Chapter 47
Lovelyn
With swiftly packed bags, Kane and I drove north. Though Deadwater bordered Scotland, Uig was far away on the west coast, and half a day’s drive away, so we took the decision to start the journey now and stay overnight.
It was only when we rolled into another castle hotel that I sensed his theme. Apparently Kane Ryan now did grand gestures. I was not emotionally prepared.
He caught me staring. “Thought you’d like it.”
“You’re a secret romantic, I swear.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Tell anyone and I’ll deny it, baby.”
Inside, he checked us in as Mr and Mrs Ryan again, and this time, in a room decked out in tartan and with a huge, canopy bed, he didn’t hide his words in lines on my skin. He said them out loud, often.
If the walls had ears, they now had a full education.
After dinner, served in our room, he rested back on the bed with a hand behind his head. “In the morning, before we go to the port, I want to go to Ma’s care home. It’s an hour out of our way, so means leaving earlier if we’re to have time.”
The boat didn’t leave until late morning. But it wasn’t that which had my heart hammering. He was rewriting all our damaged parts. The hotel where he couldn’t say he loved me. The care home where he broke us apart because of the damage done to him.
I took his free hand and twined my fingers through his. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. I’ll stay quiet or speak up. Just say.”
“It’s mine to handle. I can’t promise miracles, but I have a piece to say.”
At dawn, we drove out.
This time, Kane was quiet but not silent. He reassured me from time to time of his feelings. Stressed. Hurt. Needing my hand in his. But he didn’t shut me out.
We entered the bright reception to the ready smiles of a nurse.
“Kane! So lovely to have ye back. Bethan will be over the moon.”
She led us down to his mother’s room and let us inside. Kane gripped my hand like his life depended on it, leading the way to the bedside.
In her usual chair, Blair sat taller, eyes wide in outrage. “Why are y—”
“Pipe down. I’ll talk to ye in a minute,” Kane said, but his focus didn’t leave his mum. He smiled for her, then released me to take careful hold of her hand.
My heart warmed. He’d wanted to do this before, but his aunt had stopped him. I raised my gaze to Blair, showing her with a look that she needed to stay quiet.
She thinned her lips but kept them closed.
Kane held the floor. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stick around long on our last visit. I don’t know if anyone told ye, but I had a meeting with the manager here. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything is fine, and it went well. But I should’ve come back in and spoken to ye.”
Bethan’s focus darted over his face, her grey-eyed gaze clinging to her son.
Kane settled into the chair at her bedside. “I didn’t properly introduce Lovelyn either, though I know the two of ye had time together. I’ve recently moved to her city, so I’m closer now. I’ll visit more.”
Just like that, he found the ability to chat with her. He told his mother how he’d taken a new job, though not the dangers of it, and he talked about me. How special I was. When a nurse came in, he asked for an update on his mother’s routine, listening to every detail.
Blair glared darker.
After a while, Bethan’s eyes began to close, and her nurse dropped her voice.
“I think she might be taking a wee nap. That’s usual for this time of day.”
Kane nodded and stood. He tilted his head at Blair then pointed to the door.
His aunt followed him out. Did I go after them?
If his mother had been awake, I wouldn’t have left her alone, but she had a nurse with her, and I was sure Kane would want me near. Outside the door, he waited in the hall, capturing my hand to draw me with him down the corridor to the same room where he’d suffered a verbal beating before.
Pint-sized Blair led the way and rounded on him. “I don’t know what ye think—”
“No. You’re going to listen to me. I don’t care what ye think about me or my life. All I want is to visit my mother in peace without your interference.”
Blair’s jaw dropped. “My interference? I’m the one who’s always here for her. Where are ye?”
“On the outside of everything. You’ve got some nerve to complain when I stayed exactly where ye put me.”
“Because of what happens when you’re around her. Don’t come here threatening to poison her air even more. You’re a blight, Kane. Have been ever since the day she conceived ye.”
Kane stilled.
I held up a shaking hand. “You’re wrong, and you’re going to listen to him.”
Blair turned on me. “Who the hell do ye think ye are?”
“Bethan’s future daughter-in-law, if I’m lucky. Which would give me the same rights over her that Kane has. As next of kin, he has the right to choose how she is cared for and who visits her. If you want to stay on that list, you’re going to stop this behaviour.”
Blair froze up this time. I watched the words register. The implication. What she’d brought on herself.
I took a step closer. “You’ve been the voice of horror throughout Kane’s childhood. You’ve belittled, broken, and hurt him at every opportunity.”
“He should never have been born.”
“You said rape, but I wonder. Is that a convenient lie now no one can talk to Bethan but you? Just another accusation to throw at her boy. The child she had that forced you to share her. But even that doesn’t matter.
Children should never be blamed for the crimes of their parents, and Kane is beloved.
Bethan loves him, and so do I. I will never forgive how you treated him.
You damaged him for life, and it’s only the bond you have with your sister that is your saving grace and the reason we aren’t cutting you off. ”
She shrank and paled. “Ye can’t. Ye wouldn’t.”
I almost pitied her. She spent her life here.
Except the bile she’d spewed on Kane had done far too much for far too long.
Kane reached for me, his hand warm. His words for his aunt returned in force.
“You’re going to start talking to me with respect.
You’ll hold your barbed tongue so Ma never has to hear another negative word from out of your mouth.
You’ll remember that you’re here with my good grace, and under threat of being removed, permanently, if ye break that trust. Lovelyn is too kind to say, but trust me, we would. Ye deserve it.”
Blair shook, her expression one of disbelief. The ire had left her, and I wondered if anyone had ever stood up to her in her life.
“But…but we’re all each other has.”
Kane held his ground. “She has me. I’m nothing of what ye claim me to be, and your words only reflect yourself. I reject everything you’ve ever said to me, and when I visit Ma from now onwards, you’re going to behave better. Am I understood?”
To my shock, the small woman dropped her head. “Y-yes.”
Kane stared, then switched his gaze to me. I shared his astonishment. But like with every bully, Blair crumbled when pushed.
We left her there, returning to Bethan’s room to whisper goodbye while she slept. Kane pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and asked the nurse about learning to use the letter board on a future visit, then we exited the care home.
Outside, he threw his arms around me and spun me around. “Fucking hell.”
He didn’t need to say more.
It had been a hell, but he was free of it now.
We drove out, carving a path around mountains and along the banks of lochs until we finally crossed the bridge to the Isle of Skye. An icy wind spat rain at our car, but inside, we were snug. Together. Warm.
All that I wanted now was to bring Dixie home. If only she knew how many people cared about her and missed her, she might be persuaded to return. If she wanted nothing to do with the Marchant business, that was fine, but she deserved to be safe. To meet her brother and sister.
We rolled into Uig with the weather coming in heavy, the grey sea churning, white tips to waves. The brightly lit ferry pitched, easing into the dock.
“Ready?” Kane asked.
“Let’s bring our girl home.”
One way or another, this ended tonight.