230 wievesbehavingbadly

.but nice ." her eyes flicked toward the door ." how are you boys ?
are they in ?"
again i bristled . " they are in the garden .'
her eyes drifted past  my left shoulder to the back door  ." i didn't catched more than a glimpse of them at the funeral . it .... gave me quite a shock to see how like nathan they are , is felix the one with the slightly fairer hair ?"
"no . that 's lucas ."
' they seemed big for five-year-olds .
" they're six ." i said . they were six in march ."
"" sam was nothing like nathan until he was eighteen or so , then he turned into nathan's clone . iwionder if they're going to be tall like nathan ?"
"i have no idea ."
if rose imagined that she could spread her soft maternal wings over my childrren , she was wrong , wrong . i could never fault her as a mother , natan said never .
i gestured toward the kettele  ." can i make you some coffee ?"
"no, thank you ."
the shadows of four children fell ove the ensuing hard , cold silence .
i broke it . " the twins are not your business , rose i don't know what nathan was doin when he made that extraordinary ....."- i dropped my voice - " that senseless request . was he having a huge joke at our expense ? if i die or end up paraplegic or mad , my children will be with you . what was he thinking of ?"
she moved restlessly . " don't make too big a deal of it . minty . it's optional and not likely to happen ."