Chapter Four #2
“No, that’s not true, and that’s not it, in any case.” Erin opened her mouth again, then let out a long breath. “Oh, I hate confession.”
“Me, too. Sinning just comes natural to some of us.”
Erin glanced over, saw both the warmth and humor and relaxed.
“It comes natural enough to me. I was jealous of you. Am,” she corrected, determined to make a clean breast of it.
“I’d think about you here in a big, beautiful house, with pretty things and pretty clothes, your family, all the things that go with it, and I’d just near die with envy.
When I met you at the airport that day, I was resentful and nervous. ”
“Nervous?” She could pass over resentment easily. “About seeing me? Erin, we all but grew up together.”
“But you moved here, and you’re rich.” She closed her eyes. “I’ve a powerful lust for money.”
A smile trembled on Dee’s lips, but she managed to control it.
“Well, that doesn’t seem like a very big sin to me.
A couple of days in purgatory, maybe. Erin, I know what it is not to have and to wish for more.
I don’t think less of you for envying me—in truth, I’m flattered.
I suppose that’s a sin, too,” she added after a moment’s thought.
“It’s worse because you’re so kind to me, all of you, and I feel like I’m using you.”
“Maybe you are. But I’m using you as well, to bring Ireland a little closer, to be my friend. I have a sister—Travis’s sister. But she moved away about two years ago. I can’t tell you how much I miss her. I guess I was hoping you’d fill the hole.”
Because her conscience was soothed by the admission, Erin touched a hand to Dee’s. “I guess it’s not so bad if we use each other.”
“Let’s just see what happens. Now I’ll help you unpack.”
“Let’s leave it. I’d really like to go down and have a cup of tea.”
As Erin rose, Adelia eyed her. “Did Travis tell you to keep me off my feet?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Lying’s a sin, too,” Dee reminded her, but she smiled as she led her downstairs.
She dreamed of Ireland that night, of the heady green hills and the soft scent of heather.
She saw the dark mountains and the clouds that rushed across the sky ahead of the wind.
And her farm, with its rich plowed earth and grazing cows.
She dreamed of her mother, telling her goodbye with a smile even as a tear slid down her cheek.
Of her father, holding her so tight her ribs had ached.
She heard each of her brothers teasing her, one by one.
She cried for Ireland that night, slow, quiet tears for a land she’d left behind and carried with her.
But when she woke, her eyes were dry and her mind clear. She’d made her break, chosen her path, and she’d best be getting on with it.
The plain gray dress she chose was made sturdily and fit well.
Her mother’s stitches were always true. Erin started to pin her hair up, then changed her mind and tamed it into a braid.
She studied herself with what she hoped was a critical and objective eye.
Suitable for work, Erin decided, then started downstairs.
She heard the hoopla from the kitchen the moment she’d reached the first floor. At ease with confusion, she headed toward it.
“You’ll have plenty to tell your friends at school.” Hannah was at the stove, lecturing Brendon as she scooped up scrambled eggs.
“You’ve missed two weeks, my lad.” At the kitchen table, Dee was fussing with a ribbon in Keeley’s hair. “There’s no reason in the world you shouldn’t go back to school today.”
“I have jet lag.” He made a hideous face at his sister, then attacked the eggs Hannah set in front of him.
“Jet lag, is it?” With an effort, Dee kept a straight face. After kissing the top of Keeley’s hair, she nudged her daughter toward her own breakfast. “Well, if that’s the truth of it, I suppose we have to forget those flying lessons when you’re sixteen. A jet pilot can’t be having jet lag.”
“Maybe it’s not jet lag,” Brendon corrected without missing a beat. “It’s probably some foreign disease I caught when we were in Ireland.”
“Bog fever,” Erin said from the doorway. Clucking her tongue, she walked over to rest a hand on Brendon’s brow. “Sure and that’s the most horrible plague in Ireland.”
“Bog fever?” Dee made sure there was a tremor in her voice. “Oh, no, Erin, it couldn’t be. Not my baby.”
“Young boys are the ones who catch it easiest, I’m afraid. There’s only one cure, you know.”
Dee shuddered and closed her eyes. “Oh, not that. Poor darling, poor little lad. I don’t think I could bear it.”
“If the boy has bog fever, it has to be done.” Erin put a hand on his shoulder for comfort. “Nothing but raw spinach and turnip greens for ten days. It’s the only hope for it.”
“Raw spinach?” Brendon felt his little stomach turn over. He wasn’t sure precisely what turnip greens were, but they sounded disgusting. “I feel a lot better.”
