Page 55 of Backpacking through Bedlam

I turned my attention to the child. “Is this . . . ?”

“Yes,” said Verity. “Olive, stop squirming, don’t kick your father, and say hello to your grandmother.”

The child turned wide blue eyes on me, blinking several times as they took my measure. Then, with another kick, they proclaimed, “Not Gramma! Down!”

“Sorry,” said Verity, moving to take the fighting child away from her husband. “She’s only met Grandma Evie, and I don’t think she realized she got to have more than one of you.”

“Not a surprising thing to be confused about,” I said. Something Mary had said much, much earlier suddenly clicked, and I smiled at the child. “I suppose this is Olivia?”

“Yes, it is.” Verity bounced the girl against her hip, trying to calm her. “She’s stubborn as anything. Possibly the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

Dominic coughed and shook his head, signaling that his daughter wasn’t the most stubborn person he had ever met. I hid my smile behind my hand.

“Hello, Olivia,” said Thomas solemnly. She turned her head to study him. “Your mother is correct. Alice is your great-grandmother. Your Grandpa Kevin’s mother. I’m your great-grandfather, and it’s very nice to meet you.”

“I swear, this family needs a flowchart,” said Sally.

Verity laughed and gave in to Olivia’s squirming, bending to release her. The little girl paused long enough to give me and Thomas one last speculative look before racing off to join one of the clusters of children her own age, throwing herself into a knot of dragons and dragon princesses with gleeful abandon and no sign that she cared whether or not her playmates were human.

Verity straightened. “This parenting stuff is hard,” she said. “I think it’d be hard even without the Covenant trying to kill us all. As it is, I’m constantly afraid they’re going to find us, or that they’ll get their hands on Olivia somehow.”

Remembering the Covenant coming for Kevin, I said, “I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry you’re having to carry all of this.”

Verity’s façade of stoicism crumpled, and she rushed into my arms. I wrapped them tight around her, pulling her into an embrace.

“I’m sorry.” I kissed the top of her head. “I’m so sorry.”

“This is all my fault,” she whispered.

I looked at Thomas, then at Dominic, waiting for one of them to tell me how to answer that. Dominic looked away. Thomas, on the other hand, moved closer, setting a hand on her shoulder.

“I could say the same,” he said. She lifted her head enough to frown at him. “I didn’t just leave the Covenant, I offended them. I turned down a good place and a good marriage to run off into the hinterlands with the descendant of traitors, and I denied them things they wanted. The insult of my departure, they could have forgiven. The offense of my survival—and worse, my happiness—was too much for them. They’ve been looking for an excuse to come after any descendants I may have left behind ever since.”

“They tried to come for your dad when he was only a little older than Olive there,” I reminded her. “Maybe you attracted their attention most recently, but this is on all of us, not just on you.”

“I’ve been trying to tell her that, but she’s not big on listening to her old babysitter,” said Mary.

Verity straightened, wiping tears from her cheeks as she tossed a smirk in Mary’s direction. “Let’s be honest here, I’m not big on listening to anyone,” she said. “But we’d be absolutely lost without you. I don’t know how anyone raises a child without a full-time nanny on hand.”

“Shelby was not delighted when you announced your pregnancy,” said Mary. “She wasn’t ready to give me up yet. And you won’t be, either, when your turn comes.”

“Annie’s already said she’s not going to have any kids, Elsie isn’t dating right now, and I don’t think we need to worry about Sarah,” said Verity. “Shelby says she wants to stop at one until the war is over, which I think is wise. So unless the new girl already counts as family enough that you’d have to leave me to take care of her, I think I’m in the clear for now.”

“Okay, wow, leave me out of whatever weird baby lottery thing you people are running here,” said Sally, putting her hands up. “I, also, am not seeing anyone, having been trapped in a horrifying parallel dimension for the last twelve years, and even if I were, an unintentional pregnancy would be very unlikely to result, as I am an entire lesbian, and most trans women don’t have high sperm counts unless they’re trying to make a baby. Which any girlfriend of mine would not be doing with me if she knew what was good for her.”

“Good,” said Verity. “So see, Mary, you’re going to be with us for a good long time.”

Mary rolled her eyes but didn’t look displeased.

“Are we staying here with you?” I asked. “Not that it’s not lovely to stand around and chat, but Rose seemed to think we needed to get here sooner than later. We don’t have papers for these two yet, and we haven’t called Kevin or Jane.”

“Oh!” said Verity. “Yes. You will be. We have a room all set up for . . . well, for two of you. We didn’t know about Sally. Sorry, Sally.”

“I’m the surprise younger aunt you never asked for,” said Sally, sounding unbothered. “As long as I can get pizza and a pillow, and maybe a polearm if this is really going to be a war, I’m good.”

“Oh, I have polearms,” said Verity, brightly. “If you want to—”

Mary cleared her throat.