didn’t know the truth of their identity, so as long as he didn’t make
it too obvious, she would stay in the dark.

“It depends upon whose perspective you’re looking
through. I’m sure all of my siblings—especially my favored little brother—saw
things quite differently than I did.”

“How did
you
see them?” the Father asked as
he clasped his hands and placed them between himself and his soup bowl.

“I saw them as parents who had no idea what they
were doing. They made all of their mistakes on me before learning what
didn’t
work. That’s why my brother was so different than I was. He had everything
handed to him from day one.” After all these years, thoughts of his brother
still irked him. His other brothers and sisters hadn’t been quite as bad, but
they still had been babied in a way that he never had.

He felt his pulse quickening and his body became
tense and warm. Life had been against him from the day he was born. He’d never
had it like all these people here had. They thought they’d had it hard because
their parents had died or left them. But his parents had kept him and hated
him. His parents had forced their presence on him for fifty or sixty years
according to today’s calendar. And it’s not like he could have left because
they didn’t know how to take care of themselves and their families without him.
He was the only thing that kept them alive….

“You must have been a rebellious child?” Father
Carroll asked, bringing him back to the moment, as well as making him flash a
proud grin.

“Of course I was. I knew my parents knew no more
than I, so I never listened to them. They constantly asked God why I was such a
naughty child,” he said with a chuckle; a chuckle that lasted only a short
moment. “But I also did most of the work. I grew all of the food and hunted all
of our meat. And what thanks did I get?” he asked, hitting the table so hard
that the sound of it reverberated until even the children were silent. He was
starting to get angry. And
they
were starting to get scared.

He felt a soft hand wrap around the fist he’d
slammed into the table.

“It’s okay, Inac.” Hara’s soothing tone was like a
salve on his anger. He looked up at her and got a momentary flash of a small
smile before she turned to the collective group and said, “So tell me, I
noticed that Isabelle isn’t here? When did she get adopted?” The conversation
then turned to various children from the orphanage and twittering once again
echoed from the children’s tables. Again, he was grateful for this woman who
was always by his side.

After dinner they gathered in the common room, an
enormous room where the kids could do art, play with toys and games, or just
talk. Tonight they were rambunctious as they went through the boxes of games
and toys Hara had brought. She had purchased one toy for each child, a large
dollhouse for the girls, a miniature racetrack set for the boys, and art
supplies for them all.

Once the children had finished with the boxes and
were excitedly running around, the nuns began rummaging through boxes of brand
new clothes in all different styles and sizes Hara had brought as well. She
must have spent a couple thousand dollars on everything. No wonder she liked
working at the club; she obviously made good money there.

Inac might just be sitting here in a chair, silently
watching the chaos, but he loved children, and their enthusiasm was calming.

“Come play,” Hara said to him, standing above him
holding up some game in a shiny white box with red lettering so he could see it.

“What you got there?” he asked with a lazy grin.

Her face contorted as though she was shocked that he
didn’t recognize it. “Twister. Haven’t you ever played it before?”

He shook his head. “This may surprise you, but I’ve
never played a game in my life; not this kind anyway. I’ve played poker and
whatnot, but that’s about it.” He wasn’t exactly the type to call people up to
play Pictionary. Sure, he’d played games with his own children, but Hank had
been the last one he knew about and this game hadn’t been around back then as
far as he knew.

“Are you serious? That’s so sad,” she said, pouting her
pillowy lips.

“I guess so. I wouldn’t really know, though, would
I? Besides, I have plenty of fun. I just do active things for fun most of the
time.”

“Like doing flips off yacht rails into the ocean?”
she teased.

He stood up and put his arms around her waist,
ignoring the game box jabbing into his leg. “Things exactly like that. That, or
physical games,” he said with a wink he knew she understood because she
flushed. “I’ve just never really played a board game.”

“Well, Twister isn’t a board game, so you’ll love
it,” she said before giving him a chaste peck on the lips and turning toward a
group of children waiting to play with them.

