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“That’s probably because we were a lot younger and less jaded the last time we visited,” Jay said, shoveling food into his mouth.
“Better for us, I suppose,” Banks said.
“When can we go to town?” Kit asked. “Are there any fun shops?”
I caught the glances all the brothers gave each other.
“In time,” Rye said. “We have a lot to do around here. It will take a lot of effort to get the barn and cabin back into good repair.”
“So you can go, but not Goldie and me? Really?” Kit said, looking around the table. “You guys may think you can boss me around because we are related, but you can’t tell Goldie what to do.”
I caught Jay’s smirk as he tried to conceal the humor he obviously found in that statement. I wanted to reach over the table and wipe that sneer right off his face. The brothers knew damn well they couldboss me around. And that fucked up dirty secret infuriated me. If only Kit knew…
If only Kit knew what kind of men her brothers were… it would destroy her. I had to keep reminding myself of that. It would destroy her.
Which is why I just ate in silence and didn’t say all the words raging inside me.
“You aren’t missing much,” Jay said.
“But we will take you soon,” Banks offered to try to appease Kit as I realized he often did. “Let’s just get this land running, and make sure the cabin doesn’t crumble around us first, all right?”
Kit rolled her eyes and glanced at me with a small shake of her head, but she didn’t say anything. Apparently, she was used to her brothers’ dictates, though she found them about as annoying as I did.
We ate the rest of the meal in silence. The men thanked me and Kit for dinner and left to do whatever it was they had to do.
It didn’t take me long to realize why people in the old days didn’t get into trouble. Who had the time? It seemed we’d barely finished cleaning up the kitchen from dinner before I was pulling out bowls and ingredients to make supper. Thankfully, someone had seen fit to stock our pantry, so while Kit peeled potatoes and carrots, I flipped through a cookbook I’d found in there. It appeared to be about a million years old, the pages stained a bit, but I was soon enthralled at the recipes. Even some of the names were cute—boxty, dulse, yellowman—all of which could go on my to-be-tried list.
For now, I decided to try my hand at making bread. The cheddar and potato rolls looked promising, but the soda bread seemed the easiest. As I worked, I couldn’t help but wonder if we would need more chickens. Not to eat, but to provide eggs. I’d just cracked the last one Kit had collected into a bowl. Without a grocery nearby, it was going to take a lot of gathering to keep a family of five fed—especially when three were huge men who were spending hours doing manual labor.
Despite the challenges, Kit and I pulled off our first big meal. The bread was slightly burnt on the outside, a bit doughy in the middle, but the mashed potatoes were creamy, the honey-glazed carrots delicious and from the way the men were devouring the fried ham… Suddenly, a recipe I’d read popped into my head.
“Where exactly did you get this ham?” I asked. “Do you have pigs here?”
“Oh, like Wilbur inCharlotte’s Web,” Kit asked, and then gasped, looking a bit askance at the last bite of ham she’d been about to put into her mouth.
Banks shook his head and reached over to pat her arm. “It’s all right, honey. All our pigs are wild.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means they forage in the woods, fending for themselves. If we run out of pork, we’ll go hunting and butcher one. Why?” Rye asked.
“Just wondering,” I said, rising to begin clearing the table. “But I’m telling you right now, if any one of you wants blood sausage, you’re going to have to make it yourself—and not in my kitchen, either.”
I wanted to grin as they all looked at each other as if wondering how to respond, but I wasn’t joking. I drew the line at anything made from actual blood. They expected me to follow their rules, well, they needed to know there were rules they’d be following as well.
11
Goldie
There was a full moon casting its light on the tips of the pine trees. An evening fog hung heavy on the forest making the scenery appear almost haunted in a gothic beauty. It was a perfect evening—temperature wise—for a quick jog, even though the setting wasn’t exactly ideal.
The day had been full of unexpected challenges. Alphas and fire weren’t exactly the recipe for a good day, I can’t say I hated every moment. A sense of pride washed over me that somehow Kit and I made the day go off with only a few bumps. I should have been exhausted, but I felt the need to feel some fresh air and get my muscles moving. I needed to feel some resemblance of freedom as my feet pounded against the ground. I needed a release. I also felt it was a good sign that the brothers had actually provided me with workout clothes and tennis shoes in my closet. So if that wasn’t the universe telling me to go for a run, what was?
The men were still downstairs awake. I could hear the rumble of their deep voices as they chatted about plans for the mountain. I waited for as long as I could but had no choice but to plan my escape now before I gave up on the idea of a run completely and went to bed instead. In a normal situation, I’d just walk downstairs and announce my plan, but I knew going for a run was out of the question, per their idiotic rule of not leaving the cabin until they felt it was safe. And anightrun would most likely be seen as a worse sin. But I didn’t care. I’d sneak out of the house, enjoy my run, and be back before anyone was the wiser.
I looked out the window of my bedroom and focused on the trellis with the pretty roses running along the side. Taking hold of the wood, I shook it as hard as I could to see if it would hold my weight. I was only on the second story so if I fell, I wouldn’t exactly die, but I could most definitely break a bone if I wasn’t careful.
A wise woman would realize how stupid this was, but I was desperate for an ounce of freedom. I wanted to have a moment where I was in control. Me. I didn’t want to follow their rules. In fact… I wanted to break them.
