Fat Tuesday(29)

"You got married when you were seventeen."

"Hmm. The day after graduation."

"You're so lucky," Flarra grumbled, her chin resting on her chest."To have a man fall so madly in love with you that he couldn't wait for you any longer. All my friends think it's the most wildly romantic story they've ever heard. How he became your guardian, paid for your schooling here, then married you right away."

At the time, it had seemed romantic to Remy, too. Pinkie had been like a knight in armor who rescued her and Flarra from a squalid life and certain doom. It seemed like a lifetime ago. To be exact, her lifetime.

"One day, you'll have a man fall madly in love with you," Remy assured her.

Of the two, Flarra was prettier. Her animated eyes were the vivid light green of springtime buds. Her hair was dark and glossy like Remy's, but Flarra's natural curls were unruly and extravagant. Since they'd had different fathers, neither of which was known to them, and since their mother had no family that claimed her, it was anyone's guess where this curly gene had originated.

Flarra's young body was lithe and slender and athletic, but gently rounded where it should be. The tailored school uniform couldn't completely hide the female form beneath it. That's why Remy shuddered to think of her innocent sister walking the streets of the Vieux Carre late at night where she would be prey for rowdy tourists, drunken collegiates, and countless miscreants with depravity on their minds.

"Who'll have a chance of falling in love with me when I'm locked up in here?" Flarra whined, bringing Remy back to the conversation.

"Only another year and a half, then you'll graduate and be off to college where you'll meet many new friends."

"Remy ..." Flarra slid from her chair onto her knees and knelt in front of her sister."My spirit is dying in here. I've lived inside these walls for as long as I can remember. I want to explore and experience new places. I want to meet new and interesting people. I want to meet men. I've never even been kissed."

"You told me your date to the Christmas dance kissed you."

"That?" Her face puckered with disgust."That doesn't count. He grabbed me and sort of poked his mouth against mine when the nuns werent looking. It was gross. He was all sweaty and nervous. Rather than turning me on, it made me mad."

She inched closer and lowered her voice to an urgent whisper."I'm talking about a real kiss, Remy. I want to go on a real date without nuns watching every move. I want " "Romance."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Reaching for Remy's hands, she pressed them between her own."Please, please, please, let me come I live with you and Pinkie and go to a coed school. Just for my senior year."

Flarra was bursting to experience Life in its capitalized form.

She was curious about men because her exposure to them was limited to Pinkie, who treated her like a father would or at least a loving uncle.

Like any youth her age, her hormones were raging. That physiological boiling pot was seasoned with Flarra's innate zest for life, her active imagination and natural exuberance, and her curiosity.

Remy could understand her sister's restlessness, but she couldn't exactly relate to it. She had been an adolescent when she was admitted to the academy, but it hadn't seemed a restricting place. It had been a refuge. For her, it had been a clean, quiet, and restful haven.

Within its ivy-covered walls she had enjoyed a sense of safety and serenity that she hadn't known was possible. Music amounted to the hymns sung at mass and benediction, not a radio blaring at all hours of the day and night. No frightening characters drifted toward the alcove where she slept. There were no sly looks to fear and avoid, no drug-related rages, no filthy language, no frantic coupling on unmade beds or on any surface that wasn't being otherwise utilized. There was no hunger, and no crying baby for which she was solely responsible.

Remy gave one of Flarra's springy curls an affectionate tug, her heart swelling with love for that sickly, crying baby who had depended on her for everything food, caring, love, and protection when she was little more than a baby herself. Despite that stunting first year, Flarra had grown into an incredibly intelligent and beautiful young woman.

Remy had protected her from harm when she was a newborn, and she would continue to protect her until her dying breath.

"I'll speak to Pinkie about it."

"Promise?"

"I promise to speak with him," Remy emphasized."I don't promise that our decision will be what you want."

"Pinkie wouldn't mind if I came to live with you, would he?"

"His favorite sister-in-law?" Remy scoffed.

In fact, Pinkie had objected to Flarra's living with them when they married. She had been living in a foster home while Remy attended Blessed Heart, he said it would be cruel to uproot the child yet again.

That was the reason he gave. The real reason, Remy knew, was that he hadn't wanted Remy's time, attention, and loyalty to be divided between him and her sister.

When Flarra was old enough to go to school, he had moved her to Blessed Heart, convincing Remy that Flarra would receive the best upbringing in the boarding school. She'd really had no choice then except to agree, and, looking back on her years of marriage to Pinkie Duvall, she realized that it had been the best arrangement for all of them.