The Butcher Fiancé, My Saving Angel novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: Bedtime Rules
The lake house had forty windows and no signal.
I tested every door.
The front one stayed locked, and the man in the gray jacket sat outside it with a newspaper he never turned.
By the second morning Kenneth had stopped pretending I could leave.
"Lillian's bringing the little one at five," he said at breakfast. "He's been asking for you."
"Has he."
"He likes his aunt."
He buttered my toast for me.
I ate it.
I ate everything he put in front of me, because the baby needed it, and because I had decided that if I was going to be a prisoner I would be a strong one.
At five the boy ran through the front hall in socks, with a stuffed whale under one arm.
"Aunt Suzie!"
I knelt, and he flung himself at my neck.
He weighed nothing.
His wrists were thin as pencils, and his skin had the grayish shine of a child who spent too much time under hospital light.
I held him a second longer than I meant to.
"Hello, buddy," I said.
Lillian hovered in the doorway, smiling.
"He's been so excited."
"Has Preston come?"
"He's working," she said quickly.
At seven, Kenneth carried the boy upstairs for his bath.
I stood at the bottom of the stairs, listening.
Preston had not been here for the last four weekends, if the guest book was right.
I had read the guest book that afternoon, in the hall, under a vase.
I heard the water run, and Kenneth's voice murmuring.
*Left arm first, buddy. Careful of the tape. There's my brave boy.*
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