Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
Tommy
I t always felt good to get cleaned up after a hard day’s work at the training center.
While the way they trained horses here was night and day from the way we trained saddlebreds at Blackburn Farm, the labor was just as taxing and just as rewarding.
I stepped out of my cottage and pulled the door shut.
My hair was still wet from the bath I’d taken…
one of the things I wasn’t liking about Ireland.
While Rory’s cottage and the main manor house had been updated with modern conveniences like showers, my cottage had not and still only contained a bathtub.
It had to be heated manually with an immersion heater which was a pain in the ass, but in the chilly evenings after work, it was a necessity.
I headed down the darkening path to Rory’s cottage where, for the last two nights, I’d been invited to join him, Kathleen and Fiona for dinner.
Everyone was worried about Fi, but she seemed to be holding her own.
She spent her days working at the training center.
Rory said the best thing was to keep her mind and body busy, and she wasn’t afraid of hard work.
She helped feed, water, and groom the horses as well as breeze them on the track.
Today, Rory took her over to the steeplechase run and for the first time, they didn’t have to hide it from Seamus because he no longer had a say in what his daughter did.
Asshole.
The morning after Seamus threw Fiona out, Rory went over to the manor house to demand her clothing, but his brother wasn’t there.
Brigid let him in and was quiet and nonconfrontational about it.
She didn’t help Rory pack up Fiona’s belongings, but she didn’t stop him either.
He returned with two large suitcases full of her stuff and Fiona shed some tears, a mix of both happy and sad.
It made me want to pound Seamus Conlan into the ground because it was breaking my heart to see Fiona’s world ripped apart.
As Rory’s cottage came into view, all aglow and smoke pouring from the chimney, my excitement to see Fiona rose.
While I’d love nothing more for her to spend all night with me, that was definitely impossible now with her under Rory’s watch.
But that could wait.
I’d become familiar enough with the warmth of an Irish welcome and walked right into Rory’s front door with only a slight knock.
I followed the voices into the kitchen and found Fiona and Kathleen busying about and Rory sitting at the table.
The rich aroma of stew and fresh bread hit my nose, but that’s not what tightened my belly.
It was seeing Fiona in a pretty blue dress with an apron to protect it from spatter.
She turned, faced me with a smile that brightened exponentially when she took me in.
I’m not sure if Rory or Kathleen noticed the subtlety, but her eyes slid up and down, surveying me from head to toe, and I saw pure female appreciation in her expression.
I loved that about her.
That despite how innocent she was, and how I was her first, she looked at me the way a woman does when she wants a man.
We sat down around the table, the peat fire cracking merrily in the adjoining sitting room.
Fiona sat to my left and was putting on a brave face, despite how drained she was from emotional overload.
She smiled, she laughed at my teasing, she made conversation, but every so often, I’d catch it—the flicker of sadness, the way she’d absently rub her thumb over her breastbone like she was grounding herself.
I couldn’t forget that even though she was safe and secure right now, Fiona was grieving.
She had lost her family.
Granted, her father was an asshole and her mother a doormat, but they had raised her.
And she was worried about whether she’d be allowed to see her siblings.
There was no answer to that question quite yet.
No matter how much she told herself she was better off without them, I knew that kind of pain didn’t just go away.
I reached under the table and gave her knee a reassuring squeeze.
She turned to me, her features softening as she offered a small, tired smile.
That was enough for now.
After dinner, Kathleen insisted Rory and I clean the kitchen, to which we didn’t object.
Back home, I was expected to help my mom and it was never called “women’s work.” Not when my mom was out in the barns pitching hay and scooping up horseshit.
We retired to the sitting room where Kathleen had set out a tea service, but Rory went straight for the liquor bottle.
I didn’t hesitate in accepting a small glass of whiskey, but Fiona was content with a cup of steaming tea.
She settled into my side on the couch while Kathleen and Rory took the adjacent chairs.
“I tried to speak with Seamus this afternoon but he was still away. I’ll try again tomorrow.” His voice was heavy, like he already knew how that conversation would go.
Fiona let out a humorless laugh.
“Ye don’t have to, Uncle Rory. He doesn’t care about me, only merging our farm with the Kavanaghs so he can grow bigger. Besides, there’s nothing I need from him anymore, especially since ye got all my clothes for me.”
Everyone kept silent.
No one jumped to tell her she was wrong about her father not caring.
He clearly didn’t.
Once again, I fought the urge to head over to the Conlan Manor and kick Seamus’s ass from one side of Glenhaven to the other.
My deepest, darkest desire at this point was hoping he’d provoke me in a way I’d be justified.
I clenched my jaw, anger simmering low in my gut.
I’d never in my life met a man so blinded by his own greed that he’d cast out his own daughter.
The way she was sitting there, trying to act like she was fine, like she hadn’t just been thrown out of the only home she’d ever known, made me want to put my fucking fist through something.
A small knock landed on the door, diverting our attention.
When it opened, Fiona gasped as Siobhan poked her head in.
Her red hair was wild from the wind and she wasn’t wearing a coat, as if she had jetted from the manor house on a whim.
“Siobhan?” Fiona’s voice was barely a whisper as she shot up from her seat.
The sisters stared at each other for a long moment, and then they were in each other’s arms, hugging and crying.
I sat back, exhaling through my nose.
