Heartful Inheritance

‘Please, please, please, convince, cajole, oblige Leigh to give me
back my Percy’s heart,’ a sobbing Mary
begged George Gordon six years later.
‘If you don’t intercede on my behalf,
my only child’s life could be at stake.’

‘But Leigh says he has first claim to it.’
George Gordon’s tone was too passive for Mary’s taste.

‘Haven’t you learned anything after losing your innocent Allegra?
How many children do I need to sacrifice?
Can’t I have just a living, breathing son for myself?
And what about Percy’s legacy?
Shouldn’t he leave a trace of his lineage
In this accursed world?’

You mean a legitimate lineage,
but George Gordon bit his own sarcastic tongue.
Instead, he asked gravely, ‘Has the Creature returned, then?’

‘Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I need to be prepared.
I can’t afford to lose my only child, even if it means giving up
my Percy’s precious heart into those vile paws of his.
Why, oh why did I have to write the accursed novel?’
Mary had to restrain herself from screaming at him.

Would you rather give up your fame through the ages?
Who’d ever want to do that? But George Gordon remained silent.