Katherine's Time

Kate’s P.O.V.  My name is Katherine O’Connell, and my life hasn’t always been a walk in the park. My parents didn’t love me as much as my brothers, Michael and Austin. They were the golden children; I was the mistake. They never openly told me they hated me, but they never really showed me any love either. Once my oldest brother Austin died when I turned 16, 1 month after his funeral I was kidnapped, tortured and r***d repeatedly for almost 4 months. I finally escaped thanks to another person they held there. When I returned home, they didn’t even notice that I had been missing. And they never reported it. They just kept moving on with their lives. So, I chose to do the same thing. And at the age of 16 I got my passport and went overseas to Europe.   I decided to go to Ireland first, Austin had said he had gone there on leave once and he chose to buy a house there. When he died, he left it to me in his will. I figured it was the perfect place to start over, in the only place I ever felt loved. Although my parents never cared, I know my brother always loved me and treated me like a princess. Austin was 8 years older than me, so he was left in charge of me a lot because mom and dad just couldn't care less. That is until he went into the Marine Corps and left me with them. Michael did what he could but to be honest he didn’t do as much as Austin. So, I went where I felt I would be loved, Austin’s home. But as I landed in Ireland, I could feel something was off. The air was thick, and it wasn’t just the rain, something was coming. I found a taxi and gave him the address to my brother’s place. It appeared as if he sniffed me and then asked a bunch of questions about me.   I thought this was a little weird, but hey maybe it was just something to do in order to pass the time while he took me to my sanctuary. We turned down this long driveway, but it felt different than any others I had seen so far. This one was long, and it had a lot of trees surrounding it. I would almost say we were in a forest with the number of trees surrounding us. Suddenly there was this huge iron gate, with guards. The driver, who I learned was named Chad, said in Irish to the guard that he had brought Austin's sister with him, for some reason that made him stand up a little straighter and bow his head to me as we passed. I thought this was weird, but when I saw the “house” my brother had left me, I was even more confused. It wasn’t an ordinary house; it was more like a small mansion. I had 3 stories and was nice white and red brick. From the outside I would say it had to have at least 20 bedrooms. It looked kind of like a smaller White house from home.   He stopped in front and helped me out of the car. As I stood there looking in awe at the house he said, “If you need anything while you are here, please let me know.” He handed me a business card with his name and number on it. I said, “Thank you, but I don’t even have a cell phone right now. Maybe you could tell me where I could find a job so I could get one.” I smiled at him, but he just c****d his head to the side and looked at me a little funny. I said, “What is wrong?” He shook his head and said, “Oh nothing is wrong. Do you not know that your brother left plenty of money for you?”   Huh? What did he mean by that? Did he know my brother? I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but before I could ask anything I heard a throat clear next to me. I turned my head and saw a very handsome man standing near the door of the house. He looked to be around 25 or so, and he was tall. Around 6’ 2” or so. He was very fit, with wide shoulders and a slim waist. With very muscled legs in those jeans, he had on. I looked at him and said, “Hello, my name is Katherine, but everyone calls me Kate. My brother was Austin O’Connell.” Once I said Austin’s name his demeanor changed and he stood a little taller and with a heavy accent he said, “Hello, my name is Liam. It’s very nice to meet you, Katherine. I have a room prepared for you already.” I was a little confused by this, but I moved to follow him anyways. He looked back and asked about my things, but I told him the truth, that I didn’t own very much so everything I owned fit in the rucksack I had on my back. He smiled a sad smile as he said, “We will just have to change that, won’t we?”   I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by that, but I just shrugged as he showed me where I was supposed to go. We went up to the third floor and the room he showed me to was HUGE!!!! The walls were a lovely shade of navy, with a mural of the alpine forest in deep winter. You could even see wolves running through the forest and just laying around with each other. I guess Austin knew what to have. There was a king-sized bed along one wall. I could see 2 doors next to it, one led to a walk-in closet, and the other to a spacious bathroom with a claw foot tub and a glass shower. As I left the bathroom Liam was still there just staring at me, I asked, “Are you ok? You look like you saw a ghost for a second.” He shook his head and said, “I’m very sorry about that. You just remind me of your brother so much that I got lost.” I didn’t know what to say. I said, “I didn’t know what to think at first. In his will he told me that his property here was supposed to be mine, I didn’t think anyone was here.” He laughed and said, “Well princess, you are right. This is yours. Austin owned all this, and he helped this little community grow into what you see here. What exactly did he tell you about this property?”