Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Softening, Joan put a hand on her daughter-in-law’s shoulder. “I’ve delivered dozens of babies, found my calling after the war. And I’ll teach you. The rest, Dr. Herbert will pass down while you intern with him from nine to five, Monday to Friday.”
The perfect bribe to buy her attention and even keep her tied to the boat. “Was it your idea or his?”
Muttering under her breath, Joan lost her patience. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to. I’m only supporting this, because it’s practical and unlikely to cause a stir.”
“You pimp women on Level 15. Don’t get all self-righteous with me, Madame.”
“Your anger issues are incredibly unrefined. Do you think I snapped at the First Lady when she threatened to have my family killed should my dear, departed George vote against the president’s agenda? No. I smiled, and I carried my weight.”
“Senator Kingston would have voted for the potato’s war anyway.”
“Just like you will catch Gretchen’s baby anyway… and also why I found the First Lady’s behavior to be ridiculous in the extreme.” As if Miss America herself, Joan added, “Did you know that dead bitch claimed I had her horrible dog hit by a car? It was all over the tabloids.”
It was Eugenia’s turn to grind her teeth. “I like dogs.”
“You wouldn’t have liked that dog… snappy, biting rat that it was. Real dogs don’t fit in purses.”
The older woman’s logic was always interesting. “Which justifies what you did?”
Bickering evaporated, Joan utterly compelling. “Just wait until someone threatens your children. There is no length you won’t go to keep them safe. And I mean that. There is nothing you won’t do for your baby.”
And Eugenia was two weeks late…
The honeymoon was over, the likelihood of implantation high. Especially considering how many times she’d let him fuck her.
How many times they’d made love.
Even worse, Eugenia was in love.
Lord, she was going to be sick.
As if the older woman could read the terror in Eugenia’s eyes, she softened. “It’s too early to know for certain, but if it doesn’t happen this month, it will happen soon. Everyone is nervous with their first. What you feel right now is normal.”
“The circumstances are not normal.” Had her lip just shaken? She was never going to live it down.
Hooking Eugenia’s arm, Joan passed down wisdom the way a mother had to a daughter since the dawn of humankind. “The new normal then. A healthy baby, born here. A child who will thrive in all this.”
And all this was grand indeed, now that Eugenia was standing in the midst of it. A palace hidden at the center of the ship. The entirety carved into homes for families bursting with wide-eyed and happy children. Where women chatted, laughed, and breastfed their babies. Where orphans found mothers eager to hold them.
Where those who refused to submit to their duty had been moved somewhere on ship no soul would confess to the captain’s wife.
Chilling, grotesque, and something Joan seemed all the happier for when she mentioned so bleak a topic in passing during the tour.
Yet, Brooke was there, wandering through the vegetation—slowly fighting her way out of shock. Surrounded by sisters who understood, who would be there for her. Who didn’t mind when she wet herself or when she tore at her hair or clothes.
Who knew what to say, and the exact tone to say it in.
Because Eugenia was the outsider on Level 9.
The women watching made that clear. This was their home, and they would trample her into dust if she tried to take it from them.
And that was no light threat. One of those mothers alone was far more intimidating than any of the men Eugenia had encountered on the ship. All of them with families to protect, all of them willing to take up a weapon to keep what they had worked hard to build.
And the men had no idea.
Though as Eugenia was introduced to them one by one, she wondered if Aaron suspected. If that was the real reason he had not put her here after he pulled her from the lake.
Because she would not have needed him to bicker with. Not when there were sharp minds aplenty on Level 9. Because she might have found comfort in the arms of other women and submitted so she too could have a baby at her breast and community to enjoy.
Not that the captain had not been trying in earnest to see that potential outcome take place.
How one woman was supposed to take care of that oversized penis for the rest of her life, Eugenia didn’t know.
Next thing she knew, she’d be doing morning yoga with the rest of the women. Barf.
“Did you hear what I said about drainage?”
Not really. “Yes, yes. Plant matter builds up and has to be routinely removed or the whole drainage system backs up.”