Chapter 5

Shamus couldn't understand why his mother, of all people, was treating him this way. The very fact that he was her son should have given him some kind of pass on her heart. But no, since they'd moved to this unforsaken place, she'd been acting differently. Like he wasn't nearly as important as whatever she had going on in her mind at the moment.

He couldn't even blame it on the man, Ethan. What kind of name was that? There was no strength in a name like that. However, he did look it up in the big book. It meant firm and enduring. Strong and long-lived. Nothing like his name, though he didn't care for the name Shamus so much. It simply meant detective. That was a good name, he thought. It meant that he was destined to keep an eye on his mother's things. But Finn stood for blessed. Like his mother should be blessed to be around him.

Standing up when someone came down the hall, he sat back down when he saw who it was. His mother. He had thought not to speak to her again until she got him out of this jail. There was no way that he'd done anything to warrant him being locked up like he was.

"Yes, there is." He told her to stay out of his mind. "I thought you weren't going to speak to me. In order for me to say what I need to say, it's probably best that you don't speak. I have a great deal to say to you. I've even taken Ethan's advice and made notes on what it is I need to tell you."

"Note? To talk to your only son? Good heavens, Mother. What has happened to you?" He looked at her then. Really stared at the face that he'd seen every day for all of his life. "What has happened to you?"

Her skin looked as if it glowed. She looked healthy, not just in body but in mind, too. As if she'd come to a major decision and, it suited her. The smile that he had only just realized that he missed was there. It, too, was brighter, like she was enjoying the feeling of it spreading across her. And it did, too. Spread over her entirety like she was happy all over. But that couldn't be. She'd been angry since he'd moved…

"You're not angry with me anymore. And if you are, you're not nearly so. Good. Then you won't mind getting me out of here and handing over the keys to the mansion. It will be mine someday and I have plans for it just as I do you. You're going to start listening to me, Mother. I'm sick of being told that you know what you're doing. If you did, then I'd not be here where your stupid man-friend put me." Something occurred to him, and he eyed her. "You've had amorous congress with him."

"If you mean that we've had sex, then yes, you'd be right about that. A great deal of it, as a matter of fact. We've bonded in the way that his kind does, and I'm in love with someone. For the first time in my life, I'm in love with a man that I even like." She sat down in a chair that hadn't been there previously. "My magic is stronger as well. His too. We are a mated and bonded pair, the two of us, and since he was a lion of considerable magic before, he's more so now. So if I were you, Shamus, I'd behave myself, or you might get your ass handed to you in a way that you won't recover from."

"Did you just threaten me? Your own son? My goodness heavens, Mother, what has he done to you?" She didn't answer which he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted her to. "You're going to break this off with him immediately. I'll not have my mother flittering around with an unmarried man that I don't approve of. Do you even care what people will think of you? How they will look down upon me because I allowed you to—"

"Allowed me to? You can't allow or disallow me to do anything, you young ass. I'm my own boss, the person who makes her own rules. You have no say over anything that I do for any reason." Shamus told her that he'd heard enough. "Well, that's too fucking bad because I'm not nearly finished with you. You will stay away from us if you cannot learn to be nice. Yes, that's what I said, nice. I don't expect you to change your ways overnight, but you'd better be looking into some changes, or you'll never see me again. Not allow me to…what were you going to say, Shamus? That you're not going to allow me to be with a man that I love? That I couldn't…you've been trying to get at my money since the moment that your grandparents died. You'll not have any access to it either. And now that I think about it, you'll be paying your own way from now on as well. Show me how you can take care of yourself and your own money. Or don't. I could care less about anything you do right at the moment." She growled and he thought her odder than ever before.

"Mother." She told him that she wasn't his mother but his mom. "Mother. You've clearly been hit in the head, or your heart has been hurt if you think that you need to speak to me like you have. I am the man of the house. I have always been the one who cared for you and our money. Now. I have a few rules of my own. You'll…where are you going? I'm not nearly finished with you."

She started back to him, and he was proud of himself for standing up to her. Standing just as she was near his cell, she raised her hand it was too late for him to move. The blast of power came at him so fast and so hard that he felt his head bounce against the wall of the cell twice before everything blacked out. His last thought was his mother must be royally pissed off at someone.

Waking, he found himself in a bright, overly bright, if someone would have asked him, room that smelled of cleaning fluids and old blood. When a man came to stand next to him, he could see that he was some sort of police. Something like a constable, he supposed. Trying to sit himself up better to find out what the man wanted, he was dismayed to find himself locked to the bed.

