Mrs. MacSweeny sucked in a big breath. “Pickins?”
“It’s her, Mary Sue.”
“That’s not possible. The entire family…”
“Apparently, not,” Mr. MacSweeny said.
“But how? The papers said… how can this be? Trust slaughtered them all.”
Lynn jerked away from the woman. “My brother would never hurt anyone like that. He may not have wanted to be a doctor like Father wanted him to, but that didn’t mean he would ever hurt any of us.” She broke down in tears. “Darby came through the window. I woke up and he was there, covered in my parents’ blood. Daddy didn’t die right away though.” She shook. “He tried to stop him. He wanted to protect me.”
Mary Sue covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh sweet darling.” She swallowed hard. “Wait. Darby? The same Darby who came calling for you the day I was visiting with your mother? The very same one your father sent away, telling him he was too old for you.”
Lynn nodded.
“Why would he do such a thing to your family?”
“B-Because Daddy wouldn’t let him marry me.”
“You were barely thirteen then. He was easily twenty-five.”
“I know.”
“Yet you wanted to marry him?” Mary Sue questioned.
Lynn’s eyes widened. “His very presence made my skin crawl. I wanted nothing of the sort to do with him. I’d met him while assisting my father in his rounds. Darby took to lurking about the grounds. He caught me alone on one occasion and I did something I shouldn’t have.”
Mary Sue touched Lynn’s cheek. “Oh sugar, no. In that situation, you had no choice but to let him do what he wanted. You were just a little thing.”
Horrified, Lynn’s jaw dropped. “He most certainly did not do that! It was rather hard for him to do much of anything to me when I had him pinned in midair, making it rain above his head.” She covered her mouth. “I mean, I…”
Mary Sue grabbed her, hugging her tight. “Oh my goodness, Lynette passed it onto you, didn’t she? The magik? She was worried it skipped you because you’d never shown any signs of possessing it. All you ever did was follow like a tiny shadow behind Mayor, helping him as often as you could. You wanted to be just like him. A doctor. It worried the heck out of your mother. She feared you’d join the World Guards just as your father once had.”
Lynn continued to cry softly.
Hugging her, Mary Sue kissed the top of her head. “There, there, sugar. You let it all out. I bet we’re the first people you’ve ever told this.”
That wasn’t quite true. “Molly and Cole know. They’re the first people I met when I escaped the ‘hospital’.” She looked away. “For a long time, all I could see when I closed my eyes was Daddy there, falling into my room, all cut up, and Darby there, slashing him again and again.” Ashamed, she averted her gaze. “They thought I was touched in the head because I’d not talk to anyone, but something deep down told me not to tell them the truth of who I was. Darby would find me again if I did. It was better to say nothing than live the lie at first.”
“Molly’s a good girl, no matter what her father seems to think,” Mary Sue said. “I bet she met you and saw you were broken like her. And this Cole feller, who is he? He the one rumor has as Molly’s fiancé?”
Lynn wiped her cheeks, nodding. “But they’re not really a couple. Not anymore. I think they were for a select time, back in the beginning, but not now, we’re a family of sorts. Cole is Trust’s age and tends to both brother and father me. Molly won’t admit it, but she mothers me as much as she’s like a sister to me even though she’s only four years older than me.”
“How long have you been a family of sorts?” Mary Sue kept hugging her.
“Eight years now,” she replied. “Cole had been hurt while bringing in a bounty and Molly was beside herself. She didn’t know what to do or how to fix him. I watched from the shadows for a portion and knew Cole wouldn’t last the night without help.” She lifted her head. “They felt like good people to me. Like I could trust them, so I did what I spent my life helping Daddy do. I fixed Cole. In return, he took me under his wing, teaching me how to protect myself in hopes I’d never be a victim again. Oh, and I think he tried to hunt down Darby too, but didn’t have any luck, though he’ll lie through his teeth about that if you ask him.”
