Dirty Service: A Hot Mechanic Romance

Carmen Bishop
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Dirty Service
Dorsey Brothers
Carmen Bishop
 Contents

1. Kennedy
2. Axel
3. Kennedy
4. Axel
5. Kennedy
6. Axel
7. Kennedy
8. Axel
9. Kennedy
10. Axel
11. Kennedy
12. Axel
13. Kennedy
14. Axel
15. Kennedy
16. Axel
17. Kennedy
18. Axel
19. Kennedy
20. Axel
21. Kennedy
22. Axel
23. Kennedy
24. Axel
25. Kennedy
26. Axel
27. Kennedy
28. Axel

About the Author

Also by Carmen Bishop
 Dirty Service
By Carmen Bishop
Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, businesses, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, or actual events is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for use of brief quotations
in a book review.
Edited by Dawn
Proofread by McKenna Lay
Photo Credit: Wander
Cover Design: Lori Jackson
 Blurb

Axel Dorsey isn’t the kind of guy you take home to your parents.
He is, however, the perfect piece of man candy to play the part of my fiancé at my brother’s
wedding.
Or so says my genius plan.
Turns out, Axel is as arrogant as he is attractive. But damn is he good with his hands.
And he has no problem putting on a show for the sake of all those who tormented me during high
school.
But the more we pretend, the more the lines between reality and fiction blur.
And now I’m in danger of catching very real feelings for my fake fiancé.
Chapter 1
 Kennedy

“T hanks,ShePaula!” I call out as I raise a hand at the brunette woman behind the counter.
beams at me, always a ray of freaking sunshine. “Anytime, girl! Good luck with the rest
of your classes today.”
I hold up my cup. “With this, I can face the world.”
Paula chuckles. “Good. Be sure to pop back in if you need an afternoon pick me up.”
“You know I will.” With a smile on my face, I push out onto the busy streets of downtown Boston,
fresh coffee in my hand. Among the buildings flanking me on either side, it’s easy to feel small. But I
don’t focus on the skyscrapers or the cars honking in the street. No, as I walk, my attention is on the
people. I study the ones I pass by, mentally conjuring different scenarios for each and every one.
It fascinates me to think of everything they’ve experienced—the good and the bad—and how it
shaped them into who they are today.
Hell, it fascinates me that I’ve grown into the person I am, given everything I dealt with growing
up.
Mother hooked on pills.
Drug-addicted dad.
Sister who is exactly the same as him.
Brother I barely talk to.
Bullies that made me want to curl up and disappear.
Yet, here I am: Kennedy Smith. Army veteran turned yoga teacher and herbalist out helping people
get healthier. I smile as I sip my coffee then unlock the doors to my 1992 Nissan bluebird. The door
creaks as I open it, but it’s just background noise to me now.
It may not be glamorous, but my life is my own. And that’s not something everyone can say.
After placing the mug in my cupholder, I roll my shoulders and then hit play on the CD player that
is connected to my stereo via a cassette tape and a cord. Every time I see it, I smile, thinking of all the
times I’ve shocked passengers with the fact that this car doesn’t have Bluetooth or a CD player.
Nope. It’s old. Battered. But it’s mine. I slip the key into the ignition and turn it over. It sputters—
then dies. Every bit of my good mood vanishes like a puff of smoke on a windy day. “No, not today.
Please not today.” Groaning, I stop and take a deep breath. The car has been on its last leg for nearly
a year now.
So, surely it can make it one more day.
Just. One. More. Day.
“I promise to get you into the shop first thing in the morning, Bluebird,” I coo to the automobile
that has me completely at its gasoline-leaking mercy.
 I turn it over again and nothing.
And there goes the rest of my decent mood.
My life may be my own, but so are my finances. And they cannot handle this right now. Not when
I’ve got a trip I can’t miss in just over a week. Son of a bitch. I sit for a minute, processing as I try to
come up with a way not to start crying my eyes out.
Someone knocks on my passenger window. I look up and see a petite brunette waving at me.
Since my windows are manual and I don’t want to embarrass myself further by climbing over the
console and rolling the passenger side down, I opt to just get out instead. Not like staying here will do
me any good.
“Hi,” she greets with an awkward smile. She looks to be about my age, beautiful, and, based on
her kind smile, I’d say has a personality to match. “I’m not trying to intrude, so feel free to ignore me
if you’ve already got a plan.”
“No plan,” I tell her with a laugh that comes out far more sad than I mean it. “Just taking it day by
day.”
“Girl, I know how that goes.” She beams. “My soon-to-be brother-in-law is a mechanic and I can
call him if you need someone to come tow your car. He has his own shop. It’s not too far from here.”
Tow truck.
Mechanic.
All I see are dollar bills flying away and the balance on my credit card climbing higher and
higher. Still, I’ve crunched the numbers. And letting the car stay parked while I pay for rides
everywhere is far more pricey than what is probably just a dead battery.
Hopefully just a dead battery.
Please just be a dead battery.
“That would be great, thanks.”
“Of course.” She reaches into her purse and withdraws her cell phone. “I’m Nova, by the way.”
“Kennedy.” I take her offered hand then stand back as she makes a call.
“Hey, Axel! Can you do me a favor?” She’s quiet for a moment and then laughs. “Yeah, okay.
Well, I’m standing outside Heavenly Bean, and there’s a woman here who needs her car towed. It
won’t start.” She’s quiet again but offers me a kind smile while I awkwardly stand by. “Great. You’re
the best!” She ends the call and shoves the phone back into her pocket.
“He’s on his way.”
“Thank you so much. I seriously—you didn’t have to stop.”
Nova smiles. “You don’t need to thank me. I did what anyone would have done.” If she weren’t so
kind, I might have instantly hated her. With brown hair to her waist and dark eyes that are lined with
black, she’s a stunner. Seriously, why the hell isn’t she on a runway somewhere?
“Not anyone,” I tell her. “Are you from here?”
She grins. “What gave it away that I’m not?”
“Telling me that you did what anyone would have done,” I say with a laugh.
Her million-watt smile widens. “My dad is originally from here, but I grew up in Texas.”
“Nice! I spent some time there when I was a teenager.” I don’t add that it was because I’d been
court-ordered to stay with my distant aunt while my dad and the woman who birthed me—I won’t call
her Mom—fought over me and my siblings.
“What part?”
“San Antonio.”
“Neat! I’m from near Dallas.”
 “What brought you here?” I ask because the idea of standing here silently makes me want to
cringe.
“My dad passed away and left me my grandparents’ house. So, I came here to fix it up.”
“I’m sorry about your dad,” I reply.
“Thanks.”
We fall into more awkward silence. “Listen, if you have somewhere to be, you don’t have to—”
“Hey, there.”
I glance over as a tall drink of water wearing a dark suit, his hair perfectly styled, approaches us.
Oh, damn.
The man stops beside Nova, his hand going to her back. She looks up at him, and in that single
gaze is so much heat that it scorches me even as I stand about a yard away.
Hot damn. To be loved like that. Now, I’m even more jealous of the dark beauty. Talk about a
gorgeous power couple.
He looks so familiar, though I can’t place him. But I swear I’ve seen him before.
“Axel called,” he says, his deep voice just as sexy as the package it comes in.
“Everett, this is my new friend Kennedy.” She smiles at me. “Kennedy, my fiancé—and brother to
the mechanic—Everett Dorsey.”
Dorsey! “You’re Everett Dorsey?”
He smiles. “I am.”
I’m awestruck for a moment, but after forcing a recovery, I return his smile. “It’s really nice to
meet you. Sorry, not often I meet a borderline celebrity.”
The man cringes. “I am not a celebrity.”
Instant regret. “I’m sorry. Really. I don’t do a lot of magazines, but you getting engaged was the
chatter of one of my yoga classes a few months back.”
Nova chuckles. “Look at us, babe! We made Yoga News.”
I snort. “The women in my class were quite heartbroken. Though, most of them are in their
seventies.”
Everett shakes his head and presses a kiss to the top of Nova’s. “See, you’ve broken hearts by
taking me off the market.”
“And I’d do it all over again. Nova Thomas: Heartbreaker. Has a nice ring to it.”
I adore this woman. Seriously. If I was any good at making friends, she would be at the top of the
list.
A heavy engine rumbles as a tow truck passes by then backs up in the vacant spot directly in front
of mine. Axel’s Garage is plastered on the side. My stomach sinks, my cheeks flushing as people look
at my beat-up old blue car with pity.
It may not be much, but that was the very first thing I ever bought for myself. She might as well be
family. Hell, I like her better than I like my blood relatives.
The door slams, and my heart basically stops when the sexiest man I’ve ever seen—literally—
crosses over toward us. The grey jumpsuit he wears is folded down and tied at his waist to reveal a
grease-stained white tank top that exposes muscular arms so damned toned they should be illegal.
They’re inked from the wrists up, and the lines disappear beneath the fabric, which tells me that
Mechanical Hottie is tattooed over his chest as well.
His hair is dark brown and is long enough that it curls over his ears. Everything about this man
screams fuck me into Friday. As in—a year from now. Because it would be that good.
Damn.
 Double damn.
Triple damn.
“Hey, Ev. Nova.”
His voice. Like a bolt of lightning shooting straight up through me. I get actual chills from this
man.
“Axel. This is Kennedy—” Nova trails off. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your last name.”
“Smith,” I reply. “Kennedy Smith.”
He turns crystal blue eyes to me then offers me his hand. “Axel,” he says, voice the thing of wet
dreams. I want to curl up in a ball and listen to him talk all damned day.
“Nice to meet you,” I reply, taking his hand. Heat blossoms in my belly as his large, calloused
palm envelopes my hand. When was the last time I had this kind of reaction to a man? Buttery soft
yoga pants, sure. But it’s been a hot minute since a man got my motor rumbling like this.
“We need to get to a meeting, but it was so nice to meet you, Kennedy!” She reaches into her purse
and withdraws a business card. “Call me if you ever want to get together. I’m relatively new here, so
I’d love to make another friend.”
I take it and study the gorgeous calligraphy on the front that reads Nova’s Interior Design. “Great,
thanks. And thank you again for stopping. And for making the call.”
“Anytime.” She slips her hand into Everett’s, and the two stroll down the street like the
ridiculously adorable couple that they are.
“So what seems to be the problem?” Axel questions as he walks around the car and toward my
hood. “Can you pop it?”
“You’re going to look here?”
He arches a brow. “I plan on it. Then, if it’s simple, I can send you on your way without a tow
bill.”
He’s trying to do me a favor, but the women now ogling him only add to the number of people
witnessing my broken-down car. “Okay. Thanks.” I rush over to the car and climb in, reach down, and
pop the hood.
Axel raises it, the muscles of his arms flexing as he does.
My mouth waters.
Of course the mechanic would be hot. Because, why wouldn’t he be?
He looks over some things then leans around the hood and calls out, “Try to start it for me!”
I do, saying a silent plea that it will turn over. Only, now it makes no sound.
No cranking.
Nothing.
Shit.
Axel slams the hood and wipes his hands on the sleeve of his jumpsuit. “I’ll need to tow it in.
Could be a dead battery, but the alternator should at least be turning over.”
“Can I ride with you? I don’t really want to call a car.” More like I can’t afford it.
“Sure. Grab what you need, and hop in.” He turns away and starts messing with the controls on
the back of his tow truck, so I reach in and retrieve my coffee, purse, and the gym bag with my mat
attached.
By the time I’ve grabbed everything and moved to the front of the coffee shop, Paula is waiting for
me with two fresh coffees and a sympathetic smile. “Here, hun. For you and that tall drink of water.”
“Oh, I—you didn’t need to do that.” Mortification heats my cheeks. I don’t do favors because, in
my experience, nothing is ever given freely. There’s always a catch. Even when the woman granting
me said favor is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.
“I did. You’re the absolute sweetest, and I owe you for that tea you made me. I’ve never slept
better.”
Because I know she won’t take no for an answer, I take the tray boasting both coffees then start to
add my other cup to it.
“Nope. I’ll take that one.” She snatches it out of my hand.
My cheeks heat as a woman walks by and giggles before whispering something to her friends.
Nothing like being the one getting the handout. I probably look homeless sitting here outside my
rusted car. “Thank you so much,” I say to Paula because some snooty bitch with a stick up her bum
won’t dull my appreciation for the woman.
“Anytime, hun. See you tomorrow?”
If I’m not broke. “Sure.”
She squeezes my arm and leaves, so I turn my attention back as Axel starts loading my car onto the
back of his tow truck.
Someone honks, clearly pissed that they had to go around him, and the glare Axel gives them
would have made me shrink to two inches tall if it had been me on the other end of it. Before I can be
any more embarrassed, I open the door to his truck and sling the bag off my shoulder and onto the
floorboard. Then, I climb in with the tray of coffees in my hand.
I inhale deeply, and my stomach warms.
Leather and grease. It shouldn’t smell so good, yet here I am, inhaling deeply just so I can fill my
lungs.
Axel opens the door and climbs behind the wheel, eyeing the coffees in my hand.
“Paula—the barista—made this for you.” I pluck the one out that has ‘Hot Mechanic’ scrawled
on the side then hand it to him. “I’m not sure what’s in it, but it’s yours.”
He eyes the mug with a grin. “Hot Mechanic, huh?”
I shrug. “I didn’t write it on the cup.”
He chuckles, takes a drink, then places it in the cupholder, and pulls away from the curb.

