. ?" I don't know," she said. "We'll let it lie fallow if need be."I put my hand atop hers. "Maybe you should leave, let him have it until this is ove...r." Never," she said, pulling her hand away. "Never!" She obviously meant it.We heard feet on the front porch and then someone banged the knocker on the wide front door. She looked out without moving the curtain. "It's him," she said, turning to face me, her mouth a very thin line. "There are two Redcoats with him and a pair of Germans headed for. From a young age, Caym had been taught ruthlessness. Most houses would simply designate their oldest progeny as the Heir-apparent, and only remove that status under extraordinary circumstances but House Katain had always taught that prestige, position, and power was not given. It was TAKEN. If you did not take from others, others would take from you. It was one of the truths of the universe. The strong took from the weak. Or put another way, the weak existed to serve the strong.Caym’s first. I cleaned myself up when straight to my room, got dressed, put the panties and picture back in my moms room and went downstairs. I couldnt look at my aunt after what had just happened, but she didnt say anything about it. She just asked if I wanted to go to the cinema. We went to the cinema and nothing was ever said about what happened. The next time I done anything like that was when I was 13. My mom was at work so it was just me and my bigger sister in the house. She had just turned 15. I had. She looked at Fran a little strangely as she put the glass down in front of her. Perhaps she thought Fran was my mother and that it was a weird that we would be sitting so close together, but I really didn’t give a damn what anyone thought. “To us,” I said lifting my glass. “May our friendship grow stronger, our lives grow fuller and our bodies grow closer!” “Good one. To us,” Fran said tapping my mug with hers. We each took a good long swig of the nice cold beer. It really tasted good after.