Tranquility (Turbulence Series Part Two), page 1
TRANQUILITY
Turbulence Series Part Two
Lilly K. Cee
Lilly K Cee
Copyright © 2021 by Lilly K. Cee
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Lilly K. Cee asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
Cover design © by Cover Couture www.bookcovercouture.com
For my sisters of trauma,
who feel more than you admit;
whose masks protect vibrant souls
and loving hearts.
I see you. I am you.
And for Kate and Katie, my constants, the best support
system and friends a woman could ask for.
Foreword
Tranquility is the conclusion of Entanglement. As with its predecessor, its themes address various layers of trauma and are intended for a mature audience; proceed with caution.
Contents
1. THEN
2. JASPER
3. SEAN
4. BRIT
5. SEAN
6. SEAN
7. BRIT
8. BRIT
9. SEAN
10. SEAN
11. BRIT
12. EVIE
13. SEAN
14. BRIT
15. BRIT
16. SEAN
17. BRIT
18. EVIE
19. BRIT
20. SEAN
21. BRIT
22. BRIT
23. SEAN
24. EVIE
25. BRIT
26. SEAN
27. BRIT
28. BRIT / SEAN
29. SEAN
30. SEAN
31. BRIT
32. SEAN
33. BRIT
34. BRIT
35. SEAN
36. SEAN
37. SEAN
38. BRIT
39. SEAN
40. BRIT
41. BRIT
42. JASPER
43. BRIT
44. BRIT
45. SEAN
46. BRIT
47. BRIT
48. JASPER
EPILOGUE
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Afterword
Also by Lilly...
About the Author
Chapter one
THEN
Sean noticed Jasper’s lips curl back as introductions were made: a brown-haired woman and her timid, pasty-white, red-headed daughter. A wide-eyed kid who wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. They were both thinking it: a girl! And she would be staying with them for a spell.
Sean's mammy was exclaiming in her fake sing-song voice how lovely it was that another young one was going to be in the house, and weren’t the boys thrilled to have a playmate?
Jasper looked over at him; Sean looked at his mother as though she’d started speaking a foreign language. They were not thrilled.
“Sean and Jasper, show Britton to her room, the one next to yours, while we catch up with Miss Delany. Maybe show her your games?”
Mammy was pushing the bounds of civility, and it was almost the last straw for Jasper, he could tell. His cousin looked at him in undisguised horror.
Jaw tensing, Sean jerked his head at the kid as he spun around and headed out of the front room. “C’mon, then.”
Jasper paced beside him, glancing back only after the strange woman hissed, “Go!”
Stumbling and hesitant footsteps could be heard following.
His mammy clapped her hands together, saying, “They’ll be just fine.”
It would’ve been if it had been a short visit. And if she were a boy. What the bleedin’ hell were they going to do with a scared little girl? Jasper whispered loudly to him as soon as they were out of the room, “What’re we supposed to do with it? I don’t want a girl.”
Sean shrugged at Jasper. “You think I want it?” He cast a surly glance at the girl and barked, “You comin’ or not?” She picked up her scurrying pace, not raising her eyes.
“But what do we do with it?”
“Ignore her,” Sean answered. “They’ll be off in no time anyway; her mammy’s on the lash, she won’t be hanging around.” He stopped in front of a door and turned suddenly to the little girl behind them; she skittered to a halt but kept her eyes on the ground. “This is our room, Jasper’s and me.”
Big green eyes looked askance at the door, then back at him, already acknowledging that he was the one in charge. Well, that was good.
“You go in there, and I’ll thrash you, you understand?”
Her eyes widened a bit more before she nodded vigorously; she knew what a thrashing was. That was good, too.
Jasper grinned at her obvious fright, looking between the two.
Sean turned and went to the next door, opening it. He stood in the doorway and turned to her again. They both looked at her expectantly. She stopped in front of them, glancing into the pink room, but not daring to make a move. Good call, actually, being wary until she knew the rules, but the tentativeness was also annoying as feck.
Sean grabbed her arm and shoved her in. She stumbled from the momentum of his push. “You’ll be staying here.”
Righting herself, she stood beyond the threshold and looked back at them, unsure. She laced her fingers together in front of her as she waited for further instruction.
Something in her eyes bothered Sean; made him feel… guilty? “Don’t look at me like that!” he snapped. Immediately, her eyes dropped to the floor. “You stay in here until we come to get you for the meal.” He slammed the door closed in her face; the last thing he saw was her scared eyes coming up again.
Jasper snickered. “We’re supposed to be playing with her.”
Sean glanced over at him. “You wanna go in and play with her? Go ahead. No point in letting that scared little kitten nip at our heels.” He walked away from the door.
