Taken by Angeline Fortin (great books of all time TXT) 📗

of her feelings when he said things like that was annoyingly contradictory.  Triumph.  Trepidation.  It was easiest just to push it all aside.  “Anyway, I was extremely awkward, especially with other people.  On top of that, I was a huge geek.”

“A geek?” Laird tested the word with a frown.  “Such an unsavory word.”

Scarlett grinned at that.  “Ahh, but better than being a nerd.  It’s an important distinction.  I was just a blissful fangirl.”

“Fan girl?  I thought ye were an actor?”

“Someday I’ll explain all that to you.  The point is I was happy as I could be far away from all the hoopla surrounding my parents.  It was magnificent to hide from the world, fly beneath the public radar, you know?” she asked, then promptly shook her head.  “No, of course, you don’t.”

“Then why did ye do it?”

“My parents,” she hesitated, not wanting to confuse him further with talk of a future he couldn’t understand, but the truth of it was yearning to get out. To voice what she had never dared to say aloud before lest she find it printed in some gossip blog the next day.  “Roles, good paying ones, were getting harder for them to find.”  Scarlett laughed inwardly at that.  What a delicate way of interpreting the past.  Truth was her mother hadn’t wanted to admit that she just wasn’t the screen siren she once was.  She refused to play anyone’s mother.  “Times were getting tough when my dad landed a bit part in this new movie franch… uh, production,” she continued.  “It was being developed from a young adult paranormal book series about a group of teenagers in a post-apocalyptic world who escape the destruction of London and gather at an old castle to fight the invaders taking over the world.”

“I dinnae understand any of that.”

“Don’t worry.  It’s not important.  What ended up happening is that my father told the director that he knew just the right person to play the role of the geeky, shy but brilliantly techno-savvy Finley Adams.  Me.”

“Nepotism.” He shrugged, his chest shifting against her back with the motion.  “No’ an unusual way to win a place in the world.  The Hepburns hae relied upon it for generations to advance the clan.”

“Some called it nepotism, others said it was just in my genes.  Either way, the part was mine.  I spent most of my teen years making those fil… uh, playing that one part,” she modified.

“Tell me more aboot the plot of this tale.  Post-apocalyptic?  Was it a religious work?”

“No,” she paused, considering how to answer in a way he might understand.  “How can I explain this so that you’ll understand?  It just refers to a time when the human race as managed to nearly destroy itself without God’s help.  Does that make any sense?”

“Aye, we are well on our way, me thinks.”

Scarlett smiled.  “Oh, I think the world’s safe for a while yet, but in this story it wasn’t.  Imagine a time far in the future, all right?  Society was nearly destroyed but had begun to build itself up once more, and had come to realize that humans were not the only intelligent beings in the universe.”

“What a sacrilegious notion,” he said, his arms tightening around her as he stiffened in shock.  “I cannae fathom that the playwright wisnae immediately imprisoned for propagating such blasphemy.”

“Are you going to let me finish?”  Laird paused but then nodded against the top of her head.  “All right, so the humans have been interacting with the alien beings for some time…”  His chest heaved against her back as he scoffed.  “Really?  Now listen.  One of the races of aliens, called the Umbrut, brought with them another species that they kept as pets.  Harmless, innocuous dragon-like creatures called Harquinians.  Little,” she held her hands out to indicate something the size of a basketball, “and as cute as pie.”

“Pie isnae cute.”

Scarlett just pursed her lips in exasperation and continued.  “Well, it turns out that the Umbrut were the ones who were the pets, so to speak.  The Harquinians had been controlling their minds for generations, feeding on them.  They came to Earth with the same intention for the human race.  Before long, most of the world’s population was reduced to a zombie-like state, uh, puppets in the hands of their masters before the threat could be countered, in part, by a group of young people who took refuge in an ancient castle.  In the last segment, Broken Strings, they manage to vanquish the alien enemy and save the human race from eradication.”

“I’ve ne’er heard such lunacy in my life,” he said with a dry laugh.  “I cannae imagine a person succumbing to such control.”

Turning in his arms, Scarlett looked up at him curiously.  “Can’t you?  Aren’t the people here controlled to some extent by religion and superstition?  By fear of hellfire and warnings of eternal damnation?” Her question was met by a dark scowl.

“Ye speak dangerously close to heresy, lass.  Now I ken why Rhys sought yer company as he is oft an irreverent fool.  No’ doubt he enjoyed such stories greatly.”

“In fact, he did.  Millions of people did.  It was wildly popular.”

Laird laughed, assuming her number an exaggeration, no doubt.  In truth, it was rather conservative.  “And ye say ye played this same role for years?”

“Yes.  The role wasn’t much of a stretch for me and to some extent I enjoyed it, but it was never my dream.” It had been her parents dream.  Her co-stars as well, who one and all desired nothing more than fame.  Scarlett hadn’t wanted it.  She hadn’t lied to Grayson about that.  Growing up as she had and seeing the impact ‘fame’ had on her parents, she wanted nothing to do with it.  Regardless of her wishes, she had been a reluctant star, but was just finally getting a grip on her life.

“What was yer dream?”

It was Scarlett’s turn to shrug.  “I’m not sure.  I never had much of a chance to really think about it.  I did go