“You’re so beautiful,” he said without thinking.
She froze, and her eyes widened in shock. Her cheeks blazed instantly, as red as a sunset over the ocean. She stepped back, and… Was it fear that crossed her face? One hand clutched at her neck, and she stared at him in horror.
What the hell did I say?
She blinked, and her hand went to the sword on her belt. “If ye touch me, or any woman here, I swear to God, ye will need a crutch forever, because ye’ll be missing a leg. Or something else that ye’re thinking with right now.”
Seeing her reaction was like running into a cold, hard wall. He’d seen that very look on his mother’s face. The look of a hurt, baited animal. There was fear and helplessness in her eyes that he’d felt as a young boy, too.
His mother had dated Jerry for a few months, and eight-year-old Konnor had accepted the man who bought him toys and made a great sloppy joe. Konnor had been ready to protect his mother, just like his father had asked him to before he died in the hospital two years before that, but there hadn’t seemed to be anything to protect her from with Jerry.
One night, she’d come home with bright, shiny eyes and a ring on her finger.
“Sweetheart,” she said to him as she tucked him in that night. “Jerry asked me to marry him, but I said I wouldn’t say yes unless you agree, too.”
“What does that mean?” Konnor asked. “If you marry him, how will our life change?”
“Well…” She took his hand in both of hers and kissed it. “For one, we’d move into his house. He has a big pool and a giant backyard, and he’s promised to buy you a car that you can drive there and even a big tractor.”
She meant a battery-charged car and the toy tractor he’d been begging her to buy. Konnor’s chest lightened with excitement. “Really?”
“Yeah.” She smiled that excited, slightly exaggerated mom-smile of hers. “Really. It also means we can go on vacations, and I can quit my job and stay at home to help you with your homework more and make you really great dinners every night.”
Konnor didn’t think there was anything wrong with microwave dinners and his mom coming home and telling him excitedly of her day working as a manager of their local supermarket. She liked organizing things and liked talking to people every day. After his dad died, it seemed like that helped her get through everything.
But Konnor wanted to make her happy, and so he said, “Yeah, Mom. You should say yes to him.”
A couple of weeks later, Konnor and his mom moved into Jerry’s house. Soon after, Konnor woke up one night from loud yelling and screaming coming from downstairs. He walked out of his new room, still empty of the posters and pictures he wanted to put up, and stepped barefoot on the softest carpet he’d ever stepped on, his heart beating fast and furious.
He froze on the stairwell, clutching at the polished wooden railing with both his hands.
“Don’t you dare question my authority,” came Jerry’s booming voice. Standing at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor, Konnor couldn’t see them both in the living room on the ground floor, only their feet. The lights reflected off the hardwood floor next to Jerry’s huge feet in black socks. “Especially not in front of your son. He should learn to listen to me. He should do as I say. I’m his new father.”
“You’re not his father, Jerry. He loves his dad—”
Slap.
The sound of Jerry hitting his mother rang out loudly through the opened doors. She fell on the beige couch—and her face came into Konnor’s view, full of surprise and shock. That wasn’t the look he’d seen on Marjorie’s face though. The hopeless, helpless look that Marjorie and his mother shared had come later. Konnor stood still, in shock, unable to understand what had just happened, not knowing how to react.
“Jerry—” His mother held a hand to her cheek.
Jerry didn’t let her finish. He sank to his knees in front of her and took her hands in both of his. “I’m so sorry, hon. I didn’t mean to. I had a couple of scotches, and when I drink, I can’t control my emotions. It’s just that Konnor makes me angry when he’s so cold towards me.”
Konnor wasn’t exactly cold. Yeah, there was this distance between them, but Konnor couldn’t just replace his dad with Jerry. He didn’t want to do things like kick around a soccer ball with him, because that was something he and his dad had done together.
His mom had forgiven Jerry. They kissed, and Konnor returned to his room, still unable to sleep.
“Take care of your mom, son,” His father’s last words to him kept spinning in his head. But he hadn’t taken care of her. He’d just let Jerry hit her. His father would never have done that.
It had taken a month for him to start seeing Marjorie’s expression on his mother’s face. A fleeting panic, a tension and withdrawal, as though expecting a hit. His mom had never been the same. Even after Jerry died, she never fully recovered, and that’s why Konnor had to go back to L.A. as planned.
Damn it! Marjorie had been hurt. Something bad had happened to her. Something bad that he was too familiar with. He itched to find the guy that had dared to put that look in her eyes and beat the living shit out of him. But the best way to deal with victims of violence wasn’t to press. It was to make sure they knew they were safe.
“I’m sorry.” He put his hands up. “You have nothing to fear from me. I only meant it as a compliment.”
She swallowed and breathed deeply. Her eyes were like two dark-malachite gemstones.
“Dinna ever look at me like that again,” she said.
Konnor’s jaw ticked. He hated that she could even assume he was anything like Jerry. “All right.” A cold shiver went through him. “Is someone bothering you in the castle?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Here? Nae! ’Tis my home. ’Tis my clan. They’ll all die before they let harm come to me or another woman here. As I will for them.”
He liked that, the Highland code of honor. He’d been ready to die for the men in his unit, was still ready to die for Andy. So maybe he and Marjorie weren’t that different.
“Okay, okay. But if you suspect anything or anyone, you tell me, okay?”
“I dinna need any protection from ye,” she said, although there wasn’t any of the previous spirit in her tone. “My brothers and father have trained me to be a warrior. I’m capable of defending myself. In fact, I am the one who supervises the training of the men while my father and brothers are not here.”
Konnor blinked. A warrior? She did look athletic and wore her sword confidently, as though it had always belonged to her.
Wow.
He couldn’t help being more attracted to her with each passing moment, despite her threats. He ran his hand through his hair. “Great. I’m sure you’re more than capable of defending yourself. You look like you know what you’re doing.”
“Aye.”
Konnor used the crutch to pull himself to a standing position. “I’m going to look around,” he said.
Marjorie threw him a hard look and shook her head. “I still dinna ken if I believe ye or nae. If ye’re with the MacDougalls and are here to spy for them—”