Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

anyone, I’ll be sure and do it when no one’s looking.”
    “The trouble is, he means it,” said Adrienne. “That’s his idea of being diplomatic.”
    “In the meantime,” said Finlay, “I want to see our children.” They all looked at him in surprise, including Evangeline. Adrienne shook her head slowly. “Finlay, you’ve never wanted to see the children. Not even when they were born. I have to remind you to send them birthday presents. They only know what you look like from watching the holos. And where the hell were you when Gregor Shreck was threatening to have them killed to get at you? Give me one good reason why I should let you anywhere near them!”
    “I’ve been… feeling my mortality lately,” said Finlay. “When I’m gone, all that will be left will be my reputation and my children. I look at what the news people and the docudramas have made of my past, and I don’t recognize myself at all. That just leaves my children, and I’d like them at least to have some idea of who I really was. I know I’ve done… questionable things, but I always thought I had a good reason. In the past I was busy living two lives at once, and I told myself there was no room for children in either of them. They would only have got hurt. They were safer with you. Besides, I didn’t know what to do with children. Not sure I do now. But I’d… like to try to get to know them now. If they’d like to see me…” Adrienne was taken aback for a moment. In all their years of marriage, she’d never heard Finlay open up like that before. “I’ll ask them,” she said finally. “But it’s up to them. I won’t put in a word one way or another.”
    “That’s all I ask,” said Finlay.
    The four of them talked a little more, but they didn’t have enough in common for small talk, and they’d taken care of all their business. Eventually Adrienne and Robert made their excuses and moved off into the crowd, and Finlay and Evangeline were left together.
    “We’ve never talked about… children,” said Evangeline quietly. “Given the lives we were leading during the rebellion, it just wasn’t possible. We were always racing off into danger and sudden death, never knowing for sure whether we’d live to see the morrow. And afterward… you never raised the subject.”
    “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things I never did before,” said Finlay. “I never wanted children with Adrienne, but my father required it for the Family. Things are different now.”
    “I couldn’t bring myself to raise the subject,” said Evangeline, not looking at him. “I was always afraid you never said anything because I was just a clone. You’re an aristocrat, but I’m not. Not really. Some would say I’m not really human. And even in our marvelous new order, the marriage of an aristocrat and a clone would be a scandal, their children an outrage. If anyone found out…” “You’re more human that
    most of the people I have to deal with,” said Finlay. “You’re worth a hundred of them. A thousand.”
    She sank into his embrace, her face pressed against his shoulder so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
    He knew they were there anyway, but carried on as though he didn’t, his voice carefully steady. “I can’t marry you, Evangeline. Not because you’re a clone, but because divorcing Adrienne would distance me from people I need to be close to. Politics in our circles are still largely dictated by old Family connections, and my position is precarious enough as it is. But you are my love, my life—the only woman I’ve ever cared for. Of course we can have children, if that’s what you want. People will make allowances. They always have.” Evangeline hugged him so tightly she thought she must be hurting him, but he never said anything. When she was sure her eyes were dry, she let go of him and stepped back. And then someone came and called Finlay away on urgent business, and Evangeline was left alone again. She watched him go with a brave little smile on her face, but inside, her thoughts were churning furiously.
    Before she could even think of starting a family with Finlay, there was a lot she had to sort out in her life, most of it things Finlay didn’t know about, and must never know.
    Finlay knew Evangeline had been cloned from a dead original, but he didn’t know why. Gregor Shreck had loved his Evangeline as a man rather than a father, and finally murdered her in a fit of rage when she tried to