She thought about what he said. Horrific. Her life up until she left home had been that daily. Now she was as happy as she’d ever been. Plus, just this morning, she’d figured out that she was in love with Bryant. A new and amazing feeling for her.
“I started to ask you why you thought it would be horrific, then I remembered who I am. Not that you completely understand that, but to offer something like this to me, you have to know that it’s not something nice.” Fisher said that he knew that too. “I don’t want you to be hurt with whatever is on it. I don’t mean just physically. I mean at all.”
“I thank you for that, Harper, but the memories from it won’t hurt me, but they will hurt you.” She nodded. Then she asked him how she was to give it to him. “Just hand it to me. If it is indeed your memory, you’ve already touched it at some point. Are you ready for this?”
“No. But my aunt wanted me to have this. And I have a feeling that the only way I’m going to open this book is if I know all of it, don’t you?” He nodded. “May I ask you a question, Fisher?”
“Absolutely. But be warned, my dear sister, that I will forever tell you the truth. Even if I didn’t have to, I would.” She asked him where he’d gotten his name. At his burst of laughter, Harper figured that she’d caught him off guard. “Fisher. When we were first made into humans, we were just babies. When we got older, Pops told us to pick out our names, and to think hard about it. Until then, I’d just been called Three. Like the rest, in the order we were born. I think we all shifted on the same day. That’s it, it was on our tenth birthday. The field we did it in wasn’t far from where we are now. There was a creek there at one time, that— Never mind. I get on rolls. As cats, tigers, we knew nothing of being a human. How they fed themselves, lived in homes. Much less learning to walk and talk like they did. Anyway, we were learning how to fish. This was a few hundred years later, of course.
“We were watching the man across from us in the creek fishing for a treat that we’d never had before. To watch the beautiful way the man used his pole, the string flipping in and out of the water, was poetry to me. The back and forth motion was soothing to me, having just shifted from beast to human after running down my meal. As I watched him, not knowing that fly fishing was an art, I realized that it wasn’t just the fact that the man was more than likely feeding his family, but he was also relaxing. Taking his time to enjoy what he was doing in order to provide for them. And it was then, after being called Spot because of the single spot on the back of my head, that I decided that was what I wanted to be—a fisher. The name stuck.”
“What a lovely story. I don’t suppose Bryant’s is that romantic, is it?” Fisher said that she would have to ask him. It was, actually, a funny story. “All right. I’ll let you do this for me, but know that whatever it tells you, you have to tell me everything, okay?”
“Yes. I’d have it no other way, love.” He took the ribbon from her. Harper knew that it was stiff in places, and she’d just assumed that it was just old. But now that she knew what was making it feel that way, she almost didn’t want to do it. When he locked eyes with her, she knew that Fisher was getting more than he’d bargained for. “The blood is yours and Tyler’s. You wrapped it around his finger when he was eight to make sure that he didn’t bleed to death. What you didn’t know, and he never told you, was that he was bleeding more from his back. That the cut on his finger was nothing like the beating that he’d just received by Margaret using a whip on his back.”
“This was before he was thrown from the car.” Fisher nodded. “I wasn’t very old either. But he came into the house and collapsed. He would only show me his hand. It had a splinter in it as deep as the bone. I know now that it was from gripping the pole he’d been chained to.”
“You thought that if you tied it off, his finger, then you could take the splinter out without giving him too much more pain.” Harper nodded. “He wished for death. Did you know that?”