BY THE TIME WE’ VE REACHED THE SHOP , I’ VE DETERMINED TWO THINGS .

One: Axel is not a talker. In fact, he seems annoyed by the very fact that I tried to discuss anything
with him. Then again, my constant awkward babbling has never really been appreciated.
And two: he appears to have zero tolerance for any kind of alternate lifestyle as evidenced by him
eyeing my yoga mat with disdain. That is not something I’m unaccustomed to, though. When I do
manage to find someone who interests me enough for dinner and sex, they always get a blank stare
when I tell them about what I do. As if picturing me in tight yoga clothes is all they’re interested in.
The office of Axel’s shop is small and clean with gleaming white-tiled floors and a dark-wood
counter separating the clients from those who work here. Padded chairs in an olive-green color are
arranged against two walls with a single row in the very center.
Posters hang on the wall of various antique cars and trucks, and I find my attention drawn to a
dark green Chevy with Axel standing directly in front of it. Just seeing him in the picture makes my
mouth water.
Damn muscled arms crossed across his chest. And that wicked grin on his face as though he has a
dirty little secret that no one else—
“Can I get you anything while you wait? Axel should be done checking it over here soon.” My
attention is ripped from the picture, and I get the momentary feeling that this man boasting a buzz cut
knows I was just eye-fucking the owner. “Coffee? Water?” he adds as he moves around the counter
and toward me.
My cheeks heat. “No thanks—Squirrel?” I question, reading the name on his jumpsuit.
He chuckles. “Nickname. I’m Quincy,” he holds out a hand, so I take it. Handsome, but not even a
static electricity shock between us. Not like the roaring storm Axel gave me.
“Nice to meet you.” My phone rings. “Crap, sorry.” I pull it out of my purse and very nearly cry.
Because this day couldn’t get any worse. I consider sending her to voicemail, but she will one
hundred percent psycho-dial until I give in and answer. “Hey, Maddie. What’s up?”
“Just finalizing things for the wedding! How are you?”
“Great,” I lie. Maddie might as well have been president of the Let’s Fuck Up Kennedy’s Life
club. So, when she and my brother started seeing each other when we were all in high school, I tried
—and failed—to get over all the torment she’d handed out.
Of course, it would be a lot easier if she didn’t constantly throw it back in my face what a loser
she thinks I am.
“Awesome. Listen, Mother asked me if you’re bringing someone. So, are you? You wrote plus one
on the invitation, but I know that was a long time ago.”
I cringe and turn around as Axel moves into the office. “Yeah, listen—”
“It’s okay if you’re not. I told her and the others that you probably weren’t, so it’s seriously no
biggie. I just need to know so I can get it marked down. Also, chicken or fish?”
“Others?”
“The wedding party,” she replies. “Bridesmaids and groomsmen. Actually, Harry was asking
about you.” She giggles like that’s a good thing and Harry didn’t take my virginity when we were
juniors then spent the next year tormenting me.
“I’m bringing my fiancé,” I announce—loudly. It just slips out. Like a word fart. Only, I’m far
more mortified than I would be if it had been an actual gas slip.
She goes silent. “Really?”
“Yes. My fiancé—he’s a mechanic,” I continue the lie, clearly not able to be creative in the least.
“I didn’t know you were engaged! Hang on.” The phone rings again, and I pull it away to see an
incoming FaceTime call from her.
Shit. Forcing a smile on my face, I answer. Less than two seconds later, Maddie’s bubble gum
smile, bright blue eyes, and dark hair are filling the cracked screen of my phone. “I need to see your
face when you say it. So, say it!” she screeches.
“I’m bringing my fiancé,” I lie again. “It just happened last night.”
Her face is unreadable for a moment. Then she throws her head back and laughs. “This is so
exciting! And, you said he’s a mechanic?”
“Yep. I did say that,” I reply, keeping my tone somewhat low and turning the volume on my phone
down.
Her gaze narrows, and then she beams. “You’re with him right now, aren’t you! You’re in a shop; I
can tell! Let me see him! I want to meet him!”
“He’s busy,” I insist as I fight the urge to visibly cringe. “Okay, gotta—”
“Come on, Ken! Get over here!” She turns back to the camera. “Let us see!”
My brother comes into view, and just as it does every time I see him, my heart breaks a little bit
more. He’s a shell of the boy I knew growing up. Though, I don’t know why I’m surprised. He started
changing the moment he decided he wanted to marry Maddie. “Hey, Kennedy.” His tone is flat. “What
am I looking at?”
“Kennedy is engaged!” Maddie says with a grin. “To a mechanic.” The way she says it, the
inflection of her tone as though mechanics are beneath her, pisses me off.
“He is. And he owns his own shop.” And the lies just keep on coming.
“I’m sure he is very successful,” she replies. “Now, let us meet him!”
“You can’t. Like I said—” At that exact moment, Axel strolls up behind me—and into view of the
camera.
“Listen, I have the—” he starts.
“Is that him?” Maddie screeches again. “Let me see him!”
I drop the phone down so she can’t see my face. Then I turn and mouth an apology to him.
“We can’t see him!” she complains. “Let us see!”
I turn the phone around so she can see the man who is very much not my fiancé and close my eyes
as I prepare to be outed.
“Hi! I’m Maddie,” I hear her say. “This is Kennedy’s brother, Ken.”
“Axel,” he replies.
“Axel! What a hot name!”
“Um. Thanks.” He shifts his gaze up to me, so I turn the phone back around.
“Great, talk to you later.”
“Bye! Can’t wait to meet him. One hot mechanic put down as your plus one. Sister, I’m so excited
for you! See you soon!”
The call ends, and I’m ready to die.
Like, crawl onto the road and let my own car run me over. Except, you know, it’s broken down
and can’t actually move right now. Though, I bet I could get someone else to run me over. Henry
comes to mind. There was that one time he locked me in the steam room of the high school because he
thought I could ‘drop a few’ as he put it.
“Feel like explaining that to me?” Axel’s voice cuts through my thoughts.
I turn, cheeks heating, to face him. He stands beside me, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “I,
uh—I’m sorry. She was bugging me, and you were—here.”
“I was here, so you used me to lie. Got it.” He offers me the invoice. “Your battery is shot as is
your alternator and starter. Your serpentine belt is cracked and needs to be replaced. Oil is also
sludge, and it looks like your air filter hasn’t been changed since the car was built in the early
nineties. You might be better off just getting a new car. Interest rates—”
“No. Getting a new car isn’t an option.” I stare at him as every penny of my savings becomes
spoken for. “How much is fixing it going to run me?”
“About eleven-hundred-seventy-two dollars.”
My stomach plummets. There goes eating out for a month. “Eleven hundred dollars?” I screech.
“As I said, if it can’t come out of pocket, it might be better just to get a new car.”
“Not an option,” I remind him again and then pinch the bridge of my nose. “How long will it take
to fix it?”
“I can have it done by the end of this week.”
What a Monday. I swallow hard. Guess I’ll be calling that car after all. “Great. Thanks.”
He nods then turns away.
“Listen. I didn’t mean to lie. It just came out.” I rush over toward him.
 Axel stops in front of the computer and looks up at me through thick, dark eyelashes. Damn, this
guy is hot. “Just see to it no future lies involve me.”
“I do date,” I say, though I can’t be sure why it matters.
“I’m sure you do.” He starts typing.
“It’s just—everyone I went to high school with is going to be there, and if I show up alone, it’ll
only make the whole ‘Most likely to die alone’ tag they put below my picture a reality.” I set my
purse down.
“High school reunion?” he questions, though his tone betrays heaps of disinterest. He seriously
could not care less, yet I can’t seem to stop rambling.
“Wedding,” I reply.
“You shouldn’t care what other people think,” Axel says flatly as he offers me a form and pen.
“Fill this out.”
After jotting down my name, address, and phone number, I hand it back. “Says the guy who was
probably a high school quarterback.”
He grins, and my cheeks heat. “I was more into hockey.”
“Of course you were.” I groan.
I don’t miss the amusement on his face, nor the way it makes my insides churn. “You can pay when
you come pick it up next week.”
“Great.” I take the invoice offered to me and bend over to retrieve my gym bag. “That’ll give me
time to sell a kidney.” It is meant as a joke, but the way it comes out is definitely pathetic.
“If you think you can get it fixed for cheaper—” Axel starts.
“No. No. Sorry. Not what I meant. I use humor to cope with stress, and that was poor timing. I
seriously appreciate everything you’re doing.”
“You know, if you need a date—” Squirrel AKA Quincy starts.
“Really?” Axel whirls on him. “Get your ass back to work, Squirrel. I don’t pay you to pick up
desperate women.”
Squirrel grins. “You know where to find me.” Then, he pushes out into the main part of the garage
and high-fives one of the guys.
“Desperate women?” I all but snarl. “Listen here, asshole. I am not desperate.”
“Certainly sounds like you are desperate for a date to a wedding you probably shouldn’t even be
going to if the attendants make you feel like you need a man to come off as successful.”
Honestly? He’s not wrong. And that pisses me off even more. So why do I still want to lick the
handsome bastard right in his smart-ass mouth?
“Fine. Maybe I am desperate—in this particular instance.” I straighten as a plan forms in my
mind. The idea should bother me.
But I’ve already lied once today, so what’s one more big fib if it means avoiding the torment that
comes if I don’t bring someone with me? Squirrel’s offer was kind, but he’s too young—barely in his
twenties. Axel, though—she’s already seen him. He’s who she’s expecting. So, before I can give it
too much thought, I turn back to him. “Will you go with me?”
He stops and stares back at me, brows furrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Please.” I drop my bag and rush over. “I need a fake fiancé, and she thinks you’re it—or him.
Yeah, I think him is the right word.”
He looks shocked. Horrified even. “Why the fuck would I do that? Did you not just hear me call
you desperate?”
Embarrassment flushes my cheeks, but I can’t turn back now. “Yeah, and I agreed. I am. So I’ll
beg. You get an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii out of the deal. Come on! Hawaii. Coconut bras,
tropical drinks, and scenery to die for? Please, I’ve been saving for this trip for the last year.
Everything has already been paid for. If I don’t go—it’s my brother’s wedding.”
Completely unfazed. “So, go. Alone. Or, better yet, find a real fiancé to take you.”
“No thanks. I don’t do relationships of any kind,” I say quickly.
“I thought you said you dated.”
I purse my lips. “I do date. Just, not seriously.”
“Then that was a strange lie you told, Miss Smith. I will call you when your car is ready.”
My stomach drops, embarrassment warring with the hit to my pride. The last thing I need to do is
beg, but that’s what I’ve done. What I would continue to do if he’d shown even a crack in his armor.
“Great. Thanks.” I grab my bag and head outside.
Thunder booms, and the sky opens the moment I step onto the sidewalk. Because, why not rain on
my miserable Monday?
Water hammers down on me, so I jump back beneath the overhang, though not fast enough to avoid
getting soaked. Perfect.
The door to the shop opens. “You need a ride?”
I don’t even turn to face Axel. “No. Thanks. I’ll get a car.” I pull out my phone and start to order a
car when Axel steps all the way out.
He grabs my bag. “Come on.”
“No thanks!” I call out, but he’s not listening. Instead, he eats up the parking lot in long strides—
my gym bag in hand. “Ugh.” With no other choice, I take off after him, my sandal-clad feet covered in
water.
I climb into the front seat of an olive green, restored Chevy truck, the heater already blasting. “I
told you I could get a car.”
“And I decided to save you the trip. Where am I going?” He opens the map app on his phone then
puts it in a holder.
I glare at him. “Do you always get your way?”
“Always,” he replies. “Address?”
Chapter 2
 Axel

