Chapter Three #2
She stared at him, speechless. The skies opened up. They were both soaked in a matter of seconds. She might have stood there, wide-eyed and openmouthed, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her inside a shed.
Inside it was dim and smelled of soil and damp. Tools for the vegetable garden lined the walls. Her mother’s peat pots and seeds were stacked on shelves waiting for planting. Rain beat on the tin roof, and the wind snaked through the cracks in the boards and moaned.
Erin stood shivering just inside the door, her hair plastered to her head, her sweater dripping at the hem. But her senses had come back, full force.
“You’re a madman, Burke Logan. By the saints, you’re as mad as a hatter.
Do you think I’d just bundle up my skirts and cross an ocean with you?
” She still shivered, but the more she spoke, the hotter her temper became.
“Sure and it’s a conceited ox you are to believe all you have to do is crook your finger to have me tagging after you.
I don’t even know you.” She swiped a hand over her face to dry it, then went one better and shoved him hard in the chest. “And it’s the God’s truth that I have no desire to. ”
She turned to the shed door and would have yanked it open if he hadn’t caught her by the shoulders.
“Take your hands off me, you snake.” On impulse, she grabbed a rake and turned on him with it. “Touch me again and I’ll slice you into pieces, little ones that won’t be put back together easily.”
So she’d slay her dragons with a garden rake, he thought, lifting both hands, palms out, in a gesture of peace. “You don’t have to defend your honor, Irish. I’m not after it—yet. This is business.”
“What business would I be having with you?” When he took a step toward her, she gestured with the rake. “Come closer and I promise you’ll be missing an ear at the very least.”
“Fine.” He made as if to take a step back.
Then he moved quickly. Erin cursed him when he wrenched the rake out of her hands.
Even as it clattered to the floor, her back was against the wall.
“You’ll have to learn not to drop your guard.
” His face was close, so close she could see his eyes, smoky and dark, and little else.
She twisted, but his fingers only dug in harder.
“Hold still a minute, will you? You’re making a fool of yourself. ”
Nothing he could have said would have struck the light to her temper faster. She all but bared her teeth and snarled. “There’ll come a time and there’ll come a place when you’ll pay for this.”
“Everyone pays, Irish. Now take a deep breath, shut your mouth and listen. I’m offering you a job, that’s all.” She stopped wriggling to stare at him again. “I need someone sharp, someone clever with figures, to run my books.”
“Your books?”
“The farm, expenses, payroll. The man I had was a little too creative. Since he’s going to be a guest of the state for the next few years, I need someone else.
I want someone I know, someone I can see and talk to, handling my money rather than a big shiny company that doesn’t give a damn about the farm or me. ”
Because her head was whirling, she took one long breath before she spoke again. “You want me to come to America and keep your books?”
He smiled because she sounded almost disappointed. “I’m not offering you a free ride. You’re a pleasure to look at, Erin, but at the moment all I intend to pay for is your brain.”
“Move back,” she ordered in a voice that was suddenly firm. “I can’t breathe with you pushing me through the wall.”
“No more attacks with garden tools?”
Her chin came up. “All right. Just move aside.” When he did, she took a couple of deep breaths. She had to keep a clear head now. She didn’t mind taking a new road; in fact, she’d often fretted to do just that. She only wanted to study all the curves and angles of it first. “You want to hire me?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
“I’ve just told you.”
She shook her head, still cautious. “You told me you need a bookkeeper. I imagine there’re plenty of them in America.”
“Let’s just say I like your style.” Bending, he picked up the rake and replaced it. He wondered briefly if she would have used it. Yes, indeed, he thought, grinning to himself. Oh, yes, indeed.
“For all you know, I can’t add two and two.”
“Mrs. Malloy and O’Donnelly at the dry goods say differently.” He leaned back against a workbench. Studying her from there, he decided he’d spoken no less than the truth. Even wet and dripping, she was a pleasure to look at.
“Mrs. Malloy. You’ve spoken to her? You went to Mr. O’Donnelly and asked questions about me?”
“Just checking your references.”
“No one told you to go poking about the town asking questions about me.”
“Business, Irish. Strictly business. What I found out is that you’re neat as a pin and dependable. Your figures tally and your books are clean. That’s good enough for me.”
