11. Chapter 11
Rory
In the back of Cal’s car, I sat stiffly, my palms clammy and my mouth dry. I picked at my thumbnail obsessively, making my cuticle bleed. My heart pounded so hard, I could feel it thumping in my temples, hear the blood rushing through my ears. Staring at my lap, his hand came into view as he laid it over mine, stopping my obsessive, nervous tick.
“You don’t need to be so nervous. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“No, I know that.” I shook my head. “I’m not nervous about the sex. If we’re to be wedded, that’s an obvious side effect. We would need to produce an heir, as Elio said.” My voice was subdued and nerves made my stomach churn with nausea. “I’m not- uh, with child. But-” My voice cracked under the stress. Admitting this could make him change his mind, and then what? I’d be right back in that house with Elio and Fern - only now, it would be worse than it had been before. My eyes flicked nervously to the driver who was studiously ignoring us and I swallowed heavily.
“Rory, whatever you feel so scared to tell me, won’t change anything. Even if it does, I won’t send you back there. I’ll help set you up somewhere nice, with enough money to last you until you figure out what you want to do. You can tell me,” he said softly.
“I’m not um…virtuous?” It sounded distinctly question-like so I rephrased, my voice even quieter than his, barely above a whisper. “I’m not a virgin.” I took a deep breath. “And Elio knows it. He found out I’d slept with someone a few years ago and…punished me for it.”
Cal growled. The man literally growled. “What did he do to you?”
I swallowed convulsively. “That was the first time I’d ‘earned’ a lashing.” I used air quotes.
Cal made a weird sound that might’ve been a choke but also might’ve been another growl. “A lashing?”
“Yes. He made me kneel in his study. While one of his men held my arms pinned to the pool table, another gave me twenty lashes with his belt. On my back.” I turned a shoulder slightly and pointed to my back, as if he wouldn’t know which body part I was talking about. I mentally face-palmed , my head lowering as I rolled my eyes at myself.
Cal’s elbow smacked into the back of the seat, his whole body vibrating with anger. “So he’s the one who hit you before the engagement party?” His eyes were full of fire so I stayed mute, but I nodded.
“Never again, mo solas. Never. Again.”
I didn’t speak after that because I didn’t know what to say. The ride passed in silence, only the noises of a car in motion disturbing it.
After about thirty minutes, the driver steered us into a drive hidden mostly by overgrown foliage. Surprisingly, it didn’t look unkempt. The overgrowth gave it an aged, timeless and classically ancient feel with vines weaving up a wrought iron gate and huge trees providing cover from the dark skies.
The driveway was long, curving this way and that, trees and shrubbery lining the whole way. Rocks crunched under our tires and I found the entire experience beautiful.
Until the house came into view. It took my breath away. It was a colonial chateau style, the house built of gray rocks and the porch expanding the entire front, disappearing around the side. There was a sitting area on one side of the front door and a porch swing on the other, potted plants dotting the area with color.
There were windows evenly spaced across the entire front of the home, some of them lit brightly and some darkened by curtains.
The entire estate was beautiful, with its manicured lawn, gorgeous flowerbeds and the overgrown forest lining the property.
I turned to look at Cal, but he was already looking at me, his eyes gentle and his mouth curled softly in its frame of hair. “It’s my family home. Lorcan’s great-grandfather had it built around the time of the Civil War. He didn’t have much family here, other than the men he brought here with him to start the Byrne Syndicate. He built it so large because he wanted to house freed slaves and offer them a life of comfort after what they’d been through. He helped over 300 freed men and women find paid work for wealthy families around, and some of the men chose to join him in his own businesses.”
Tears stung my eyes and I looked back to the house, seeing it in a new light. “It’s beautiful. I thought so before, but now it’s even more…incredible.”
He opened my door after the car came to a stop directly in front of the front steps. When we reached the front door, a set of large double doors with huge glass windows inset, one of the doors opened and a woman wearing a pretty floral dress smiled at us, bowing her head slightly. “Welcome home, Mr. Byrne.” Her braids swished as she straightened. “Should I prepare a guest room for Ms. Marino?”
“This isn’t Ms. Marino. This is-” he stopped and looked at me.
“Just Rory, will do.” I smiled warmly at the woman. I liked her immediately. “And actually, if you could show me to the kitchen first, that would be wonderful. Afraid I didn’t have much appetite at dinner and my stomach is protesting now.”
A peal of husky laughter left the woman and she bowed her head again, a nod of acknowledgment. “Of course. Mr. Byrne, is there anything you need from me before I show Ms. Rory her way?”
“No, please, go ahead. I’ll be in my study. Show Rory the way to the study when she’s had her fill in the kitchen, please.”
“Of course, sir.” She smiled and held a hand, indicating to follow her.
I turned to Cal first. “Thank you, Cal. I know you’re just trying to fulfill the contract to achieve the peace treaty, but you truly don’t know what this means for me. I’m so appreciative.”
He touched my cheek with one finger, sliding along the marks left by Fern at dinner before it found that spot he seemed to like, hooked behind the curve of my jaw. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. His eyes were soft and his face open.
I instantly felt less like a contract.
“Go and eat. I’ll see you when you’re done.” He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, rubbing his nose in the downy strays at my hairline before pulling away and walking towards a hallway.
I turned and saw the woman waiting for me, a happy smile on her face.
“I’m glad to see he didn’t stick with the Marino girl. She was…impolite, the few times I met her.”
