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“Glad I could help. You heading back?”

She turned and started back up the footpath
to the main camp and he noticed she walked with more energy than
when she’d come.

“
Aye,” she said, patting
the pockets of her pants as if trying to confirm she still had
something. “But first I have to pay a little visit to Auntie
Fi.”

***

Caitlin thumped the bowl of soup down in
front of her father. The old git must imagine she was Ellen to be
thinking she’d wait on him hand and foot like this. Brian leaned
over the table to give her a chaste kiss before leaving to patrol
the camp with his men. She smiled and waved him off, knowing how
important it was to act all sweetness and light in front of
Brian—and that included the nauseatingly painful chore of acting
the dutiful daughter to this old redheaded windbag. The only thing
that made it bearable was the fact she also knew she wouldn’t need
to do it much longer.

When she first met Brian, she could see he
wanted something pure and untouched, and because all he ever did
was talk about the need to find a rural community he could run, she
made sure she was all that for him. She also made sure they did it
at least once, and it wasn’t easy—he was that determined to keep
her pure. But she needed the fake pregnancy and miscarriage to
clench the deal. And stupid though he was, he wasn’t so stupid as
to think she could get pregnant without doing the deed at least
once.

Before they married she would sneak out of
her father’s house to have it off with any wally in the local pubs
who wasn’t too drunk to get it up. After they tied the knot it had
become a little trickier. On top of that, it had become quickly
clear that, as far as Brian and sex were concerned, a little went a
long way.

“You need to move out, old man,” Caitlin
said to her father as she sat down at the table with him. “Go sleep
with Cedric and Colon.”

Archie Kelly looked at her with surprise.
“The boys are sleeping on mats out in the fields,” he said.

“Yeah, so?”

“I can’t sleep out of doors, ya selfish
hoor! Do you want me to tell that idiot husband of yours who you
really are? Ya can’t be throwing your own da out into the
street.”

“I heard Brian tell you to take Donovan’s
old place.”

“Pshaw! It’s a dump. The bed is more like a
wooden crate with rags thrown on it. I can’t believe the bastard
actually lived there.”

“Well you can’t live here. I’m a fucking
newlywed. We need our privacy.”

“Why don’t you pull the other one, Caitie?
It’s got bells on it.”

“Look, you can go easy or you can go hard,
old man,” she said pulling his soup bowl from him.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

“God. You’re like a two year old. Totally
fecking useless.”

“Aye? Well it wasn’t me went arse over tit
with yon Donovan, now was it?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“I know he had the both of you, Ellen and
yourself. Makes me want to puke to think of it.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time he had
us both together?”

She watched his hand start to shake, the
spoon banging onto the table as it did.

“You’re just trying to take the piss out of
me. Why you’re so cruel to your own da—”

“Oh, sod off with
that
your own da
shite,” she said with disgust, pushing his soup bowl back to
him and spilling most of it on the table.

“What with me and your brothers come all
this way to make right what that sod did to you and Ellen, you’d
think you’d be a little more grateful.”

“You came all this way
because you had no place else to go,” Caitlin said. “And trust me,
the only
right
you’ll be making is whatever you produce later in the
loo.”

“You’ve a disgusting tongue on you, Caitlin.
If your poor mother could hear you...”

Caitlin stood abruptly and went to the sink.
It was her fault. She shouldn’t let the old tosser get to her like
that. Brian had insisted he and the twins come with them, and after
everything that was happening in Dublin it had seemed a good idea
at the time.

She reached into the pocket of her jeans and
pulled out a handful of the dark mushrooms she had found earlier,
the dirt still clinging to them.

“Cedric says he followed Donovan out to a
cabin a couple miles from here so we know where he is.”

“Everybody
knows where he is,” Caitlin said. She picked up a
large cleaver and roughly chopped the mushrooms into a small pile
on the kitchen counter. It was important they still be recognizable
as mushrooms even after several hours sitting in hot
liquid.

