Ariadne pushed herself against the wall under a window. A breeze filtered through a gap in the frame against the nape of her neck. She wanted to cool down, calm herself, but her heart kept pounding. \u2018Repay?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018For saving your lives,\u2019 said Fay. \u2018Just like you repaid Bobby after he saved yours.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What are you talking about?\u2019<\/p>\n
Fay tilted her head and said, \u2018You guys became fuck buddies because you love each other I suppose.\u2019<\/p>\n
Repelled, Ariadne said, \u2018We do love each other.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019s not your type, you prefer the quiet ones who do the laundry or pop down to the corner shop to get the tea and biscuits without a prompt. Bobby, well, he\u2019s a little impulsive, right? You gave him your bed because you owed him. And he\u2019s had enough of his hand all this time, so he forgave you all that grey hair up there… and down there.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ariadne didn\u2019t say a word. She disagreed with everything, completely, one-hundred-and-one-percent, but she wasn\u2019t going to cross Fay.<\/p>\n
\u2018I bet he said something like, I never knew older women were so into sex. And you bit your tongue, wanting to tell him you\u2019re only in your thirties. Then your periods stopped which was a big surprise for both of you.\u2019<\/p>\n
Ariadne bit her tongue, trying not to get angry. Her tongue was sore.<\/p>\n
\u2018And Bobby, always good with his words, said he wanted to abort the \u2018thing\u2019 because you two are on the run. You told him a baby was a precious treasure, a life more important than your own. What you didn\u2019t tell him was this was probably your last chance to have a sprog. Bobby got mad and whomped you one in the face, then cried because he was sorry about it. Like I said, impulsive. A bit of a numpty too, a condom hadn’t occurred to him.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Shut up, Fay!\u2019 Ariadne shouted, looking up and glaring at the ex-Clothman. \u2018We\u2019re not all like you Cloth people! Love isn\u2019t perfect and I never wrote that it was!\u2019<\/p>\n
Fay smiled; Ariadne turned towards the floor again, dreading the response. A chill came over her.<\/p>\n
\u2018Nice one,\u2019 said Fay. \u2018I really need you to have a bit more fire in your gut if you\u2019re going to do this thing for me, right? Rise and shine, darlin\u2019. It\u2019s time to shake this town.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fay swore she wasn\u2019t Cloth anymore, but she still had the blood of one, playing mind games and little party tricks. It didn\u2019t make Ariadne feel any better. Ariadne lifted her gaze. \u2018What the hell do you want, Fay?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Ah yeah, that.\u2019 Fay cleared her throat. \u2018It\u2019s dangerous but to help you I got what you could call the Lonely Planet guide to taking on the Cloth. Your mission \u2013 should you decide to accept it and let\u2019s be you honest you ain\u2019t got much choice \u2013 is to raze the English Foundry and kill the switchman there.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ariadne pushed herself against the wall under a window. A breeze filtered through a gap in the frame against the nape of her neck. She wanted to cool down, calm herself, but her heart kept pounding. \u2018Repay?\u2019 \u2018For saving your lives,\u2019 said Fay. \u2018Just like you repaid Bobby after he saved yours.\u2019 \u2018What are you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}