Keegan's Lady - Keegan 01 (1996) by Catherine Anderson

Author:Catherine Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Colorado, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Adult, Historical, General, Women Ranchers
ISBN: 9780380779628
Publisher: Avon
Published: 1996-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

The loft was wonderfully dark and quiet. Caitlin huddled in the back corner, legs drawn to her chest, forehead pressed against her bent knees. All she wanted was to be left alone. Just for a few minutes. Until she could gather her composure. Until her anger ebbed. Until her stomach stopped roiling.

Ace had been goading her, deliberately trying to make her furious. In retrospect, she saw that. Only the realization came a little late. She’d revealed too much to him. Would have revealed more if she hadn’t gotten away.

She dug in hard at her knees with her fingernails, enraged at herself and at him. Stupid. She felt so stupid. Like a chess piece. He’d skillfully maneuvered her around the board, until he had her just where he wanted her.

She never volunteered to talk about her father. Not about the beatings. Not about her and Patrick’s futile attempts to run away. She’d never even discussed it much with Bess or Doc Hailoway, who, aside from her brother, were her very best friends in the whole world. Trying to talk about it was like pouring alcohol on a wound.

That was how she felt now, as if her skin were raw with abrasions and Ace Keegan had slopped whiskey all over her. She felt as if she might get sick, her belly twisting and cramping, a hot acidic sensation at the back of her throat that wouldn’t go away.

Why have you stayed there and taken it?

He was just like everyone else. No one but Patrick had ever understood what it was like to live with someone like their father. Other people didn’t have an inkling. Maybe because they didn’t really want to. It had been easier to turn their heads, to tell themselves things weren’t really all that bad out at the O’Shannessy place.

All children tried to run away sometimes, they’d told themselves. All children hated their parents sometimes. All children got it into their heads at some point that they were sorely mistreated. By lying to themselves, the people of No Name had avoided feeling guilty.

If Conor said his boy had tripped over a shovel and bruised his cheek, then that was what had happened. If Conor said his girl had fallen off a fence and broken her wrist, who were they to question him?

No one had had the guts to stand up to Conor O’Shannessy. That was the truth of it. A whole town full of cowards.

Was she angry? Ace had asked her.

How on earth did he think she felt? The word “angry” didn’t come close to describing it. She doubted there was a word that could. From birth, she’d been imprisoned with a monster as her warden, and she’d been unable to seek help for fear of his retaliation. In the early years, before she’d begun to realize that people preferred to ignore her plight, she couldn’t count the times she’d looked into the eyes of an adult, silently pleading for rescue.

She had soon learned there were few heroes in the world.

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