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“I really just said that to
make you feel better.” Fiona sat down on the couch and reached for
her own teacup. “Papin’s problems have to do with the fact that you
and Mike are imploding in front of her very eyes
and
she’s being taken
from the only home she’s ever known.”

Sarah stared at her. She wanted to argue
with her. She wanted to utter the one statement that would wipe
that all-knowing look off Fiona’s face. But she couldn’t.

Fiona was right.

“She’s going to feel abandoned,” Sarah said,
tears gathering in her eyes.

“We will do everything in our power to make
sure she doesn’t.” Fi put her arm around Sarah’s shoulders. “Mike
and Declan and I will love her and care for her—and her baby—and
she will always know that you love her, too.”

Sarah shook her head. “How am I going to
tell her?” she whispered.

“You’ll tell her there’s a wee snag on this
end and that you’ll sort it out from the States and send for
her.”

“That’s true. I can send for her.” Sarah
looked at Fiona, her heart leaping with hope.

“Sure, Sarah. Only you have to know that
isn’t likely. In the middle of an international crisis? What made
you think in the first place the Americans would ever let her
come?”

Sarah shook her head. “I just…wanted it so
much, it didn’t occur to me. She’s my daughter.”

“Except she isn’t.”

“How am I going to tell her?” Sarah covered
her face with her hands and slumped back into the sofa.

Suddenly the front door of the cottage burst
open and Declan charged in. He looked at the two women sitting
there and then went into the kitchen before coming back.

“Declan!” Fiona shouted. “Whatever is the
matter with you? What’s happened?”

“He’s gone,” Declan said. “Ollie. He’s been
let out.”

Sarah saw Declan’s face creased with anger
and…relief. She had never seen this side of him, and she wondered
if Fi ever had either.

“So you think he’s hiding
in
here
?” Fiona
said incredulously. “Does that even make sense?”

“It’s not Ollie he was looking to find
here,” Sarah said calmly, her eyes on Declan’s face. Before he
could speak, Gavin and John pushed into the cottage.

“It’s all over the camp, Dec,” Gavin said.
“Jamie says his green colt, Bumper, is missing, too.”

Sarah was very aware that Declan had not
taken his eyes off her. She stood up and straightened out the
blouse she’d slept in. “Thanks for the tea and talk, Fi,” she said.
“I …I should go check on the Widow Murray.”

“Okay,” Fiona said, frowning, still
confused.

Sarah hurried past Declan and squeezed out
of the door. From the porch she could see that the camp was aroused
and active this morning. At least ten people were waiting outside
Mike’s hut. A sick feeling slid down her throat. It was not like
Mike not to be up yet. As she jogged down the porch steps, she saw
Aideen striding across the camp center toward Fiona and Declan’s
cabin. She looked bewildered.

“Sarah!” Declan’s voice was harsh, and for a
moment Sarah couldn’t believe he was directing it at her. She
slowed her steps but didn’t stop.

“Mind if I ask you where Mike is this fine
morning?” He called to her, his voice sarcastic and commanding.

Well, there it was. If
Ollie was sprung then who the hell else could it have been?
Mike had spent more time arguing against hanging
him than he had campaigning for himself.

“Well, how would I know?” Sarah said without
turning.

Aideen moved swiftly in
front of her and put a hand against her chest to stop her forward
moving. “I, for one,” she hissed, “do mind very much you
asking
Sarah
where my fiancé is.”

“Get out of my way.”

“I don’t think so, Yank,”
Aideen said. “Is there a reason why anyone would think
you
know where Mike is
before
me
?”

“If you don’t move your hand, you’re going
to be pulling it out of your butt in about two seconds,” Sarah
said, her eyes hard as flints.

Aideen gasped and dropped her hand but
didn’t move out of the way. “Why are you still here? You’re living
on the couch of an old addled widow woman! How much bigger a
picture do we need to draw for you? It’s time to go!”

“I’ll go when I’m ready, Aideen.” Although
several inches shorter than Aideen, Sarah pushed past her, nearly
knocking her off balance. Sarah continued walking until she felt a
hard hand grab at her shoulder and twist her around. Before Sarah
could say another word, Aideen backhanded her across the mouth,
knocking her on her butt in the dirt.

