“Mam, I need you,” Keenan says into his phone.
Mam? He called his mother?
“Aye. Can you come to my room?” He listens. “Of course. Yes. Thank you.”
“My mother will be coming here directly,” he says. “I’m hoping she can sort your clothing.” He releases me and walks away.
I look down at myself as if seeing for the first time. My cheeks flame with embarrassment, and I suddenly don’t want his mother seeing me dressed like this.
Since I was old enough to wear my mother’s clothes, it’s all I’ve ever worn. I hadn’t given them too much thought until he scorned me so fiercely. I swallow hard and turn away from him, not answering.
“Caitlin, look at me.” His voice has returned to steel, as he stands in front of me with his arms crossed. “We must—”
A knock sounds at the door, and he crosses the room quickly, holding a finger up for me to stay where I am. As if there’s anywhere to go.
He seems as surprised as I am when he opens the door, and it isn’t his mother on the other side, but someone who looks like a paler, younger version of himself, with the same green eyes, but blond hair. This one does look like an angel.
“Well, well, well,” the young man says, he’s quite a bit younger than Keenan. “What have we here?”
“Oh come off it, Nolan,” Keenan says, his bright green eyes darkening. “Get out. I told you no one comes here. Mam’s coming to help me clothe her.”
They’re brothers, then. He did mention brothers, but I wasn’t sure if he meant that in a figurative sort of way or not.
The man called Nolan looks sharply back at me. “Aw, feck. Ye got my hopes up. Thought I missed the fact she wasn’t clothed.”
Keenan crosses the room and reaches for him. He looks ready to throttle him, bright splotches of red on his cheeks, and his eyes narrowed on his brother. “You watch your mouth,” he fumes.
Oh, my. Are they… are they fighting over me? I freeze, a little afraid of watching them...beat each other up or something.
Someone clears her throat in the doorway.
I look to the doorway to find a stunning woman leaning her hip casually against the doorframe. “Really, Keenan, must you?”
She’s got similar facial features to her sons, even and symmetrical, though the angles of her face are gentler, more feminine. Her long, sandy-brown hair hangs just to her shoulders in waves. Dressed in a V-neck black sweater and jeans that hug her curves, it’s hard to believe this woman ever gave birth. The only clue to me that she’s older than she appears are the soft, gentle lines on either side of her eyes.
“Of all the cheek—” Keenan begins, shaking Nolan.
“Let him go,” she says, her melodic tone gentle yet firm. “Please. You’ll frighten the girl.”
Keenan releases Nolan, who takes a few steps away as if to distance himself from his overbearing brother. “Seems that’s what dad’s ordered him to do,” Nolan says casually.
Her lips tighten, but she doesn’t respond for long minutes. Finally, she nods and looks to Keenan. “Is that right, son?”
Keenan meets her gaze. “Aye.”
“We ought to be going, then,” Nolan says, heading to the doorway, when his brother grabs him by the back of the shirt, drags him back, and pushes him to sitting in one of the vacant chairs.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Sit.”
Nolan looks at me sheepishly, flashing me a grin. I give him the tiniest smile back. I like him. It seems I may have a friend in this, if he doesn’t get whisked away from me or murdered in his sleep by Keenan.
The woman crosses the room, but when her eyes come to my clothing, she freezes. I feel the heat return to my cheeks. Do I really look that bad? She pauses, unable to mask her surprise, before she schools her features, shakes her head, and continues walking to me. She reaches her hand out to me.
“Maeve McCarthy,” she says. Maeve. I’ve never heard such a pretty name.
I don’t know how to respond. It seems odd, really. I don’t know what her purpose is here, or what’s expected.
I clear my throat. “My name is Caitlin,” I say awkwardly. Was that right? Is that how people respond?
“Oh,” she says softly, and her voice gentles. “I’d chosen the name Caitlin.”
“Excuse me?”
She shakes her head. “Eh, never mind that now. I once chose the name, for if I’d ever had a girl.” She rolls her eyes and laughs, though she looks more like she’s going to cry than laugh. “But wouldn’t you know, as luck would have it, I got boys. All boys. Punishment for my sins, you see.”
I can’t help but smile in response.
Nolan snorts. “Reward for something good ya did, I’d say.”
“Nolan, out,” Keenan orders. “I need privacy.”