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Back Daughter of Eden Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication
  3. Part I
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-one
  25. Twenty-two
  26. Twenty-three
  27. Twenty-four
  28. Twenty-five
  29. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 20. 20:25 MT.
  30. Part II
  31. Twenty-six
  32. Twenty-seven
  33. Twenty-eight
  34. Twenty-nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-one
  37. Thirty-two
  38. Thirty-three
  39. Thirty-four
  40. Thirty-five
  41. Thirty-six
  42. Thirty-seven
  43. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 22. 20:05 MT.
  44. Thirty-eight
  45. Thirty-nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-one
  48. GAIA YOUNG. SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS.MISSION DAY 25. 15:30 MT.
  49. Forty-two
  50. Forty-three
  51. Forty-four
  52. Forty-five
  53. Forty-six
  54. Forty-seven
  55. Forty-eight
  56. Forty-nine
  57. Fifty
  58. Fifty-one
  59. Fifty-two
  60. Fifty-three
  61. Fifty-four
  62. Part III
  63. Fifty-five
  64. Fifty-six
  65. Fifty-seven
  66. Fifty-eight
  67. Also by Chris Beckett
  68. Copyright page

‘What are we going to eat at Davidstand? That’s what bothers me,’ he muttered. ‘There’s no hunting round there any more – they’ve done for all the bucks for miles: it’s even worse than round Veeklehouse – and what have we got to trade with?’

‘No point in worrying about that now.’

I turned my back to him and settled myself down. I did not love Dave that much: there was no fun in him, no joy, and he had almost no curiosity about anything. I loved the kids we’d had together – I think they were all his, though Fox might possibly have been Tom’s – and he loved them too, but the truth was that I’d just made do with Dave because I wanted to be able to stay in Michael’s Place and not have to be on my own any more. I guess he’d made do with me as well. No one chooses a batface if they can avoid it.

I lay listening to the pulsing of the tree beside us – hmmmph hmmmph hmmmph – and watched the flutterbyes flapping round the redlantern flowers shining above me. I saw they were beautiful things, those shining pink tubes, curving upwards at the end so the flutterbyes could find their way in. Swaying slightly slightly in the breeze that came from across the Pool, they were beautiful beautiful. But it was a beauty that made my heart ache, almost as if they weren’t really there at all, were just a memory from some far off time, long long ago.

Eight

So I said goodbye to Knee Tree Grounds and crossed over to Mainground with Mary, sitting behind her in middle of an old log boat with four guards to paddle us across the bright water, two in front of us and two behind. Three other women had chosen to come with Mary too: Sue, Janny and Watershine. All three of them had been made pregnant by visiting guards and Mary had told them they should try and find their babies’ fathers, and let their children grow up as part of True Family. They sat in front of me, silent and tense, but I hardly to spoke to them at all on the way across, and I never saw them afterwards. I don’t know if they stayed on Mainground or went back again to Knee Tree.

Mary leaned forwards so she could speak only to me.

‘I know we’ll work well together, Angie,’ she said, ‘I just know it. We’re two of a kind.’