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The Tessarae Inn |
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The Son Also Rises CHAPTER 17 Ethan settled on the couch in the living room and when she offered him a drink, he happily accepted. “This is a fine place, Blair. My nephew seems very happy here.” “Are you happy about him being here? Here with me, that is.” He lowered his glass and looked her in the eye. “I would not be here otherwise.” That was a kind of odd thing to say. “I don’t understand.” “There is no way you could but tell me again. Do you expect Todd to return soon?” “I’m honestly not sure. If you know Todd then you know he keeps his own schedule. Let me call him.” “No. Again, I do so want to surprise him. It’s late though. Almost the bewitching hour. I’ll try to reach him tomorrow. Need to go find some place to stay the night.” “Well, stay here,” she said then laughed lightly because the words had seemed to pop out without a conscious intention. Yet, it did make sense. “Nothing would surprise Todd more than that.” “Indeed. I suspect not. I don’t want to assume, however.” “I am sure Todd would want me to ask you to stay. You are Ethan’s uncle after all.” “Well, if it is not a major imposition I will accept your kind offer.” When she returned from setting up the guest room, she found Ethan sitting on the patio on one of the chaise lounges with a bottle of Scotch and two glasses beside him. She grabbed her cell phone and the baby monitor then slipped onto the lounge that was next to his. “I hope you don’t think me too forward. This is just the most magnificent porch and the moon and stars are putting on a show tonight. I could not resist the celestial clarion call.” “Not at all. I sit out here a lot myself.” When he offered her a drink, she declined. Based on everything she had seen so far, Ethan was a great guy but her babies were in the house and she just met him and she had to keep her wits about her. On the other hand, Ethan didn’t seem to be the least bit disturbed by having to drink alone. If anything he seemed to understand why and Blair liked that about him. As he had done with the children, he began to regale her with stories but this time they were stories about his life. She noticed though that he shied away from stories about his life after age 12 or so. As the time ticked away, though, and as the Scotch bottle got lower, he seemed to relax and circled closer to what she was really interested in knowing about. She hadn’t dared ask him before if he knew that Todd was Sean’s father but now he made it clear that he did know. “I have so many questions about what happened in Ireland. I know he was shot and now I gather he was with your family but…” “He has never talked about what happened, has he?” “No. I don’t even know where he was or why he didn’t let me know he was alive.” “He had his reasons and those same reasons will keep me from telling you and have silenced Sean. That is as much as I can say about it.” Blair sighed and looked away. She was now convinced that she was never going to find out what happened in Ireland after Todd was shot. And as much as she hated secrets there was a reason they existed. There were some things in her early life that she thankfully survived but she would never tell Todd about. But even more important there was a sub-vocal warning radiating from Ethan’s tone when he talked about Todd having reasons that frankly unsettled her. Maybe it was better to let sleeping dogs lie. “I will say, however, if it is a comfort to you, that his actions weren’t by choice. I never met a man who wanted to get back to a woman as much as he wanted to come home to you.” “Then how did…” She stopped herself. How could she talk to him about this? He handed her the bottle and the clean glass. “Have a whiskey then ask me what you want to about Katherine.” She poured herself a drink then leaned back against the cushion. “Was she beautiful?” “Very. She was like the sun. You couldn’t look at her too long or too directly.” “Why did she want Todd’s baby?” Ethan sighed then sucked his lower lip for a few seconds. He took a sip of his drink then said, “Because she didn’t love him but did love Sean-Ryan McGill. And the heart wants what the heart wants regardless of the price.” “She was trying to make, what was his name…Sean-Ryan? Jealous?” “If only it were that simple. No, my sister didn’t want to make Sean-Ryan jealous, she wanted Sean-Ryan and he was not willing to be had.” “He didn’t love her?” “If you knew him you would understand what a difficult question that is to answer. Some people think Sean-Ryan couldn’t spell the word love if he had a cheat sheet tattooed on his belly. But then others remind you that it wasn’t always so and he had his sadness. Whatever it was he and Katherine were like petrol and a flame. Whenever they were within two feet of each other an explosion happened. Love? I couldn’t say.” Even though she had been determined not to drink she took a sip to steel her nerves for what she needed to ask next. “How did Todd get involved with Katherine?” “Fate.” Blair exhaled loudly and Ethan rolled his head to the right and studied her for a minute. Finally, he shrugged and said, “Katherine convinced herself that if she got pregnant, Sean-Ryan would marry her. The sad fact is that she was probably right but he was not getting her pregnant.” “He wasn’t?” “Nope and when he sensed her desperation he stopped sleeping with her.” “And there was Todd.” “I doubt if she planned it. She was not a woman who cottoned to weakness. He was pretty broken and mangled at the time. She stayed away from him. My father and I couldn’t even count on her for minimal care. I doubt if she knew his name until it happened. But we were forced by circumstances to leave him in her care one day and I suspect she saw an opportunity.” “She didn’t care about what she was doing to him?” “She was my sister and I loved her but if you are asking me if she felt guilt or remorse about what she was doing to him the answer is no. She wanted what she wanted.” “Sean-Ryan.” “Indeed.” “But why would she think Todd would go along