Chapter 23 The Cleansing #2
“Hamish, mate,” Battle broke the silence, and he did it tentatively. “This is a surprise.”
Hamish?
The Hamish?
This handsome bear of a man was Tempie’s boyfriend?
Oh, God.
I loved this.
“I asked a friend in London who we both know,” Chassie said to Tempie on a rush. “She got me Hamish’s phone number, and I called to see if he would be up to surprise you at The Downs.” An excruciatingly awkward pause and then a lame, “Surprise!”
“That was not your call to make Chastity Louisa Talyn,” Tempie snapped.
Hamish’s face closed down.
Then it got ticked.
No!
I shot Battle a Do something! look.
Before he could do something, Hamish spoke.
“If I’m not wanted,” he said (or I think he said—yeah, the burr was strong).
“Hamish—” Battle started.
“It’s me who should invite you to my home first,” Tempie snapped.
“Aye, love, and I’m hearing your message loud and clear,” Hamish fired back (I think).
Tempie tried to look cool, but I could sense her panic.
“I’ll just go,” Hamish declared. He looked down at Chassie. “Appreciate the effort, lass. Enjoy your flowers.”
Battle shot me a look I sadly couldn’t read then walked around the chairs, saying to Hamish, “Let’s go talk in my study while the women chat.”
“Thanks, Battle, but a man knows when he’s not wanted and that’s been communicated clearly. I just didn’t want to hear it,” Hamish replied.
My attention shot to Tempie.
“Tempie—” I started.
“You’re not leaving,” Chassie said over me, this aimed at Hamish.
His face got soft (but I could tell he was still pissed…and hurt). “You’re sweet, lassie, but—”
“You’re not leaving!” she shrieked in his face.
All the air left the room, taking with it our ability to breathe.
Chassie stepped further into the room and kept screeching.
“I got raped!” She threw the beautiful bouquet to the floor and pounded her chest. “Me!”
I vaguely noted the extremes of Hamish’s flinch right before his gaze raced to Tempie.
“What, Temperance?” Chassie demanded. “What?” she screamed. “You’re going to put your life on hold forever just to be sure I’m okay?”
“Dearest,” Tempie whispered.
Chassie shot forward at the waist and shouted, “I won’t have it!”
“Lovely, let’s go somewhere and talk,” Prue urged Chastity.
“No!” Chassie yelled. “Chelsea was right. I’m a weight. A weight both of you”—she jabbed fingers at Tempie and Battle—“have been carrying for too long.”
“What the fuck?” Battle growled low.
I gave him a Later! look.
“Not anymore!” Chassie was still yelling.
“Vivi comes to this house, and she’s sweet, and she’s funny, and she doesn’t take Battie’s shit, or your shit, Tempie,” she aimed that at her sister.
“Then, one day, she’s flirting and playing cards, and she says, ‘Oh yes, my mom died a year ago.’ And you could tell by the ache in her voice it kills her that her mum is gone, but she keeps going.
I saw it. I felt it. I understood what I’d done.
So now you, all three of you”—she jabbed her finger again, this time including Prue—“are off duty.”
“You’ve been—” Tempie tried.
“I know what I’ve been, Tempie,” Chassie snapped. “I’m not that anymore. I figured it out. He took everything from me. Everything. My boyfriend. My shop. My life in Bath. My strength. My courage. He took everything, except the three of you. And I let him.”
Tempie started an approach, beseeching, “Please don’t look at it that way, darling.”
“How should I look at it, Tempie? It happened. I let it. And now I’m going to stop letting it.
Chelsea was right. But I’ve been watching Vivi and that’s how I’m going to be.
Life punches you in the teeth. You bleed, wipe away the mess and keep going.
I’m not going to let him scare me anymore.
I’m not going to let him take any more from me.
And I sure as fuck am not going to let him take any more from you. ”
“You go, Chassie,” I whispered encouragingly.
She shot me a timid look then pulled it together and tossed her chaotic curls.
She locked eyes with Tempie. “So Hamish is here because you want him here. You’re just scared I’m going to worry that Battie found Vivi, and you have Hamish, and Prue will become a big-time author, and I’ll be alone.
Well, I know I’m never alone. I know I’ll never be alone.
Prue can take me with her on her book tours, and Prue’s good company.
That will make me happy. But however it happens, I’m going to get on with my life.
I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do, but that’s for me.
It is not for you. All I know I am going to do is get out of the way of your life. ”
No one said anything.
And then Tempie did.
“You were our wee china doll.”
Oh God.
Her voice was an open wound.