I snorted. “Fern’s my stepsister.” The woman paled behind her dark complexion. “Oh, no don’t worry. The woman is feral.” That earned me another peal of beautiful laughter. “What’s your name?” I asked as she led me through a hall opposite the one Cal had taken.
“It’s Ebony. Cal calls me Ms. O’Kelly, but if I’m to call you Rory, you can call me Ebony.”
I grinned at the familiarity. “Ebony it is then. Is O’Kelly your married name, then?”
“No, I’ve never married. Marriage wasn’t something that interested me until recent years, if you catch my drift.” She elbowed my side and winked. “My great-great-uncle was a freed man that worked with Cal’s great-great-grandfather. He took an Irish last name when he was able. My family has worked with the Byrnes ever since. I’m the house staff manager,” she said as she pushed open a swinging door that I would”ve thought was a regular door. I definitely would’ve tried the handle before I pushed it and I giggled at myself.
“I think what his ancestor did for yours is an amazing thing. It makes me admire a man I’ve never met.”
She smiled fondly. “The Byrnes are a wonderful lot. Cal is fair and kind. So, this is Orla. She can whip up anything you like. In the mornings, you can request your breakfast be served to your room or to the dining room, whichever you prefer. If you have any dietary restrictions, be sure to let her know. She won’t make anything with mushrooms because she’s allergic. Beyond that, what she prepares will be your choice.”
“Pleased to meet you, Orla.” I smiled at the older, rotund woman.
“”Pleasure’s mine!” she beamed. She held a skillet but the handle and spun it in the air. “Are you hungry? I can snap you up a late dinner.”
“Oh, no that’s okay! I’d just like something to snack on.”
“I made Ebony’s favorite dessert this evening. Dolce cheesecake. It’s on the top shelf in the fridge.”
My mouth watered and I practically dove for the handle on the fridge door. I pulled the tin foil off the little pie pan and saw there was enough for about two slices left. I held the cheesecake out to Ebony and offered her a slice.
She laid a hand on her belly and said, “Oh, Lord, I couldn’t. I already had two slices after dinner.”
I grinned and hopped up on the counter. “Don’t mind if I do then.”
Orla handed me a fork and I dug in, moaning at the first bite. I ate the whole thing while I listened to Orla and Ebony discuss the next day’s dinner plan. Orla wanted to make boiled cabbage and I wrinkled my nose behind my cheesecake. Ebony argued for Corned Beef and potatoes.
“Orla, you know Cal hates boiled cabbage. Why do you insist on making it for him?” Ebony asked exasperatedly.
“Because cabbage is good for him! Farting is healthy!”
I tried to stop it but an inelegant laugh left my nostrils and I choked on a piece of cheesecake, sending some dribbling down my chin. I quickly wiped it away and apologized, trying not to laugh more.
“I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting that,” I explained when both women looked at me.
Orla planted her hands on her ample hips. “Well, fine then. What do you want for dinner tomorrow?”
I paused with the fork half in my mouth and pulled it away to say, “Um…I think I’d prefer the Corned Beef.” My nose wrinkled again at the thought of the boiled cabbage.
Orla huffed and put a head of cabbage back in the fridge. I slouched a little in relief.
When the pie dish was empty, I hopped down from my perch on the counter and began to rinse it in the sink.
“No, ní dhéanann tú!” Orla’s loud voice echoed around the spacious kitchen and her hands came out of nowhere, yanking the dish out of my hands and cradling the dripping glass to her chest like I was going to break it by washing it in warm water.
I immediately backed away. “I’m so sorry, Orla. I was just trying to rinse it off.”
Orla looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You don’t wash dishes,” she stated firmly.
“I apologize. I’ll leave them in the sink next time, okay?”
She nodded. “No apologies necessary, Miss. It’s just, the kitchen’s mine. I tend to be a little picky about how things happen in it.”
I laughed. “Noted. Won’t do that again. And it’s just Rory, please.”
We said our goodbyes and I promised to come see her in the morning for a plate of french toast and fresh berries.
Ebony led me back through the house and pointed down the hall Cal had taken. “Down here and to the left. It’s the third door. There’s a big painting of a terrible flower arrangement next to it.”
I laughed at her candid and honest nature and thanked her for the tour and the food. She bid me goodnight and asked me to tell Cal she was retiring for the evening as I made my way towards his study.
I knocked when I reached the door beside the painting Ebony had described. It really was a terrible painting. The flowers looked half-dead and droopy. Cal’s muffled voice told me to enter.
He was seated on a couch with several men that I recognized - two of them had been packing my room and another was the redhead who had told Fern to step away at the dinner table. I didn’t recognize the other man, but he was dressed more casually than Cal and his men.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can just have…well, Ebony- um, retired for the evening, but Orla can-”
“You aren’t interrupting, mo solas. Come over here.” Flutters tickled in my belly every time he used that nickname - or one of his versions of it.
I knew that sol was typically sun or light when translated, so, as I made my way over to his side, I wondered if it had something to do with that.
He opened his arm to me and I wondered if he was inviting me to sit on his lap. I perched on the arm of the couch next to him, just to be safe. He wrapped his arm around my back and settled his hand on my hip.
I looked around at the men and my brow furrowed. “Are you sure I’m not interrupting? I know that I’m not really supposed to sit in on business meetings.”
His fingers squeezed my hip. “You’re not interrupting, solas. I meant it when I said my wife will not be hidden in the background and used as arm candy when needed. Your input in this matter is valued and I’d like to discuss it with you, if you’re willing.”
I stared at him blankly, nerves in my belly and sweat dampening the back of my neck, unsure what he wanted from me or how to handle the situation.