“Yes. I think daily that we all did. Wanted to die to end the misery that we were in. If we weren’t being beaten nearly to death, then we’d be starved. My parents would make us sit at the table with them while they ate a huge meal with meat and vegetables.” She thought about the day and the ribbon. “Bear with me, Fisher. I’m popping in an out of stories to deal with them, all right?” Fisher nodded again. “I wasn’t allowed to feel pretty. The ribbon, from a trash heap behind the house, was there one day, and Meggie took it for me. I was only able to wear it when we were alone. Tyler had been chained to the pole the day before. I had snuck out there around midnight to take him water and a cracker. It was all I’d been allowed to have, if I remember correctly. When he came in the house that next afternoon, I think I knew that he was hurting more than on his finger, but I could only deal with—as I am now, I suppose—one thing at a time. When he passed out, I was able to roll him over and...and.... She had beaten him so badly, Fisher, that his ribs were showing. Not that he had any fat on his body anyway, but they were nicked with the whip she’d used. I despaired of him surviving, and like him, wished in a small way that he wouldn’t. We were all so abused.”
“What had he done?” Harper stood up and looked at her aunt, who was standing behind her with tears rolling down her face. “What had he done, Harper, that would have her do such a thing to him?”
“He was hungry. We all were hungry all the time. He only wanted to know if he could have another quarter slice of bread.” Aunt Michelle asked if that was all they’d had to eat. “Us kids, yes. Margaret and Randal had red meat or other meats for every meal, if I remember.”
The hug was consuming to her. The arms around her, soft and firm, had Harper stiffen from them. But when she heard her aunt sobbing, the sound of it like a breaking heart, she found herself wanting to comfort her. To give her something that Harper hadn’t had, something that none of them had had as children.
Hugging her back seemed like the right thing to do, but only for her aunt’s sake. Then, as they held onto each other, gripping hard on whatever they could clutch, it became clear to her that they both were getting a great deal from the touching of souls. That was what it was—they were touching each other’s souls and giving them comfort.
“I had no idea. Not until so much later.” Harper told her aunt it was all right. “No, it’s not all right. That woman, she told me that I would abuse you as well if I had come to get you then. And she was more than likely right. But I’ve changed so much. Not toward your father. I promise you, whatever he told you I was telling him, it was all lies so that I could bring you home with me. I wanted him to believe that I was just like him, a sadist. A person—nay, child, he wasn’t even human as far as I’m thinking, but he was a monster. And to let me continue to hold out hope that I’d be able to bring you all to my home, as you were already in my heart, I had to pretend.”
“What woman?” The room seemed to have brightened a great deal in those seconds. Turning around, she noticed that Fisher was gone and that Aurora was standing in the room. “Aurora, did you tell my aunt not to come for us?”
“I did.” She looked around the room and smiled. The warmth of it seemed to touch every part of her. “Come, the family has assembled. Let us go and talk to them. I believe that Tyler has very good news for you as well.”
Harper didn’t want to go and sit with the family. She wanted answers, and wanted them right now. But Aurora took her aunt’s hand and they left her in the room alone. The notebook was lying on the table where it had been, the ribbon there as well. Picking them both up, she clumsily dropped the papers that were inside of it.
They were newspaper clippings, old ones, some of them. Tattered too, in ways that made her think they’d been looked at over and over. She picked the one on top up and read about her first magazine contract, how she’d won a prize for taking a picture of salmon leaping in the air at Yellowstone National Park.
There were others too, about her brothers and sister. Meggie had become a renowned painter, despite being one handed. It w
ent on to tell that she’d lost her hand in an accident long ago, and how Meggie had said she’d learned to adapt. Tyler invented games for children, teaching about abuse and what to do about it. Randy had made many millions of dollars, and the article told what he did what a great portion of it. He, like her and the others, donated it to the homeless and abused children.
Picking it all up with shaking hands, she made her way to the living room. She staggered twice, her mind reeling about not just what she’d read, but the fact that her aunt had bothered to collect them. She’d not read the notebook as yet, but she had a feeling that it would be an eye opener. Not just for her, but the rest of them as well.
As soon as she entered the room, she could tell that they’d been fighting. Tyler was standing up, his body stiff with anger, and was shouting at Aunt Michelle. Randy was moving toward the door, to leave she’d bet. Meggie was sitting on the floor, as if her legs had just given out on her. The Princes were trying to get everyone to calm down, to no avail.
