Love, Lies and Immortal Ties: A young adult paranormal romance (Love, Lies and Ties Book 1)

by C. J. Laurence

  “Ok, ok,” I said. “I get that you drive fast. I would like to feel like my body and my organs are in the same vicinity at least.”

  He chuckled and immediately eased off the power. “We’re nearly back anyway. Just around this corner.”

  He guided the truck down a tarmac road that had been carved out between two fields. A wide-open pasture rolled up on the horizon to the right and to my left another lush green paddock spread out around a group of buildings.

  “Wow, is this all yours?”

  He nodded. “North to south, I own all the land all the way from Shawn Riggs Beck to Iburndale Beck. East to west, I own it from that field there—” he pointed to my left “—to the end of Buskey Beck. It gets a little misshapen at that end of things. I’ll show you one day.”

  “You farm all of that yourself?”

  He shook his head. “I rent most of it out. There are a couple of farms on the land that I rent out, along with a certain amount of the land. Most of it is for livestock so it’s all grass or hay fields.”

  My ears perked up. “Livestock?”

  “Horses, cows, sheep, the usual.”

  My heart fluttered at the mention of horses. “Horses? Have you got horses?”

  He nodded and grinned. “I’ve got eight.”

  “Eight?” My voice shrieked. “How do you find time to do all your work and look after eight horses?”

  We came to a stop in front of a traditional red brick farmhouse. Its faded bricks and slightly wonky roof gave away its age. Smoke trickled from the chimney. White framed windows were big and inviting along with the aged wooden front door. Ivy climbed the walls, really adding to its historic status. A crumbling red brick wall, about waist height, gave the house a perimeter from the farmland around it. Behind it, a few hundred yards back, sat Shawn Riggs Beck, its thick trees giving the perfect backdrop to such a beautiful piece of history.

  “This is yours?” I said, turning to Luke. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling. “Are you saying you didn’t expect me to own something like this?”

  I laughed. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

  He grinned. “I know.”

  I shoved him in his shoulder. “Stop messing with me.”

  Chuckling, he got out of the truck. I followed suit, which earned me a scowl.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re messing with my chivalry.”

  I tutted at him and rolled my eyes. “I can open a door, Luke.”

  “That’s not the point. It’s not how I was brought up.”

  “To let a woman open a door?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I can see this is pointless. Just humour me, please.”

  “Ok,” I said, smirking at him.

  Taking my hand again, he led me across the uneven ground, a mixture of dried mud and small stones. “I’m still doing the house up so please excuse the mess.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Well, truth be told, I was born here but my parents kind of let the house fall into disrepair so I’ve been slowly picking my way through the worst of it since I’ve been on my own.”

  “Where are your parents?”

  “They’ve gone off on some tour of the world. Won’t be back for years.”

  He opened the front door for me and motioned for me to step through into the narrow entrance hall. I walked down it, a light from the top of the stairs casting enough of a shadow down for me to see the way. The front door clanged shut behind me.

  “Head right,” Luke said. There were two doorways, one to the left, one to the right. “Kitchen is on the left. Living room on the right.”

  The battered pine door creaked on its black iron hinges as I pushed it open, entering the living room. Seeing the size of the room, I understood why the hall had been made so narrow. If the kitchen was just as big, what a room that would be.

  A huge bay window to my right gazed out over the peaceful fields splayed out in front of the house. An open fire crackled in the middle of the room, hungry orange flames licking at the pile of logs. Two huge cream sofas faced one another with an old pine coffee table in the middle. Various pictures lined the walls along with shelves full of books.

  Something seemed to be missing from here, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then it dawned on me.

  “No TV?” I said, glancing around.

  He laughed. “I have one in my bedroom but not in here. I tend to use this room to just relax and decompress. TV doesn’t help with that.”

  As the fire popped and sizzled, I began to understand that all you really needed were the natural sounds of the world around you to relax. I could already imagine flopping down on one of the sofas and closing my eyes to the sound of the fire.

  Outside, somewhere in the distance, a horse neighed.

  “Is that one of yours?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Most likely Silva. He always knows when I’m coming and going and greets me when I come back.”

  “Can I meet them?” I asked, hopeful to get near a horse for the first time in several weeks. I was getting withdrawal symptoms.

  “Now?”

  “Well, no, not now,” I said, laughing. “In the morning, before I go, maybe?”

  He nodded. “Of course. Do you want a drink or anything?”

  “Just some water, please.”

  He disappeared only to return seconds later with a pint glass of water. I thanked him and when he motioned for me to sit down, I gratefully collapsed onto the sofa that faced the window.

  “Careful,” he said. “You can easily fall asleep on one of them.”

  “I’d be quite happy to in all honesty.”

  “Don’t you want the guest room?”

  I shook my head. “Honestly, this is fine.”

  He leaned over me and tugged a blanket from the back of the sofa. “I’m sure you won’t need it with the fire and all, but it’s there if you want it.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, gathering the plump cushions to use as pillows.

  “If you’re wondering why I’ve got the fire going in the middle of summer it’s because I have a back boiler. If I don’t have the fire lit, no hot water.”

