Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Giving her a hug, I felt a wave of understanding flow through me. Kit was safe, would be taken care of because her brothers loved her. Assholes or not, they were protecting her. They were making sure she had everything she needed… even if it meant kidnapping a friend for her. As sick and twisted as it was… they’d changed the direction of their lives so she could be happy and safe.
“They’re right,” I said, “and we’ll learn together.”
It took far longer than I’d thought it would, but we did manage to make breakfast, the slabs of ham and the scrambled eggs going a long way toward brightening my day. Of course, the second attempt at coffee was truly my salvation. Kit drank milk that I learned had indeed come from one of the cows.
“Jay found an old churn out in the barn. He said it belonged to our great-grandmother. Rye is going to make a new plunger and then we can churn our own butter! Won’t that be fun? Of course, we have to milk the cow first.”
“Of course,” I said, because really… what else could I say.
We spent a few hours scrubbing and dusting before we unpacked some boxes, talking about the books we pulled out to place in our new home. Shelves went from floor to ceiling on both sides of the fireplace. I couldn’t help but think that a single Kindle could hold all these volumes, but had to admit the thought of settling on the couch or in one of the overstuffed armchairs, the weight of a book in my hands made a perfect picture in my head.
I learned that ‘dinner’ was lunch, and while Kit set the table once her brothers returned from town, I threw together a repeat of breakfast, this time actually making the griddle cakes I’d foregone that morning. Though many eyebrows quirked when I set their plates down before them, they did seem impressed there was actual food prepared—or perhaps they were shocked I hadn’t thought to poison it.
“You should have seen Goldie,” Kit said, practically bouncing in her chair. “She didn’t even scream when the fire started.”
“Fire!” Banks’ shout sounded a bit strangled as he had been swallowing when that little tidbit was shared.
Handing him his glass of water, I said, “It’s all right. I wasn’t trying to set the place on fire, I just used too much wood. Nobody got hurt, though I did waste an entire pot of coffee to put it out.”
He took several long swallows and then set his glass down. “I’m glad that was the only casualty.”
Pleased he wasn’t berating me, I managed to give him a small smile.
“The town was smaller than I remembered,” Rye said between chews.
“That’s probably because we were a lot younger and less jaded the last time we visited,” Jay said, shoveling food into his mouth.
“Better for us, I suppose,” Banks said.
“When can we go to town?” Kit asked. “Are there any fun shops?”
I caught the glances all the brothers gave each other.
“In time,” Rye said. “We have a lot to do around here. It will take a lot of effort to get the barn and cabin back into good repair.”
“So you can go, but not Goldie and me? Really?” Kit said, looking around the table. “You guys may think you can boss me around because we are related, but you can’t tell Goldie what to do.”
I caught Jay’s smirk as he tried to conceal the humor he obviously found in that statement. I wanted to reach over the table and wipe that sneer right off his face. The brothers knew damn well they could boss me around. And that fucked up dirty secret infuriated me. If only Kit knew…
If only Kit knew what kind of men her brothers were… it would destroy her. I had to keep reminding myself of that. It would destroy her.
Which is why I just ate in silence and didn’t say all the words raging inside me.
“You aren’t missing much,” Jay said.
“But we will take you soon,” Banks offered to try to appease Kit as I realized he often did. “Let’s just get this land running, and make sure the cabin doesn’t crumble around us first, all right?”
Kit rolled her eyes and glanced at me with a small shake of her head, but she didn’t say anything. Apparently, she was used to her brothers’ dictates, though she found them about as annoying as I did.
We ate the rest of the meal in silence. The men thanked me and Kit for dinner and left to do whatever it was they had to do.
It didn’t take me long to realize why people in the old days didn’t get into trouble. Who had the time? It seemed we’d barely finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner before I was pulling out bowls and ingredients to make supper. Thankfully, someone had seen fit to stock our pantry, so while Kit peeled potatoes and carrots, I flipped through a cookbook I’d found in there. It appeared to be about a million years old, the pages stained a bit, but I was soon enthralled at the recipes. Even some of the names were cute—boxty, dulse, yellowman—all of which could go on my to-be-tried list.