Never Never (15 page)

The Camp Prefect ran up to where they were standing. He was breathless and his eyes wide.

“Commander,” he said, gasping for breath. “A wagon is heading toward us.”

“Indeed?” Hurley said. He cocked his bald head like an inquisitive bird attempting to hear better.

“Two women,” the Prefect said, “in a pony cart with fecking flowers painted on the side. We are moving to intercept now.”

Chezzie watched the two men walk away.

Flowers painted on the side of a pony cart
…
and as sure as day follows night driven by a feisty little gypsy girl and an angel with a scowl.
Chezzie sagged to his knees, the agony of the gash on his face beginning to push through his shock.

Poor little bitches. They don't stand a chance.

T
hat first day
in the castle was spent organizing where everyone would sleep and bringing in the tents and horses from the outside courtyard. Sarah and Fiona set up a clinic in one of the warmest rooms in the castle and moved Declan and the little girl Keeva into it so they could be treated. Nuala set up a nursery where, along with two of the compound women, she would mind all the children so their parents could work without worry.

Mike had all the castle people—except for Ava and her sick child—put in a large room with a fireplace and a narrow window overlooking the ocean. The door was locked and a guard was posted outside.

Ava was allowed to stay with her daughter in the clinic. Sarah couldn't help but wonder what life had been like for the woman before the EMP changed everything. Ava was obviously with Shaun Morrison but not married to him. Had she been married before? Keeva was at least five years old. Was Shaun her father?

Ava leaned over Keeva and pressed a cool compress to the child's forehead. Already the Ibuprofen was bringing down her fever. Like the rest of them, the child looked like she could use a square meal and her fingernails showed evidence of rickets.

“I wanted Shaun to let you in,” Ava said as she watched Fiona checking on Declan in his bed.

Sarah filled a pitcher of water and brought it to the table next to Declan's bed.

“I'm sure we'll all be one big happy family before long,” Sarah said. “Locking everyone in is only until we all start to trust each other.”

“It's just hard on Shaun. This has been our castle for five years.”

“I'm sure it'll all get sorted out,” Sarah said with a reassuring smile. She
was
sure, too. Shaun didn't look at all like the obstreperous type. Sometimes the quiet ones fooled you but he didn't strike her as a guy who craved to be in charge. Now
Mike
on the other hand…

“Is Shaun your husband then?” Fiona asked as she moved away from Declan's side.

“Something like that,” Ava said.

Sarah noticed she blushed.
That's odd
. Even before the Crisis nobody in Ireland thought anything of premarital sex. And they sure didn't care
now
.

Fiona smiled at Keeva but Sarah could still see the pain in her eyes and knew she was thinking of Maeve.

“She'll be fine in short order,” Fiona said. “Children are resilient.”

Sarah wondered if she should apologize to Ava for deliberately making Keeva sicker in order to wangle their way into the castle. As she watched Ava, she decided not to bring it up.

It is what it is. She'll either understand and forgive or she won't.

Ava kept her hand on Keeva's forehead. She looked at Sarah. “Is it just the one bairn you have then?”

Instantly, Sarah felt her stomach sour. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if trying to warm them.

“No,” she said. “I have an older boy. He's…he's in England right now.”

“England? That's a long way away.”

Sarah moved to the window that overlooked the front of the castle.

“He'll be home at Christmas,” she said. “You'll meet him then.” She caught Fiona's eye and they exchanged a sad smile.

Baby steps
, Sarah thought.

T
hat night
after a hot meal of rabbit stew in the great hall, compliments of Tommy and Gavin's trapping, and a celebratory breaking out of the whiskey to mark the first night in their new home, Sarah and Siobhan made their way upstairs up the stone stairwell to the room that would be theirs from now on.

Unlike when they lived in separate cottages at the compound, in their life here in the castle there were no longer individual kitchens or living areas for each of the families. All of the women would work in the mammoth castle kitchen baking and cooking and everyone would take their meals together in the great hall.

Sarah looked around the bedroom chamber. One of the men had already dragged their bedding and belongings into the room and set up Siobhan's cot. The chamber was large and had an anteroom with a separate living room. When they returned to the compound they would fill this room with all the books that Sarah had brought back from the States the year before.

Most of the castle living chambers faced the ocean or the south side of the castle. Sarah's room was closer to the front of the castle on the south side. From the large mullioned windows, they would be able to see the gardens and all the land that stretched to the south.

Sarah was surprised that Siobhan fell to sleep as soon as Sarah put her down. She imagined that spending the day in the nursery with other children had something to do with this. It had been a big day for everyone. Sarah felt her exhaustion pull her toward the bed. She stripped off her clothes, letting them fall on the thin carpet by the large bed. She allowed herself only a moment to wonder how old the bed was before she crawled into her sleeping bag on top of it.

She had barely closed her eyes before she heard Mike enter the room. She watched him pause by Siobhan's cot and give the baby a kiss.

Surely this must be the first time in memory, Sarah thought, where Mike was able to rest knowing that everyone was safe and protected—from weather or foe.

He groaned as he sat on the bed and she reached a hand out to touch his back.

“I'm sorry I doubted you,” she said quietly.

He turned in one motion and brought her into his arms. She held him close and let out a huge breath.

“Forgive me?” she said.

