His Irresistible Darling - Sarah Randall Page 0,52
did it happen?”
“High school. So I was about twelve or thirteen when it first started. About the same time I got braces.”
He narrowed his brows. “It was about your braces? But don’t most kids have braces that age?” he asked, confused.
“No. It wasn’t just about my braces. There’s nothing more vicious than bullies. It can be anything. I was teased for wearing glasses, having braces, having parents who were deemed old—” She continued to talk as she shaved him and he was pleased that she carried on talking to him. “You know my parents thought they couldn’t have any more children after Matt. Mum was in her late thirties when she had him, so when I came along thirteen years later—” She gave a tight-lipped smile and shrugged. “Then of course the bastards discovered my fear of small, enclosed places and locked me in the storage cupboard in the gym.”
“Jesus how’d they find that out?”
He saw sadness spread over her face and reach her eyes. “My best friend. She was a redhead with freckles. Need I say any more? They called her the usual nasty names and teased her incessantly until they broke her and she told them a secret about me, which was all they wanted.”
“Didn’t you tell anyone?”
“No. Matt was still away from home at the time and I didn’t want to tell my parents. I was ashamed that I couldn’t deal with it myself and I didn’t want them to know that I was being teased because they were older than most parents, that I was being constantly told that they were going to die soon. Like I said, nothing as nasty as a bully.”
She moved to the other side of his body and again took hold of his head and tilted it to the side.
“So anyway, I tried to remain positive and happy like normal and managed to carry it off until the bullying finally stopped. I think they got bored that they couldn’t get the reaction out of me that they wanted.” She tapped out the razor again before moving lower on his face towards his throat.
“So, I’m sorry if I act out sometimes at work. I just have a need to please people and make them like me. I know it’s stupid.” She shook her head.
He took hold of her wrist again. “I don’t think it’s stupid. I think you’re brave to have gone through that on your own and if Matt had known—”
Her eyes widened with alarm. “You can’t tell Matt, Jumal. Ever. He’d hate it that he didn’t know what was going on. Please,” she begged.
“Okay, Okay,” he reassured. “I won’t say anything, but like I was saying, I think you’re very brave to have stood up to bullies at that age.” He dropped her wrist and lowered his gaze as he continued, “I wish I’d have had the guts to stand up to a bully.”
“You were bullied too?” she asked, shocked.
“Not in the sense that you were bullied. My bully was far closer to home. My father.”
“Your father?”
“Yeah, his preferred form of bullying was more emotional over physical though. He basically dictated every move I ever made in my life until I was twenty-one: my education, my hobbies, my friends, even chose Faridah as my fiancée. Whenever I would stand up against his authority he would throw my heritage and title back at me and what a disappointment I’d been to him.” He gave a short, humourless laugh.
“The best thing he ever did though was send me off to Oxford to study—not that I thought so at the time. I met Matt there and he changed my life, showed me what freedom really was. I remember coming back to Melville for one summer.” He paused at the memory of Pippa. “You’d have been only about six or so at the time, all cute with hair in pigtails but covered in mud if I recall and stuffing your face with one of Mrs Henderson’s cookies. You looked like a little street urchin,” he teased as she batted at his shoulder.
“Hey,” she challenged with a smile on her face. “I resemble that remark!”
Jumal chuckled at her joke but pressed on. “Well, anyway, I saw what a close family you all were. How much your parents loved you both and each other, and God the whole village seemed to revolve around your family, Melville House and the Horse Stud Farm. I loved spending time just watching your father work with the horses. He would