Chapter Five
Sean kept a weather eye out. And a sharp eye.
A keen eye. And every other kind of very watchful eye.
But he didn’t see Maeve Butler even once over the following days.
He hadn’t the luxury of time away from his duties.
The stable master allowed him only enough time away on Sundays to attend Mass.
He was to prove himself a tireless and uncomplaining worker during his first week on the job, he was told.
Then, and only then, would he be permitted time of his own.
Though he didn’t see Maeve, he thought of her often.
For some, a head of golden hair or of fiery red is quite the end-all of beauty.
Sean had always had a particular weakness for hair of the darker variety.
And he’d always been unable to resist a laughing smile.
Wit went a long way in capturing his attention as well.
Maeve was all those things, but she was something more as well.
She was . . . He had no idea what she was, which was precisely why he wanted to see her again.
But the confounded colleen never showed her lovely face.
Late in the afternoon of a mild Wednesday— mild by comparison, of course, meaning rain had fallen all the day long with a fierce wind that bit through even tightly knit sweaters and thick, woolen coats— a man’s voice sounded through the castle stables.
“I’m needing to borrow one o’ your stable hands, Desmond.”
Sean leaned around the stable door, straining to catch sight of Liam Butler. Even with the comings and goings of a large staff and a great many animals, he thought he might manage to find the man. Gingers generally stand out in a crowd.
“You’ll not be convincing me that you and Kieran can’t manage your animals.” Desmond was the stable master and never let a soul forget it. “And I know perfectly well that sister of yours can keep her hounds in line.”
“’Tis the sister we’re needing help with,” Liam answered.
Worries for Maeve flooded over Sean as he stood in that stall, his task forgotten, dirtied straw stuck to the end of his abandoned pitchfork.
“Nonsense,” Desmond grumbled. “That lass is tougher than the both of you combined.”
“Don’t I know it.” Liam looked about the place. He didn’t appear at all like a brother worried over the welfare of his sister, but rather one plotting very nearly against her. “Have you a place where we might talk without being overheard?”
Desmond gave a silent nod. Before stepping away, he looked over the stalls and the many hands working there. “Back to your chores, lads,” he barked out. “You’re not bein’ paid to stand about.”
Sean set back to his task on the instant.
He knew better than to ignore a dictate from Desmond.
The man ruled with an iron fist right up until the work was done for the day, when he turned into precisely the sort of fellow one liked to run into at the pub.
Days were long and grueling at the castle stables, but the evenings were a regular romp.
Still, Sean couldn’t quite lose himself in the merriment.
His thoughts were a quarter of an hour down the road.
All those things considered, when Desmond relieved Sean of his duties a full hour before usual and even went so far as to give him the evening off, he didn’t utter so much as a word of complaint. “I’m much obliged to you.”
“Don’t be.” Desmond was a tough old bird. “I’m letting you go on an assignment, not as any kind of favor to you.”
“An assignment?”
“There’s family just outside Kilkenny in need of a bit of help.”
Ah, yes. Liam’s visit. “The Butlers?”
Desmond’s eyes narrowed. “And how is it you knew that?”
“I understand there are a great many Butlers hereabout. I figured ’twas a likely guess.” A wee falsehood could be excused when one doesn’t wish to play one’s hand where a woman is concerned.
Desmond didn’t seem terribly impressed with Sean’s logic. But then, Desmond wasn’t often impressed. “They do happen to be Butlers, in fact. Fifteen, perhaps twenty minutes along this road. You’re looking for the six-boulders Butlers. If you reach the up-road Butlers, you’ve gone too far.”
It’s identifiers such as these, “six-boulders” and “up-road” and such, that contribute to Ireland’s reputation for bein’ a bit adorably simple. What we’re not given credit for is how very ingenious such a system truly is when nearly everyone for miles around has the same surname.
“What sort of work am I to do there?” Sean had overheard enough of Desmond and Liam’s conversation to be fully curious.
“It’s not for you to turn it down, so there’s little point in asking. On your way, lad.”
He was on his way, as instructed, his way being directly back to the same pile of rocks where he’d made his fateful turn off the main road a week or so earlier.
He recognized it easily and found that, though he’d been walking for a good bit of time, knowing Maeve Butler was up the way had put a spring back in his step.
He meant to ask why it was she’d never come to see him and whether he’d imagined the connection between them, perhaps even discover where he’d gone wrong. Though men don’t generally like to admit to worrying over such things, they most certainly do. And Sean had been worrying a bit.
He reached the familiar red door and lifted his fist to knock, but a voice stopped him.
“Have you come, then, Sean?” Kieran was even then approaching the same spot. “Liam thought you might, though Maeve’s despairing of it.”
“She’s expected me?” That seemed encouraging, though with women one couldn’t always tell.
Kieran nodded. “We let her know that old Desmond wasn’t likely to allow you any time of your own this first week or two, but she kept right on hoping.”
Encouraging news, to be sure. “Why did she not drop by the stables and give me a wave? She said she might.”
“And she might have if not for an unfortunate tumble off the ladder.” Kieran scratched at his stubbly chin. “Fortunately ’twas only a rung or two. Well, it might’ve been six. Eight at the very most.”
“Saints above.” Sean grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.
He found his Maeve in an instant, sitting in a rocking chair at the hearth, her head dropped into one upturned hand.
At her side sat Finley Donaghue going on about sheep and acreage.
Other than seeming rather bored out of her mind, she appeared well.
Relief pulled a sigh from the very depths of him.
Maeve looked up at the sound. On the instant, a grin split her face. “Why, Sean Kirkpatrick! Aren’t you a sight?”
