Beowulf's Children

Linda sighed. "I'm sure that whatever is wrong, we can handle it. Nothing to worry about. Otherwise," she said, "I'd never take Cadzie with us. Never in a thousand years."

Chapter 7

THE MAINLAND

Its horror and its beauty are divine.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLY, The "Medusa" of Leonardo da Vinci

"Can we talk?"

Linda looked up with faint a

"Please."

Edgar looked desperate. Joe had been worried about him lately, worried that Edgar had problems he wouldn't talk about. Joe would want to know. She sighed and pointed to the sleeping baby. "In your work room, then. Cassie, Cadzie is asleep. Listen for Cadzie. We will be in Edgar's workroom. Call if he wakes up."

"Understood, Linda," Cassandra said softly.

Edgar led the way. "Coffee?"

"Sure, thanks," she said. "I like coffee and I never get a chance to go pick beans."

Edgar gave her an evil grin. "There's one way you can get all the coffee you ever want."

"I used to do that," she said.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything."

"All right." She sipped coffee. "I do like this stuff. Okay, Edgar, what's so urgent it can't wait for me to get a nap while Cadzie's asleep?"

"Why don't I get laid?"

"What?"

He couldn't meet her eyes now. "It's hard enough asking once, let alone twice. Why can't I get laid? I must be the oldest virgin on this planet."

"You're not a virgin. You're a Grendel Scout. I was there. Trish Chance, the Bottle Baby."

"Close enough," Edgar said. "There was that once on the mainland. I didn't know what to do. Trish had to show me, and she hardly speaks to me now."

"Why ask me?"

He sighed and shook his head. "There was a time when I'd have given anything I had to sleep with you. You know that."

She struggled to avoid laughing, and lost. "I'm sorry," she giggled.

"But Edgar, I never knew—"

"You knew," he said. "Come on, I don't know much about girls, but anybody could tell you were keeping score, making sure that anybody you hadn't made it with sure wanted to. You—unless I'm psychotic. Linda?"

"All right, I suppose I did," Linda said. "And then one morning I woke up tired of the games."

Edgar nodded, relaxing a little. "You slept with damn near everybody! Everybody but me. I figured what the hell, eventually you'd get to me just for the record. But you never did. I guess you got pregnant first."

"Pregnant and tired," Linda said.

"So I'd wait till you had the baby, and then I'd have a chance, but that didn't work because now you're my stepmother! Near enough, anyway."

Tired, and pregnant, and lonely, which didn't make sense because I could have awakened with anyone I wanted, but—"Let's just say I had a lot of friends."

If he'd been a dog, Edgar's tail would have wagged. "I've read a bunch of different names that people used to use. Hooker. Town pump. Round heels."

"Round heels?"

He laughed. "Falls over easily on her back. And hooker, I read about that one. There was a Union general. Fighting Joe Hooker, who had so many shady ladies following him that people called them Hooker's battalion—"

"Thank you for the lecture, but that's quite enough." She stopped, and thought for a moment. "But come to think of it, Joe knows those words, too. He'd never use them, but he knows them."

"Yeah, Wow, I never would have thought of that. Has he--?"

"Never."

"Anyway, it never happened with us. Or anyone. It's that way with all the girls. Some of them are friends, but none of them want to sleep with me, and it's driving me nuts. Why?"

"You're too eager, for starts," Linda said. "And you have a talent for lecturing on the wrong subjects."

"I tried being hard to get. That doesn't work either."

"No, of course not. I mean—"

He looked down at himself with a sour expression. "Yeah. I know what you mean."

"Then why ask?"

Edgar looked at himself. "I'm fat. I've been taking lessons from

Toshiro—"

"It shows," Linda said. "More muscle tone. Better posture. Lose some weight and you'll look good. Edgar, I'd sleep with you now. I mean, I won't, but I would if I were doing that sort of thing now."

"You mean that?"

"... Yes."

"You sound surprised."

She smiled. "Tell the truth, I am surprised. I hadn't thought about it until you asked me."

"So why now, and not back when you could? You're just saying it?"

"No, I'm not just saying it. Edgar, you really are attractive, but it takes work to see that." She frowned. "You make us work at it. I guess I mean, there's something about you that drives girls, maybe not just girls, everyone away, until they get to know you, so there has to be a reason to get to know you. I had one, I'm in love with your father and he loves you, so I worked at it, but after a while it wasn't work."

Edgar shook his head. It was hard to read his expression in the dim light from the viewscreens. Edgar usually kept the lights low in the rooms he worked in. "My old man doesn't love me. And I don't know what you mean—"

"He does too. Edgar, you're always testing people. Him most of all. You want to see just how much we'll put up with. Most of us won't put up with much. Why should we? But Joe does, and I had to, and you know, after a while you stopped doing it so much to me, and then I really got to know you, and you're really a pretty neat guy, somewhere down in there. Keep it up with Toshiro, and pay some attention to yourself in the mirror, and you'll look like one, too. And then you'll get all the girls you want."

"Maybe," he said, but he sounded happy.

And how much of that did I mean? But if he believes it, it might even happen that way. She was trying to think what else she could tell him—

"Linda," Edgar said. "About your kid's father."

"It's not your problem," she said automatically.

"No, but it's yours, isn't it?"

"I—what do you mean?"

"You don't know who the father is, and you're afraid to find out, because you think it's somebody you don't like."

"Edgar, that's a horrid thing to say. Maybe I don't like you after all."

"Linda, do you want to know who the father is?"

"You mean you know?"

He shook his head. "No, but I could find out."

"How?"

"Cassie knows the blood types of everyone in this colony, including the babies. She has to. Someone might need a transfusion."

"But Cadzie is 0 positive," Linda said. "So am I. That rules out some boys, but it leaves at least a dozen—" She saw his grin. "Yeah, I wondered. A weak moment."

"Linda, you didn't look at the minor factors. There's a lot more to blood types than the majors—"

"I know about MN factors," Linda said. "And that still leaves a dozen."

"You sure got around."

"I used to be proud of it," Linda said.

"Sure put one in the colonel's eye."

"I guess there was some of that in it," Linda said, "And showing him there was something I could do really well—"

"Why'd you stop?" He looked around, then back at her. "Yeah, yeah. Dad knows the ancient magical words that turn a lady into a wench. It's still a good question."

"I stopped because I didn't like myself anymore," she said. "And now it really is none of your business, and before you ask, no. I'm not going to sleep with you."

"I don't want you to. I mean—" He froze up for a moment, then forced words out. "Dad would—He wouldn't kill us, but he'd think he should. Am I right? Anyway, let's just keep it simple, because I really do like you, and I guess I like my old man, and he's so much more, since you, him and you—" Edgar stopped and took a deep breath. "Linda. If you want to know who the father is, I can find out. Cassie has more than blood samples to work with. She already knows, you know."