“What are you doing here?” I ask. “And where are my students?”
I wake with a start to Tully shaking my shoulder.
“Time to get up, love. You have to get ready.”
I blink in surprise at the clock. I have less than an hour.
I fly out of bed and head to the shower, then realize I don’t have my things with me. I turn around to look at him. He’s propped up in bed with his arm behind his head, and he’s looking at me with something like wonder in his eyes.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he says with a shrug. “I just like watching you get ready.”
I stare down at myself, dwarfed in one of his clean white tees.
“And you like when I wear your shirt?”
He grins. “Oh, aye. Fucking adorable.”
“Hey, aren’t you coming with me? You have to get ready, too.”
He yawns. “Babe, I take about three minutes to get ready.” He glances at the clock. “Breakfast’s served downstairs in the main hall in about thirty minutes. Think you’ll be ready by then?”
A chance to eat breakfast with the others? To see the inside of the McCarthy family mansion?
“Um, hello? Yes!”
He grins.
“Then hurry, so we don’t run out of time.”
I take a quick, utilitarian shower, trying to keep my excitement in check over the luxurious soaps and lotions. The scent of honeysuckle and warm vanilla permeates the small room, and I want to stay here for hours, immersed in the billows of steam and scents.
I don’t really want to get used to this kind of luxury, though. It’ll be harder to go back to my simple life after this, but I know I’m not here forever. I can’t be. It isn’t even Tully’s home here at the mansion.
We dress in silence, and it seems he’s preoccupied, because his brow is furrowed as he tugs on a pair of trousers and a shirt with a collar on it.
“Oh, my,” I say teasingly, giving him an unabashed once over. “You shine up nice, now don’t you, sir?”
He tugs at the collar. “Goddamn collar,” he mutters. “I suppose I do.” He looks at himself in the mirror. “You think those blokes at the school will take me seriously?”
I come up behind him and run my hands over his shoulders, massaging, and his face softens a little. The top of my head comes just to his shoulder in the mirror. He catches my gaze, and I stick my tongue out at him.
“Of course they will,” I say, flexing my hands on his arms. “How could they not? You’re a high-ranking member of the Clan, which they all aspire to, you know.”
Every boy there dreams of being where he is, a respected member of the McCarthy Clan. Some won’t make it. Some will be cut from the ranks before they graduate, and still others will leave to pursue other endeavors.
Some of the boys will follow, though, joining the ranks of Clan member siblings and cousins as official members of the Clan. I wonder who. I wonder what the landscape will look like then. Will Tully be an older, wiser man of the Clan? Will they come to him for advice?
Will he be alone?
He takes my hand and I take my bag, then he glances at his watch.
“We need to leave in about half an hour to get us there on time.”
“Noted.” I nod. He reaches for my schoolbag and slings it over his shoulder. I don’t bother to tell him I’ll carry it this time. It isn’t a matter of can. He likes doing this for me. So I let him.
As soon as we leave the quiet and privacy of our room, the interior of the mansion seems as if it springs to life. Staff dust picture frames and tables in hallways, someone runs a Hoover along the stairs, the large entryway door opens and Tiernan steps in, in running clothes, his dark red hair damp with sweat.
“What’s the story, there, McKenna?” he hollers up the stairs. “You coming with us to school today?”
“Aye,” I say, a warm, sort of pleasant feeling filling me.
“She’s coming but we’ll take a separate car,” Tully says, and Tiernan nods.
Tully holds my hand a little tighter. Can he know how lonely I’ve been, how good it is to be in this place? I don’t want him to know. I feel as if he did, he could somehow use this against me to finagle what he wants. But even as I think that, I’m ashamed of thinking of such a thing.
A door down the hallway opens, and Fiona and Lachlan step out. She smiles and waves, and he nods and smiles as well.
“No baby today?” I ask, curious how it all works here. Do they all take shifts with the little ones, then?
“Oh, he’s with the nanny for now, until Maeve comes up. She loves to be with the nanny when the little ones are about.” She sighs. “I go back to work today.”