T he sound of tattoo needles is soothing to my grated nerves. I watch as Zander puts the finishing
touches on an eagle spanning the length of his client’s arm. Then, I nod appreciatively at the
result.
“Looks damn good, brother.”
Zander grins at me. “I know.”
His client stands and crosses over to the full-length mirror on the far wall. “Fuck yes, dude! You
nailed it!” He turns toward us, sporting a fresh buzz cut and dog tags.
“Glad you like it. Head on up front, and Maurice will hook you up with what you need to keep it
clean while it heals.”
“Thanks so much, man.”
“No problem.” Zander shakes his hand. “Good luck on your deployment.”
As the client tells Zander all the reasons he’s excited to head out, I stand and move through the
parlor. Everything the kid is going to say, I’ve heard already. Mainly because not too long ago I was
shipping out, too.
Images line the walls of my brother’s parlor, all of them his original work. Zander Dorsey won’t
tattoo anything he hasn’t drawn out and designed himself. Which is why he’s got a full schedule for
the next two years.
“You good?”
I glance over at Zander as he comes to stop beside me. Damn near every inch of my brother’s
body is covered in ink from both of his legs all the way up his neck. People move out of the way
when he walks by, which makes it even more amusing that he’s a massive softie when it comes to his
seven-year-old daughter, Aara. She’s his entire world and has each one of us Dorseys wrapped
around her pink-tipped finger.
“Yeah, man. Long day.”
“How so?”
I glance around his parlor.
“We’re closed. That was my last client.”
“Aara?”
“With the nanny at home, eating her vegetables like the perfect princess she is. It’s poker night,
asshole. So tell me, what’s up?” He moves through his parlor and into the back room where our
weekly games are held. I take a seat at the table and take the beer offered to me.
Then, I down half the bottle.
“Damn. Someone’s got you in knots,” Zander muses.
 “No. Not knots.” I groan. “Fine. Maybe some knotting.” As I try to come up with a way to put this
so Zander doesn’t give me more shit than he already will, I finish off my beer then grab another.
“Nova called me today. A woman had broken down outside of Heavenly Bean.” I drop back down in
the chair. “Her engine is all shot to shit—battery, alternator, starter, serpentine belt, air filter, oil, oil
filters—”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” I run a hand through my hair. “It’s an old-ass car, too. Which—you know I appreciate—
but this one has been beat to hell. The seats are torn inside, the paint is peeling in some places. It
could use restoration, but I get the feeling this woman won’t be able to do that.”
“What kind of car?”
“A Nissan Bluebird.”
“Shit.” Zander chuckles. “Wait—wasn’t your first car a Bluebird?”
I nod. “Which is why I can understand sentimental value, but not when you have to put thousands
into it to make it reliable again.”
“Unless, of course, it’s your hobby.” He tilts his beer toward me.
“Fair point.” I groan. “Anyway.”
“So, this Bluebird. She hot?”
Since I don’t see the point in lying or evading, nor paying any attention to the fact that he
nicknamed her after the car, I nod. “Curves for fucking days. Blonde hair piled high on her head,
bright hazel eyes. She’s a stunner; that’s for damn sure.”
Zander chuckles. “So that’s what’s got you all screwed. I’m surprised, Axel. You’re not the ‘fall
in love’ type.”
I glare at him. “Hardly feeling anything but annoyance toward her.” It’s a lie, though. The fire in
her eyes was so fucking hot I’d been tempted to steal a kiss just to see if it would carry over. “Her
looks don’t mean a damned thing. I deal with attractive women all day.” I take a deep breath. “Hell,
most of them use those looks to try and get a discount. Never works,” I add quickly because I can see
the humor blazing in my brother’s eyes. “Anyway, as I’m bringing her the invoice, she FaceTimes
someone and introduces me as her fucking fiancé.”
Zander’s eyes widen, and his mouth falls open. Honestly, if I weren’t already so damned
flabbergasted, I would have laughed my ass off at his clear shock. Even though I’m fairly certain
that’s the exact same look I had on my damned face when she introduced me as the man she’s going to
marry—and by proctor—her wedding date.
The door opens, and Everett walks in with Dean right behind him.
“Why does Zander look like he just swallowed a fly?” Dean questions as he grabs a beer and
plops down.
Everett snags a bottle of water and joins us.
“Axel had some woman propose to him today.”
All three of my brothers stare at me now, all with equally perplexed looks on their faces. The
resemblance between us has always been strong, though I’ve been told I favor our mother’s features
more. Still, I can’t help but wonder if that look is the same one I gave Everett when he told us he’d
found a woman he wanted to marry after he’d sworn off relationships after his first marriage went
sour.
“She did not propose to me. She lied and introduced me as her fiancé. Then asked if I’d attend a
wedding as such.” I groan. “It was the woman who broke down outside of Heavenly Bean,” I tell
Everett.
 “That sounds like a proposal to me, bro.” Dean laughs. “We’re dropping like flies.”
“Don’t worry. I have no plans to settle down.” Zander clinks his bottle with Dean’s. After Aara’s
mother bailed on them when she was less than a year old, he swore off any type of long-term
relationship. The last thing he wants is for Aara to get attached and have her heart broken.
“She offered me an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii in exchange for playing pretend.”
“Hawaii? Why the fuck did you turn it down? Which, since I know you, I’m assuming you did.”
I glare at Dean. “I hate weddings. Why the hell would I go to one for people I don’t even know?”
“Because a gorgeous woman asked you to?” Everett offers.
“I can’t believe you turned her down.” Zander shakes his head. “Though, we always knew you
weren’t a white knight.” He grins wickedly.
“No damsel rescuing for Axel,” Dean jokes.
“You two are assholes,” I say before draining yet another beer. “The last fucking thing I need is to
have to deal with someone else’s drama.”
“Who said there will be drama?” Everett questions. “Drink, dance, socialize, then come home and
part ways.”
“You’re seriously thinking I should do it?” I gape at him. “You of all people?”
He shrugs. “I simply don’t see a downside.”
“Because you’re cloudy with love,” I shoot back. “Nova has ruined you.”
“Maybe. But I can’t see how it will hurt. She seemed nice enough. Nova liked her.”
“Nova spent five minutes with her. She could be a serial killer, for all we know.”
“Why does the idea of a Mr.-and-Mrs.-Smith-style fight with a potential killer sound hot?” Dean
shakes his head. “Something’s wrong with me.”
“That’s beside the point,” I insist. Why the hell aren’t they taking my side? I’d expected to catch
shit, not for them to actually agree that I should go. “I will fix her car. After that, Kennedy fucking
Smith can walk out of my life and find herself an actual fiancé. I’m a grown-ass man. The last thing I
need to do is play pretend.”
“Wait.” Zander straightens in his chair. “Did you say Kennedy Smith?”
My stomach twists into knots as I turn toward my brother. Of course he slept with her.
“She one of your overnighters?” Dean questions.
Jealousy that has no reason to be in existence flares, curling in my gut like a damned snake. The
idea of his hands on her, of my brother—
Zander rolls his eyes. “I don’t sleep with every woman I tattoo.” He pushes back and heads into
the main part of his parlor.
“Just the ones who ask,” Dean jokes.
“She seemed nice,” Everett says. “Granted, as you said, I was only around her for a few minutes.”
“She’s a fucking liar,” I retort. “Even if she is damned horrible at it, I have no interest in helping
with the charade. I. Don’t. Do. Lies.”
“Kennedy Smith,” Zander announces as he strolls back into the room, carrying a photo album,
which he drops on the table between us and points to a blonde holding up her forearm which has been
inked with a geometric wolf howling up at the moon. “I did some ink for her last month. Super nice
chick. Spent about thirty minutes before her appointment coloring with Aara.”
“You remember her?” Dean snorts. “You tattoo a fuck-ton of people.”
“She stuck with me. Super chatty, I learned more about her in the three hours it took me to do that
piece than I know about any of you fuckers.” He sits down in a chair, but my attention is still on
Kennedy’s smiling face.
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 This was not quite so kind—so says I to him, “Maybe sae, for many
a one thinks ye could not hold a candle to Mr Blowster the
Cameronian, that whiles preaches at Lugton.”
This was a stramp on his corny toe. “Na, na,” answered Mr Wiggie,
rather nettled; “let us drop that subject. I preach like my neighbours.
Some of them may be worse, and others better; just as some of your
own trade may make clothes worse, and some better, than yourself.”
My corruption was raised. “I deny that,” said I, in a brisk manner,
which I was sorry for after—“I deny that, Mr Wiggie,” says I to him;
“I’ll make a pair of breeches with the face of clay.”
But this was only a passing breeze, during the which, howsoever, I
happened to swallow my thimble, which accidentally slipped off my
middle finger, causing both me and the company general alarm, as
there were great fears that it might mortify in the stomach; but it did
not; and neither word nor wittens of it have been seen or heard tell of
from that to this day. So, in two or three minutes, we had some few
good songs, and a round of Scotch proverbs, when the clock chapped
eleven. We were all getting, I must confess, a thought noisy; Johnny
Soutter having broken a dram-glass, and Willie Fegs couped a bottle
on the bit table-cloth: all noisy, I say, except Deacon Paunch, douce
man, who had fallen into a pleasant slumber; so, when the minister
rose to take his hat, they all rose except the deacon, whom we shook
by the arms for some time, but in vain, to waken him. His round, oily
face, good creature, was just as if it had been cut out of a big turnip,
it was so fat, fozey, and soft; but at last, after some ado, we
succeeded, and he looked about him with a wild stare, opening his
two red eyes, like Pandore oysters, asking what had happened; and
we got him hoized up on his legs, tying the blue shawl round his bull-
neck again.
Our company had not got well out of the door, and I was priding
myself in my heart about being landlord to such a goodly turn out,
when Nanse took me by the arm, and said, “Come, and see such an
unearthly sight.” This startled me, and I hesitated; but at long and
last I went in with her, a thought alarmed at what had happened, and
—my gracious! there, on the easy-chair, was our bonny tortoise-shell
cat, Tommy, with the red morocco collar about its neck, bruised as
flat as a flounder, and as dead as a mawk!
 The deacon had sat down upon it without thinking; and the poor
animal, that our neighbours’ bairns used to play with, and be so fond
of, was crushed out of life without a cheep. The thing, doubtless, was
not intended, but it gave Nanse and me a very sore heart.
 THE MINISTER’S WIDOW.