Harper put her fingers in her mouth and let out the loudest whistle that she’d ever been able to produce. Looking at Sara, Harper apologized before speaking.
“Sit the fuck down and shut up before I shut you up. Mother fuck, this is not the way that I wanted you guys to sit down and have a talk. And if you leave, Randy Wilson, I will hunt you down and beat your ass. I’d not fuck with me right now, I’m just in the mood to do it.” He put his arms over his chest, and she looked at Bryant before looking at her oldest brother again. “I will have Bryant shift and knock you to the floor if you don’t get your fucking ass over here and sit down on the chair.”
When Randy looked as if he wasn’t going to stay, Bryant stood up, along with the rest of his brothers. Sitting down, Harper could tell that Randy was pissed off, but right now, she wanted answers more than she was willing to try and coddle her brother. Telling Tyler to sit too, he said that he’d been sitting most of his life, he wanted to stand.
“You can stand so long as you get that fucking rod out of your ass and relax. This is for the Prince family, not for you all to get your asses puckered up like someone is going to fuck you in the ass.” Sara cleared her throat and Harper looked at her. “I did tell you I was sorry. But sometimes you have to get fucking pissed before people start to pay attention to the bigger cat in the room. Now, we’re going to calmly and quietly talk about this. And if one of you gets out of hand, I swear to Christ, you’ll think that I’ve turned into a she-devil, and I will hurt you.”
“She said that she’s been watching over us and did nothing to help us.” Harper told Tyler that she had done a great deal. As she went through the newspaper clippings, Tyler continued. “Well, fuck that shit. Why didn’t she help us when we were with them?”
“I wasn’t in any position to help you then. Saying that I was just like your parents isn’t quite right. I had no idea what they were doing to you children. We—Randal and I—were ‘disciplined’ when we were children—severely so. But nothing like they were doing to you children. So, like a fool, I went along with it, telling him that should I have children or were to have you children, I would treat them the same way he was. I swear to you, I had no idea that all the times you were getting hurt were not accidents.” Aunt Michelle looked at Aurora. “She came to see me when I was notified that you were in the hospital, Tyler. I had no idea how you’d been hurt, only what Randal had told me. That you’d been climbing a tree and had fallen from it. All the stories that he told me about you being hurt, I later found out, were untrue. She showed me what had happened that day, and she told me that if I didn’t change my own ways, if I didn’t become someone else, other than the person I had been, then you would die before you were old enough to leave home.”
“You could have helped us at some point. Did you know that we all lived on the street until we could figure life out with real people?” Aunt Michelle said that she did. Harper handed Randy one of the many articles about how he’d won a great deal of money and had purchased a house. “You did this?”
“Yes. A great many other things, too. I knew that you’d never allow me to come into your lives. That you’d never trust me if I just showed up, not that I blamed you. So I pushed things around so that you were getting help from me without you knowing. Tyler had a good wheelchair so that he could move himself around. Meggie had paints and canvas when I discovered what a wonderful talent she had. The first camera that Harper got, I made sure that she got it. It was my father’s, you see. I took it to hock when I was younger, and had forgotten about it until then.” She looked at Randy. “You won the money because I made it happen for you. I made sure that the winning ticket for the money, money that I put there, had your name on it. You didn’t even try to win, but you had to. Don’t you see? I did help you. Anytime that I could.”
“I didn’t know.” Aunt Michelle said that was the point. “I know, but when I think back on things— You did more than that for us all, too, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But it will never be enough. Not ever. You children, you were forever in my heart. Forever on my mind, and I could not love you more if you were from my own body. You mean the world to me.” Harper handed out the rest of the clippings so that they could read them. “I kept up with your lives as best I could. When I could. Finally I had to have someone watching over you every day. The only one I had trouble with was Harper. Finally, I just had to give up and hope that I could help if she needed it. Now, I don’t know about you all, but I’m starved. Tyler, you sit next to me, please. I need to know how it is you can walk. Then I’d like to talk to Meggie. It’s a miracle, I have to tell you. A wonderful miracle.”