“Everybody out,” Battle ordered, his gaze glued to Hamish.
I wasn’t about to move, at least not toward the door.
But I saw Hamish, his handsome face a mask of anguish for Chassie, also for his woman, heading toward Tempie.
And I didn’t have a choice.
Battle took hold of my elbow, he grabbed Chassie on the way, and Prue scurried after us.
Battle closed the door on Tempie’s first sob.
My heart shattered.
He turned from the door and Chassie fell into his arms.
Her sobs were quiet.
He stroked her hair.
We stood just outside the door for a bit, hearing the muted humming burr of whatever Hamish was saying, the feminine weeping coming from Tempie, but eventually, Prue herded us to the smoking room.
When we got there, Battle took Chassie to the sofa, and they sat in it with his arms still holding her close.
“I’ll just tell Cook dinner might be delayed,” Prue whispered, and she took off.
I was so agitated, worried about Chassie, about Tempie, I couldn’t sit.
So I went to the windows, stared at Chassie’s beautiful garden and listened to a woman I loved weeping.
“I-I knew she’d be m-mad,” Chassie eventually wept into Battle’s chest. “B-b-but Ravenna told her she was going to l-lose him. And sh-she’s still here. Sh-she d-didn’t go to London. Even with you here. I h-had t-t-to do something.”
“You did right, love,” Battle purred. “Just right. It’s going to be fine.”
I turned my head their way.
Battle’s gaze was on me.
The expression on his face was harsh and hopeful, an odd combination, but pure beauty.
Prue returned.
“Cook’s good,” she announced, going directly to Chassie and taking control. “Let’s get you up. See to your face.”
Chassie rose, sniffled and wiped her cheeks. “Did you go by the parlor? Is she still crying?”
“I just heard Hamish when I walked by,” Prue told her, leading her toward the door. I saw her big smile. “That was a totally crazy idea. I wished I had it.”
Chassie looked at her, startled.
Then she giggled a little bit as they disappeared in the hall.
I turned to Battle. “Are you okay?”
He lifted one long finger then stood from the couch.
He stared at the door his sisters walked through for a beat, two, three…five, and then he went to it and closed it.
After that, he came to me.
“Did you hear whatever Chelsea said?”
Oh boy.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“What did that bitch say?”
“Battle—”
He got in my face and clipped, “Vivienne, what did she say?”
“She just hinted, rather strongly, that you’d never find a duchess because you had to look after Chassie and Prue.”
“To their face?”
“To my face, but they were there and didn’t miss it. Tempie told her to get out of her sight right after she said it. Rally was pissed as shit. Courtney was a mess. If she didn’t walk out of the room, I think Rally would have tossed her out.”
Battle’s jaw clenched.
“Tempie had words with them after,” I rushed on. “I thought she’d handled it.”
“She didn’t.”
No.
But Chelsea did.
“Honey, I hesitate to give Chelsea any credit, but I feel at this juncture I should point out that, even if what she said was cruel, and wrong, it did get Chassie to thinking.”
“You got Chassie to thinking. She found out that same night your mum died not long ago. And here you are, calling ‘tallyho’ erroneously and peeling out of the front drive.”
“Erroneously?”
“It’s a call to the hounds on a hunt, or if you see a fox. Not what you shout before taking a day trip.”
“Oh.”
“Bloody hell, Vivi,” he bit out. “Stick with me here. My sister just had a goddamn meltdown.”
“No, Battle, your sister just asserted her power.”
His body jolted.
“That”—I pointed in the direction of the plum parlor—“took some serious ovaries. Calling Hamish? Going head-to-head with Tempie, of all people? Hell, I like to think I’m no pushover, but she scares the bejesus out of me.”
His head cocked to the side. “She does?”
I flipped out my hands. “Not really, but yes. She’s the coolest bitch on the planet, and I’ve seen her make mincemeat of Chelsea. I never want that aimed at me.”
“She adores you.”
I sighed. “I know, honey. Just…forget it. It’s a woman thing. Like tampons and periods and never talking to a friend again if they let you chat up a hot guy with lipstick on your teeth.”
He assumed a baffled look that was outrageously adorable.
I put my hands on his chest and leaned into him. “What I’m saying is, what just happened is good. Very good. Cleansing. For Chassie, and since she decided to pack a punch at her impromptu coming-out party, hopefully for Tempie.”
Slowly, his gaze moved to the door.
I put a hand to his cheek to bring him back to me.