By Professor Wilson.

The dwelling of the minister’s widow stood within a few miles of

the beautiful village of Castle-Holm, about a hundred low-roofed
houses that had taken the name of the parish of which they were the
little romantic capital. Two small regular rows of cottages faced each
other, on the gentle acclivity of a hill, separated by a broomy
common of rich pasturage, through which hurried a translucent
loch-born rivulet, with here and there its shelves and waterfalls
overhung by the alder or weeping birch. Each straw-roofed abode,
snug and merry as a beehive, had behind it a few roods of garden
ground; so that, in spring, the village was covered with a fragrant
cloud of blossoms on the pear, apple, and plum trees; and in autumn
was brightened with golden fruitage. In the heart of the village stood
the manse, and in it had she who was now a widow passed twenty
years of privacy and peace. On the death of her husband, she had
retired with her family—three boys—to the pleasant cottage which
they now inhabited. It belonged to the old lady of the castle, who was
patroness of the parish, and who accepted from the minister’s widow
of a mere trifle as a nominal rent. On approaching the village,
strangers always fixed upon Sunnyside for the manse itself, for an air
of serenity and retirement brooded over it, as it looked out from
below its sheltering elms, and the farmyard with its corn-stack,
marking the homestead of the agricultural tenant, was there wanting.
A neat gravel-walk winded away, without a weed, from the white gate
by the roadside, through lilacs and laburnums; and the unruffled and
unbroken order of all the breathing things that grew around, told
that a quiet and probably small family lived within those beautiful
boundaries.
 The change from the manse to Sunnyside had been with the widow
a change from happiness to resignation. Her husband had died of a
consumption; and for nearly a year she had known that his death was
inevitable. Both of them had lived in the spirit of that Christianity
which he had preached; and therefore the last year they passed
together, in spite of the many bitter tears which she who was to be
the survivor shed when none were by to see, was perhaps on the
whole the best deserving of the name of happiness of the twenty that
had passed over their earthly union. To the dying man Death had lost
all his terrors. He sat beside his wife, with his bright hollow eyes and
emaciated frame, among the balmy shades of his garden, and spoke
with fervour of the many tender mercies God had vouchsafed to
them here, and of the promises made to all who believed in the
Gospel. They did not sit together to persuade, to convince, or to
uphold each other’s faith, for they believed in the things that were
unseen, just as they believed in the beautiful blossomed arbour that
then contained them in its shading silence. Accordingly, when the
hour was at hand in which he was to render up his spirit into the
hand of God, he was like a grateful and wearied man falling into a
sleep. His widow closed his eyes with her own hands, nor was her
soul then disquieted within her. In a few days she heard the bell
tolling, and from her sheltered window looked out, and followed the
funeral with streaming eyes, but an unweeping heart. With a calm
countenance and humble voice she left and bade farewell to the
sweet manse, where she had so long been happy; and as her three
beautiful boys, with faces dimmed by natural grief, but brightened by
natural gladness, glided before her steps, she shut the gate of her
new dwelling with an undisturbed soul, and moved her lips in silent
thanksgiving to the God of the fatherless and the widow.
Her three boys, each one year older than the other, grew in
strength and beauty, the pride and flower of the parish. In school
they were quiet and composed; but in play-hours they bounded in
their glee together like young deer, and led the sportful flock in all
their excursions through wood or over moor. They resembled, in
features and in voice, both of their gentle parents; but nature had
moulded to quite another character their joyful and impetuous souls.
When sitting or walking with their mother, they subdued their spirits
down to suit her equable and gentle contentment, and behaved
towards her with a delicacy and thoughtfulness which made her
heart to sing for joy. So, too, did they sit in the kirk on Sabbath, and
during all that day the fountain of their joy seemed to subside and to
lie still. They knew to stand solemnly with their mother, now and
then on the calm summer evenings, beside their father’s grave. They
remembered well his pale kind face—his feeble walk—his bending
frame—his hand laid in blessing on their young heads—and the last
time they ever heard him speak. The glad boys had not forgotten
their father; and that they proved by their piety unto her whom most
on earth had their father loved. But their veins were filled with youth,
health, and the electricity of joy; and they carried without and within
the house such countenances as at any time coming upon their
mother’s eyes on a sudden, were like a torch held up in the dim
melancholy of a mist, diffusing cheerfulness and elevation.
Years passed on. Although the youngest was but a boy, the eldest
stood on the verge of manhood, for he had entered his seventeenth
year, and was bold, straight, and tall, with a voice deepening in its
tone, a graver expression round the gladness of his eyes, and a sullen
mass of coal-black hair hanging over the smooth whiteness of his
open forehead. But why describe the three beautiful brothers? They
knew that there was a world lying at a distance that called upon them
to leave the fields, and woods, and streams, and lochs of Castle-
Holm; and, born and bred in peace as they had been, their restless
hearts were yet all on fire, and they burned to join a life of danger,
strife, and tumult. No doubt it gave their mother a sad heart to think
that all her three boys, who she knew loved her so tenderly, could
leave her alone, and rush into the far-off world. But who shall curb
nature? Who ought to try to curb it when its bent is strong? She
reasoned a while, and tried to dissuade; but it was in vain. Then she
applied to her friends; and the widow of the minister of Castle-Holm,
retired as his life had been, was not without friends of rank and
power. In one year her three boys had their wish;—in one year they
left Sunnyside, one after the other; William to India, Edward to
Spain, and Harry to a man-of-war.
Still was the widow happy. The house that so often used to be
ringing with joy, was now indeed too, too silent; and that utter
noiselessness sometimes made her heart sick, when sitting by herself
in the solitary room. But by nature she was a gentle, meek, resigned,
and happy being; and had she even been otherwise, the sorrow she
had suffered, and the spirit of religion which her whole life had
instilled, must have reconciled her to what was now her lot. Great
cause had she to be glad. Far away as India was, and seemingly more
remote in her imagination, loving letters came from her son there in
almost every ship that sailed for Britain; and if at times something
delayed them, she came to believe in the necessity of such delays,
and, without quaking, waited till the blessed letter did in truth
appear. Of Edward, in Spain, she often heard—though for him she
suffered more than for the others. Not that she loved him better, for,
like three stars, each possessed alike the calm heaven of her heart;
but he was with Wellington, and the regiment in which he served
seemed to be conspicuous in all skirmishes, and in every battle.
Henry, her youngest boy, who left her before he had finished his
fourteenth year, she often heard from; his ship sometimes put into
port; and once, to the terror and consternation of her loving and
yearning heart, the young midshipman stood before her, with a
laughing voice, on the floor of the parlour, and rushed into her arms.
He had got leave of absence for a fortnight; and proudly, although
sadly too, did she look on her dear boy when he was sitting in the
kirk with his uniform on, and his war-weapons by his side—a fearless
and beautiful stripling, on whom many an eye was insensibly turned
even during service. And, to be sure, when the congregation were
dismissed, and the young sailor came smiling out into the
churchyard, never was there such a shaking of hands seen before.
The old men blessed the gallant boy; many of the mothers looked at
him not without tears; and the young maidens, who had heard that
he had been in a bloody engagement, and once nearly shipwrecked,
gazed upon him with unconscious blushes, and bosoms that beat
with innocent emotion. A blessed week it was indeed that he was
then with his mother; and never before had Sunnyside seemed so
well to deserve its name.
To love, to fear, and to obey God, was the rule of this widow’s life;
and the time was near at hand when she was to be called upon to
practise it in every silent, secret, darkest corner and recess of her
afflicted spirit. Her eldest son, William, fell in storming a fort in
India, as he led the forlorn-hope. He was killed dead in a moment,
and fell into the trench with all his lofty plumes. Edward was found
dead at Talavera, with the colours of his regiment tied round his
body. And the ship in which Henry was on board, that never would
have struck her flag to any human power sailing on the sea, was
driven by a storm on a reef of rocks, went to pieces during the night,
and of eight hundred men, not fifty were saved. Of that number
Henry was not; but his body was found next day on the sand, along
with those of many of the crew, and buried, as it deserved, with all
honours, and in a place where few but sailors slept.
In one month—one little month—did the tidings of the three
deaths reach Sunnyside. A government letter informed her of
William’s death in India, and added, that, on account of the
distinguished character of the young soldier, a small pension would
be settled on his mother. Had she been starving of want instead of
blessed with competence, that word would have had then no
meaning to her ear. Yet true it is, that a human—an earthly—pride
cannot be utterly extinguished, even by severest anguish, in a
mother’s heart, yea, even although her best hopes are garnered up in
heaven; and the weeping widow could not help feeling it now, when,
with the black wax below her eyes, she read how her dead boy had
not fallen in the service of an ungrateful state. A few days afterwards
a letter came from himself, written in the highest spirits and
tenderest affection. His mother looked at every word—every letter—
every dash of the pen;—and still one thought—one thought only, was
in her soul;—“the living hand that traced these lines—where, what is
it now?” But this was the first blow only; ere the new moon was
visible, the widow knew that she was altogether childless.
It was in a winter hurricane that her youngest boy had perished;
and the names of those whose health had hitherto been remembered