~*~
Bryant looked at the photographs that were hanging to dry. He knew that Harper had been taking pictures while he’d been playing with the elephants, but he’d not realized how she’d caught him in a lot of the shots. She was putting up a few more when she finally spoke to him.
“I won’t sell the ones with you in them. I mean, usually, I just let them pick out what they want. But those mean a great deal to me.” She pointed to the one where he was leaning over the dead calf and mother. He’d been crying at the waste of it all. “Except for that one. I couldn’t have asked for a better display of emotions than you have there. I’m betting that he asks for more with you in it. The others show your face and that one doesn’t, so he won’t know who it is. He’ll just be able to see the powerful passion of a person, and that is what I’m going for. I’m not willing to share you with the world, Bryant. But this man, he’ll only get that one if he’s nice to me.”
“Why do you like this one?” The calf was nudging him on his legs, and he could almost feel the joy again. Both their faces, the calf’s and his, were a study in happiness at the treat of seeing each other. “Harper?” He turned around to look at her—she was staring at one of the pictures.
“I have them. Their faces. I know who the people are that killed the herd.”
He went to stand by her, and it took him a moment to figure out that he had no idea what she was looking at. Then after she pointed them out, he could see the five faces from the brush, looking right into the camera. “The police there, they’ll know just who they are, and will be able to bring them in. The money they’re making off of killing elephants is high. This will help them catch them, so that at least a few other herds might make it.”
He didn’t know what she had to do, but he would help her as best he could.
After hanging the picture to dry, she checked all her baths, the shallow tubs that she had been using to develop the pictures. Then she opened the door to make a phone call. It took her nearly thirty minutes to find someone that could help her.
“Yes, I can send you a print of the picture.” She paused. “No, I’m afraid that won’t fly. No one takes my negatives. Those are mine.”
He looked at the other pictures. Knowing what to look for, he found two more pictures with the faces on them. Then he found one that had something more in it. Taking it down
, careful of the print, he showed it to her when she paused in her conversation. Harper immediately closed the connection.
“Well, fuckity fuck. The cops there are in on it. Now who do I call? I’m guessing that’s why he really wanted the negative.” Bryant asked if she’d given him her name. “No. I don’t even use my correct name when I’m applying for permits. The magazines that I work for, they’re required to make sure I have the proper paperwork.”
“I might know someone you can call.”
She nodded, and told him to take care of that and she’d get this done. Harper enjoyed this part of what she was doing. Not that he blamed her. Just watching her do the work, he was intrigued with the way the process worked. Bryant decided that he wanted to learn how to do it so that he could help her.
Mark was at the front door when he came out of the dark room. James, who had been helping out with the training of a butler, was talking to Mark. And when the door slammed in the younger man’s face, James turned to him.
“He has a real hard on for you to come work for him again.” Bryant laughed. Such a prim and proper man saying things like that really tickled him somehow. “What can I help you with, Lord Bryant?”
“First, stop calling me that.” He looked over at Timothy, the new butler, and Bryant gave in. “All right, but just try not to say it too much. It sort of gives me the willies or something. I’m going to have Aurora come here in a bit. She so loves your cherry scones. Do you think it would take much for you to whip her up some? I have a favor to ask of her.”
“There are some coming out of the oven now, as a matter of fact. Also, she left me some of her special tea blend, and I’ll have a nice pot of that ready for her as well. Go ahead, Lord Bryant, give her a call, and we’ll be waiting for her.” Bryant asked if the deck was finished yet. “Yes, I heard this morning that all they were waiting on was the bulb team. They’re planting bulbs in the planters there so that they’ll come up all the time. I didn’t ask to come by and see to the pots. Sometimes— I don’t know about you, but I find it easier to just let it go. Don’t you?”
Bryant: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 10