"Unchain me this moment before I have to do you bodily harm." The man just laughed and told him his name was Joey. "That is a small kangaroo, not a person's name. I demand that you release me before I have to make sure that you are never employed again. My mother has power now."

"Your mom is the one that is pressing charges against you in the event that you've forgotten that. And I'm to tell you that as of this morning, about four hours ago, Ethan and your mom were married. You, it seems, have been messing with the wrong family." He called him a liar. "Nope. I don't lie when it is something that will piss people off. And you have pissed off a great many people in just the little bit of time that you've been here."

"I shouldn't have to do anything that you underlings tell me to do. You should be feeling…my name means blessed. You should be more relevant to me since I'm Shamus Farley." His head was hurting now, and he was sure that he'd messed that up a bit, but the man only laughed at him. That pissed him off more. "How dare you treat me this way. My mother will have your balls in a jar before you know it."

"Your mom, as I've told you already is the one that is pressing charges against you. Also, in the event that it slipped your busted head, she's also the one that hurt you. I have to admit that most of the people at the station house have been wanting to do that for sometime now. You're a royal pain in the ass. Were you aware of that?" Shamus told him that he should be remembering the royal part more. "Are you insinuating that you're royalty? Good lord, that's the funniest thing I've heard all day. You are no more royalty than I am. You little pisser."

When the man walked away it was all he could do not to call him back so that he could punch him. But his head was beginning to hurt him more, and he decided that he'd had enough shouting today.

"Just wait until my mother shows up. You'll see." But would she? The doubts started to mount in his mind about all the things that he'd presumed she'd be doing for him. And allowing for him to do for her. The very fact that she'd hit him made him think that he might have pissed her off more than he had before. "We'll see. I'll just make myself available still to go over her accounting. Surely, there was a place for himself to make sure that she knew that he only had her best interests at heart. When someone cleared their throat, Shamus realized that he wasn't the only one in the room. Ignoring the woman, as he did most women, he turned his head from her.

"That will get you nowhere, little man. I'm here to tell you several things. Most of which I'm saying to you myself but there are a few tidbits from your mom as well. But first, I'd like to know why it is you think that you're smarter than her? I mean, she was wealthy before you came into her life, and the very fact that she's been maintaining her wealth well beyond you there not helping makes me wonder why you think like a Neanderthal." He told her that women had no head for money and what it means. "And again, she was wealthy before you came along. I don't really care whether you know this or not, but I do believe that your mom's wealth makes her the wealthiest woman in the world. Second would be her friends. You don't even have a job, nor do you have a place of your own to live in, but the one that your mother provides for you. Basically, you're nothing but a blot on her otherwise perfect life."

"Did she tell you to say that to me? That I'm a blot? I don't even—and her life is far from perfect. She is living with that man in our home, and I don't like that." She made a sound like she was sobbing at him when he could tell that she was finding humor in his woes with his mother. "You know nothing. Where is a man that I can speak to? What of your husband? Does he control you? I think not. Otherwise, you wouldn't be out and about, causing me grief. Be gone with you, woman. I have better things to do than to put up with your womanly vapors today."

When she laughed, it occurred to him that he had no idea who she was. Much less why she, of all people, where here talking to him as if she were his equal. Telling her again to go away, he felt the slap of magic roll over him, much like the one that his mother had used to slam him against the wall.

"Now you listen here, you little snot. I was sent here to give you some information. And in doing that, I made a promise not to kill you. And I can, mind you, but I do believe that—never mind. You'll not understand. My name is Parker Foster. Grand witch of all witches. My mate is the grand warlock of all our kind." He started to tell her that there were no such things as witches. "Keep your mouth shut before I remove that pie hole of yours permanently. Here is the information that I was sent to give you."

He thought that she was going to start spouting off things that she was making up as she went along. But the moment that she touched his forehead, he knew that it had really been his mother who had sent this person and that she was making plans to keep him out of her life. Closing his eyes with the onset of information, information of the likes that he'd never heard before, Shamus felt his belly lurch, and his body began to feel like it was boiling from the inside out. There were things that he'd not known about his mother as well.

He wasn't her child—he was no one's child that he knew of. She'd not birthed him but found him as a foundling along the side of the road. His grandparents weren't his true relatives, nor was his mother. Their words, plenty of them that made him sick with them, told him that they'd never really liked him at all but wanted to have Shawn around so that they could live out their days in comfort. The only reason that they'd taken him in was to regain a closeness with their only child.

She was powerful, the woman who raised him. More so, he thought, than the grand witch before him. And she was plenty powerful enough. His mother hadn't been around for the few hundred years that he thought, but thousands of years, well before the house that she lived in was a dream. Even before magic was thought of as something that was to gain. His mother was…the woman who had taken him in and had gained more than he would ever have in his existence. For he was only human.

