Promise the Sky

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Keenan

 

 

 

Moira squirms, her elbow catching me unceremoniously in the temple. She doesn't notice. She is too focused on making herself comfortable and I keep my scowl to myself, rubbing the offending area bitterly.

"I'm bored." She whines and jiggles again. I dodge the limbs and decide to just be grateful I am not William. She sits upon his lap, her shoulders masking his view, but it is impossible to miss the agony on his face as she grinds his legs into these unforgiving benches.

"Shh." I hiss as the woman in the row in front of us turns around to glare. We sit at the back because we were meant not to draw attention (and only a little because Moira has made us late). But so far we have failed.

"Me too." William moans, displaying a perfect family resemblance.

"William," I chastise, "be quiet."

The priest at the altar continues to drone endlessly on. I am bored too. But Hugh was quite insistent we attend the ceremony and not just the reception. Being here has nothing to do with the plan. Hugh likes weddings.

I lean around the wriggling brother-sister duo so that I might look at his face staring reverently up at the happy couple. The expression Hugh wears is sickening. I do not think he has even noticed the drama unfolding between us.

"You're so bony William." Moira complains, bouncing her substantial eight-year-old body on William's bruised knees.

"Get off and sit on your own then." William snaps, earning us another dirty look.

"You shouldn't have brought her." I remind, "It's your own fault."

"What else was I supposed to do?" William hisses. "Father is away again."

"Leave her with the maid."

"I can't leave her with the maid, Keenan! She always gets left with the maid."

"The maid's dirty." Moira agrees with the certainty of a child. Karem must have taught her that. I know of only two people that would call the Montgomery maids dirty and her brother uses the word with an entirely different meaning.

"You do know this is completely unsuitable for a child, right?" I say, "You do remember why we're here?"

"It's fine, I can look after her."

"I give you two glasses of wine before you have a woman."

William leans back, trying to look casual. The image is only slightly ruined by the child on his lap.

"I am abstaining." He says, as though it were the world's greatest feat of achievement.

"It's been two days." I say. "You're really still waiting for your rooftop girl?"

"She could be at this party." He says.

"She won't be." I glare back at the woman in front of us as she turns this time. Disrespectful commoner. "And even if she was, you wouldn't be able to find her."

"Oh, Keenan, such the disbeliever." William jiggles Moira on his knee. "Uncle Keenan doesn't trust in fate, Moira." He says.

The little girl turns her face away from the distant bride and back to us. Her expression is like magic to me, exactly reminiscent of how I feel; gone lax with the tedium, her bright little eyes dulled.