“I suspect he would,” Mary Sue said. “The boy sounds like good stock.”
“He’s got a lot of patience with Molly and me. He doesn’t think a thing of her always running around dressed in men’s clothes and he never comments on me preferring dresses most of the time. Most of all, he isn’t afraid of what Molly and I can do.”
“The magik?” Mary Sue questioned.
She nodded.
“Can he do it as well?”
“Yes and no. He’s a little bit of a lot of things, if that makes sense. I think his temper and wild side is the shifter in him. Only on rare occasions can he wield magik. He’s not very good at it though.”
Mary Sue chuckled. “No, I suspect he wouldn’t be if he only uses it every now and then. What about you? Are you practiced with yours? Do you make spells and potions like Lynnette used to?”
“I’ve not made a potion since Mother was alive, but I do weave spells with words both written and spoken. I’m not one to go to that first and foremost though. I know what it’s like to be too terrified to be able to speak, and I don’t ever want that to be my only line of defense again.”
“What you need,” Mary Sue pushed Lynn’s long hair back from her face, “is to find a man who will protect you and never let one hair on your pretty little head be harmed again.”
Lynn actually laughed at the idea. “I’m not really something a man would want in that way.”
“Child, you’re stunning, you do know that, right?”
She didn’t respond.
Mary Sue clucked her tongue on her cheek. “You don’t think you’re wife material, do you?”
“No. Not really. Mother used to tell me that no man would want a woman with more training and book smarts than he. That I’d have a hard time finding one who would be fine with sharing the pant legs so to speak.”
Chapter Six
Mary Sue glanced at something behind Lynn and then smiled. It was warm and inviting. “I remember having a similar discussion with your mother when you were maybe ten or so. She was worried about you. Since I have no daughters, there is nothing you could have done in my eyes that wasn’t perfect. I told her there are men who would value what you can do and the fact you’re more than a pretty face. Even cited my oldest son as an example to her. He’d only just gone off and joined the World Guards some two years prior to that, and his letters home both excited me and broke my heart.” She took a deep breath. “He was seeing the galaxy but learning hard lessons in the process. Learning that while many, many women out there will toss their legs open for a handsome face and a muscled body, come morning light, their only purpose was served and there was nothing left to talk about with them. Made for a lonely time for him, regardless how many beds he warmed.”
Lynn had never really thought about it from a man’s point of view. “I suppose it would be lonely.”
“Have you someone special in your life, Honor?”
“L-Lynn, please, I go by Lynn.”
“Of course,” Mary Sue corrected. “Do you have a special man?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Child, have you ever?”
Her throat grew dry. “No, ma’am. Daddy and Trust were the only men in my life. Then it was Cole. Even though he’s no relation, nothing has ever happened between us. He’s very brotherly to me and that works well for us.”
Mary Sue touched Lynn’s cheek. “You live in fear of a man being like Darby. Don’t you?”
She didn’t wait for Lynn to answer.
“Child, whatever drove him to be that monster isn’t something other men possess.”
“You’re right,” Lynn whispered. “It was my fault. I did
it to Darby. When he realized I was a magik, he thought that was the reason Daddy kept telling him no. That because he wasn’t a supernatural too, that Daddy didn’t approve of the union. But it had nothing to do with that. Darby didn’t see it that way, so he decided to make himself one.”
Mary Sue gasped. “Child, are you saying he went out and found one of the quacks who push snake oil charms and dangerous means of making a person more than they are.”
“Yes.”
The look of horror on Mary Sue’s face was too much for Lynn. She embraced the woman and gave a gentle hug.
“It’s in the past. Only every once in a while do I close my eyes and see it all again. And Cole did wonders for teaching me that born shifters and shifters who have been that way for a long time aren’t like Darby. They possess more control over their beasts.”
Mary Sue cried. “Y-You watched a shifter male butcher your family?”
