Wishes on the Wind (25 page)

    "Leave my sister out of this, you filthy dog! The whole of your rotten hide's not worth a hair from her head! I'll not suffer her name on your lips!"

    His agitation becoming more apparent, Langly replied in a tight undertone. "All you say may be so, but the truth is, your future and hers are in my hands, so I wouldn't say much more if I were you." Sean did not immediately respond, and Langly pressed his advantage. "Accept your lot, O'Connor, and be thankful I haven't decided to make this day your last."

    Sean became silent. His young face twitched with fury in the moment before he turned with a snap. Sparing not a glance for the men around him, Sean strode back the way he had come, his gaze riveted on the entrance to the deep hole in the ground where the only future he knew awaited him.

    Sean walked rapidly. Langly didn't fool him! Praising Da and the boys, and pretending to have shown him privilege because of their deaths, was nothing more than an attempt to make him soft. But the bastard was right in some of the things he said. Aye, he had allowed his hot O'Connor blood to make him play the fool this day, and he'd not do it again. An open fight favored the opposite side too heavily for there to be any hope of victory. He'd be far wiser to store in his mind each and every injustice practiced upon him and his own, for the day would come when he'd join the only men of courage remaining in this black place. With them, he'd
force
the changes that would make life bearable for the Irish in the mines, and he'd pay back Lang, and all them like him, for every day of suffering endured.

    Sean's back stiffened with determination. Aye, he had vowed revenge and his life was set on that course, no matter where it took him.

    Meg stared at David incredulously. The sun shining into the leafy bower beside the hillside trail wove a lacy pattern that danced merrily against her delicate features. Still staring, she raised a chapped hand to her brow and unconsciously pushed back her windblown curls.

    David moved impatiently as the silence between them stretched thin. A short time earlier, he had come home from a difficult day at the colliery, his disposition reflecting the hours spent with Uncle Martin investigating a problem in the newest shaft. Unable to comprehend how his uncle tolerated the agitation of the ignorant miners and their petty grievances, he had lost his patience with the situation in less than an hour, although he had been obliged to remain until the dispute was settled. As a result, he'd arrived home with Uncle Martin an hour later than usual, only to have Aunt Letty draw him aside to tell him Meg had returned to work that morning.

    Silently cursing each and every stone-faced Irishman in the mines, he had rushed to the kitchen to find Meg had left for home a few minutes earlier.

    Even now he could not quite believe the sense of loss he had experienced in the moment before he had dashed from the kitchen without a word and started down the trail after her. But his agitation had ceased the moment Meg turned at the sound of his step, a smile lifting the lines of sadness from her face.

    He had taken her into his arms then, holding her childish slenderness against him for long silent moments, and she had embraced him in return. There had been no strangeness between them as he had muttered inadequate words of sympathy against her hair and as she nodded in reply. The exchange had been the first spontaneous acknowledgement of the bond between them, and he had been touched as never before by her trust in him despite their differences.

    But the warmth and joy of the moment gradually changed as he began speaking his earnest plans for her.

    Finally breaking the extended silence, Meg managed an astounded, "You're out of your mind!"

    "No, Meg. I'm not."

    "How can you imagine I'd agree to such a thing?"

    "Don't say that, Meg. Don't say anything until you've had a chance to think over what I'm offering you."

    "Offering me? What're you offering me? A chance to abandon my brother and those of my own blood by living in your house and spending my days in the company of the servants there?"

    "I'm offering you a chance at the better things of life, that you'll never have down in the valley. I'm offering you a room of     your own for which no payment will be asked. Aunt Letty said there would be no problem with that. And there will be more once you're here and I can reason with Uncle Martin."

    "I want nothing from anyone that I've not earned with the sweat of my brow. I'm not yet a charity case, and I'll not be treated like one!"

    "Is that what you think, Meg? That I'm offering you charity?" David shook his head. "I'm not offering you charity any more than we offer Cook, Margaret, or Mabel charity because they live in the house while they work here."

    "I've no need for a roof over my head. I have a home of my own with my own."

    "Your own!" David's sneer brought a flush to Meg's face as he continued with ill-concealed deprecation. "You and I both know you're nothing at all like the rest of them in the valley. You're bright, and you have an inquisitive mind that's wasted down there. There's so much you can learn here. You'd have use of the library and all the books the tutor left behind when Grace and I finished our curriculum with him. If you have any trouble with your studies, I can help you."

    "I don't need your books or your help in reading them. Father Matthew'll take care of teaching me everything I need to know."

    David gave a low snort.

    "Watch what you say, David, before you go too far."

    "I've said nothing but the truth. You've nothing to keep you down there now that your mother's gone. There's so much more for you up here."

    Meg shook her head, still incredulous. "So this is what Miss Grace meant when she talked to me today. Aye, and it's a measure of the worth people see in me that they think I'd leap at a chance to turn against my own blood." Meg's mouth tightened. "You say you know me. How can you know me and believe for a moment that I'd desert my brother now, when there's just the two of us left from the dear family I loved with all my heart? Would I be the person you truly think I am if I did such a thing just for the comfort of a room of my own and the privilege of reading a few books?"

    "Meg, it's more than that. I don't want to worry about you down there, with that rabble."

    "Rabble, you say? Good people, for the most part, turned to a bitter way of life by thoughts like those you've been spouting from your well of ignorance!"

    "
My
ignorance!"

    ''Aye,
yours
!"

    "Meg, wait." Taking Meg's arm despite her objection, David held it firmly against her flight, frowning at its thinness. "There's hardly anything to you. You're skin and bone."

