Page 466 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

"You're my apprentice. I have complete access to your files without leaving any footprints. What kind of master would I be if I didn't watch your work?"
"But--"
"I also read the files you hid under Quara's name. You've never been a mother, so you didn't know that all the file activities of a child under twelve are reported to the parents every week. Quara was doing some remarkable research. I'm glad you're coming with me. When I tell the Speaker, I'll be telling you, too."
"You're going the wrong way," said Ela.
Mother stopped. "Isn't the Speaker's house near the praca?"
"The meeting is in the Bishop's chambers."
For the first time Mother faced Ela directly. "What are you and the Speaker trying to do to me?"
"We're trying to save Miro," said Ela. "And Lusitania Colony, if we can."
"Taking me to the spider's lair--"
"The Bishop has to be on our side or--"
"Our side! So when you say we, you mean you and the Speaker, is that it? Do you think I haven't noticed that? All my children, one by one, he's seduced you all--"
"He hasn't seduced anybody!"
"He seduced you with his way of knowing just what you want to hear, of--"
"He's no flatterer," said Ela. "He doesn't tell us what we want. He tells us what we know is true. He didn't win our affection, Mother, he won our trust."
"Whatever he gets from you, you never gave it to me."
"We wanted to."
Ela did not bend this time before her mother's piercing, demanding glare. It was her mother, instead, who bent, who looked away and then looked back with tears in her eyes. "I wanted to tell you." Mother wasn't talking about her files. "When I saw how you hated him, I wanted to say, He's not your father, your father is a good, kind man--"
"Who didn't have the courage to tell us himself."
Rage came into Mother's eyes. "He wanted to. I wouldn't let him."