He’s scared of the answer.
It’s early July by the time Alistair is settled in.
His presence is everywhere but outside, so that’s where the kids flee to.Lachlan helps the groundskeeper to construct a big, woodenWendy Houseunder Mimi’s favourite tree, far out of sight from the Estate but still within a safety zone.It’s built for Mimi’s size only, too small for anyone taller unless they crawl.She delights in having her own small, wooden cabin and chats happily with the spiders who move in, never afraid of any living creature no matter how it looks.
Jules crouches down to enter and he plays with her there for hours at first when he’s not stuck in tuition.Lachlan can’t be spared to play with her anywhere he can’t also perform some kind of duty, but wherever Jules is technically counts as his duty.He’d love nothing more than to spend a day with her there, playing happy families, making mud pies and talking about all the places they’ll go together one day and all the animals they’ll see and how each of them will be friends with Mimi.
‘And Jewel too,’ Mimi says, handing Lachlan a slice of pie(a leaf).‘We can’t leave him behind.’
‘Of course not, he’s family,’ Lachlan tells her, and she beams.
Mimi tells Jules exactly this later on.
‘Bodygarden said you’re family too and you come with us when we go find the foxes,’ she whispers,verysecretive.‘He does love you, Jewel.Promise.’
Jules looks at Lachlan, who stays neutral.
Their relationship has been tenuous at best this past week.Jules isn’t actively trying to sabotage anything but they’re not close.
‘And what are the foxes’ names?’Jules asks, walking away with Mimi in his arms.Lachlan already knows the answers.All fox names have four letters, everyone in the Cove knows that.
?
Lachlan is braced for the first round of changes.
He knows they’re coming, has expected it ever since the meeting.Penhalyx surveys what Lachlan foolishly thinks of ashisdomain and casually orders the dismantling of it.The outer rungs of the East Wing take serious damage, both to the softer atmosphere Lachlan carefully built to help Mimi feel safe outside her tiny corner of the world and to several of its technological systems.
Even Fenwick knows Penhalyx’s demands are counterproductive to security because he gets this look on his face before he says, ‘Yes, sir.’
‘This place resembles a nursery,’ the old man observes coldly, disdain writ large as he surveys the inner East Wing for the first time.Lachlan wants to tell him that itis,to remind him he has a four-year-old who had never been outdoors until Lachlan carried her out there and bore punishment for it.‘I don’t mind the children having their own rooms decorated in such a way, but this is outrageous.Everything will be restored.’
Mimi cries when the East Wing is slowly drained of all its colour, but she cries quietly so that it doesn’t draw Farfar’s attention.Jules’ guilt is such that he takes every single thing they tore down, broken or not, and fills his bedroom with all of it.He covers his bed with the fluffy cushions and quilts that Lachlan had scattered around for reading time.He strings the fairy lights everywhere and keeps them on day and night.He takes every scrap of what was removed so she still has somewhere besides her bedroom to feel safe and happy.
Lachlan trains hard, works out his rage.
It’s dangerous not to.
Penhalyx is a powerful man, but in close proximity, he’s unprotected and weak.Lachlan could kill him easily.Occasionally, he finds himself fantasising about it, so he ups his regime, starts bench pressing more than he ever has.Sometimes, Fenwick will join him.They don’t speak but they might take turns holding the pads.They train hard and Lachlan holds nothing back.
Whatever else he may think of Fenwick, they’re both frustrated by Penhalyx’s interference in the formerly tight-knit security in the Estate, now weaker for being pulled, prodded, and torn at.The integral structure of permanent security requires consistency.Their system operates best when its structure remains intact, and it’s all the more frustrating to know that this interference is punishment, not genuine concern for the children’s safety.
It’s a sad day when Mimi asks Lachlan to hide Mari away because it means she finally understands her father might take him.
Lachlan hates that she’s having to make a hard choice so young.
To protect something she loves, she has to let it go.
‘Only for a little while,’ Lachlan promises her as he stows Mari in the same lockbox he used to keep his guns in, adds a radio too so they can still talk.‘Not forever, babygirl, I promise.’
Mimi kisses the box, wipes her eyes and then Lachlan hugs her for a long time, eventually carrying her out and going to get ice cream in the kitchen, a place Alistair Penhalyx would never lower himself to come.
Mimi has made friends with most of the chefs and they adore her.They’ll make anything she wants, and often she asks for cookies, but when she takes a bite of what they make, she’ll shake her head and say, ‘Not yet.’
On that day, they put together a spectacular sundae with extra rainbow sprinkles and a sparkler.She eats all of three bites, but it helps.
‘Maybe the nice things are ninvisible,’ she says when he walks her back to the East Wing, all malachite and ebony.He hates those fucking colours, misses the pretty pink headache it was before.She’s looking around hopefully.
‘Invisible?’he mirrors, gently correcting.