The money that she had and the riches that she used were well beyond a number that could be counted for it. Not only did she seem to have an endless supply of it but she was making more of it daily. Investments that he didn't understand. People were there making her money even if she didn't see them. Throwing up when the information got to be too much, he lay there with his eyes closed as everything that he'd been told to learn sorted out his bruised and battered brain, telling him things that he'd never guessed about a woman before.

"Had enough yet?" Blurry-eyed, he looked in the direction of the woman, the witch. Afraid to nod or to even shake his head, he told her that he'd had more than enough. "I have a feeling, however, that you've learned nothing from this, have you?"

"I don't know what you expect me to remember when it's been rolling around in my head like it has been." She tsked at him. "Where did you get this so-called information about my mother?"

"She allowed me to touch her mind. She opened it up for me so that I could let you know just what you are to her. And you do realize that you only being human, she can and will kill you if you don't straighten up your ways, Shamus." He told her that she lied. "No, I would never lie about something like this. Not to you or to anyone. You, you little shit, are nothing to anyone. But for the love that Shawn has for you? I would kill you where you stand for the way that you've treated her. And yes, I could see that in her mind as well. That you're a monster for the things that you've said to her. The names that you called her."

He was suddenly bombarded with all the things that he'd done to his mother. The times that he ignored her calling out to him when she wanted to talk. The other times that he treated her badly, no, terribly when he didn't get his way. It had taken him months to harden his heart to her, and he was ashamed at the way things had turned out. Before he could say a word, even if he knew what it was he'd say, he saw his mother large with child. The happiness that he'd seen on her face earlier was nothing compared to what her smile looked like now.

There was a Christmas tree laden with ornaments. Gifts wrapped in bright glittery paper just waiting to be opened. Ethan was there, holding a toddler in his lap as his mother talked about the next child that was coming to them. There were other times in the future that he could see. And in all of them, not once was he there. No mention of him being around when there were holidays with family.

He watched as the children, a great many of them, appeared to have grown up without him being around. Not once did he see him even holding a baby. No woman that was his hanging onto his every word like Ethan did to his mother. When he could no longer feel the touch of Parker, the thoughts and dreams kept coming.

Thinking of the things that had been shown to him it made him think of his own worth. Did he have any value at all to them? It seemed as if not only had he lost his place in the family but in their heart as well.

Opening his eyes, he had to wipe at them. They were so sticky. He'd been crying, he realized and hated himself for it. Before he could wonder what all this meant, his mother seemingly disowning him, he saw that Ethan had at some point joined him in what appeared to be a hospital room.

"You have a concussion. They had to put just over fifty stitches in the back of your head. You're being kept overnight again to make sure that you're not out and about causing any trouble with the way they've put you back together." He asked where his mother was. "She's at home. The women are sorting out supplies to distribute to the schools when the new year starts. Why did you ask?"

"She's my mother." Ethan leaned back in his chair and stared at him. There wasn't any way that he was going to think that it was a glare. He didn't know the man well enough for him to be glaring at him at all. "You do know that I didn't ask to be saved by her."

"I'm aware of the fact that she more than likely saved your life. Other than that, I have no idea why you would continue to think badly of her." He told him again that he'd not asked for her to take him to her home. "No, you didn't. But there you are. Or I should say there you were. You're not welcome in our home again. Not unless you change your ways. And right now, I'm not seeing that happen, are you?"

"It's none of your business what transpires between my mother and myself." He told him that he was wrong about that, that everything that he did was now a part of his life. "So you say. But I was there first, and you're not anything to me."

That didn't sound right even to his ears, and when Ethan laughed, he thought that he couldn't hate any more than he did at this moment. Turning gently on the pillow, he looked at the wall beyond where he was. The rattle of the chains on his arms made him think that nothing had changed. That his mother, or whatever he was expected to call her, hadn't changed her ways one bit in knowing that he'd not be a part of her future life. Like he wasn't anything to her.

"Now that it's been established that you are nothing to her, you'll abide by our rules, or you will no longer have the support of she nor I." He asked him what he was talking about. "You're to get a job. Make your own money and try your best to stay on the right side of the law. I don't see that happening, but now that it's out there, perhaps you'll try a bit harder to get along with people. Again, I don't see that happening."

Long after he realized that Ethan had left him, Shamus was lost in thought. Some of the things that were going round and round in his head, he thought, were just his imagination. Others, some of the things that he thought he might have said were blatant attempts to make him feel bad. But it wasn't going to work on him. He was a good deal smarter than they thought he was. And he was going to prove it.

