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Not ever again.
“Is my daddy home yet?”
“Nope.” He smiled and tucked my hair behind my ear. “It’s just us, munchkin.”
“When isyourdaddy picking you up?”
“I’m sleeping over tonight,” he explained, hand resting on my shoulder. “Your dad’s staying at the hospital with your mam, so they’re none the wiser.”
“Oh.” My panic grew. “Okay.”
“So your sister told me something today and I’m not happy about it.”
“What?”
“Caoimhe said you slept at a boy’s house last night.”
“Hugh.” I felt myself smile. “He’s really nice.”
“Hmm.” Mark didn’t look happy. “I don’t know how I feel about you cheating on me, munchkin.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.
“I don’t want to share you.”
A shiver racked through me. “Share me?”
“You’re my special girl, remember?” He placed his big hand on my leg. “And I don’t want you being anyone else’s special girl.”
My face grew warm.
“You’re blushing.” He leaned in again, closer this time, and whispered, “I like it when you blush for me.”
I wasn’t blushing; I was frightened. But if I told him, he would get cross with me, and it always hurt extra bad when he was cross. It was better to not make him angry. I shivered, feeling strange in my belly again.
“You know what I think, munchkin?” He walked his fingers up my leg. “I think you need some of my special medicine again.” His eyes trailed over me. “You don’t want to end up like your mother, do you?” He slid his hand under my nightdress. “Sick and rotting in a hospital bed?”
I shook my head, feeling sad. “But it hurts.”
“Only for a little while,” he coaxed, wrapping his big hand around my throat. “You can handle it.” He pushed me onto my back and dragged my nightie up to my waist. “Like the other times.”
Shivering, I clenched my eyes shut and thought happy thoughts.
I thought ofHugh.
MILADY AND THE BRAVE KNIGHT
Hugh
NOVEMBER 19, 1994
THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA.
I knew it when Liz slipped halfway up the tree and fell back on me, causing us both to fall on our asses. And I knew it now, as I balanced on a limb and watched her wobble like a newborn foal.
I was dead meat if anything happened to her.
If my mother didn’t kill me, my sister would.
