Re: Call: Iris M/Manning T
[And that's where she gets hung up. Especially the past few weeks. Because she grew up with housekeepers and nannies and cooks doing those same things. Only she's somehow manipulated her way into getting paid in sex and safety and a place to live instead of money. But if he's okay with it, does it make it okay? Does it make it alright for her to bear and raise his children? To have them call her "Miss Iris" as she continues to sleep with their father? Didn't there used to be more arrangements like that? Women that needed protection from the world and men that just needed a woman? Maybe it was old-fashioned, but there wasn't anything wrong with being old-fashioned.
Caring for his house, his children, cooking and cleaning and providing him with... affection. There was no hardship for her there. They were things she found herself wanting to do anyway. She could follow his lead on how to introduce herself (because she wasn't sure there was a modern term to encompass all of it), and they would both get what they needed from the arrangement. And if her reasons were a little more sentimental than his... there was no reason that had to be discussed or make a difference in anything. And then it would make more sense for her to not know things about him when Sam asked. Just what he felt was important to divulge.
She's been quiet for too long when she finally pulls her thoughts back and manages a still-quiet:] Yes.