Bellewether

by Susanna Kearsley

All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses.

A pretty thing to wear, she thought, for men who dealt in blood and fighting, musketfire and death.

Draw me not without cause; sheathe me not without honor.

The history was all right there, if I’d just looked for it.”

I always found it interesting watching men meet other men. It was an almost primal and subconscious thing, the way they took each other’s measure, marking out their relative positions in the hierarchy.

“All these things we have—these clothes, this drink, even this colony—we build these things on stolen land with stolen lives, and turn their blood to gold to fill our ships.

“If he was right for you, you wouldn’t be so calm right now. You’d be curled up somewhere crying your eyes out.” With a long drink from her own glass she said, “When you find the right man, you’ll be devastated if he walks away.”

“Like my friend said, you just have to keep it honest, with your man and with yourself. Men aren’t so complicated—what you see is what you get. But sometimes what we see is what we want to see, and not what’s really there. And that’s what gets us into trouble.”

“She couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t read the books, and didn’t want to. She just wanted to lie down and cry and sleep a lot, she said. Between us, I don’t think she wants to be a lawyer. I think that was for her father. And now he’s gone, she ain’t sure what she does want.”

Not out of place, but not at home.

“Dad said the best thing to do is assume everybody’s related until you learn differently.”

“Well, I have a friend in the FBI,” she said, “and he says whenever a suspect gives really long answers to yes-or-no questions, you know you’re not getting the absolute truth.”

Hearts were stubborn things, and often inconvenient.

“Nothing wrong with knowing what you want,” said Sam, “and waiting for it.”

Draw me not without cause; sheathe me not without honor.’

Like many fires, it choked to death on its own ashes.

“The arts help to restore human dignity and identity in the face of injustice.”