at every festal Christmas, throughout all the parish, from the castle
to the humblest hut, were now either suppressed within the heart, or
pronounced with a low voice and a sigh. During three months,
Sunnyside looked almost as if uninhabited. Yet the smoke from one
chimney told that the childless widow was sitting alone at her
fireside; and when her only servant was spoken to at church, or on
the village-green, and asked how her mistress was bearing these
dispensations, the answer was, that her health seemed little, if at all
impaired, and that she talked of coming to divine service in a few
weeks, if her strength would permit. She had been seen through the
leafless hedge standing at the parlour window, and had motioned
with her hand to a neighbour, who in passing, had uncovered his
head. Her weekly bounty to several poor and bedridden persons had
never suffered but one week’s intermission. It was always sent to
them on Saturday night; and it was on a Saturday night that all the
parish had been thrown into tears, with the news that Henry’s ship
had been wrecked, and the brave boy drowned. On that evening she
had forgotten the poor.
But now the Spring had put forth her tender buds and blossoms—
had strewn the black ground under the shrubs with flowers, and was
bringing up the soft, tender, and beautiful green over the awakening
face of the earth. There was a revival of the spirit of life and gladness
over the garden, and the one encircling field of Sunnyside; and so
likewise, under the grace of God, was there a revival of the soul that
had been sorrowing within its concealment. On the first sweet dewy
Sabbath of May, the widow was seen closing behind her the little
white gate, which for some months her hand had not touched. She
gave a gracious, but mournful smile, to all her friends, as she passed
on through the midst of them along with the minister who had joined
her on entering the churchyard; and although it was observed that
she turned pale as she sat down in her pew, with the Bibles and
Psalm-books that had belonged to her sons lying before her, as they
themselves had enjoined when they went away, yet her face
brightened even as her heart began to burn within her at the simple
music of the psalm. The prayers of the congregation had some
months before been requested for her, as a person in great distress;
and, during service, the young minister, according to her desire, now
said a few simple words, that intimated to the congregation that the
childless widow was, through his lips, returning thanks to Almighty
God, for that He had not forsaken her in her trouble, but sent
resignation and peace.
From that day she was seen, as before, in her house, in her garden,
along the many pleasant walks all about the village; and in the
summer evenings, though not so often as formerly, in the dwellings
of her friends, both high and low. From her presence a more gentle
manner seemed to be breathed over the rude, and a more heartfelt
delicacy over the refined. Few had suffered as she had suffered; all
her losses were such as could be understood, felt, and wept over by
all hearts; and all boisterousness or levity of joy would have seemed
an outrage on her, who, sad and melancholy herself, yet wished all
around her happy, and often lighted up her countenance with a
grateful smile at the sight of that pleasure which she could not but
observe to be softened, sobered, and subdued for her sake.
Such was the account of her, her sorrow, and her resignation,
which I received on the first visit I paid to a family near Castle-Holm,
after the final consummation of her grief. Well-known to me had all
the dear boys been; their father and mine had been labourers in the
same vineyard; and as I had always been a welcome visitor, when a
boy, at the manse of Castle-Holm, so had I been, when a man, at
Sunnyside. Last time I had been there, it was during the holidays,
and I had accompanied the three boys on their fishing excursions to
the lochs in the moor; and in the evenings pursued with them their
humble and useful studies. So I could not leave Castle-Holm without
visiting Sunnyside, although my heart misgave me, and I wished I
could have delayed it till another summer.
I sent word that I was coming to see her, and I found her sitting in
that well-known little parlour where I had partaken the pleasure of
so many merry evenings with those whose laughter was now
extinguished. We sat for awhile together speaking of ordinary topics,
and then utterly silent. But the restraint she had imposed upon
herself she either thought unnecessary any longer, or felt it to be
impossible; and rising up, went to a little desk, from which she
brought forth three miniatures, and laid them down upon the table
before us, saying, “Behold the faces of my three dead boys!”
So bright, breathing, and alive did they appear, that for a moment
I felt impelled to speak to them, and to whisper their names. She
beheld my emotion, and said unto me, “Oh! could you believe that
they are all dead? Does not that smile on Willie’s face seem as if it
were immortal? do not Edward’s sparkling eyes look so bright as if
the mists of death could never have overshadowed them? and think—
oh! think, that ever Henry’s golden hair should have been dragged in
the brine, and filled full—full, I doubt not, of the soiling sand!”
I put the senseless images one by one to my lips, and kissed their
foreheads—for dearly had I loved these three brothers; and then I
shut them up and removed them to another part of the room. I
wished to speak, but I could not; and, looking on the face of her who
was before me, I knew that her grief would find utterance, and that
not until she had unburdened her heart could it be restored to
repose.
“They would tell you, sir, that I bear my trials well; but it is not so.
Many, many unresigned and ungrateful tears has my God to forgive
in me, a poor, weak, and repining worm. Almost every day, almost
every night, do I weep before these silent and beautiful phantoms;
and when I wipe away the breath and mist of tears from their faces,
there are they, smiling continually upon me! Oh! death is a shocking
thought, when it is linked in love with creatures so young as these!
More insupportable is gushing tenderness, than even dry despair;
and, methinks, I could bear to live without them, and never to see
them more, if I could only cease to pity them! But that can never be.
It is for them I weep, not for myself. If they were to be restored to
life, would I not lie down with thankfulness into the grave? William
and Edward were struck down, and died, as they thought, in glory
and triumph. Death to them was merciful. But who can know,
although they may try to dream of it in horror, what the youngest of
them, my sweet Harry, suffered, through that long dark howling
night of snow, when the ship was going to pieces on the rocks!”
That last dismal thought held her for a while silent; and some tears
stood in drops on her eyelashes, but seemed again to be absorbed.
Her heart appeared unable to cling to the horrors of the shipwreck,
although it coveted them; and her thoughts reverted to other objects.
“I walk often into the rooms where they used to sleep, and look on
their beds till I think I see their faces lying with shut eyes on their
pillows. Early in the morning do I often think I hear them singing; I
awaken from troubled unrest, as if the knock of their sportive hands
were at my door summoning me to rise. All their stated hours of
study and of play, when they went to school and returned from it,
when they came into meals, when they said their prayers, when they
went leaping at night to bed as lightsomely, after all the day’s fatigue,
as if they had just risen—oh! Sir, at all these times, and many, and
many a time besides these, do I think of them whom you loved.”
While thus she kept indulging the passion of her grief, she
observed the tears I could no longer conceal; and the sight of my
sorrow seemed to give, for a time, a loftier character to hers, as if my
weakness made her aware of her own, and she had become conscious
of the character of her vain lamentations. “Yet, why should I so
bitterly weep? Pain had not troubled them—passion had not
disturbed them—vice had not polluted them. May I not say, ‘My
children are in heaven with their father?’—and ought I not, therefore,
to dry up all these foolish tears now and for evermore?”
Composure was suddenly shed over her countenance, like gentle
sunlight over a cheerless day, and she looked around the room as if
searching for some pleasant objects that eluded her sight. “See,” said
she, “yonder are all their books, arranged just as Henry arranged
them on his unexpected visit. Alas! too many of them are about the
troubles and battles of the sea! But it matters not now. You are
looking at that drawing. It was done by himself—that is the ship he
was so proud of, sailing in sunshine and a pleasant breeze. Another
ship, indeed, was she soon after, when she lay upon the reef! But as
for the books, I take them out of their places, and dust them, and
return them to their places, every week. I used to read to my boys,
sitting round my knees, out of many of these books, before they
could read themselves; but now I never peruse them, for their
cheerful stories are not for me. But there is one Book I do read, and
without it I should long ago have been dead. The more the heart
suffers, the more does it understand that Book. Never do I read a
single chapter, without feeling assured of something more awful in
our nature than I felt before. My own heart misgives me; my own
soul betrays me; all my comforts desert me in a panic; but never yet
once did I read one whole page of the New Testament that I did not
know that the eye of God is on all His creatures, and on me like the
rest, though my husband and all my sons are dead, and I may have
many years yet to live alone on the earth.”
After this we walked out into the little avenue, now dark with the
deep rich shadows of summer beauty. We looked at that beauty, and
spoke of the surpassing brightness of the weather during all June,
and advancing July. It is not in nature always to be sad; and the
remembrance of all her melancholy and even miserable confessions
was now like an uncertain echo, as I beheld a placid smile on her
face, a smile of such perfect resignation, that it might not falsely be
called a smile of joy. We stood at the little white gate; and, with a
gentle voice, that perfectly accorded with that expression, she bade
God bless me; and then with composed steps, and now and then
turning up, as she walked along, the massy flower-branches of the
laburnum, as, bent with their load of beauty, they trailed upon the
ground, she disappeared into that retirement which, notwithstanding
all I had seen and heard, I could not but think deserved almost to be
called happy, in a world which even the most thoughtless know is a
world of sorrow.
 THE BATTLE OF THE BREEKS:
A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM
M‘GEE, WEAVER IN HAMILTON.