“Adore you,” he murmured into her hair.

That night Sarah fell asleep knowing in her bones that everything was finally on track to being okay. Tonight she even knew John really would be home with them—here in the castle—for Christmas.

T
he next morning
it snowed again. Sarah watched it come down from one of the long vertical windows in the great hall that faced the ocean. Fires blazed in all three of the gigantic dining hall fireplaces. She'd gotten up early, deposited Siobhan with Nuala in the nursery, and then went to the castle kitchen to work with four other women to prepare breakfast.

They'd made a rudimentary schedule of shifts the day before. After preparing breakfast, Sarah and the other women would be free of kitchen duty until dinner which they would make and clean up after.

The castle people had been brought down to dine with them. Mike was of a mind to let most of the women go back to their own rooms as they had before. He saw no threat from them. He was less sure of Shaun and his sister Saoirse. In any case, he'd prepared a brief ceremony where each of the castle people would be brought to him to swear allegiance—if not to Mike himself then at least to the idea of not attacking or disrupting the burgeoning alliance between the two groups.

Last night, before drifting off to sleep in each other's arms, he'd mentioned the idea to Sarah and she thought it was a good one. Now she watched everyone eat a robust breakfast of bacon and pancakes with maple syrup they had brought with them and hot tea with milk and sugar, which the castle people had gone without for five long years.

Sometimes it's as simple as having a decent cup of tea again
, Sarah thought as she watched the smiles and conversation down the long table of both castle women and compound women together. She hoped the castle people would see that having new people among them would be good for everyone.

If this morning's breakfast was any indication, her hope was definitely being fulfilled.

Beryl Morrison, Shaun's mother, sat beside Sarah near the front of the table. Mike and most of the men had taken their breakfast on the run in the form of bacon biscuits. Because Shaun and his sister still sat at the table, Terry stood against the wall with his hand on his holster, watching them.

Gavin and Tommy flanked Beryl. Sarah could see that the older woman was pink with excitement to have their attention.

“Cor,” she said as one of the compound women came to refill her teacup, “I can't remember the last time someone wanted to know about the castle.” Her cheeks were pricked with color and her eyes danced.

“So there's a real murder hole in the castle?” Gavin asked. Sophia sat to his left with their baby nestled in a sling on her chest.

“Oh, aye!” Beryl said. “Right where it needs to be, too. In the ceiling of the gateway should we ever have need of it.”

“How's it work exactly?” Tommy asked, his eyes bright with curiosity.

Sarah smiled. It was pretty clear that Beryl Morrison would be happy to have the compound people inside even if they
hadn't
brought tea and sugar.

Terry moved from the wall and prodded Shaun with the nose of his gun. Both Shaun and Saoirse got up and were escorted from the room. Sarah hated to see it but she knew as soon as the two agreed not to fight them that everything would be fine. She hoped Mike was planning on asking the castle people today. The sooner the better.

What would they do if any of them decided not to pledge allegiance?

Sarah glanced again at Beryl chatting happily with the two boys and telling them her castle knowledge. Sarah looked down the table to see the other castle women smiling shyly at the compound women.

They would. They just would.

An hour later, Sarah walked around the castle interior courtyard. It was still snowing but the fresh air—and the knowledge that she could tuck her feet up in front of a roaring fire whenever she wanted—gave an energizing feel to the exercise.

There was so much to do to make the castle their home—and to prepare it for defense. But before that could be done, she and Mike needed to go back to the convent to see if John had returned.

And they needed to keep going back until he did.

She noticed Kevin on the high walkway on the parapet that traversed the front of the castle. He was alone but they didn't need more than one voice to raise the alarm. Unless invaders came in motorized vehicles—impossible now—whoever came down the front drive would be seen for hours before they arrived.

Unless they came by sea.

She pulled her coat tightly around her. She would run by the nursery to see Siobhan and then go to the clinic to check on Declan. Little Keeva was much better and they'd allowed her to go back to her room with her mother before breakfast today.

As Sarah stepped into the first archway that led to the great hall, she saw most of the castle people were lined up outside the door.

That meant Mike had begun the process of formally asking their intentions. She saw that all the women were there—including Saoirse—but not Shaun, which must mean he was inside the hall with Mike.

Be sensible Mr. Morrison
, Sarah thought as she walked past the waiting women.
We're stronger together than apart. I hope you see that
.

Tommy was standing next to Beryl who was still talking to him with animation and gesturing down the hall as she pointed out more features of the castle. Tommy looked up as Sarah walked by.

“Missus?” he said. “Mr. Donovan asked that you join him should I see you.”

Sarah frowned but went immediately to the door and pulled it open. Inside, she saw Mike and Shaun talking at the long dining table.

“Mike? Did you need me?”

Mike waved her over. “Aye, if you would, Sarah.”

She walked to them, noting that Shaun looked like he hadn't slept. She'd made that assessment at breakfast too but the fact that he'd drunk three cups of tea and eaten all his pancakes had pushed the observation from her mind.

“Hello, Mr. Morrison,” she said.

“Missus Donovan,” he said glumly.

“I hope we can come to a happy understanding,” she said, her eyes on Mike for a hint of how things were going.

“I've merely asked your husband how he'd feel if
he'd
been tricked out of his home and then asked to offer trust to the blackguards who'd done it.”