After learning the extremely simple rules, they
began their game. It wasn’t long before Inac and Hara and their long limbs were
the only two remaining. Somehow, they had gotten into interesting positions,
though. Inac was face up, his legs on each of the farthest out circles. His
arms were under him, his shoulders shrieking in a pain that he cast aside as
unimportant. Hara was above him. One of her legs was between his two and the
other, next to one of his hips. One of her hands was by his head, the other by
his other hip. It made it so that her cheek was squashed against his abdomen.
Any lower and he was
sure
the priests and nuns would put a stop to the
fun….

“You should give up now, love. The only thing
holding you up is me,” he said with a large grin—he was having a lot of fun.
He’d hoped to get a glimpse of her underwear below her dress, but had instead
found that she had slipped on a pair of women’s boxers before they’d begun.

“Then you’ll fall first. Besides, it’s not fair.
You’re too tall.”

“So?”

“So you have an unfair advantage.”

“That may be so, but you still need to move your
foot.” She would never be able to get her left foot, which was the one by his
right hip, up and over him to the other side of his body without falling.

“I know,” she said. “I’m trying to figure this out.”

“Your best bet is by my head.”

“Are you sure? I can’t even see it,” she said and he
felt her head attempting to move to see around him.

“I can. Trust me.”

“Okay….” She started her move. Soon she was crashing
to the ground, taking him with her.

“I won!” she called through her giggles.

“What? And how do you figure that?” he asked.

“You hit the floor first,” she announced.

His jaw dropped. According to her, that
was
the rule. Not willing to give in, though, he got himself on top of her,
straddling her waist, and started tickling her.

“Oh. Is that how it is? You’re an evil, evil woman.”

“Stop! Mercy! Mercy!” she screamed through her
contagious laughter.

“I’ve been accused of having many attributes;
merciful is not amongst them.”

She turned to the children giggling on the sidelines
and yelled, “Save me!”

Soon, Inac had little arms all over him, trying to pry
him off Hara. That’s when he turned his wrath on them, tickling each child he
got his hands on. His fingers found a little armpit here, and a fat little
belly there, all the while a huge smile on his face. Somehow, in all the
craziness that ensued as he chased the kids around the room, Hara at his heels
to save the little ones, he ended up with his fiancée under him again, both
breathless from all the running around they’d done.

“It appears that you’re once again my prisoner,” he
said as she squirmed under his rakish fingers.

“That it does.”

“So what am I going to do with you?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. What would you
like
to do?”

He leaned down, whispering in her ear, “Something
these children certainly shouldn’t witness.” When he moved away a little, he
noticed her face flushing red yet again.

When she glanced over at Father Carroll, Inac
couldn’t help but follow her gaze to find the priest looking back at them, his
eyes radiating both disapproval and disgust.

Inac wasn’t sure if Hara noticed the way the
Father’s eyes shone with such hate, but she turned back to him and said, “Come
on. We should probably get these kids to settle down some.”

Inac easily stood, grabbed her hands, and pulled her
to a standing position as well. Once the kids were settled down and in bed,
Inac sat on the couch nearest to the blazing fire, Hara cuddling up next to
him.

“So when do you two plan on getting married?” Father
Carroll asked, coming to sit in an armchair across from them.

“We haven’t set a date yet,” Hara answered.

“I see.”

Hara sat up in his arms, warning Inac that what she
was about to say she felt was serious. “We did want to talk to you about that,
though….”

“What about it?”

Hara’s hands were in her lap and she was looking
down. Inac didn’t know what was up other than that she seemed to be readying
herself to be rejected.

“We want to get married in the chapel here,” she
said quietly.

“Oh. Well…we, um…can talk about that once you set a
date. Right now, let’s talk about what marriage
means
.”

Inac tuned him out. He knew a lot more about
marriage than a priest who hadn’t ever been married would know. Besides, they
weren’t
really
going to get married. Hara, on the other hand, was
listening raptly, letting the old man brainwash her yet again.

It was several minutes later when Inac realized that
it was quiet and both Hara and Father Carroll were looking at him expectantly.

“I’m sorry. What?” he asked them.

“I can’t believe you haven’t been listening. He’s
given us really good advice,” Hara chastised.

“Hara, I’ve been married a million times. I know
more about marriage than he does.”

“Obviously you need the advice seeing as how none of
your marriages have worked out,” the old man said without skipping a beat.

“So obviously I know what
not
to do.” He knew
his attitude was upsetting Hara, but he didn’t really care right now.