The Doppelgänger of Dormond Street by Sue Harry

3. Mr Hollymore Bardon II

The air in The Seven is unusually crisp and clear. When I first returned with my father from our Journey, I remember how in awe I was of the town we had left and now called home. There were six other towns like ours in the furthest reaches of the world and my father and I managed to travel to four of them. It had been a treacherous journey. On two occasions, I had become so ill that my father had no choice but to visit inland witches for assistance.

My mother was Mrs Verity Somers and had been a gifted but unconventional Matriarch. Wholly devoted to my father, she had never gone on a Journey without him and on their travels they had befriended many witches, werewolves, mermen and maids, and other supernatural creatures so we were never without shelter or help if we needed it, but we were also always in danger.

Matriarchs were given a wide berth, but the same could not be said for their spouses who travelled alone which is why it is such a rarity for it to happen. My father was one hundred and eighty three when we set out. He looked twenty five at most but by the time we returned, he had aged exponentially. The sudden death of my mother meant that he would now age normally and return to the earth.

The Chief Matriarch had begged and pleaded with him to allow her to match him with one of the young neophytes but he was proud and refused to saddle a young girl with an old man. He was right but Mrs Mare had been friends with my father and his deceased wife and couldn't bear the thought of losing him in her lifetime. But father was weary. I could tell. He had stopped  making plans for us the minute we found the last artefact. All he wanted to do from that moment was to get home, to see his friends, and live out the rest of his life in his own home.

I'm not even sure if he cared to see me married or not. He had never once mentioned it although I was well past the age that men in The Seven were usually wed. I believe he secretly hoped that our travels would open my eyes to the life I could lead, leaving the decision up to me, and for this I was grateful. I had grown up with none of the pressure the children in The Seven had gotten used to, for whether you were brother, or husband of, or father to a Matriarch, you still lived with and accepted life in The Way.

These men were essentially the support system to entires broods of children who  could not be loved by their mothers in any traditional way. Older brothers bathed and dressed the younger ones and Fathers provided the affection they all so desperately missed. Husbands whose lifespan was mysteriously lengthened because of the close proximity to their Matriarch wives were  expected to oversee the studies of the town children.

Honestly, I had not decided whether that was what I wanted for myself. I had seen many strange and terrible beings and had more of an understanding of what our Matriarchs could do, and what, with the help of The Gift and the relics everyone wore, they would all someday have to face. I was terrified for them and found the children of The Seven to be criminally oblivious to the dangers they were in.

What kind of husband would I make? I had absolutely no intention of having children. I wanted them but to have a girl was to chance fate that she would one day reveal the Gift and I had determined years before that I could not in good conscience do that to anyone, much less a child of my own loins. My own mother had lived many years with my father without having children and it was for the very same reason. Knowing how each Journey would affect her marriage, she had postponed as many as she could, ignoring the excruciating Pull, in order to remain as close as possible to her husband.

Chief Matriarch Sally Mare still adored her husband but had seen the light of love in his eyes extinguished many years before,  so was happy to help in any way she could. She would often lengthen her Journeys and the Journeys of her daughters in order to procure an item my mother had meticulously charted years before. Even with Mrs Mares help, my mothers status was affected. The power of her Gift could never be denied but the other women questioned how long she could survive under the weight of The Pull and without all of the relics she needed.