Free Reluctant Consent by Saorise Roghan Page B

panicked.   “What’s the problem?” said Tullamore.
    “I
can’t marry him.”
    “Sure
you can,” said Lawrence.
    “I
broke it off!”
    “Stick
it back together!” Tullamore made it sound like she’d broken her favorite, dime
store knick-knack.
    “Or
marry him just for a little while.”   Lawrence’s voice was jovial, meant to be heartening.     “A year or two?”
    “Ah
Ah Ah.” Stipulations against divorce.”   Millicent snapped the locks on his case and lovingly picked up his
coat.   He shook it.   “Staggered penalties based on time
married, etc.”
      “I won’t marry him.”
    “Oh
surely?”   Uncle Tullamore
probed.   “Your brothers,
Denise?   With Lucille and Benson?”
    Lawrence
continued to be hearty. “He’ll be happy to take you back.   Something in it for him, right, Millicent?”
    Millicent
shook his head.   “No.   Beyond three juvenile delinquents and
an unemployed wife with a derelict property.”
    “A
wealthy, unemployed wife!” Tullamore threw in.
    “Impossible!   Totally out of the question.”   Denise resisted the impulse to
shriek.   “There must be a way out.”
    “You
can file a legal action of course.”   Millicent thrust one arm into his coat.   “But in the meantime, the conditions of the will—“
    Denise
sank back onto the foosball table and rocked forward.   She wrapped both arms around her stomach.   To start with she’d find a killer
lawyer.
    “Do
I have time?”
    Millicent
handed a packet to Lawrence.   “There are copies for each of you there.   And some extra if you wish to use them?”   He gestured towards the door barring
the relatives, before turning and loping towards the tall windows forming a
back wall of glass.
    “You
have five days. Sorry to be a coward, but --“He nodded his head in the
direction of the hall door and shrugged before shoving open the French doors.
He clattered across the terrace and walked briskly across the lawn, heading for
his car at a fast clip.
    Denise
moaned.   Her heart pounded in her
chest. She doubted she’d be able to draw sufficient air into her lungs to
sustain life.   She adored her
brothers.
    She
could admit that like herself, her brothers had not been raised with long term self-discipline as a goal.   Her parents were benevolent and clearly
loved them.   She knew that.   But they had no desire to be parents or
to deal with the mess children could and did cause.   They all ran wild.  
    She
herself had only gradually realized that some limits would have been
useful.   She had a growing
awareness it was a miracle she wasn’t a complete ass.   Her brothers could certainly use some guidance.   But Aunt Lucille and Uncle Benson-dam
and sire of The Robo Children-were not the answer.
      And her? She not only had no idea how
to parent adolescent boys, she absolutely couldn’t marry Andrew.   She hated him.   He didn’t have any respect for
her.   There was a small matter of
pride, for one thing.   And there
was the other matter.   One she
couldn’t exactly share with anyone.
    He
had insisted she listen to several short talks; she’d day dreamed through
them.   Later, he’d delivered one
lecture she hadn’t even begun to take seriously.   And then he tried to spank her.
    ***      
    She’d
stared at him, on that particular day, dumbfounded.   Her mouth even hung open slightly.
         “Now!” He
barked.   “Over my knee!”
    She
giggled.   “This is like, a
game?   To be sexy?”   She laughed cheerfully.   “Sorry. Not my thing.”
         Andrew let out his
breath slowly, leaning back against the leather couch, placing his long, slim
hands on his knees and looking levelly at the woman he loved.
    “We’ve
had this discussion, Denise.”
    “You
told me you were a spanko?”   She
frowned at him and then walked into the kitchen.  
    He
heard the frig open.  
    “No,
you didn’t, Drew.   That’s the kind
thing a girl would remember.”