“We aim to see him pay for Ellen’s murder,”
Archie said, slurping loudly as he picked up his soup bowl and held
it to his mouth.

Caitlin clenched her teeth at the sound. She
glanced at the pot of soup on the stove and pulled it to her. The
thermos was a wide-mouth container. She sniffed it and could still
smell the coffee that it once held. She dumped the pile of mushroom
into the bottom of it, then carefully ladled soup on top.

“Is there more soup?” Archie called from the
table.

Caitlin glanced at the
tainted thermos and for a moment, she hesitated but got control
quickly.
No sense in jeopardizing the plan
for a moment’s annoyance
, she
thought.

“Sure, Da,” she said sweetly, carrying a
ladle of hot soup from the stove across the kitchen to where he sat
with his back to her at the table. She filled his bowl, dropping a
couple of drops on the back of his hand.

“Ow!” he yelped. “Watch what you’re doing,
girl!”

“Sorry about that.” She tossed the ladle
back in the soup pot and screwed on the lid to the thermos. She
heard dogs barking and glanced out the window to see Sarah’s boy
playing with a bunch of mangy animals in the camp square. Her eyes
narrowed.

Fiona and Sarah today. Mike tomorrow. And
eventually every goddam one of them who watched while I was dragged
out the camp entrance and thrown into the bushes.

Before they murdered my Aidan.

“Caitlin? Did you hear me?”

Caitlin shook herself out of her reverie,
surprised at the flush of lust that had rushed between her
legs.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Quit making so
much noise. You sound like a pig rooting for corncobs.” She picked
up the thermos and went to the door. On the other porch, she stood
and checked to see who was around, who might see her talking to
him, and then descended the steps.

“Oy! John!” she said, holding the thermos
carefully as she walked to where he stood with the dogs and smiling
broadly. “A word, please.”

***

“So what will you do?” Aideen sat across
from Mike the next morning. There was no tea, no food except the
small hamper Aideen had brought with her. “You have no crops, no
meat, not even a gun to shoot something.”

“I’m sure Gav will be along shortly,” Mike
said. “He’ll bring me a few things.”

“Will you leave?”

“The area?” He frowned. “I can’t leave Fi
and Gavin.”

“But you can’t stay with them either.
Perhaps they’ll come with you?”

“I’m not ready to give up just yet.”

“With Declan imprisoned and you gone, I
think giving up needs to be a serious option.”

“Maybe. But I’m not there yet.”

“You’re stubborn, Michael Donovan. But
wishing won’t take the place of facts.” Aideen looked over at Taffy
playing at their feet. Mike had eaten very little this morning so
the child could have a full stomach. “You can’t make it right for
everyone all the time. You’re not infallible.”

He grunted and she reached across and
touched his hand. They had slept the night at opposite ends of the
house and, for once, she knew that neither of them felt tempted to
crawl into bed with the other.

And not just because Taffy was there.
Something had changed. She felt it too.

“Can you tell me how you feel?” she
asked.

“How do you think I feel? It was because of
what I told you about the community in the first place that made
you come all the way here and now it’s not safe to be there.”

She shook the hand she was holding and
leaned earnestly across the table to whisper so that Taffy couldn’t
hear. “The place isn’t why I came, Mike.”

He closed his eyes. “That just makes it
worse,” he said, his voice soft and sad.

How could a day start out
so shitty and evolve into something so right?
Sarah stood in the front room of Siobhan’s cottage and folded
the few pieces of clothing she still owned. Some of them were hers,
but most of her clothing had been lost in the fire that destroyed
Cairn Cottage. Since then she had resorted to wearing whatever she
could find or was given to her.

She knew Papin was upset with her, but now
that they were all staying she would be able to take the necessary
time to sort things out with her. Plus, it wasn’t out of the
question that she and Mike might work something out, too. Sarah
wasn’t sure what that would look like since she still hoped to go
back to the States in due course, but she wouldn’t worry about that
now.

It worked for Scarlett
O’Hara,
she thought and then
realized:
not really
.