“Do you think she’ll tattle on us?” Jasper asked. Fair enough question from Jasper, who’d already had his share of arse-reddenings in his young life; he didn’t need his parents to have an excuse to deliver another.
“I’ll thrash her if she does, and she won’t do it again,” Sean promised.
“Maybe warn her off before?” Jasper asked.
“I can do that, sure.”
When they collected her for supper, they found her sitting on the floor in the spot where they had left her standing. She scrambled to her feet when they walked in.
Sean frowned and demanded, surprised, “You were sitting there the whole time?”
She assured him with another vigorous nod, “I didn’t touch anything.”
The way she said it… wanting to please, hopeful he believed her, scared that he didn’t. Strange little thing. He could see she’d sat there like a turnip.
“Stupid girl,” Jasper muttered behind Sean.
Sean asked, “How old are you?”
“S-seven.”
“I’m ten. That means I’m the boss of you. If you tell anyone you were sitting here alone for three hours, I’ll thrash you, you understand?”
She nodded.
“You tell them you’re happy here,” Jasper added for good measure. Then he added, “And I’m almost ten.”
Again, she nodded.
“All right, then.” Sean approached her and grasped her arm; she cringed away from him. “I amn’t after thrashing you now, you eejit.” He pulled her out into the hall. “We’re after going in to supper.”
They may as well have been invisible at supper, however. After some initial inquiries about how they had spent the afternoon, the adults paid no more attention to any of them. The red-haired, green-eyed mute let her two new bosses answer for her, and she stared at her plate and nodded agreement, not that anyone was interested in her response.
After the meal, they dutifully took her to the television room. They sat her in the corner. They marched her back to her room at bedtime and pushed her in.
Their routine the next couple of days followed the same pattern. They collected her from her room and ordered her back in with little conversation or ceremony. She was given a tour of the house and the grounds, along with warnings of where she was allowed to go and where she wasn’t allowed to go. After three days of this routine, they told her she was on her own in the mornings.
So they paid her no mind when they entered the dining room Saturday morning for the usual weekend breakfast buffet, and she was already there with her mother. The older Maddens and Dunnes would make their way down more slowly.
Sean paid attention to the added company only to note that Brit was sitting across the table from her mother. The little girl’s eyes rose from her plate. He noticed
He looked away, striving for disinterest as he felt her haunted eyes following him. He and Jasper made their way to the side table for a plate.
A loud snap was followed by a heart-stopping order dripping with condescension, “Get me a glass of orange juice.”
Sean glanced back to find that Maggie had flung out a hand, continuing to snap in the direction of her daughter. The wee one had dragged her attention from them.
Without hesitation, she scampered off her seat and hurriedly made her way to the side table, where she struggled with a whole pitcher of orange juice, concentrating on not spilling it as she poured.
Sean watched, gauging whether the pitcher would topple or her strength would wane, causing a catastrophe. His stomach was in knots, oddly, over it. However, she managed after intense concentration and took a glass to her mother.
Relieved, he reached for a croissant.
A thump and a choking sound were followed by a dramatic rasp, “Are you trying to kill me?”
The screech had the boys freezing. Sean dared a look over his shoulder again, where Brit was equally frozen in her tracks, steps away from her mother. Her face was white, eyes wide as she stared at her mother.
Miraculously recovering from an apparent murder attempt, Maggie reached out and back-handed her child, the blow sending the girl to the floor. “A seed!”
The tension in the room became palpable. Sean's mouth dropped open; he heard Jasper gasp and imagined his cousin’s jaw was gaping, as well. They’d never seen violence against a child like that—a whipping, certainly—but never that.
Brit scrambled back to her feet. “I’m sorry, Momma!”
Sean felt compelled to explain, “It’s fresh-squeezed—”
“Get me another one, and don’t try to kill me this time!” Grabbing her daughter by her dress collar, she threw her toward the side table. The girl stumbled and fell into one of the heavy ornate chairs, banging her head on the wood. A strangled moan escaped her, coinciding with the sickening thud before she went harshly to her knees.
Jasper stepped forward, a mortified expression on his face. Sean grabbed him back so roughly, a pastry flew off of Jasper’s plate from the force of his tug.
“Stop dawdling!” Maggie snapped.
“Yes, Momma.” Shakily, the girl struggled to her feet, blinking hard—Sean assumed to either clear her vision or hold back tears—as she hand-walked her way down the line of chairs toward the side table. Her knees were spotting blood from rug burn.
Jasper moved to reach for the pitcher to pour another glass, but Sean again grabbed him away. He kept his hold on Jasper and started to pull him from the room, from what they were witnessing.
Maggie must have noticed their retreat because she said in an overly sweet tone, “Oh boys, you don’t need to leave. She’s just a very clumsy girl.”