“Fight! Fight!”

Sarah heard some of the gypsy men yelling
and she was aware of a small crowd beginning to hem her in as she
scrambled to her feet. Aideen stood facing her, her expression
contorted into an ugly mask, her hands held up in front of her like
claws about to slice pieces off Sarah if she dared to come at
her.

Before Sarah could take a step toward her,
Fiona was between them, her arms outstretched.

“Ladies, ladies!” she said breathlessly.
“This is not the sort of camp entertainment we like to encourage.
Both of you take a breath. Now Dec has gone off in search of Mike
and he—”

“The bitch slapped me!” Sarah said hotly,
her face stinging and the feeling of blood seeping into her mouth
where a tooth had cut into her lip.

“I know and I’ll be needing you to say
sorry, Aideen,” Fiona said, looking at Aideen and trying to smile
encouragingly. “If you please.”

“Bugger that!” Aideen said. “She’s dragged
this goodbye out so everyone in camp can’t wait to see the back of
her! I’m not a bit sorry.”

Fiona turned to Sarah. “Now Sarah, you’ll
not want to be carrying on like this in front of John, am I
right?”

Sarah glanced away from Aideen for a moment
to see if John was near. She glared at the gawking bystanders, most
of them men.

“Why is she still here?” Aideen said to
Fiona, clearly not ready to let it go. “Can I hitch up the team for
you?” she shouted at Sarah. “Or do you need Mike to do that for
you? Piss off, you!”

“I’ll leave when I’m ready, or not at all,”
Sarah said. “How about them apples, sister? How about if I just
stay right here? You know, the more I think of it, the better I
like that idea.” Sarah knew she’d hit pay dirt. The light in
Aideen’s eyes turned into something wild and chaotic.

“You’re leaving!”

“No. I don’t think I am!”

The urge to pound this creature with her
fists, to rip the smug, self-satisfied smile from her face was
overwhelming. For over a month now, Sarah’s world had been a
festering pile of ugly glances, harsh words, and disappointment.
She’d hurt every single person who loved her and been thoroughly
trounced in return. And now she was going to hit this woman who
Mike had chosen over her, hit her until—

Aideen held her hands up with her jagged
talons poised to rake Sarah’s face, her eyes when Sarah pushed
Fiona out of the way and hit the taller woman around the midsection
bringing her crashing down under her in the dirt. She could feel
Fiona slapping her on the back to get her off of Aideen but she
ignored her, clutching at Aideen’s deadly nails to keep them from
reaching her throat. She felt the anger and the frustration pump
through her arms, as if she had every person in camp who’d ever
turned on her beneath her. Her arms shook with the exertion and the
need to hit something.

Somewhere in her head she heard Fiona
screaming and the gypsy men howling with delight, but all she saw
was Aideen—the face of every broken promise and good thing that had
turned sour in her whole life represented in one snotty Irish woman
who had pushed every one of her last buttons. She was milliliters
from smashing that nasty, gloating face. And then she was being
jerked up and away. Her hands windmilled in the air for purchase,
grabbing at Aideen’s jacket or hair, but Aideen’s reach was longer.
She lashed out with a fist that caught Sarah on the ear before
Sarah was wrenched away.

When Mike set her down, her ear stinging and
seeming to vibrate such that all the noise seemed to make no
coherent sense, she lurched back at Aideen but was caught by Mike
again. He grabbed her by the middle and this time carried her
several steps away from the fight. When they stopped, she could see
Fiona helping Aideen up from the ground.

Sarah turned on Mike. He was breathing hard
and clearly trying to get himself under control. She knew she had
never seen him so furious. Not even when Gavin knocked over the
milk shed the day he tried to get all the goats in one harness. Her
eyes flicked back to Fiona leading Aideen away. Aideen was watching
her over her shoulder.

“I assume that was all bullshit just then to
get a rise out of Aideen?” Mike bit off every word as he spoke, his
hands on his hips and towering over her.

For a moment Sarah couldn’t
imagine what he was talking about and was seconds from reminding
him that
she
was
the wounded party in all this when her words came back to her. She
licked her lips and looked away.

