It was as if she stored up all the days of not talking, and she finally had the opportunity to express 149
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herself.
“Your dad can be a bit frightening. His power over everyone is eerie. He deserves everyone’s respect, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not used to seeing people bow down to anyone. His sense of justice is really honed. I guess it would have to be with so many people to watch over.”
“My father is deserving of his title.”
“I couldn’t agree more. You’ll follow in his footsteps. The men respect you like they do your father.”
“I’ve fought by their sides many times in the past.”
Tara ignored the chill running down her back at the mention of fighting. “Fin, now Fin’s a player.”
“What is a player?”
“A ladies’ man. I’ll bet he has women falling all over him wherever he goes. I guess that’s why you were both sent to the future. The virgins didn’t stand a chance.”
Duncan laughed at her assessment.
“Now Myra,” Tara went on. “She’s like your mom. A hopeless romantic. I know arranged marriages are common for this time, but I tell you, she’d wither and die in a loveless marriage.”
“What makes you say that?”
“She needs more, I don’t know, more passion, romance. Anything less than a knight-in-shining armor and she’d turn up her nose.”
“She’s told you this?” he asked.
“Not in so many words. It’s only my opinion.”
“Is there anyone Myra has an eye for?”
“She hasn’t told me if there is and I think she would.” Tara took in the hillside, her thoughts grew distant. “She reminds me of my sister.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“Lizzy. She’s two years older than me. Now, she is a hopeless romantic. For all the good it did her.”
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“Tell me.” His look was full of questions and concern.
“Lizzy had a hard start. She fell for her high school sweetheart, her first real love. He was nice enough, in the beginning at least. They dated for awhile.”
“What is dated?”
“Courted, is how you would say it.”
“So your father approved of this man.”
Tara laughed. “He was a boy, not a man. Only one year older than my sister. My dad was too busy working to notice his eldest daughter falling in love.
My mother noticed, but she believed in the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ theory. She figured she’d completed her job when she warned us about what boys want, and expected us not to do it.”
“Ahh, it sounds like what mothers tell their daughters in this time as well.”
“Lizzy did do it. She thought she loved him. He told her he loved her too, and before long they started sleeping together. Within a few months she was pregnant.”
“Your time has protection against pregnancy, does it not?”
“Accidents still happen even with those precautions.” Tara breathed in the cool air. “My dad flipped when he found out. My mom cried. Lizzy’s boyfriend denied all responsibility.”
“What? He was a coward.”
Tara was surprised to hear resentment in his reply. “Yes, he was a coward, a kid. I imagine he was scared to death at the possibility of his life being over at seventeen. His parents moved out of state when they heard Lizzy was going to keep the baby.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, that’s right. You don’t have abortions here.
Well...”
She picked her words carefully. “If a woman 151
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doesn’t want the baby, a doctor can stop the pregnancy. Lizzy never considered that an option.
Giving the baby to someone else to raise wasn’t an option for her either. So, she had Simon.
“He’s Amber’s age now. Lizzy found a job working in a daycare. She has always struggled to make it work. But she has, somehow.”
“Your parents didn’t help?” Disgust laced his words.
“No. As soon as she turned eighteen, they kicked her and Simon out.” Tara narrowed her eyes at the painful memory. “I finished high school six months early and left home. Once I was out of the house, they moved somewhere in Arizona. I haven’t heard or seen them since. But Lizzy and I were very close.
Her son Simon is the greatest kid.”
They rode is silence for awhile, both caught up in their own thoughts. Neither of them snuck into the other’s mind.
Breaking the solemn mood, Tara asked, “How long will it take us to get to the village?”
“At this pace it will take us ‘till mid-day.”