Fortunately, the shock of this arrival hadn’t shaken her sister too much for Sage to still know her own mind. Tess met her gaze and saw that she meant it – that was good. Because Maggie staying would not make things easy.
But Tess thought it was the right decision too. She was thankful Mia had returned to offer some optimism, some of the emotional support – Declan would too, she was sure – but her mind was going at twenty miles a minute, weighing up the options. “Alright,” she said. “We’ll make this work.” They did not even have enough rooms apiece for all the girls, particularly in the summers when Amber was home from Hogwarts, but that was fine, they were close enough, they had lived without much personal space. Sage could have Maggie in with her, and the others would shuffle around. Tess would – make up a bed in the sitting room if she had to, or take shifts, alternating their shifts between sleeping and looking after the girl, if it came to it. As for Maggie – they might not be society people, but still, there would be looks, and questions. Four-year-olds did not just appear fully formed in households full of unmarried young women. There would be suspicions, if they lied, and scathing judgements of them, if they did not.
Tess inhaled carefully before she spoke. “If you wanted, we could – make out she’s some other cousin come to us, find a story,” she began, although if it had worked once with Archer, she doubted it would work half so well the second time, let alone with a much younger child who actually existed in the world. And although everyone here could feign Archer’s existence from time to time, Tess knew firsthand the difficulty of it, a pretence or a lie as one came to depend on it, and how much effort it took to keep in check. It was not foolproof; it would get complicated. And there would be questions all the same.
“But if you lie to the world, you’d have to lie to her, too.” The alternative was going to be hard on them all, and hardest on Sage, but – Tess could only imagine that lying to your own daughter about who she was would be near impossible, and a child that young could not be expected to school herself into calling someone mama one minute and not the next. “So maybe... maybe this time we go with the truth?” And Tess would take it all on for her if only she could – she had printed and distributed pamphlets enough in defence of unwed mothers to be a hypocrite about it now – but facing up to the truth would take a little bravery from them all. (Merlin, she hoped Mia was right, and they would get through.)
But Tess thought it was the right decision too. She was thankful Mia had returned to offer some optimism, some of the emotional support – Declan would too, she was sure – but her mind was going at twenty miles a minute, weighing up the options. “Alright,” she said. “We’ll make this work.” They did not even have enough rooms apiece for all the girls, particularly in the summers when Amber was home from Hogwarts, but that was fine, they were close enough, they had lived without much personal space. Sage could have Maggie in with her, and the others would shuffle around. Tess would – make up a bed in the sitting room if she had to, or take shifts, alternating their shifts between sleeping and looking after the girl, if it came to it. As for Maggie – they might not be society people, but still, there would be looks, and questions. Four-year-olds did not just appear fully formed in households full of unmarried young women. There would be suspicions, if they lied, and scathing judgements of them, if they did not.
Tess inhaled carefully before she spoke. “If you wanted, we could – make out she’s some other cousin come to us, find a story,” she began, although if it had worked once with Archer, she doubted it would work half so well the second time, let alone with a much younger child who actually existed in the world. And although everyone here could feign Archer’s existence from time to time, Tess knew firsthand the difficulty of it, a pretence or a lie as one came to depend on it, and how much effort it took to keep in check. It was not foolproof; it would get complicated. And there would be questions all the same.
“But if you lie to the world, you’d have to lie to her, too.” The alternative was going to be hard on them all, and hardest on Sage, but – Tess could only imagine that lying to your own daughter about who she was would be near impossible, and a child that young could not be expected to school herself into calling someone mama one minute and not the next. “So maybe... maybe this time we go with the truth?” And Tess would take it all on for her if only she could – she had printed and distributed pamphlets enough in defence of unwed mothers to be a hypocrite about it now – but facing up to the truth would take a little bravery from them all. (Merlin, she hoped Mia was right, and they would get through.)
