My Stepfather Sold Me at the Card Table, and the Man Who Won Me Never Looked My Way novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Brigid

I took him to the room with the window at midnight, the Monday before the Settling.

It was the front room on the second floor, the one Bram had wanted me in.

It had a big bed with a plain white spread, a long window onto the Orphan Girl headframe, and a stove that Enid had lit that morning without being asked.

Cormick had never slept in it.

I knew by the way he stood in the doorway.

"It's not mine," he said. "It was the old man's. It's kept for a guest."

"It's yours," I said. "It's your house."

"I'd not have you think I'd bring you to a bed that belonged to a dead man."

"Then bring me to it as a live one."

He came in.

I locked nothing.

I had my hair down, and I wore one of his shirts, the gray flannel, with the sleeves rolled to my elbows and nothing under it.

I watched him see that.

He stood on the rug, with the stove light on one side of his face, and his hands opened and closed.

"I've a thing to say," he said hoarsely. "Before. If I don't say it, I'll not be able to."

"Then say it."

"I'd like to say her name."

My chest went tight.

"Whose?"

"Your mother's." His eyes came up and held mine. "I've not said it aloud in nine years. Not once, not in a room. I said it in my head. I've said it every night."

I did not move.

"I'd like to say it to you," Cormick said, "if you'll hear it."

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