Angelborn by L. Penelope

Author:L. Penelope
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9909228-5-8
Publisher: Heartspell Media

Before

“Caleb!” Viv says my name on a laugh as we race up Parliament Hill.

“What, my love?”

“Slow down!” Though she increases her pace and grins over her shoulder at me. “It’s impolite to beat a woman in a footrace.”

“I didn’t realize this was a competition.”

“Well, we must beat the sun if we expect to watch it set.”

At the crest of the hill, we stop and turn to see the greens of Hampstead Heath spread out before us with a view of the heart of London beyond. I spread the blanket out and we sit facing west, watching the progression of the sun as it gives its last hurrah for the day. Night meanders toward us, but the earlier heat lingers. We lie back in one another’s arms and talk. She tells me of her hopes for the future: completing secretarial school and seeing her younger sisters attend university. Her worries for her father, whose back has been giving him trouble, making it harder to manage his shop. She gets teary-eyed thinking of the poor lost souls on the Athenia, the passenger ship sunk by Germany, but avoids the topic of the war.

“It’s just too horrible, Caleb. I don’t even want to think of it. Mother says that Papa was never the same after he came back from the Great War. I can’t bear to think of you having to go away.”

I let the topic slide away. The idea of fighting in a human war is indeed troubling — the warrior angels must have been planning this for quite a while. Two of them had ascended to the ranks of the Seraphim during the last Adjustment, so this conflict was bound to be unlike any before it.

Kalyx followed all the politics and maneuvering very well, and at times like these I missed asking her to translate the inner workings of Euphoria for me. But another struggle is at the forefront of my mind.

I’d spoken with Viv’s father at his shop this morning. A man of few words, with skin like leather and a manner just as sturdy, he had never objected to my courting Viv. He’d even hushed his wife’s protestations with nothing more than a few quiet words and a stern look. Even with his tacit acceptance, I was nervous to ask for his blessing to marry his daughter.

He’d answered with a brusque “If it makes Vivie happy, I’ll not stand in your way.”

I’d almost left it there, but my curiosity got the better of me. “Many men would object to a colored man seeking to marry their daughter.”

He’d shifted his pipe to his other hand and stared off into the distance. “My father was colored. Never met him myself; he died when I was a lad. Vivie’s mum knows all about it, of course; she just pretends to forget. I don’t advertise it, but I’m not ashamed. You work hard and you love her. My daughter could do a sight worse.”

Now her head rests on my chest as we look up at the stars, newly visible in the inky sky.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.