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

“The bitch is crazy,” Sarah said, her ear
stinging like mad but the frustration at not having gotten off a
single punch slowly receding. “But if that’s the kind of woman you
want—”

“She is exactly the kind of woman I want,”
Mike said, narrowing his eyes. “Or I wouldn’t be engaged to marry
her. See, that’s how that works.”

“Fuck you, Mike.”

“Well, we tried that now,
didn’t we, Sarah? And I can see you’ve a mind to haul off and slap
me and I’ll remind you of how
that
turned out last time too.”

“You are the absolute lowest of the
low.”

“And you will stay in the Widow Murray’s
cottage until it’s time for you to leave.”

“You’re not the boss anymore, Herr
Commandant. You can’t order me.”

He leaned over until his face was close to
her. “You’re not in the US of A, now, darlin.’ I’ll carry your ass
over there and throw you in her cottage myself.”

His eyes glittered with fury and it occurred
to Sarah that she wasn’t the only one looking for an excuse to vent
a little pent-up frustration.

“I’ll…I’ll just leave again,” she said,
trying to sound more sure than she felt.

“You can try.”

Sarah blinked at him and then looked across
the camp where Aideen sat with Fiona. She looked down at her hands.
“Fine,” she said and then looked up at him. Her anger was still
there but checked, finally. “Fine,” she repeated before twisting on
her heel and marching off in the direction of the Widow
Murray’s.

Aideen watched Mike and Sarah part company
like two toddlers stomping off to separate corners. Sarah marched
away, obviously heading back in the direction of the Widow Murray’s
cottage, and Mike just lumbered… away.

Fiona was doing her best to soothe the
situation and for that Aideen was grateful, but she noticed she
also followed Sarah with her eyes until the American disappeared
from view. Likely she’d run over to the Widow Murray’s the first
chance she got to see how Sarah was, too.

“I know it’s a difficult situation,” Fiona
was saying. “They have a history and you have unfortunately
overlapped that by a bit.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Aideen said. “I
don’t think I’ve ever felt so angry in my whole life. I honestly
don’t know what came over me.”

“Well, love makes you do crazy things.”

“Then how do you explain Mike coming here
and taking off with her and not saying word one to me?”

Fiona gaped in surprise.
“But, he broke up the fight. He
rescued
you.”

“Then why doesn’t it feel like a rescue? Why
does it feel like he didn’t even see me?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Fiona said, but Aideen
didn’t think she argued the point very forcefully.

“I’m serious, Fiona. Did
you see them over there? The way they looked at each other? I
thought he was going to…I don’t know, turn her across his knee or
throw her down and
do
her right there in the center of camp.”

“I can honestly say I didn’t see any of
that. He was just really angry—”

“
They act like they’re
still lovers.”

“Now that’s an exaggeration. They’ve barely
exchanged a word in a month—ever since Sarah announced she was
leaving.”

“Let me ask you—do you know what the
opposite of love is?” Aideen continued to look in the direction
where Mike had disappeared.

Fiona frowned and then shrugged. “Hate?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t
you? But it’s indifference. Trust me, Fi. Mike is not
indifferent
to Sarah
Woodson. Not at all. Not even a little bit. Did you see how she got
him so riled up? People who don’t matter to you can’t do that to
you.” She shook her head sadly. “I’d love to have that kind of
effect on him.”

“Well, Sarah is a strong woman, and she’s
brutally stubborn,” Fiona admitted. “I personally have wanted to
whack her with a crop between the eyes on more than one
occasion.”

“Except that is not what it looked like Mike
wanted to do to her.”

“Best not to let your imagination get
carried away. She’ll be gone soon.”

“Will she?” Aideen glanced again in the
direction that Mike had gone. “Seeing them fight was worse than
seeing them kiss. It was just so…intimate.”

“Well, Mike has a temper on him and you’re
best knowing that going in.” Fiona put her arm around her. “Come
on, Aideen. You and I are going to be sisters, and what with Papin
staying and both of us expecting at the same time, I’m going to
need all the help I can get from my new sister.”