“Are you sure?” Dee leaned over to check his brow herself. “He seems cool enough, but I don’t know if we should take any chances.”
“I feel fine.” To prove his point, he jumped up and grabbed his coat. “Come on, Keeley, we don’t want to miss the bus.”
“Well, if you’re sure... ” Dee rose to kiss his cheek, then Keeley’s. “Uncle Paddy’s going to drive you to the end of the lane. It’s cold, so stay in the car until the bus comes.”
Dee waited until the door slammed behind them before she lowered herself in the chair again and howled with laughter. “Bog fever? Where in the blue heaven did you dig that up?”
“Ma always used it on Joe. It never failed.”
“You’ve a quick mind.” Hannah chuckled as she turned around. “What can I fix you for breakfast?”
“Oh, I don’t—”
“If you think Mrs. Malloy can cook, wait until you taste Hannah’s muffins.” Understanding her cousin’s embarrassment, Dee took the cloth off a little wicker basket. “Why don’t you have some eggs to go with it? I have the appetite of a hog when I’m carrying, and I hate to eat alone.”
“Coffee?” Hannah was by her shoulder with the pot.
“Please. Thank you. Ah, is Travis not up yet?”
“Up and gone,” Dee said comfortably. “He’s been down at the stables for more than an hour.
When he travels on business, I’m never sure if he misses me or the horses more.
” She glanced at the muffins, lectured herself, then took another anyway.
After all, she was eating for three. “Brendon’s in the first grade now, and Keeley goes mornings to kindergarten.
So there’s only Brady.” She gestured to the high chair where he sat, his face covered with oatmeal as he sang to his fingers.
“He’s the best-tempered child in the world, if I do say so myself. Now what would you like to do today?”
“Actually, I thought I’d go over to Mr. Logan’s and begin work.”
“Already?” Dee smiled her thanks at Hannah as the breakfast plates were set in front of them. “You’ve only just got here. Surely Burke’s willing to give you a day or two to get your bearings.”
“I know, but I’m anxious to get started, to see what there is to be done. And to make certain I can do it.”
“I can’t imagine Burke Logan putting anyone on his payroll who didn’t know their business.”
“It’s different for me. Even thinking in dollars instead of pounds is different. If I’m in the middle of it working my way out, I won’t worry so much about making a mess.”
Dee remembered how anxious she herself had been to begin work when she’d come to America, to prove to herself she was still competent and able to make her own way. “All right, then, I’ll drive you over myself after breakfast.”
“Not on your life, missy,” Hannah said from the stove.
“Oh, for pity sakes, I can still fit behind the wheel of a car.”
“You’re not driving anywhere until you have your next checkup and the doctor clears it. Paddy can take Miss McKinnon.”
Dee wrinkled her nose at Hannah’s back, but subsided. “I’m a prisoner in my own house. If I go down to the stables, Travis has every hand on the place watching me like a hawk. You’d think I never had a baby before.”
“Twins come early, as you know very well.”
“The sooner the better.” Then she smiled. “Well, I’ll just stay in and plan the party. And Brady and I can build block houses, can’t we, love?”
In answer, he squealed and slapped his hand into his oatmeal.
“After he has a bath.”
“Why don’t I take care of that?” Rising, Erin moved over to free Brady from his high chair.
“You’re not going to start pampering me, too. I’ll go mad.”
“Nothing of the kind. I just think it’s time this handsome young man and I got better acquainted.”
By the time she was finished, Erin had to clean the oatmeal off herself as well. Bundled inside a cardigan and a coat, she drove with Paddy Cunnane to Burke’s neighboring horse farm. The nerves were back. She could feel them tense in her fingers as she curled them together.
It was a waste of time to be nervous about the likes of him, she told herself. What had happened on that stormy morning in the shed was over and done with. Now they were nothing more than boss and employee. He’d said he expected a day’s work for a day’s pay, and she intended to give it to him.
Whatever other feelings she’d had had been born of the moment. Lust, she said firmly, telling herself she was mature enough to face that as a fact of life. Just as she would be strong enough to resist it.
She was a bookkeeper now. Her nerves were suddenly tinged with excitement. A bookkeeper, she repeated silently, with a good job and a good wage. Within the month she could start sending money home, with enough left over to buy… Lord, she couldn’t begin to think what would be first.
Paddy turned the Jeep under an arch. The sign was large, wrought iron, strong rather than fancy with its block letters. Three Aces. Erin caught her lip between her teeth. Was that the hand he’d won it with, or the hand the former owner had lost it with?