The Lion Lies Waiting by Glenn Quigley

Author:Glenn Quigley [Quigley, Glenn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, Lgbt, Abduction, Abuse, Addiction, Age-gap, Bears, Established Couple, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Over 40
Publisher: NineStar Press
Published: 2018-12-17T06:00:00+00:00

EDWIN AND ROBIN disembarked their carriage on the stone bridge leading to Gull’s Reach. They walked to the first tenement which, unlike last time, was filled to capacity with families. Every pair of eyes watched as they made their way up the rotting, unsafe stairs to the roof and walked once more into the Roost. Outside his mother’s shack, its fishing boat roof covered in snow, Edwin hesitated.

“Robin, I’ve been thinking, and I’ve made a decision,” he said. “I am going to stay with Mum, here on Blackrabbit, just…just for a little while. There’s no other way.”

“If you think it’s best,” Robin said. “We can—”

“And…I don’t want you to stay with me.”

Robin looked wounded.

“It’s not what you think…I just think if you’re here, I’ll spend most of my time worrying about you—about us—instead of trying to help Mum.”

“But I can ’elp you, both o’ you.”

“You can’t, not this time. I have to do this myself.”

“But why?”

“Because she’s my responsibility! I can’t bring her back to Blashy Cove. Dad wouldn’t be able to cope with her being there. I owe her this, Robin.”

“Owe her for what?”

“For not being a better son! I owe her this for all the stress and worry I caused when I was young, for not realising how sick Ambrose was, for not realising how sick she is! She’s been ill this whole time, Robin, for my whole life, for her whole life, but I was too wrapped up in myself to see it. I have to do this, and I have to it by myself.”

Robin closed his eyes, clenched his massive fists and took a deep breath.

“I know, I know,” Edwin said, taking Robin’s sweet round face in his hands. “But it won’t be for long, I promise. Just until the new year, then we can—”

He was cut short by a series of screams. He dashed over to his mother’s shack and whipped open the curtain flap. Inside, he found Hester tearing at his mother’s hair.

“How could you take them? You just took them!” she screamed, over and over.

His mother was clawing at Hester’s face and body, issuing no words but rather a shriek of fear. Edwin grabbed Hester around the waist and pulled her away as Robin positioned his considerable bulk between the two women. The scream had drawn other residents who clambered round the hut to see what was happening. One of them grabbed Sylvia and tried to calm her down.

“What is this?” Edwin bellowed, uncharacteristically loudly. It even made Robin jump.

Hester shook herself free from Edwin’s arms as his mother sat on her pile of cushions with her chin in the air. She pulled her shawl around herself with one hand, and with the other, she straightened her ragged hair as best she could, trying to make herself presentable.

“This madwoman attacked me,” she sniffed.

“I’m mad?” Hester yelled. “You took my boys!”

“My boys!” his mother hissed, her eyes widening. “They’re my grandsons—they need me!”

Hester made for her again but was stopped by Edwin. He looked to the gathering crowd outside.

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