Lynn remained silent. There was really nothing she could add to that. Mary Sue cried harder. Lynn hugged her more, trying to calm the woman who had been close to her mother. She began to hum and rock Mary Sue in place. Soon she was singing softly to her, patting her back. The woman began to relax. She drew back and Lynn stopped singing.
“No,” Mary Sue said. “Don’t stop, child. You sound just like your mother. It was part of her magik. She was part siren, right?”
Lynn nodded. “Mother used to sing to Daddy when he was wound up tighter than a corkscrew. I’m not sure he realized that Mother was changing his mood with it, altering his state of being at the time. When I was little and would sing for him, I’d pick an upbeat song, a child’s one. Daddy would be so happy for days that my mother actually made me stop.” Lynn blushed. “He acted like a randy schoolboy with her during those times.”
Mary Sue laughed through her tears.
“What’s worse is that Trust could do it too. But his affected women more than anything. So, he’d be singing in church and all the ladies in the building would start fanning themselves something fierce. Finally, Mother realized she’d passed it to him and pulled him out of the choir. Lots and lots of babies were born about nine months after Trust began.”
Laughing harder, Mary Sue shook her head. “Oh child, you are such a welcome gift. Tell me you’re staying in Prospect Springs. That you’ll make here your home. Pickins and I would love to have you and your ‘family’ stay with us.”
“Mrs. MacSweeny, that is a very kind offer, but Cole and I will be on our way as soon as Molly is settled in with Jonathan.”
The woman lifted a brow. “You believe she’ll stay on with Jonathan?”
“Yes. So does Cole. He’s the one who pulled me aside and explained as much. Sometimes he dreams things that come true later. I think he foresaw their union. Molly is stubborn, so he didn’t bother telling her he dreamt she’d make things official with Jonathan. He especially left out the part about her being with child very soon. That would have sent Molly running in the other direction quicker than you could blink.”
Mary Sue looked to her husband, reminding Lynn they weren’t alone in the room. “Did you hear that, Pickins? We’re going to be grandparents soon.”
Pickins inclined his head, his gaze moving from Lynn to his son. Parker was there, watching her with lust filled eyes. “I suspect we might be gettin’ more than one little one before the year’s out.”
Mary Sue grabbed Lynn’s hands in hers. “Come on, dear. Let’s get you cleaned up the proper way. I’m going to box my son’s ears for leaving you like this. You’re upset and he’s just standing there, catching flies with his mouth open.”
Laughing, Lynn wiped her cheeks. It was so strange being around someone who knew her mother and her family. Molly and Cole had never actually met them. “In his defense, he did worry something fierce about me. At least that’s what Eli said when I woke up in your son’s office this morning.”
“He had you sleep in his office not his bed?”
Lynn yelped at the woman’s scandalous suggestion. It was far from ladylike.
Mary Sue patted her hands. “Well, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind in the least if Parker did take you to bed and claim you as his own. Your mother and I were close and I couldn’t think of a better way to look after you than to have you married off to my oldest boy. You’re the woman I think he’s been looking for all these years. You’re beautiful, smart, and from the sounds of it, can more than hold your own with him in the operating room. That sounds to me like the type of woman a man could lose himself in at night and again come morning light.”
“Momma,” Parker warned, looking put out by the talk of him and Lynn. “Stop trying to marry me off.”
“Why?” his mother demanded. “I’ve never tried it before. This is the first time I liked one of the women in your life enough to want them around all the time.” She shook her finger at her son. “This one here is a keeper. She’s a might sight better than those tramps you associate with. You do right by her. You hear me? If she spent the night here and so did you, the whole town will assume you bedded her. And just look at what she’s left to runabout in? Her chemise and your shirt. I’ll not have her branded a harlot because of you. She’s a good girl. Marry her. This instant, young man.”
Lynn pulled away and pressed herself against the wall. “Marry him? What? No. I can’t.”
“You’re wed to another?” Mary Sue asked, a cunning smile on her lips.
Parker growled. It was low, but there.