By Robert Macnish, LL.D.

I often wonder when I think of the tribulations that men bring

upon themsels, through a want of gumption and common
independence of speerit. There now was I, for nae less than eighteen
years, as henpeckit a man as ever wrocht at the loom. Maggie and
me, after the first week of our marriage, never forgathered weel
thegither. There was something unco dour and imperious about her
temper, although, I maun say, barring this drawback, she was nae
that ill in her way either,—that is to say, she had a sort of kindness
about her, and behaved in a truly mitherly way to the bairns, giein
them a’ things needfu’ in the way of feeding and claithing, so far as
our means admitted. But, oh, man, for a’ that, she was a dour wife.
There was nae pleasing her ae way or anither; and whenever I heard
the bell ringing for the kirk, it put me in mind of her tongue—aye
wag, wagging, and abusing me beyond bounds. In ae word, I was a
puir, broken-hearted man, and often wished myself in Abraham’s
bosom, awa frae the cares and miseries of this sinfu’ world.
I was just saying that folk often rin their heads into scrapes for
want of a pickle natural spunk. Let nae man tell me that gude nature
and simpleecity will get on best in this world; na—faith na. I hae had
ower muckle experience that way; and the langer I live has proved to
me that my auld maister, James Currie (him in the Quarry Loan),
wasna sae far wrang when he alleged, in his droll, gude-humoured
way, that a man should hae enough o’ the deil about him to keep the
deil frae him. That was, after a’, ane of the wisest observes I hae
heard of for a lang time. Little did I opine that I would ever be
obligated to mak use o’t in my ain particular case:—but, bide a wee,
and ye shall see how it was brocht about between me and Maggie.
It was on a wintry night when she set out to pick a quarrel wi’ Mrs
Todd, the huckster’s wife, anent the price of a pickle flour which I
had bought some days before, for making batter of, but which didna
turn out sae weel as I expeckit, considering what was paid for’t. Had
I been consulted, I would hae tell’t her to bide at hame, and no fash
her thumb about the matter, which after a’ was only an affair of
three-ha’pence farthing, and neither here nor there. But, na; Maggie
was nane o’ the kind to let sic an object stan’ by; so out she sets, wi’
her red cloak about her, and her black velvet bonnet—that she had
just that day got hame frae Miss Lorimer, the milliner—upon her
head. But I maun first tell what passed between her and me on this
wonderful occasion.
“And now, my dear,” quo’ I, looking as couthy and humble as I
could, and pu’ing my Kilmarnock nicht-cap a wee grain aff my brow
in a kind of half respectfu’ fashion, “what’s this ye’re ganging to be
about? Odds, woman, I wadna gie a pirn for a’ that has happened.
What signifies a pickle flour, scrimp worth half a groat?”
Faith, I would better hae held my tongue, for nae sooner was the
word uttered, than takin’ haud of a can, half fu’ o’ ready-made
dressing, which I was preparing to lay on a wab of blue check I was
working for Mr Andrew Treddles, the Glasgow manufacturer—I say,
taking haud of this, she let flee at my head like a cannon-ball. But
Providence was kind, and instead of knocking out my brains, as I had
every reason to expeck, it gaed bang against our ain looking-glass,
and shattered it into five hunder pieces. But I didna a’thegither
escape scaith—the dressing having flown out as the can gaed by me,
and plaistered a’ my face ower in a manner maist extraordinar to
behold. By jingo! my spirit was roused at this deadly attempt, and gin
she hadna been my wife, I wad hae thrawn about her neck, like a
tappit-hen’s. But, na—I was henpeckit, and she had sic a mastery
ower me as nae persuasions of my ain judgment could owercome.
Sae I could do naething but stan’ glowering at her like a moudiewart,
while she poured out as muckle abuse as if I had been her flunkey,
instead of her natural lord and master. Ance or twice I fand my
nieves yeuking to gie her a clour by way of balancing accounts, but
such was the power of influence she had obtained, that I durstna
cheep for my very heart’s blude. So awa she gaed on her errand,
leaving me sittin’ by the fire to mak the best of my desperate
condition.
“O, Nancy,” said I to my dochter, as she sat mending her brither’s
sark, opposite to me, “is na your mither an awfu’ woman?”
“I see naething awfu’ about her,” quo’ the cratur; “I think she servit
ye richt; and had I a man, I would just treat him in the same way, if
he daured to set his nose against onything I wanted.”
I declare to ye, when I heard this frae my ain flesh and blude, I was
perfectly dumfoundered. The bairn I had brought up on my knee—
that used, when a wee thing, to come and sit beside me at the loom,
and who was in the custom of wheeling my pirns wi’ her ain hand—
odds, man, it was desperate. I couldna say anither word, but I faund
a big tear come hap-happing ower my runkled cheeks, the first that
had wet them sin’ I was a bit laddie rinnin’ about before the schule
door. What was her mither’s abusiveness to this? A man may thole
muckle frae his wife, but, oh, the harsh words of an undutifu’ bairn
gang like arrows to his heart, and he weeps tears of real bitterness. I
wasna angry at the lassie—I was ower grieved to be angered; and for
the first time I fand that my former sufferings were only as a single
thread to a hale hank of yarn, compared to them I suffered at this
moment.
A’thegither, the thing was mair than I could stand, so rising up, I
betaks mysel to my but-an-ben neighbour, Andrew Brand. Andrew
was an uncommon sagacious chiel, and, like mysel, a weaver to his
trade. He was beuk-learned, and had read a hantle on different
subjects, so that he was naturally looked up to by the folks round
about, on account of his great lear. When onything gaed wrang about
the Leechlee Street, where we lived, we were a’ glad to consult him;
and his advice was reckoned no greatly behint that of Mr Meek, the
minister. He was a great counter, or ’rithmetishian, as he ca’d it; and
it was thocht by mony gude judges that he could handle a pen as weel
as Mr Dick, the writing-master, himsel. So, as I was saying, I stappit
ben to Andrew’s, to ask his advice, but, odds! if ye ever saw a man in
sic a desperate passion as he was in when I tauld him how I had been
used by my wife and dochter.
 “William M‘Gee,” said he, raising his voice,—it was a geyan strong
ane,—“ye’re an absolute gomeril. Oh, man, but ye’re a henpeckit
sumph! I tell ye, ye’re a gawpus and a lauching-stock, and no worth
the name of a man. Do ye hear that?”
“O ay, I hear’t very weel,” quo’ I, no that pleased at being sae
spoken to, even by Andrew Brand, who was a man I could stamach a
gude deal frae, in the way of reproof—“I hear’t a’ weel eneuch, and
am muckle obleeged to ye, nae doubt, for your consolation.”
“Hooly and fairly, William,” said he in a kinder tone, for he saw I
was a degree hurt by his speech. “Come, I was only joking ye, man,
and ye maunna tak onything amiss I hae said. But, really, William, I
speak to ye as a frien’, and tell ye that ye are submitting to a tyranny
which no man of common understanding ought to submit to. Is this
no the land of liberty? Are we no just as free as the Duke in his grand
palace down by; and has onybody a richt—tell me that, William
M‘Gee—to tyranneeze ower anither as your wife does ower you! I’ll
no tell ye what to do, but I’ll just tell ye what I would do if my wife
and dochter treated me as yours have treated you: losh, man, I would
ding their harns about, and knock their heads thegither like twa
curling-stanes. I would aye be master in my ain house.”
This was Andrew’s advice, and I thocht it sounded geyan rational,
only no very easy to be put in practice. Hoosomever, thinks I to