    "I eat well enough, and I'm strong as an ox. I've proven that."

    "Meg, don't be angry." David frowned at her proud, flushed face. "I didn't mean to insult you. I just want more for you than you can ever hope to attain in the valley. You don't need any of them anymore, and I don't want you to go back. Stay here, with us. You won't regret it, I promise you."

    Meg was silent for long moments, her light eyes moving over his face with a palpable touch. A slow sinking began inside him as her expression turned to one of open sadness.

    "Ah, David, this whole thing is beyond me. It's beyond my understanding that you could think for a moment I'd abandon Sean, the last of my own blood that I can yet see and touch, the only one left who shares my beautiful memories. And it's beyond me how you can hold such a poor opinion of him and the others who've made me what I am, and still have any regard for me at all."

    Her eyes filling, Meg drew her arm from his grasp. "And it's beyond me, David, how feeling like you do, that I can still think of you as a friend."

    His own throat too full to speak, David watched as Meg turned and walked slowly down the path, leaving him unable to speak a word of response.

    And it was then he realized that understanding it all was beyond him, too.

    Drawing farther back into the bush a short distance away, John Law flattened himself against the rough terrain of the hillside, grateful for the covering of leaves that aided his concealment. Holding his breath, he listened for the sound of David Lang's heavy step as it turned slowly and started back up the hillside. Feeling safe when the sound became distant, Johnny raised his head and stared after David Lang as he turned out of sight on the trail.

    Johnny seethed with anger. Yes, he'd heard it all, and Lang didn't fool him for a minute.

    Glancing back down the rough path in the direction Meg had taken, Johnny felt the fury inside him increase. There was no conscience in a spoiled arrogant swine who'd tempt a sweet young    thing like Meg with a life of plenty when she'd had nothing but want, just to get his way. And there was no heart, either, in one who'd try turning a girl against her own kin.

    So the young master said he'd help Meg with her learning. Oh, he'd do that, all right! He was so good at wrapping the others in the house around his finger that once Meg was within his reach, there'd be not a one who'd go against him, whatever
else
he chose to teach her.

    Drawing himself slowly to his feet, Johnny brushed the leaves and dirt from his clothes, realizing the condition of them was such that no one would suspect anything of the new stains. Darting a quick glance back up the hill, he saw his way clear and started back.

    A smile gradually growing, Johnny remembered the look on David Lang's face when Meg put him in his place with a few soft words and sent him packing. He was so proud of her. Meg O'Connor was no easy young miss.

    His smile faded as he reached the crest of the hill, and Johnny squinted into the setting sun of late afternoon. But if he had learned one thing about David Lang in the time spent working there, it was that Lang was a determined type who would not give up once he set his mind on something. And he feared this time the fellow had his mind and heart set on Meg.

    Johnny's lips tightened as he cautiously made his way toward the stables. Well, the same could be said for him. Once he set his mind to something, he did not relent. And he had made up his mind that David Lang would not have his way with Meg O'Connor.

    A familiar screeching whistle pierced the grunting sounds of his labor, signaling the end of the shift, and Sean dropped his tools. Arriving on the surface a short time later, he made his way into the light of day with a stiff expression and a tight, rapid stride. He was not fit company for the men filtering out of the mine behind him with Langly's harsh threats still reverberating in his mind, and he knew it.

    His frustration growing, Sean continued down the path, his gaze suddenly shifting toward the fellow who stepped off the side of the path to walk at his side. Sean did not need to ask his name. He was John Law, who worked at the Lang mansion. He had come to the house that first night when Ma died, and Meg said he was

 a friend. But the fellow worked on the hill and was not one of their own, so Sean was suspicious.

    Looking guardedly at Law, Sean was startled to see a frustrated anger not unlike his own in the fellow's eyes. He paused to consider it, and as he did, he found himself listening as the fellow started to talk.

    Parting from Law as his uncle's house came into sight, Sean reviewed their conversation in his mind, knowing that he had no choice. He must find out the truth.

    "I demand an answer, Letty. Is it true?"

    The silent bedroom had never seemed so still as it did when her dear husband faced Letty with his tense question. She assessed his angry expression in silence. There had been no signs of agitation in Martin's demeanor when he and David arrived home from the mine earlier. Having spent an hour or more working in the library before supper, he had been highly conversant at the dinner table, and she had enjoyed his good humor as a respite from the agitation she knew David strove to hide after speaking with Meghan O'Connor.

    She still had not forgotten the look on David's face when he returned from his talk with Meghan O'Connor. Simple words could not express the anxiety and the confused disappointment so obvious in his expression when he walked back into the house, and she had not found it necessary to inquire as to the girl's response to his proposal.

    Letty had known from the first that the girl would refuse, for she prided herself that she understood the workings of the girl's mind far better than most. The reason was simple. Meghan O'Connor was instilled with the same strong sense of family as she, and with both her parents gone, the girl had become caretaker for all that remained of the O'Connor clan. The child would never desert those of her family remaining, no matter the inducement David offered.

    How David could have overlooked that facet of the girl's character was a mystery to her. Or perhaps he had not overlooked it. Perhaps it was simply that David wanted so much to believe he could save the girl from her circumstances, that he had convinced himself he could.

    In any case, it was over now, but Grace's visit with her father in his study after supper seemed to have stirred problems anew. She knew now that it had been a mistake allowing Grace to know  what was going on. Grace was not as mature as she would have some think, and she wondered if more difficulty would result from her dear daughter's loose tongue.