“We’ll come back later,” Sean said, and they were out the door. But Jasper dug in his feet on the other side of the door, looking at Sean like he couldn’t believe they were leaving the little girl behind.
From inside the room, they heard Maggie taunting, “Do you see what you’ve done now, little miss? You’ve made your friends uncomfortable with your display. Are you happy with yourself? No one cares about your silly tears. It makes them feel bad. Don’t you feel bad for making them feel bad? You should feel bad for making them feel bad!”
“Yes, Momma.”
“You don’t treat friends that way!”
“No, Momma.”
“Did you just sass me?”
“I… I didn’t, Momma.”
Jasper looked up at Sean and whispered, “We can’t leave her.”
Sean shook his head, his expression grim. “You’re my cousin, Jasper. I can’t let anything happen to you; I don’t know that girl from nothing.”
Jasper’s expression fell. Sean wished he didn’t have to disappoint Jasper, but if they intervened, his cousin might be hurt. He couldn’t risk that.
That night, though, when he escorted the bruised little girl to her room, he didn’t shove her in. Instead, he simply walked her to the door and said, “You know, I wouldn’t thrash you. I’m too big; I’d hurt you. I just don’t want you to go in our room.”
Her green eyes came up from the floor as she looked at him, her forehead bruised and swollen to match her discolored cheek and eye. She nodded solemnly as she closed the door between them.
He’d tried to forget about her after that; tried to convince himself she wasn’t their responsibility. After all, he hadn’t been mean to her. Jasper seemed to have forgotten about the incident the next day. He awoke with his usual abundant energy, ready to engage in the important business of being a boy in the summertime.
Sean and Jasper were having a lively discussion about football at lunch when Jasper’s mother walked into the room, scanned it, looked at the boys, and then walked out. Moments later, she reappeared with the girl in tow, wearing one of three dresses she owned, all too small for her already too-little frame.
Aunt Peg snapped out, “You boys after wanting to tell me why I found this child sitting inside the door of her room instead of at the table having her lunch? You had the responsibility of getting her to table, and you’ve failed, now.”
Two heads whipped around, mouths agape. Jasper looked to Sean. Sean looked at Brit. His jaw tensed; a look of resentment came over his face.
“I wasn’t hungry.” Her voice was small and timid, inserting itself into the room.
He and Jasper looked to his mother to see if she would buy it.
Aunt Peg turned and looked down at her. “You’re such a tiny thing; how can you not be hungry, wee Britton Delany?”
Brit’s eyes went from Sean to Jasper and then to Peg. “I can go days without eating, Mrs. Dunne.” She said it with pride.
The food in Sean’s mouth turned to ash at her words. He swallowed hard, but had to drink water to get the food to go down his throat.
Aunt Peg dropped down into a squat in front of her and lightly touched her bruised cheek. “You don’t go days without eating here, wee thing.”
Brit nodded with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Jasper and Sean exchanged a confused look; they’d not seen her smile before, fake or otherwise.
“Now, you eat something; you need to fatten up.” She stood up and urged the girl forward. She looked at the boys. “I’m sorry I yelled; I assumed you were misbehaving and ill-treating her.”
Sean looked at Brit, thinking it was a peculiar statement considering she had clearly had plenty of ill-treatment that hadn't come from him and Jasper.
Brit slid into the chair next to Sean. He offered her a wary side-eye.
Aunt Peg placed a few sandwich squares and raw vegetables on Brit’s plate. She stroked Brit’s uncombed hair, smiled over at her son, and left the room.
As Brit reached for one of the sandwiches, Sean challenged her, “Why’d you lie? We’d have caught trouble if you’d told on us.”
Her big green eyes settled gravely on him, and she said, “I wouldn’t want to see you hurt.”
Chapter two
JASPER
“Alice.” He poked her, using the nickname he gave her when she went tripping down her rabbit holes. Brit swayed, unblinking, unseeing. “C’mon out, you.” He looked around at the door, hearing footsteps. Sure, and wasn’t she easy prey, sitting here like a bleedin’ eejit, staring into space.
Sean and one of his hurling mates paused near the door, drinking soda water, oblivious to the two of them crouched on the floor of the parlor. After a few more words, they moved on down the hall, most likely to their room.
Jasper sat next to her beneath the window and leaned back. “Let’s go, then.”
Taking her hand, he closed his eyes, following her into her rabbit hole, into her world of terror. The world only he bothered to slip into and bring her back from, the world he controlled; the madness didn’t frighten him, not when he was there for her. He was her champion here.
He’d do anything for her. She was theirs, their responsibility. Sean took care of her in the daylight, but her fears, the dark spaces of her mind, her nightmares… those belonged to him. He knew where they came from, so he was the one who had to join her in that dark world.