~*~

It wasn't until Jack snapped his fingers in front of his face that he realized that he had been watching the television without actually knowing what was going on with it. His brothers were all there, watching a game with him, but his mind was elsewhere. He asked his brother what was going on.

"We've been talking to you for the past hour, and all you've done is grunt. Tell us what is going on so that we can fix it and watch the game." Jack eyed him hard. "You're not having trouble getting it up, are you? No, that wouldn't be the trouble. She'd be singing less around the house if that was the issue. Hey, did you hear about Kayce's ghost?"

He had. He'd also heard that his brother didn't take showers at his home anymore and that he undressed in the bed with the covers up and over himself. Ethan had laughed as hard as his brothers had when Shawn had told the story to them all. But that wasn't the trouble at hand.

"I have a feeling that Shamus is going to be causing us trouble. He gets out of jail tomorrow and the officers that have been around him seem to think that he's just waiting to have the doors unlocked so that he can get to his mom. I don't know what it is that he'll do to her. He's nothing more than a human as it is right now." It was Denver who pointed out that Shawn had a big heart, and that was where he might hit her. "Yeah, he's hurt her there already, twice in the last couple of days. The first time was at the jail, and then when she went to see him in the hospital, he told her that if she thought that she was going to forget about him just because she was going to have children, then she had to rethink things. That as the oldest, he was the one that would be taking over the mansion and money and he dared her to say differently."

"He might be a man in his thirties but he acts like a five-year-old who has missed his nap. Maybe he needs a good swift kick to his ass. Ever think of that?" Ethan said that he had thought of it and that Finny was itching to knock him around a little, too. "Can he do that? I mean, I never thought of ghosts until Shawn came around, but now that she has, I've been finding out a great deal that I never knew before. Have you guys found any more treasures?"

The game was forgotten when he invited his family into the dining room. They'd been keeping the things that they found in there so that they could sort them better. Finny had hidden some of the items that went together in several places like a hairbrush with a comb would be buried with several coins that were beautifully made. Then, there would be the mirror to the set buried in a different spot. It was the money that he found the most intriguing of the things that they'd found.

"We've been able to find a lot of gems that weren't buried with the cans and rags that he buried things in. Just last night, I found this one with a box of money. Not a great deal at the face value of the money, but today, it's worth a bundle." He gently handed his brother the five-dollar bill that they'd put into plastic so that it wouldn't be destroyed by picking it up. "Shawn found this in the top of the barn. It was just lying there like someone had dropped it out of their pocket. Can you see the date on it?"

"Christ." Ethan was glad that they were handling things as gently as he and Shawn had been. Counting up the cash for its value had made them laugh so hard. It was Finny who pointed out that the money might say that it was worth a dollar. It was about a week's wages for him.

There were other things that the two of them had sent off to be cleaned, like the silverware set that was buried under a tree near the orchard. The box, made of a beautiful mahogany, had been destroyed when the roots of the tree expanded, but it was its contents that they had been most impressed with.

"This has to be worth a fortune." He'd pulled out the pictures of the things that they'd sent out. "How many place settings is there of this? It looks like six."

"Twelve, so far. Finny said that there was a lot more of it around. When they'd be able to afford another place setting, they'd wait until they had a set of six before burying it out in the fields. He knows where they are. He had a little book of the places, but since he isn't able to share that with Shawn, he'll read a bit of it then come and tell us what he's found out." Picking up the cufflink that he'd found a few days ago, he explained that they were looking at. "This isn't a part of the things that Finny hid but something that we found while out digging. This is from an officer in the American Civil War. Someone must have been very handy with a bone knife to have carved into it."

A few days ago, they'd picked up a nice metal detector. When not out with Finny, he had to rest a great deal when helping them. They'd scan their yard for treasures, too. The field that was just behind their home had been the most productive for them.

"Was this buried like this?" That had been the most fun, trying to figure out why things that were vases and bowls showing up on the detector. He told Kayce about finding an ugly jug that had been filled to the top with coins and gems. "I'm thinking that I need to do some exploring around my home when it's finished. Maybe even tonight. What else have you found?"

"Lots of tools. A gold sifter for panning for gold. We've found all kinds of things that had been made specifically to dig with. I've never enjoyed being out in the weather until we started doing this. And the things that we have that are valuable, we've been sending them to auction houses all over the country so that they don't think that— You have to see this."

Taking them out to the new barn they'd had put up, he pulled out the boxes that they'd been storing the larger things in. The horse blanket, beautifully made and persevered, was worth more than they could have imagined. Then he pulled out the saddle that they'd found with it.