I was happy for Fiona for this little reunion, but my fury at her father intensified to an unhealthy proportion that he was keeping them apart.
Rory cleared his throat.
“Lass, does yer father know ye’re here?”
Siobhan shook her head quickly.
“No. He just came home tonight before dinner. I—I waited until he went into his study to work and made a break for it.”
Rory sighed, rubbing a hand over his jaw.
“Let’s give them a moment.”
Kathleen nodded and motioned for me and Rory to follow her into the kitchen, but I couldn’t seem to move.
Not yet.
I leaned forward on my seat, elbows on my knees and watched them in the lamplight.
Fiona pulled back, gripping Siobhan’s shoulders like she was checking to make sure she was really here.
“How are ye? Paddy?” She hesitated and then added, “Mam? Da?”
I hated that she was asking about her parents.
They didn’t deserve her curiosity.
Siobhan exhaled, glancing toward me before lowering her voice.
“It’s strange. Too quiet. Da barely speaks unless it’s to give an order, and Mam…” She shook her head.
“She just goes about her business like nothin’s changed, but I see it in her face. She’s not all right, Fi.”
“And ye?” Fiona urged.
Siobhan’s lower lip quivered but she managed a brave smile.
“I’m holdin’ on to hope this will all blow over.”
Fiona’s breath shuddered, and I knew she wanted to believe that meant something.
That maybe her mother gave a damn and her dad would see the error of his ways.
But the look on her face told me that she didn’t hold the same faith.
“And Paddy?” she asked.
Siobhan swallowed, her lips pressing together.
“He cries at night. Keeps askin’ when yer coming home.”
Fiona closed her eyes, grief washing over her, but when she opened them, her jaw was set.
“I can’t come home.”
Siobhan nodded, like she already knew that answer but needed to hear it anyway.
“Aye. I’ve told him that and he’ll be fine.”
I looked into the kitchen, saw Rory and Kathleen standing there quietly, obviously listening.
His expression was dark and his fists were curled against his thighs.
If a line formed to have a crack at Seamus, Rory would push me behind him for first go.
Then Siobhan just crumbled, crying tears like a spring waterfall.
“Da hasna said a word about ye. Not once. Not at supper. Not in passing. It’s like ye never existed and I hate him, Fi. I swear it. I hate him.”
I gritted my teeth.
That son of a bitch, not only for doing this to Fiona, but to his other children too.
Kathleen made a soft noise, pressing a hand to her chest.
“God save us.”
Fiona pulled Siobhan into another hug, her fingers twisting into her coat.
When she pulled back, she looked her sister earnestly in the face.
“Has Da forbidden ye from seeing me?”
Siobhan gave a tiny nod.
“We’re not even allowed to speak yer name.”
That fucking bastard.
Fiona squared her shoulders, a display of strength that she wanted to pass on to her little sister.
“Then don’t speak it. Don’t sneak out again. I don’t want ye to get in trouble.”
“That’s not fair,” Siobhan wailed.
“Yer my sister.”
“Aye. And I love ye, and it will all work out. Trust me. But for now… just do what Da orders, yeah? Keep the peace so ye don’t get in trouble. I don’t want to have to worry about ye.”
She buried her face into Fi’s shoulder but nodded her assent.
I exhaled slowly, realizing my fists were still clenched.
This wasn’t right.
None of it.
Fiona should be home.
Her sister shouldn’t have to creep out like a damn criminal just to talk to her.
And Seamus Conlan sure as hell shouldn’t get to pretend his daughter never existed.
“Ye should get home,” Fiona said, but Siobhan shook her head, expression set into firm denial.
“Just a little longer.”
Fi sighed and motioned toward the couch.
“Just for a few minutes. Come on… let’s sit and ye can tell me all about what ye’ve been up to the last few days.”
I rose from the couch, offering my seat, and the sisters sank into it, their hands twisted together.
I moved into the kitchen, my eyes boring into Rory’s.
I leaned in, lowered my voice to the barest of a whisper.
“You know, maybe she doesn’t have to stay here.”
Kathleen blinked her surprise and Rory frowned.
“What do ye mean?”
“She can come back to the States with me. My parents would love to host her.”
Silence.
Rory’s glared at me with a mixture of disbelief and anger.
“Take her from her home.”
“Is it her home anymore?” I asked.
“Her parents abandoned her.”
“But I haven’t,” he said.
“She has a place here with me, always.”
“I know,” I murmured with a sigh.
“It’s just… maybe she needs a fresh start. It’s painful for her to be this close and yet be so far away from those she loves.”
Rory’s expression lightened and I knew that he understood this came from a place of caring for his niece.
“Tommy… she’s seventeen.”
“She’ll be eighteen in three months,” I countered.
“And what’s waiting for her here? A father who won’t even let her take a damn change of clothes? I know it’s sudden, but… I could take care of her.”
Kathleen sucked in a breath, but her smile was tender.
“That’s a big commitment, Tommy. Yer both so young and ye’ve only known each other—”
“I know,” I said, realizing my voice had risen so I lowered it again.
“I know. But…”
I glanced into the living room, saw Fi’s and Siobhan’s heads bent toward each other as they talked in low voices.
I looked back to Rory.
“I know my heart.”
Rory nodded his understanding.
“I don’t doubt it, lad. But if yer serious about such a… proposal… ye need to talk to Fiona about it. Not me.”