Not Juliet Read Free

father had been targeted, and then added
to the mix a healthy dose of anger. Kai had known her all her life.
He would understand. He would tell her.
    Kai stared at
her, unsmiling, for a long moment, deliberating. She gave him time.
Eventually, his features tightened. A muscle in his jaw twitched,
then he grabbed her by the arm and led her away, into the
shadows.
    “Come. I don’t
like it, but you deserve to know.”
     

Chapter 2
     
    “Dad! Why didn’t you
tell me? Dad!”
    Riella stormed
through the caravan door and turned straight towards the large bed
at the front end. Goliath Petulengro lay back on a mound of plump
pillows, breathing slowly, shallowly. Riella’s hands moved to cover
her mouth in an involuntary action. “Oh, Dad! I… I’m sorry. I… I
should have –”
    “Nonsense,
child. Come closer.” He waved a graying hand feebly through the air
and she approached.
    Riella stepped
up to the bed and caught his hand between hers. She knelt on the
ornately carved border surrounding the king’s resting place and
brought his hand to her forehead in worship.
    “I hadn’t
realized how…” She left the sentence unfinished. What could she
have said? How ill you look? How close to death you are? How fine
I’ve cut it, leaving it so late to come and visit?
    Goliath let out
a quiet chuckle. “It’s only fair I went. If we never died, how
would the world be able to renew itself, huh, baby?”
    Riella cleared
her throat in a last-ditch attempt to stop the flow of tears. It
didn’t work. “I miss you, Dad.”
    “I know.”
    “I love
you.”
    He nodded and
smiled. “That’s pretty obvious, too. I love you, too, baby.”
    “Have you been
back to hospital? What did they say?”
    Goliath
remained silent.
    A soft hand
cupped her shoulder and her mother’s voice, fainter than a whisper,
brushed the hair around her ear. “He’s better off being here, among
his own people, where we can look after him and show him love until
the very last moment.”
    Riella
bristled. “He needs the latest treatments, the best money can buy.
It’s called technology, Mom. It can keep him alive, or… or at least
keep him with us for a while longer.”
    “Yes, but at
what price? I’m not talking money, sweetheart, but you know only
too well how prejudiced people are, how they’ll look at the color
of his skin, at his clothes, at the ‘no fixed address’ entry on his
forms, and immediately decide they’re superior. That alone would
cause him more harm than good, don’t you think? He won’t receive
the care gadjee would. At best, he’ll be lucky to be ignored. What
if I let him go and they hurt him? People are such cruel creatures.
At least here he’s safe.”
    “I can speak
for myself, Isadora,” Goliath said in a strong voice, but Riella
spoke over him.
    “Safe? Did you
take a look outside, Mother? That fire truck is the last minute
camp decoration, is it? Because it looks a bit out of place to me.
I will agree, your hospital assessment is pretty spot-on, if you
ignore all the health benefits and concentrate only on the
negatives. We could fix that by never leaving his side. We could
take shifts – me, you, Kai…”
    “I don’t want
to go, Riella.”
    Again, Riella
ignored her father. “But how you can call this place safe, I don’t
know!”
    “That fire was
probably an accident. A burner left on, or kids at play…”
    Riella stood
up, took a step back and stuck her hands, fingers splayed, into her
mass of curly hair, growling in frustration. When she felt in
control of her voice once again, she rounded on them. Her eyes
pierced her father’s as she spoke, unsmiling.
    “I know.”
    Goliath and
Isadora exchanged a charged glance, then Isadora stood and made her
way to the kitchen end of the trailer – her way of giving father
and daughter space to talk.
    Goliath’s gaze
followed his wife’s retreating form and rested on her a few seconds
longer. Finally, he turned his heavy eyes on his daughter.
    “What