  I smiled at him. “You don’t need to explain yourself about your own house, Luke.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I know. I just didn’t want you to think I was weird or anything.”

  I giggled at him and snuggled down on the sofa, curling my knees up to my stomach. “Thanks again for picking me up. I really appreciate it.”

  “It’s nothing. Don’t mention it.”

  He settled down on the sofa opposite me, laying on his side. My eyes slowly closed, the last thing I saw being Luke’s handsome smiling face.

  Chapter 21

  My phone startled me awake as daylight streamed through the window. It took me a moment to remember where I was and why. Reaching for my shrieking phone from the coffee table, I fell off the sofa with a loud thud and hit my back against the solid pine table.

  “Hello?” I croaked into my phone.

  “Caitlyn? Where are you?” Marcus said, his voice laced with panic.

  I sat up and rubbed at my back, frowning. “Oh, hi. I err…I woke up and you were gone so I got a lift.”

  “You didn’t think to wait for me?” He sounded full of scorn, like he was scolding a child.

  I hesitated for a moment. Was he angry with me? Because he left me in the middle of the night? “Excuse me? Hey, I woke up in the middle of the night, after what I thought was an amazing time, and you’d left me all alone. For all I knew you were mad because I’d put a stop to things and wanted me gone.”

  Silence followed for several seconds. “You thought I wanted you to leave?” he said, his voice full of shock and surprise. “Caitlyn, no. I don’t…” he sighed “…I don’t sleep well so I thought it best to leave you in peace, so I didn’t disturb you.”

  “Where were you?” I asked. “I called for you and you di
dn’t answer. You weren’t in the house. You even left your phone.”

  “I went for a walk. It helps me relax so I can sleep.”

  The living room door creaked behind me. I turned my head to see Luke stood in the doorway, his big brown eyes full of care and concern. He mouthed, “You ok?” to which I nodded.

  “Where did you go for a walk?” I asked Marcus.

  “Just along the clifftop.”

  Something deep down in my gut niggled at me, telling me that his words weren’t quite the truth he wanted me to believe.

  “I don’t believe you,” I said.

  “What? Why?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, I just don’t.”

  “I don’t know what you expect me to say, Caitlyn. If you don’t believe me then fine, I can’t force you to. All I can do is tell you the truth. It’s up to you if you want to accept it or not.”

  “I’m guessing you’ve only just got back?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Why?”

  I pulled my phone away from my ear to see the time—six thirty. “I left over three hours ago, Marcus. You expect me to believe you’ve been out walking for that long?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Because it’s the truth. What do you think I’ve been doing?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I remembered the stunning blonde from the restaurant who he obviously had a past with. The thought had already planted in my head and his actions last night were only helping them bloom into something unpleasant. However, saying the words felt wrong so I kept quiet.

  Marcus sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to wake up and freak out. Can I come and see you? I should make this up to you.”

  I cringed. “I…I have jobs to do first. Maybe tonight?”

  “Caitlyn,” he said, his voice low and suspicious sounding. “It’s not seven a.m. yet which means you aren’t at home.”

  I looked up at Luke who still stood in the doorway, his giant arms folded over his broad chest. “No…”

  He said nothing for several seconds then in a quiet, dangerous voice said, “Where are you?”

  I pulled my lips into a thin line and squeezed my eyes shut. “Luke’s.”

  “Caitlyn…” he whispered.

  Neither of us said anything for a good minute. I wasn’t going to apologise. Perhaps I’d been a little rash and acted on impulse but still, that didn’t mean he had the right to be mad at me for accepting help from a friend.

  “I’m going to go,” I said. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Caitlyn, I thought I made myself perfectly clear about my feelings towards him.”

  “He’s my friend,” I said, glancing at Luke. A streak of disappointment flashed through his eyes making me feel damn awful. “He offered me help because that’s what friends do.”

  Marcus laughed mockingly down the phone. “Offered you a shoulder to cry on, did he?”

  “Actually no,” I bit back. “He offered me a sofa to sleep on.”

  “We’ll talk later about this,” he replied. “When you’re a little less tempestuous.”

  Before I could even open my mouth to reply, the line went dead, buzzing in my ear. My jaw dropped.

  “Can you believe that?” I said, my voice coming out all shrill and squeaky. “He upset me but somehow he gets to hang up on me?” I snorted. “Boy is he going to have a fun night tonight.”

  Luke smirked.

  “What?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “I was just thinking you fit the whole fiery redhead thing very nicely.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him and then grinned. “Since we’re up and it’s daylight, can I meet the horses now please?”

  He laughed. “Sure. Do you want some breakfast first?”

  “If it’s something I can take with me down to the field?”

  “Croissants?”

  “Perfect!”

  Chuckling to himself, he went out into the kitchen, leaving me to debate what the hell to do about my newly acquired boyfriend. The more I thought about him, the angrier I could feel myself getting. How dare he treat me like that. I pushed all thoughts of Marcus away and focused instead on the immediate future of finally getting to touch a horse after two weeks.