mysel, I’ll consider about it, and gin I could only bring mysel to mak
the experiment, wha kens but I micht succeed to a miracle? On
stapping back to my ain house, the first thing I did was to tak a
thimblefu’ of whisky, by way of gieing me a pickle spunk, in case of
ony fresh rumpus wi’ the wife, and also to clear up my ideas; for I hae
fand, that after a lang spell at the loom, the thochts, as weel as the
body, are like to get stupid and dozey. So I taks a drappie, and sits
down quietly by the fireside, waiting for the return of Maggie frae
scolding Mrs Todd about the flour.
In she comes, a’ in a flurry. Her face was as red as a peony rose,
her breathing cam fast, and she lookit a’thegither like ane that has
had a sair warsle wi’ the tongue. But she was far frae being downcast.
On the contrair, she lookit as proud as a Turkey cock; and I saw wi’
the tail o’ my ee that she had gained a gran’ victory ower puir Mrs
Todd, who was a douce, quiet woman, and nae match for the like of
her in randying. So she began to stump and mak a great phrase about
the way she had outcrawed the puir body; and was a’thegither as
upset about it as if Duke Hamilton had made her keeper of his
palace. Losh! I was mad to hear’t, and twa or three times had a gude
mind to put in a word, to sic a degree was my courage raised by the
drap speerits; but aye as the words were rising to my mouth, the
thocht of the can and the dressing sent them back again, till they
stuck like a bane in my throat. Very likely I micht hae said ne’er a
word, and Andrew Brand’s advice micht hae gane for naething, had it
no been for the cratur Nancy, who was sae lifted up about her
mither’s dispute, that naething would sair her but to hae the hale
affair mentioned cut and dry.
“And did ye cast up to Mrs Todd, mither,” quo’ the little cutty,
“that she was fat?”
“Ay, that I did,” said Maggie. “I tell’t her she was like a barn-door. I
tell’t her she was like the side of a house. ‘Ye’re a sow,’ quo’ I; ‘ye get
fou every hour of the day, wi’ your lump of a gudeman!’”
But this wasna a’—for nae sooner had Maggie answered her
dochter’s first question, than the cratur was ready wi’ anither: “And,
mither, did ye cast up to her that her faither was a meeser?”
“Atweel did I, Nancy,” answered the gudewife. “I tell’t her a’ that. I
coost up to her that her faither was a meeser, and would ride to
Lunnon on a louse, and mak breeks of its skin, and candles of its
tallow.”
I could thole this nae langer. I fand the hale man working within
me, and was moved to a pitch of daring, mair like madness than
onything else. Faith, the whisky was of gude service now, and so was
Andrew Brand’s advice. I accordingly steekit my nieves wi’
desperation, threw awa my cowl, tucked up my sark sleeves,—for my
coat happened to be aff at the time,—and got up frae the three-footed
stool I had been sitting upon in the twinkling of an ee. I trumbled a’
ower, but whether it was wi’ fear, or wi’ anger, or wi’ baith put
thegither, it would be difficult to say. I was in an awfu’ passion, and
as fairce as a papist.
“And so,” said I, “ye coost up sic things to the honest woman, Mrs
Todd! O, Maggie M‘Gee, Maggie M‘Gee, are ye no ashamed of
yoursel?”
 ’Od it would hae dune your heart gude to see how she glowered at
me. She was bewildered, and lookit as if to see whether I was mysel,
and no some ither body. But her evil speerit didna lie lang asleep; it
soon broke out like a squib on the king’s birthday, and I saw that I
maun now stand firm, or be a dead man for ever.
“Has your faither been at the whisky bottle?” said she to her
dochter. “He looks as if he was the waur of drink.”
“He had a glass just before ye cam in,” answered the wicked
jimpey; and scarcely had she spoken the word, when Maggie flew
upon me like a teeger, and gied me a skelp on the cheek wi’ her open
loof, that made me turn round tapwise on the middle of the floor.
Seeing that affairs were come to this pass, I saw plainly that I maun
go on, no forgetting in sae doing my frien’ Andrew’s advice, as also
my auld master Tammas Currie’s observe, anent a man ha’eing
aneuch of the deil in his temper to keep the deil awa frae him. So I
picked up a’ the spunk I had in me, besides what I had frae the drap
whisky; and fa’ing to, I gied her sic a leathering as never woman got
in her born days. In ae word, she met wi’ her match, and roared
aloud for mercy; but this I would on nae account grant, till she
promised faithfully that, in a’ time coming, she would acknowledge
me as her lord and maister, and obey me in everything as a dutiful
wife should her husband.
As soon as this was settled, in stappit Andrew Brand. At the sight
of my wife greeting, and me sae fairce, he held up his hands wi’
astonishment.
“William M‘Gee,” quo’ he, “it’s no possible that ye’re maister in this
house!”
“It’s no only possible, but it’s true, Andrew,” was my answer; and,
taking me by the hand, he wished me joy for my speerit and success.
Sae far, sae weel; the first grand stroke was made, but there was
something yet to do. I had discharged a’ outstanding debts wi’ my
wife, and had brocht her to terms; but I had yet to reduce my bairns
to their senses, and show them that I was their lord and maister, as
weel as their mither’s. Puir things! my heart was wae for them, for
they were sairly miseducated, and held me in nae mair estimation,
than if I had been ane of my ain wabster lads. So, just wi’ a view to
their gude, I took down a pair of teuch ben-leather taws, weel burnt
at the finger-ends, and gied Nancy as mony cracks ower the bare
neck, as set her squeeling beyond a’ bounds. It was pitifu’ to see the
cratur, how she skipped about the room, and ran awa to her mither,
to escape my faitherly rage. But a’ assistance frae that quarter was at
an end now; and she was fain to fa’ down on her knees, and beg my
forgiveness, and promise to conduct hersel as became my dochter, in
a’ time coming.
Just at this moment, in comes wee Geordie, greeting for his
parritch. He kent naething of what had taken place in the house; and,
doubtless, expeckit to mak an idiot of me, his faither, as he had been
accustomed to do, almost frae his very cradle. I saw that now was the
time to thresh the corruption out of him; and brandishing the taws
ower my head, I made a stap forrit to lay hand upon him, and treat
him like the lave. He looked as if he had an inkling of what was
forthcoming, and ran whinging and craiking to his mither, who stood
wiping her een wi’ her striped apron in a corner of the room. The
terrified laddie clang to her knees, but she never offered to lend a
helping hand, sae great was the salutary terror wi’ which I had
inspired her. So I pu’d him awa frae her coats, to which he was
clinging; and, laying him ower my knee, I gied him hipsie-dipsie in
the presence of his mither, his sister, and Andrew Brand, who were
looking on.
And thus hae I, who for eighteen years was ruled by my wife, got
the upper hand; and ony man who is henpeckit as I hae been, should
just tak the same plan, and his success will be as sure as mine.
Andrew Brand aye said to me that a man should wear his ain breeks;
and I can maintain, frae present experience, that a wiser saying is no
to be found in the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David. No that
Maggie hasna tried nows and thans to recover her lost power, but I
hae on thae occasions conduckit mysel wi’ sic firmness, that she has
at last gien it up as a bad job, and is now as obedient a wife as ye’ll
meet wi’ between this and Bothwell. The twa bairns, too, are just
wonderfully changed, and are as raisonable as can be expeckit, a’
things considered. Let men, therefore, whether gentle or simple,
follow my plan, and the word “henpeckit,” as Andrew Brand says,
will soon slip out of the dictionair.
 MY SISTER KATE.