“A fine sight, or a horror?” he pressed with a smile of his own.
“Why’ve you not come sooner?”
He crossed directly to her and hunched down before her. If Finley was surprised at the interruption, he didn’t say anything, and Sean was too intent on looking at Maeve to bother eying the other fellow to see his reaction.
“Desmond won’t allow his stable hands any time of their own during the first few weeks in his employ. ’Tis his way of breaking us the way some would break a horse.”
“I told you so,” Liam called from the kitchen.
“You’ve not taken French leave, have you? I’ll not allow you to lose your position on account of visiting me.”
He slipped his hands around hers. “Desmond gave me permission. But what’s this I hear, lass, about your falling near to your death?”
“’Twasn’t so bad as all that. I turned my ankle a touch and haven’t been able to leave this house on account of I don’t walk terribly well yet.”
He rubbed at her hand with his. “How long’ve you been cooped up in here?”
“A week.” Those two words told Sean all he needed to know.
“An entire week? Why, you must be climbing the walls.”
Kieran answered before she could. “Not with that ankle, she isn’t.”
Maeve threw her brother a look of ill-amused scolding. For the sake of family harmony, Sean thought it best to wander off with Maeve for a time. Family harmony being quite important and all.
“Have you a riding horse?” he asked Kieran. “Or a carriage or wagon of some kind?”
“We’ve a hay cart,” Kieran said.
That’d do. Sean returned his gaze to Maeve’s lovely dark eyes. “Would you care to go for a quick ride with me in a very fine and fancy hay cart?”
“I’d be in your debt forever and ever, Sean Kirkpatrick, if you could find a way to get me out of this house for even a moment.”
He raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “Consider it done, lass.”
He stood once more and turned to face the Butler brothers who were standing a piece behind Finley Donaghue, whom he’d nearly forgotten about. The company of a good woman can do that to a man— make him forget everyone around him.
“Point me in the direction of your barn, men. I’ve a cart and horse to make acquaintance with.”
Liam didn’t agree to the very reasonable request. “You stay here and keep our sister company— honorable company— and the three of us’ll bring the cart ’round.”
“Three?” Finley looked up at the man as though he’d marched his brain clear out of his head. “Why would it take three people to do something so simple?”
Kieran slipped a hand under Finley’s arm and pulled him out of his chair. “What we’ve undertaken, man, isn’t simple in the least.”
The two brothers all but marched their neighbor from the cottage.
“It seems Liam and Kieran have it in their minds to play matchmaker, Maeve.” Sean looked back at her, half expecting a look of horror. What he saw was pondering— deep and uncertain pondering.
“Does that frighten you?” she asked quietly.
“It does a bit,” he admitted. “But not enough to send me running back to Kilkenny.”
Maeve shrugged. “You’d likely get lost if you tried.”
“Troublesome woman,” he muttered.
“Admit you love the ribbing.”
He didn’t bother hiding his grin. “I’m beginning to.”
Some women blush elegantly and adorably, with perfect pink patches bringing a rosy hue to their complexion.
Other women blush in a way that vaguely resembles the measles and makes a fellow worry that something’s terribly the matter.
Maeve, for all her prettiness, did not fall into the first category.
“Where do you keep your coat and warm blankets?” Sean asked. “’Tis a mighty cold evening out there.”
“Blankets are in the chest against that wall.” She pointed across the room. “My coat is hanging on a nail in my bedroom.”
When Liam peeked his head inside once more, she had her coat on and the blankets were at the ready. “Your cart awaits,” he announced. “And we’ve a lantern for you. The evening’s growing dark already.”
Sean turned back to Maeve. “Can you walk at all, or do you need me to carry you?”
“I can walk a bit, but not far and not for long.”
“Well, then, if your brother hasn’t any objections, I’ll carry you out to the cart.”
Liam motioned for him to do so, something that, frankly, surprised Sean. He had two sisters of his own, and he and his brothers had been quite protective of them, perhaps overly so.
“You seem to have decided I’m trustworthy,” Sean said.
Right on cue, a deep, rumbling bark sounded from just outside the door. “Rufus is going along,” Liam said.
So perhaps the Butler boys weren’t entirely decided on the matter of Sean’s worthiness. Still, they were allowing him to ride with their sister.
“Why is it only old Rufus is sent out as chaperone?” Sean asked. “I recall with perfect clarity that you’ve a few other hounds equally as large lurking about the place.”
Maeve’s slow-forming smile spoke of amusement. “Rufus is the meanest of the lot, but only when he’s alone. If all three came along, you might manage a bit of mischief before they noticed.”
“I doubt that. I’ve attempted to outrun them, you’ll remember.”
She shrugged a single shoulder. “I did say you would manage only ‘a bit’ of mischief.”
Sean bent down, slipping an arm under Maeve’s knees and another behind her back. She slid an arm around his neck, holding fast to him. After standing and making a few adjustments, he carried her to the door and outside to the waiting cart.
Blankets were situated. The lantern was hung on the cart’s hook. Rufus took up his position directly beside the cart, eyes narrowed at Sean.
“Where would you like to go?” Sean asked Maeve. “This outing is for you, after all.”
She thought a moment. “Could we just drive about for a time? I’m nearly desperate to see something other than the walls of this house.”
“I’ll go anywhere you like, Maeve Butler.”
It often happens that a man is caught quite by surprise when he realizes he’s grown unexpectedly attached to a woman.
Sean Kirkpatrick was no exception. And mingled with that surprise was just a tiny bit of fear. For once a man begins to love a woman, his life is never quite whole again without her.