  Luke reappeared and handed me two croissants on a plate coated in melted butter. He grinned. “Nothing better than a warm croissant with lots of butter. Proper butter, none of this crap from a tub.”

  I took a bite and groaned from the delicious pastry softened in rich butter. “Oh, this is amazing.”

  He pointed at my dress and said, “Don’t think that’s quite the thing to wear around horses.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Have you got a spare pair of wellies?”

  “Sure. But they’re probably miles too big for you. I'm a size thirteen.”

  For some unknown reason, Hannah popped into my head, her familiar saying of a man’s shoe size being relative to the size of his penis. I had to make a conscious effort not to look at his crotch area which only became more difficult the more I tried to stop it. It didn’t take long before my entire face felt like I'd just been burned at a thousand degrees.

  “You alright?” he asked, swallowing the last of his breakfast.

  “Yeah, just a bit hot.” I pointed at my plate. “The food.”

  He smirked. The cheeky glint in his eyes told me he knew I was lying. That only ramped up my embarrassment even more.

  “I’ll make do with the wellies. Can't go down there in high heels.” I put my plate down on the sofa and then hitched my dress up to just above my knees. Gathering the material together, I tied it into a tight knot that sat against my left thigh. “That’ll do. Let’s go.”

  Chuckling, he shook his head. “Never seen that before.”

  “First time for everything,” I replied, grabbing my plate.

  I followed him out into the hallway to see him pushing a pair of gigantic green wellies towards me. Grinning, I slipped my feet in, and as I picked my foot up to walk, I laughed as the damn thing fell straight off my slender size seven feet.

  “Huh,” he said, chuckling. “Guess I really do have fat feet.”

  “Who said that?”

  “My parents were always teasing me about it as a child. Kept saying I had to grow into my feet.”

  I giggled. “Think you can definitely say you’ve done that.”

  He smirked. “I don’t really know what to do about the footwear issue other than making you wear twenty pairs of socks to pad the wellies out.”

  “I’ll just go barefoot. It's not a big deal.”

  “You are not,” he said, snorting.

  I frowned. “I’ve been around horses all my life, Luke. I'm not naïve to how yards and things are.”

  “I don’t care if you were born in a stable. I'm not letting anyone, especially you, walk around horses in bare feet.”

  I admired his caring nature, but I was a big girl. I could look after myself. “Luke—”

  “Non-negotiable.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Ok. You'd best get me twenty pairs of socks then.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” he said, flashing me a wicked grin.

  Before I could even think let alone say anything, he scooped me up in his arms and marched me out of the house. I shrieked at the sudden assault but couldn’t help but laugh.

  “What are you doing?” I said, staring at the side of his face. I noticed a few silver flecks in his hair around his ear and in his beard. Not grey hairs, this was different, almost as if someone had sprinkled bits of silver glitter all over him.

  “They need some more hay, so we’ll avoid the tour of the yard and go straight through to the fields. That way you don’t have to get out of the truck.”

  I laughed. “That’s cheating.”

  “No, it’s called using initiative. Forward thinking. Problem solving.”

  “But what if I want to get out of the truck to stroke them?”

  His face creased into a grin, showing of
f dimples I'd never noticed before. They were so cute I wanted to touch them. “That’s why I have child locks.”

  “But they don’t work on the front doors.”

  He stopped next to the truck and opened the rear passenger door. “Which is why you’re going in the back.”

  I could barely protest before he’d dumped me on the seat and shut the door. I went to climb over the middle, in between the two front seats, only to find a dog guard closing off the gap.

  “Luke!” I shouted as he jumped in the driver's seat. “This is so not fair.”

  He chuckled and struck up the engine. “It’s for your own good.”

  I sank back against the leather seat, folded my arms over my chest, and sulked like a two-year-old. I stared out of the window as Luke drove us down a dry muddy track. The trees from Shawn Riggs Beck sat to the left, a huge post and rail fenced field to the right. I soon forgot about being treated like a child/dog and scooted over to the other side of the car, one hand clutching the back of Luke’s seat as I waited for my first sight of a horse.

  “They’re not in this field,” he said. “They’re over the hill in the summer fields. This is their winter paddock.”

  “It’s huge.”

  “Fifteen acres doesn’t last long in the depths of winter with eight draught horses churning it up.”

  A splurge of excitement shot through me. “Draught horses? That’s what you’ve got?”

  “Yes indeed. I love them. Plus, I can’t really curse a thoroughbred with my weight.”

  I giggled as I imagined him on top of a spindly legged racehorse. The truck pitched upwards slightly, and I stared out of the front through the dog grate as we slowly climbed the hill. As we reached the apex, I spotted the familiar wooden roof of a stable, complete with a black iron weathervane on top. A howling wolf with the outline of a moon circling over it gave a refreshing change to the usual cockerel or plain old arrow.

  A beautiful immaculate yard splayed out in front of us. Eight stables in a L shape, four along each side, and a large hay barn attached to one end, all in pristine condition and not a wisp of hay or dirt to be seen.

  “Wow. How do you keep this place so clean?”

  He grinned. “It’s easy in the summer. Not so much in the winter.”