Unfinished Business (The Shades of Northwood 3)
“You’re Jack’s father?”
“That’s right.”
“His father? As in you married his mother and had Jack? That kind of father?”
“Do you know many other kinds?”
“And you nearly killed me because..?”
Katie, Marcie and this man who called himself Jack’s father had found a bench outside a corner shop and had sat down with cartons of drink. Rather, the two young women were sitting with drinks whilst he just sat and shivered, watching Freddie kicking his ball against a wall again. It wasn’t that cold but if this man was from Texas, like Jack, he probably wasn’t used to anything below 20 degrees.
“Another question. What are you doing here?”
“I’m so glad he found you at last. For one hundred and fifty years I’ve watched him flitting between this world and that, trying to find you. And now he has.” He stopped trying to gather his thoughts. He had something to tell this child, something to ask her, that he knew he had no right to. “It was torture, you see, having to watch your own son be so unhappy for so long.”
“But he’s got me now. And I’ll never do anything to hurt him.”
“No, I don’t believe you would.”
“Sure, it hurts a little when he takes my energy to come through but when he’s here… that all gets forgotten.” Because he is the only thing that matters.
There was a minute jerk as Marcie broke out of the shocked paralysis that had been holding her. “You know?”
“He loves you. I don’t know if he’s ever loved anyone this much.”
“And I love him too. Well, I want to be with him more than any other boy I’ve known. I don’t know if it’s love because it’s different to anything I’ve ever felt before but… shutting up now.” Katie didn’t tend to babble on quite so much when she was nervous – in fact she tended to do the exact opposite and clam up – but talking to your dead boyfriend’s dead father had a way of bringing out the crazy.
“He never knew I was watching him. I hid myself because I thought seeing me would cause him pain.”
“I can’t believe you know?” Marcie was still stuck on that one idea. “Who told you? What do you know? How long have you known?”
“Since the day I moved here.” Katie frowned and thought back to all the blank spots in her memory from the weeks leading up to the move. “Maybe longer. It doesn’t matter how I found out or what I know – it’s probably more than you can handle anyway – I just do. Do you have any problems with it because there really are more important things.” It came out sharper than Katie had intended.
“It certainly makes my life a whole lot easier.”
“You mean I was making things difficult before?”
“I was on my guard all the time, making sure I never slipped up or said the wrong thing. Now, I can just talk to you without having to censor myself first.”
“We still need to be careful Marcie. I’m not supposed to know anything yet – I’m too young – and Jack says it might get us both into trouble.”
“Jack?” Marcie asked, not having heard the previous conversation.
“My boyfriend.”
“My son.” The older man tipped an imaginary hat to her.
“This is getting serious. I’m not sure I can take this in. You look like a cowboy just died and gave you his clothes.”
“I was born in 1810, lady.”
“Then that means…” Marcie paused, eyes widening as she put the pieces together. “You’re dating a Shade.”
“Correct.” She turned back to the gruff looking man at her side. “You couldn’t have been very old.”
“Oh, by early 19th century standards, I was living on borrowed time when my boy was born. But that’s not important right now.”
“You came here for a reason, didn’t you?” Katie asked, knowing.
“I needed to know he was happy. I love him and nothing matters more than seeing him safe.”
There was something in the way he said it that made Katie file it away to unpick later. His eyes held none of the shadows and secrets that haunted every Shade she had met so far. There was a purity there, an untouched concern for his son. It was refreshing to see some-one who didn’t have all the baggage she was used to dealing with.
Marcie threw an arm around Freddie when he wandered over. “Then you understand I need to keep mine away from all this. I’m sorry but I can’t risk anything happening to Freddie… him hearing anything.” She twisted her face to Katie, her expression unreadable. “I guess tonight’s off. Talk to you later?”
“Yes, of course.” She watched the young woman walk to the end of the street and vanish around the corner, knowing that she had hurt Marcie terribly by not telling her this secret and feeling bad that she didn’t feel worse. “What’s your name anyway? Jack never told me.”
“Lawson. Henry Lawson.
“And I need to ask you a favour.”
Oh, hadn’t she known that was coming? Still, what had Mademoiselle Romani said he would come? One will come. One will destroy you. One will obliterate everything you know and love. Those had been her words. Well, Mr Lawson was certainly here; she felt ripped apart inside; and when the obliterating started, Katie would start running. She had an awful feeling that it wasn’t going to be long.
Chapter four