His mother grinned more. Oh she was a devil in a dress for sure. “I certainly hope not or you’re going to end up with my eldest son hunting the man down. That was a claim if I ever heard one.”
“Was not,” Parker said, sounding so very childlike that Lynn actually laughed. Parker grunted and tossed his hands in the air. “I can’t win this.”
“No.” His father chuckled, seeming resigned to the ways of women. “Son, you’ve got a better chance of buckin’ a foul tempered bronco than shaking your mother now that she’s got it in her head that she’s found the perfect woman for you.”
“I’ve no plans to settle down anytime soon,” Parker ground out, each word said with such conviction that no room was left to interpretation.
He didn’t want her. Not beyond what he’d already had from her.
His proclamation actually stung, but Lynn wasn’t sure why. She didn’t really think having sex with the man would mean anything more than a good time to him but hearing it verbalized hurt. She looked away, unwilling to allow him to see the effect his statement had on her.
A mischievous grin slipped over Mary Sue. “No frettin’. One of my nephews is in town. Have you met Eli? He’s a looker and a lawyer. Smart boy. And I could call my other sons home and the rest of my nephews. I just know out of them all, one of them will want to claim you for himself. I’ll send for Eli first. He can show you around town and maybe I’ll get a picnic lunch together for the two of you. There is this spot, near the river, that would be so romantic. I conceived at least three of my boys there. I’m sure of it.”
Lynn paled.
A snarl tore free of Parker. He stormed across the room and snatched hold of Lynn, lifting her into the air. “You’re not to go on any tour of the town or picnic with Eli. And you most certainly are not going to meet any of my brothers or other cousins.”
“Why not, son?” Pickins asked, smirking the entire time. He too was getting far too much enjoyment from the situation for Lynn’s liking. “I’m with your mother on this one. I’ll put a call out to your brothers and cousins. From the sounds of it, we’ll be celebrating a wedding with Jonathan and Molly. Might as well do some matchmaking while we’re at it. Which one do you think would be best? I’m leaning towards Eli. Heard the local women discussing his prowess once. Sounds like he could keep Honor happy in bed.”
“She’s mine,” Parker growled, holding her so tight she thought she might burst.
Lynn would have objected if she could draw in air to do so. Parker was currently cutting off he
r ability to even breathe. He stared up at her, his look possessive. “You’re mine, woman. Am I makin’ myself clear?”
Unsure what to say or do, Lynn simply stared at him.
Mary Sue came to her rescue. “Parker, sweetie, put her down. You’re going to squeeze the life out of her.”
He seemed to realize his mother was right. He released her so fast that Lynn fell to the floor with a hard thud, landing directly on her backside. Parker cursed and made a move to retrieve her. She scrambled away from him, her shift getting twisted around her legs in process. Her upper legs were exposed to him.
Chapter Seven
Parker lost all sense of reason as he caught sight of Lynn’s pale, long legs. Her sex was so close to being exposed to him that he couldn’t stop himself as he adjusted his cock, never once bothering to look away from her. Being in her was unlike anything he’d ever known and the temptation of having it again was too much. He could still recall the feeling of those long legs around his waist, of her body receiving him.
He was so swept up in the moment that he barely noticed her mouth moving. By the time he realized she was whispering one of her spells, it was too late. Something slammed into him, locking him in place. He struggled to no avail against it, already knowing she put the magikal whammy on him.
His father lost it, laughing so hard that he doubled over. His mother didn’t help any, going to Lynn, nodding her approval before helping Lynn up and leading her toward the door. Desperation like Parker had never known before washed over him. Lynn couldn’t be allowed to go. She had to remain with him no matter the cost. “Momma, don’t let her leave me. Please.”
His mother stopped and offered a comforting smile. “We’re going to find her something to wear, sweetheart. In the meantime, you should think about what you just did.”
Parker’s Honor (Cowboys and Supernaturals 2) Page 5