“To put a fine point on what we talked about earlier, one of the myriad reasons I’m falling in love with you,” I began, “is how much you love them. I grew up surrounded by love, but I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”
His hands came to my hips, his face got soft and gentle and warm and oh-so-very beautiful, and he whispered, “Darling.”
I loved his reaction to my admission, but I couldn’t let up on him.
This was too important.
“But right now, your challenge is going to be letting them sort themselves out,” I informed him.
“However this is going to go down from here has to be about Tempie and Chassie and Prue. Chassie’s ready to figure it out, and she has to have the space to let that happen.
Tempie is going to have to stop hiding from what she feels for Hamish and take that risk or lose him.
And Prue is going to be a huge star one day, and you all are going to have to learn to deal with her outshining you.
None of that is going to be in your control, baby.
You’re just going to have to let them roll the dice and see. ”
For a second, I thought he’d retort.
After that second, his arms curved around me, so mine did the same to him, and I put my cheek on his chest.
“I know it’s going to be hard,” I said gently.
“It’ll probably kill me,” he admitted.
Totally wished I had a big brother.
I tipped my head back. “In the end, they’re going to be happy. They’re going to be all they should be. And you’ll have given them the foundation to be that and the freedom to be all of it. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Vivi.” He went in for a lip touch. “All good.”
He moved to let go of me, muttering something about drinks.
But I didn’t let him go until I could see from his face he was dealing.
Only then did I let him go.
Battle went to make us more drinks.
After a spell, the girls came back with the news that the door to the plum parlor was open, no one in it, so they crept up to Tempie’s bedroom, and definitely someone was in there.
“I’ve told Cook we’re ready when she is, and to leave something warming in case they want a tray,” Prue declared.
Chassie still had red eyes, but she was veritably preening.
Oh yeah.
She done good.
We went into the dining room when Scotty came to share dinner was ready.
And when Battle and I went up to bed in his room, there was a tray on the floor outside the door of Tempie’s room with spent plates, and a cork, but no bottle of wine or glasses.
As we kept walking, I shot Battle’s stony-face-shit-my-sister-is-in-that-room-fucking-her-hot-Scottish-guy expression a smug smile and asked, “See?”
He tucked me tight to his side and kissed my head as he kept us walking.
And he took me to his room, so he could fuck his hot American girl.
* * *
I was almost asleep, worn out by my hot English guy and draped over his chest, when he said, “So…falling in love with me?”
I stiffened.
He rolled on top of me.
“I’m thinking Sophronia,” he stated.
I forced my lips to say, “What?”
“That’s for a girl. Noble, Archer or Journey if it’s a boy. Maybe Endeavor.”
Oh God.
He was talking children!
I melted under him.
“You want kids?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“How many?” I asked.
“However many you wish to carry for me.”
Oh God!
I stared up at the shadowed planes and angles of his face in the moonlight.
He was no less gorgeous in shadow.
And I loved this.
However.
“Sophronia?”
“It means sensible. We can call her Phronsie.”
Uh.
No.
“Yes on Noble and Archer,” I decreed, because those were shit-hot boy names. “Endeavor is a maybe. It’s rad, but not sure how to make it a nickname. No on Journey, or I’ll never get ‘Don’t Stop Believin‘’ out of my head.”
He chuckled.
It sounded and felt nice.
Then he took us to our sides but kept me gathered close.
“Grace?” I suggested.
“Pretty, but unimaginative. Sorry, sweetheart. You know the rules.”
I did, and I’d always thought the Talyn penchant for naming their offspring unusual names was just…unusual.
But now I was seeing it was all kinds of fun.
“How about Verity?” I suggested.
“A contender, but I think I have a great-great-great aunt with that name.”
“Gilda?”
“Hmm,” he hummed.
Another contender.
“Genesis is interesting,” he said. “We can call her Genny.”
I wasn’t sure about Genesis, but it was different. And Genny was sweet.
“Constance is also good,” I said.
“Yes, it is.”
“But it’s also kinda normal. So what about Lyric?”
That got me another “hmm,” so that meant it was another contender.
Battle followed up his hmm with, “Fury could be for a boy or a girl. Though, I like it better for a girl.”
Fury was a kick-ass name. Especially for a girl.
“That’s an option,” I agreed. “Electra?”
“Maybe.”
He wasn’t keen on that one. And it kinda didn’t fit the theme.
“I want to add Shepherd and Hero to boys’ names,” I declared.
“Acceptable,” he grunted.
I smiled.
And we whispered in the moonlight, so caught up in the importance of what we were discussing, what was happening, what was growing…
We again missed the dancing lights coming from the ballroom.