with not saying anything?” “As it was he didn’t really remember. If it hadn’t been for…” Blair waited for what felt like an eternity but Ethan was looking up at the sky as if it contained some secret code that would allow his to gracefully break off this conversation. But now that they were into it, she was not going to let it go. “For what?” Ethan exhaled and tapped the side of the Scotch bottle for a second. “Katherine presented herself as pregnant to Sean-Ryan and he dumped her.” “Why would he do that?” “Because he knew the child wasn’t his.” “How? You just said no one really knew about what she did to Todd.” “Sean-Ryan knew that it was impossible for it to be his child, if you get my meaning.” “He couldn’t have children?” “As fate would have it. He could not.” “So she was caught by her own manipulation.” “Some would say it was a just result.” A wholly inappropriate whiff of anger at Sean-Ryan flashed through her mind. There was no avoiding the realization that in the past she had been known to perpetuate a manipulation or two. “Sean-Ryan wasn’t fair to her. He should have told her the truth from the beginning. She had a right to know.” Ethan laughed bitterly. “Well, he sure told her once she came to him pregnant. Fact, he announced it to the whole bloody town and Doc. Moore confirmed it.” “Why would he humiliate her that way?” “Was his way and she knew that better than some. Still she made things worse. Once she was caught in that lie she tried to claim Todd took her by force.” The words felt like a series of blows and a sick feeling swept across her consciousness. Did Ethan have any idea about Todd’s past? It didn't really matter because it was becoming clearer and clearer that Todd had been caught in a web of lies and deceptions in Ireland that deliberately or not used his past to weigh him down. “How could she do that to him?” Ethan raised his right eyebrow then shrugged. “Like I said, she didn’t give him a moment’s thought. It wasn’t about him in any way, shape or form.” “But she was willing to ruin his life anyway?” “She was willing to do what she believed she had to do. That was Katherine’s way. But in the end it didn’t matter. In fact, I don’t even know if Todd knows about it because Sean-Ryan didn’t buy the against-her-will story for a second. And that lie just made him madder so he told everyone about his condition then publicly brandied her a whore. At which point, unfortunately, it became a matter of honor.” Honor? How do you restore honor in that kind of situation? You change the definition of the situation. “Todd! But you knew Todd wasn’t responsible.” “Just semantics. It was his child after all. And it was fate’s game not mine.” “You knew what Katherine did and how she felt about Todd. Why would you want him to stay with her?” Ethan exhaled loudly. He drained his glass then looked over at her. “It wasn’t about what I wanted. You have to understand that there are rules we all live by. She was my sister and my father’s daughter. What happened to her, even by her own hand, reflected on us.” “But Todd was married to me. We were…” “Didn’t matter. We knew about you because he kept calling for you and saying he had to get home to you.” Tears sprang into her eyes. He needed her and where was she? “But see, he was not supposed to get out of any of it. He was not supposed to leave. It didn’t matter if the thing with Katherine was legal, it was about her being able to hold up her head.” Blair forced herself to calm her breathing. If she let Ethan see her full rage, he would probably shut down and she needed to hear the rest of it. She reminded herself that Todd hadn’t “married” Katherine or accepted Sean. So what happened? “Then how does Mahoney fit into this? That’s the man who Sean thought of as his father right?” “ Just like he managed to get out of there, he somehow he managed Mahoney, too.” “So Mahoney was Todd’s doing?” “Not entirely. Somehow Todd got him to stand up and claim the child but I doubt if he had to twist Mahoney’s arm much. Mahoney was sweet on Katherine and the idea that the child was his would be no surprise to anyone.” “How did Katherine react to his announcement?” “Like she always reacts when things are out of her control but this time she was between the devil and the deep blue sea. She had little respect for Mahoney but then he was a damn sight better choice in her mind than some dirt poor outsider found broken and shot up on a beach. She agreed to say the child was his and married him. She stayed until after Peter…Sean was born but she didn’t last long after that.” “Sean-Ryan?” “Couldn’t let him go.” “But Mahoney kept Sean?” “I hold no fault with Mahoney. Did the best he could. But it was always about Katherine. He kept hoping she’d come home to them and stay. When she died…well, he gave up on both of them.” For a long time Blair stared up at the stars. She knew Ethan was watching her, judging her reaction. There was so much to absorb and a well of anger at Katherine was threatening to pool around her heart. But despite every awful thing she did, Katherine was still Sean’s mother and Sean had a right to remember her in a way that gave him some peace. There was a sudden movement and when she shifted her gaze she saw that Ethan had moved and was now sitting at the end of her lounge chair. He was staring at her. “Did I make a mistake telling you all of that? It was a debate within me. Sometimes the knowing is more painful than not. But alcohol is the drink of demons. It truly loosens the tongue. Now I fear I will regret what I’ve said.” If Ethan was drunk, it didn’t show. He was looking at her with what appeared to be genuine concern. She reached out and touched his hand. “I’m grateful. Some things make more sense to me now.” He looked down at her hand then looked up and smiled. “Then it was worth the risk.” A shadow suddenly moved across Ethan’s face. Blair jumped then jerked her head up. Todd was towering over them. His face was a mask of pure rage.
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The Son Also Rises FAN FICTION SLIDESHOWS
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