"This had been in a barrel that was in the very back of the old barn. The part of it that had been the oldest. There were two other barrels there, but so far, we've not opened them. It's like a guessing game for us to try and figure out what's in the containers before we open them." They didn't touch the soft leather until he told them to. "We're betting that at some point, there was a little girl that wanted to ride horses and the family purchased this for her. The only thing that Shawn can remember about a little girl horseback riding is when she was just a child, and one of the daughters of one of her uncles had died trying to jump the creek. She might well have lived if not for the fact that the water was so deep that she drowned in it."

"Way to bring the room down, Ethan." He kissed Shawn on the cheek when she joined them in the storage unit. "Since a lot of people came out here with nothing more than the shirts on their backs, we're finding things that had been left behind when they went to search for gold. Did he show you what else we found?"

He watched his lovely mate as she opened the safe they'd had put in and handed a heavy bag to Denver. He asked if it was what he thought it was. Denver poured the contents out into his palm while waiting for an answer.

"Good Christ." Kayce asked if they'd had it weighed as yet. "I mean, it looks to be over a couple of pounds there. Hang on while I look up how much gold is bringing in today's market."

While he did that, Shawn told them that they'd found it all together in one of the barn's structural posts. It had looked like they had dug out the hole, put the gold back in it, and then covered it with the broken wood again.

"It was seamless in the way that they did it. We think that whoever put it there forgot about it. We're not saying that the man died, though I do have some of the ghosts looking for him, but I'm thinking that's what happened. The other things that we're finding, once it's out in the open, their owners come to tell us about what it was there for. The stories alone are amazing." Denver asked him if he was writing it down. "For the most part, I'm recording their tales by pen and paper. The thing is, we didn't know if it would record them, so I've been taking notes as well. Apparently, you can't record a ghost telling you anything. But yes, I'm thinking that I need to write a book on this stuff."

"The price of gold today, it fluctuates sometimes, but today its worth over twenty-five hundred dollars an ounce. If you have two pounds there—" Shawn told his brother how much they had. "Okay, three pounds of gold, you're holding onto about a hundred-twenty thousand dollars in that small little bag. Good Christ, guys, no wonder people came out here to look for their fortune. Even with the price only being about nineteen dollars per pound, it was a great deal of money. That would have been about a thousand bucks. That would have been enough to not just buy a home but to furnish it nicely as well."

He'd forgotten what a history buff his little brother had been. And he didn't doubt that Kayce was correct on the prices either. Some woman was either going to find him extremely brilliant or dull as toast when she came along. He couldn't wait to meet her.

They were still talking about the things that they'd found when deciding to go to dinner as a family. He could tell that Shawn was upset about something, but she told him not now. She didn't want to talk about it until later. He wanted to look but didn't. She'd tell him. And he would help her slay the dragon if she needed him.

Georgie was on the phone when she got out of the car, and she told them that her uncle was coming to town in a month. He had a feeling that she didn't care if he came at all but for him to meet the kids. Georgie got over herself being upset before Shawn did so she helped her along with her mood. That's what he loved about this family, the way that they had each other's backs all the time.

As for Phillip had better be on his best behavior, or he'd be regretting his move to come out here. He was thinking that he might well anyway before he left. But Ethan knew that he'd not be able to get to the man first. There were a lot of people ahead of him on this front. But he did have first dibs on Shamus if he got out of line.

"They've released him." He didn't have to ask his brother, Colby, who he meant. He knew that it was Shamus. "The last they heard was that he was looking for his mother. I want you to know that he'll not get by any of us if he tries anything."

"Damn straight, he won't. I'll see him in hell if he tries to hurt her again." Ethan's phone rang just after they finished dinner. It was the first time in a week that he'd been called into the hospital. After meeting and falling in love with Shawn, he'd asked to be taken off the on-call roster so that he could get some things done around the house.

"I have to go in." Shawn told him that she'd be just fine, that she'd walk home. "Please have one of my brothers take you home. All right? I'd feel better if you were safe."

"You know that he's out." He nodded even though it wasn't a question. "All right. I'll have one of them take me home. And once I have the kids settled up, then I'll wait up for you. All right?"

"Yes." Kissing her on the mouth, he asked her to kiss the kids for him too. They'd only been at the house for a couple of days, and it felt like they'd been there forever. He especially loved having Samuel around. He was a great kid and made sure that his sisters were behaving as well.

Ethan only hoped that they'd get to keep the kids after finding out they had relatives out there. One of them had come to visit them as a ghost and had told them that they'd be better off with their momma than to stay with the aunts and uncles that were left. They apparently were only coming to take the kids for the money that the state would provide for them if they were to keep them. That alone made him wish that he'd never inquired about other family members before.