Eternally North Read Online Free PDF Page A

Middle Ages so 'slighting your daughter' is
perhaps too dramatic a term to use towards my ex that I lived with...
out of wedlock. And Dad, your Sgian-Dubh is purely decorative for
your kilt and about two inches long, so, unless Nathan has joined
ranks with Grumpy and Dopey in the last twenty-four hours, it's not
exactly an appropriate weapon to wield if you want to be successful
in the slitting from naval to nose!"
    Taking a deep breath,
Dad seemed to mellow out.
    "Plus we ran out
of your blue face paint at Halloween when we dressed up as Smurfs."
    Huffing out a sigh at
not getting to beat some English meat, he seemed to restrain himself.
"I'm just so angry, sweetheart. I'm raging, you ken?"
    "I know, but let’s
just forget it and move on. Hey, with any luck I’ll get myself a
Scottish boy next," I laughed.
    "Aye, that'd be
good. But no fenians, you hear? If they support Celtic, dunnae even
bother bringing him home! You're my little girl. My miracle," he
sniffed, and wiped away a single tear.
    I laid my head on his
shoulder. "I know, Dad."
    One parent appeased, I
turned to my mother to see her bottom lip beginning to tremble.
    Great, here come the
water works!
    "Oh, my sweet
girl, how could he?" she said, rushing over to me and crushing
me into her ample bosom. "And on the imported Italian leather
L-shape? Has he no shame?"
    "Mam, I’m fine,
really," I managed to mumble out of my current suffocation.
    Letting go, she grabbed
my cheeks and looked me in the eye to check for fibs.
    "Honestly, Mam, I
think it’s for the best. You know I don't let things get to me.
Especially after speaking to the homeless man. I'm just pissed off
that he threw a whopping spanner in my life plan. I mean I’m
twenty-eight and no spring chicken, but, thinking about it, I never really loved him; he just fit the profile I was looking for in
a potential partner."
    My parents furrowed
their brows at how I could talk so coldly about someone I had been in
a relationship with for three years, but it was true – I don’t
think I ever really loved him. He was just... convenient.
    "But how could
he?” my mother continued. “After all you have been through, the
insensitive little shit! Wait, did you say you spoke to a homeless
man?"
    I waved my hand in
front of me, dismissing her worry. "It doesn’t matter about
the homeless man, Mam. Please stop worrying. I’m not a charity
case!" I shouted in exasperation.
    My mam tutted at my
little outburst. "Firstly, I do not think you are a charity
case, but you have had more than your fair share of bad luck in this
life, and I for one cannot believe that Nathan, knowing all of that,
still betrayed you in such a way," she cried into her hands.
    "I know, Mam, but
it’s done; I’m moving on. I think it was a blessing in disguise
anyway. It saved me from a messy future divorce and gave me a new
perspective on life."
    She sat beside me,
stroking my hair and holding my hand, nodding and staring into space.
    "Erm, guys, I have
something else to say in regards to said, new perspective," I
started again, wanting to keep the momentum of the revelations going.
    "What is it,
flower?" asked my mam.
    "Tink and I are
moving to Calgary. In five months," I said in an upbeat tone.
"Ta-daa!" I added weakly, as an afterthought, incorporating
my award winning jazz hands into the reveal.
    "I dunnae feckin'
think so!" My dad rose to his feet and began pacing and spouting
expletives again.
    I looked in my mother’s
direction. She was looking a deathly shade of white and had
definitely stopped breathing, slouched over Brunhilde, the Munro
family dachshund.
    My father halted in his
rant abruptly and looked me in the eye, no longer upset. "Let me
get this straight. Yesterday you were living your life as normal,
yes?"
    I nodded.
    He continued. "Then
you go home and find your boyfriend with another woman, break up with
him, go to Tink’s, get blindingly drunk and decide to move to
Calgary, Canada?"
    He waited for my answer
in