“It’s people like you making other people
jump through hoops is why we’re in this mess,” Siobhan said as she
sat watching Sarah pack up.

“As usual,” Sarah said, “I have no earthly
idea of what you’re talking about.” She smiled at the woman to
temper her words.

“Just when I was getting used to you being
here and crowding me, making a mess of the place…”

Sarah knew what Siobhan had gotten used to
was Sarah doing the laundry and making dinner most nights. But now
with her decision to stay, Sarah wanted to move into Mike’s place
with Gavin and John. Somebody needed to be with the boys. She
brightened at the thought of being around when Fi’s baby was born,
then frowned when she thought of Declan being held by Brian and his
lot.

“It’s what I’ve come to expect from you,”
Siobhan said, the whine in her voice finally hitting a rare nerve
in Sarah. “The Americans are always pushing their way into things
and then leaving everyone worse off than how they found them.”

“Do you want me to come by now and then and
do your laundry, Siobhan? Because it would be no trouble. Or,
better yet, how about if the boys come over here to live? You’ve
got plenty of room.”

Fully expecting the widow to recoil in
horror at the suggestion, Sarah was surprised when Siobhan sighed
and said, “Well, I wondered when you’d get around to suggesting it.
As much of a hardship as it would be for me, I suppose there’s
nothing for it. The lads need us after all.”

Sarah stopped folding and
stared at her.
Oh my God. She’s
lonely.

She went and sat down next to her, ignoring
the old woman’s flinch when she did. “You’d be up for that,
Siobhan? They’re boys and can get pretty rowdy. Plus, they come
with three puppies.”

Siobhan crossed her arms and looked away.
“Pshaw. I raised four sons.”

Sarah did not know that. “Where are they?”
she asked gently.

“One died when he was two. Fell off a wall
and broke his neck.”

Sarah nodded
sympathetically.
Remind me not to let you
babysit Fi or Papin’s babies when they’re born.

“The other three grew up and left home. Left
Ireland.”

Sarah chose her words carefully. “I suppose
you’re pretty worried about what must be happening to them.”

Siobhan made a noise of disgust. “As it
happens, since two went to America I’m not at all worried. They
probably read about our troubles on their iPads or whatnot and went
back to their big houses and their Episcopalian wives without a
second thought.”

“And the other son?”

“In prison in the UK, if you must know. I
suppose you’ll be spreading that everywhere around the camp
now.”

Sarah stood up and went back to her packing.
She buckled up the battered suitcase and shoved it under the table.
“Where would the boys sleep?” she asked.

A voice shouting from outside interrupted
the moment and Sarah crossed to the front door to see who it
was.

“Hey, Mom,” John said, dragging three of the
wolf puppies along behind him on a leather strap. “Can you come
check on Auntie Fi?”

Sarah was out of the house and down the
steps in a flash. “What’s the matter? Is everything okay? I thought
she was down at the jail trying to get Declan out.”

“I don’t know, Mom. Missus Gilhooley just
told me to tell you that she’s real sick and needs you.”

“Missus Gilhooley?”

“Uh huh. You coming?”

Sarah hesitated and then ran back to shut
the door behind her. Before leaving for Fiona’s, she had a thought.
“John? Why don’t you bring the puppies into the Widow Murray’s
place for a few minutes.”

“Are you kidding? She hates kids.”

“I think it will distract her. If she’s not
enjoying it, you can leave.”

“Aw, Mom, do I have to?”

“No, but I wish you would. Did Missus
Gilhooley say what was the matter with Fi?”

John shook his head and trudged up the steps
of the cottage. “She just said to hurry,” he said.

Sarah jogged out of the
forecourt of the little cottage for the gravel path that led to the
main camp.
Was it related to her
pregnancy? She had looked fine this morning. Perhaps she’d gotten
emotionally overwrought as a result of her visit with Declan?
Perhaps she learned that Declan was dead?

“Missus?”

The little girl was so small and so quiet
that Sarah almost didn’t see her when she turned the last corner
before reaching the path that led to the camp center.