By Andrew Picken.

There is a low road (but it is not much frequented, for it is terribly

round about) that passes at the foot of the range of hills that skirt the
long and beautiful gut or firth of the Clyde, in the west of Scotland;
and as you go along this road, either up or down, the sea or firth is
almost at your very side, the hills rising above you; and you are just
opposite to the great black and blue mountains on the other side of
the gut, that sweep in heavy masses, or jut out in bold capes, at the
mouth of the deep lochs that run up the firth into the picturesque
highlands of Argyleshire.
You may think of the scene what you please, because steam-
boating has, of late years, profaned it somewhat into commonness,
and defiled its pure air with filthy puffs of coal smoke; and because
the Comet and all her unfortunate passengers were sunk to the
bottom of this very part of the firth; and because, a little time
previous, a whole boatful of poor Highland reaper girls were all run
down in the night-time, while they were asleep, and drowned near
the Clough lighthouse hard by; but if you were to walk this road by
the seaside any summer afternoon, going towards the bathing village
of Gourock, you would say, as you looked across to the Highlands,
and up the Clyde towards the rocks of Dumbarton Castle, that there
are few scenes more truly magnificent and interesting.
There is a little village exactly opposite to you, looking across the
firth, which is called Dunoon, and contains the burying-place of the
great house of Argyle; and which, surrounded by a patch of green
cultivated land, sloping pleasantly from the sea, and cowering snugly
by itself, with its picturesque cemetery, under the great blue hills