“This is crazy.” Struggling against a surge of excitement, she dragged a hand through her still-dripping hair. “A body doesn’t hire someone they’ve known only a few days.”
“Irish, people are hired after a ten-minute interview.”
“That’s not what I mean. This isn’t a matter of me giving you a résumé, then catching a bus to take a new job across town. You’re talking about me coming to America and taking on a job that’s bigger than the inn, the farm and the dry goods put together.”
He only moved his shoulders. “It’s just a matter of more figures, isn’t it? You’re talking about going north in a year, I’m giving you a chance to go to America now. Make the break.”
“It’s not so simple.” Along with the excitement was a growing panic. Wasn’t this what she’d always wanted? Now that it was nearly as close as a handspan, she was terrified.
“It’s a gamble.” He was watching her again in that quiet, intense way.
“Most things worth winning are. I’ll pay for your ticket as a sign of good faith.
You’ll start out at a weekly salary.” He considered a moment, then named a figure that had her mouth dropping open.
“If it works out, there’ll be a ten percent raise in six months.
For that you take care of all the details, all the figures, all the bills.
I’ll want a weekly report. We’ll leave in two days. ”
“Two days?” She was numb now, so numb she could only stare at him. “But even if I agreed, I could never be ready to leave by then.”
“All you have to do is pack and say your goodbyes. I’ll handle the rest.”
“But I—”
“You have to make up your mind, Erin. Stay or go.” He stepped toward her again. “If you stay, you’ll be safe, and you’ll always wonder what if.”
He was right. The question was already nagging at her. “If I go, where will I live?”
“I’ve got plenty of room.”
“No.” On this she would have to be firm, right from the start. “I won’t agree to that. I may say I’ll work for you, but I won’t live with you.”
“It’s your choice.” Again he moved his shoulders as if it didn’t matter.
He’d already anticipated her balking there.
“I don’t imagine Adelia would have any problem putting you up.
In fact, I think you know she’d love to have you with her.
It wouldn’t be charity,” he said, keeping one step ahead of her.
“You’d be bringing in a wage. You could get your own place, for that matter, but I think you’d be more comfortable with your cousin at first. And our farms are close enough to make it convenient. ”
“I’ll talk to her.” Sometime during the last two minutes her mind had been made up. She was going. Her bridges might not be burning behind her, but they were certainly smoking. “I’ll have to speak to my family, as well, but I’d like to accept your offer.”
She held out her hand. Burke took it just as casually, though he wondered about the wild surge of relief that coursed through him. “I expect a day’s work for a day’s pay. I don’t doubt you’ll give it to me.”
“That I will. I’m grateful for the chance.”
“I’ll remind you of that after you’ve spent a few days sorting through the mess my last bookkeeper left me with.”
She stood very still for a moment, letting it all soak in, layer by layer. Then she spun in a quick circle and laughed. “I can’t believe it. America! It’s like some kind of a mad dream. I’ve hardly been more than fifty kilometers from Skibbereen, and now I’m going thousands in the blink of an eye.”
He liked to see her this way, her face flushed with pleasure, her eyes lit with it. And the rain still drummed on the roof. “It takes a bit longer than that to cross the Atlantic.”
“Don’t be so literal.” But she was too excited to take offense. “In a matter of days I’ll be in a new country, a new place, a new job. New money.”
He started to reach for a cigar, then thought better of it. “The money puts a gleam in your eye.”
“Anyone who’s ever been poor gleams a bit when they’ve got enough money.”
He acknowledged this with a nod. He’d been poor, but he doubted Erin would understand that degree of poverty. He appreciated money, though if he lost it, as he had before, he would simply shake the dust off his shoes and make more. “You’ll earn it.”
“I wouldn’t be having it any other way.” She stopped as reality began to seep through. “But I need a passport and the green card that allows you to work. There must be a pile of papers that have to be processed.”
“I told you I’d see to it.” He drew a paper out of his pocket. “Fill this out and drop it off at the inn tonight. It’s an application,” he explained as she studied it. “I’ve already arranged to have it processed tomorrow. Your passport and whatever else you need will be in Cork when we get there.”
She tapped the paper slowly against her palm. “You were damn sure of yourself, weren’t you?”
“It pays to be. You’ll need a picture they can use, too. A recent one.”
“What if I’d said no?”
He simply smiled. “Then you’d have been a fool and I’d have thrown the application away.”