Chapter 7 #2
It took everything I had not to roll my eyes.
Every sniffle in our house was attributed to poor Lucy, as if he carried every illness known to man and lay in wait to breathe them onto me so I might spread the miasma to the village.
“No, no, I’m grand. Maybe ’tis just the crush of people. The humidity doesn’t help.”
That summer had been especially hot. Thunderstorms had plagued us for months, with no relief. No clearing of the air. Just damp, sticky humidity that caused havoc on the drying. Mam complained every day that she could get nary a shirt dried for the frequency of the downpours.
“All right.” Da raised a brow and plucked the cup from my hand. “Go get some air for yerself, if you can. I’ll try and pry Síofra from that lad of the Connolly’s.”
“Good luck.” With a laugh and a bright smile, I turned on my heel, weaving through the boisterous crowd as I meandered toward the door.
Men and women alike bobbed their heads and removed their caps as I passed—the land agent’s daughter, the eldest, Maggie, educated by Lady Grace, if you don’t mind—and there was a smile for each of them.
“Oh, Maggie!”
I wasn’t so much tugged on my sleeve as I was yanked backward.
“Jesus wept,” I muttered, glancing over my shoulder. It was Mrs. Leary, a babe tucked under each arm and another clinging to her skirts. Married four years, and only six and twenty, the stress of homemaking had already etched itself around once-sparkling blue eyes. “Mary! Wisha, how are you?”
“I’d be much better if I could find my husband, but c’mere, I have a favor.
” She leaned in, and I followed suit. “Is there any chance ye could put in a good word for my Jimmy with your Da? ’Tis only he wants to get digging the spuds tomorrow after hearing all the talk from Dublin, and he’ll be late with the quarterly rent. ”
The “talk from Dublin” might as well have been about some far-off foreign place as far as I was concerned.
Da said to pay it no mind. That a few failed potato crops on the east coast were naught to worry us here in Clare, and should the worst happen, we’d been through it before and would get through it again.
“I’ll be certain to let him know, but make sure Jimmy still talks to Da about it. Da mentioned something about getting all the digging out of the way in one shot.” Likely to ease everyone’s minds, so they could all get back to work, lining the Moore-Vandeleurs’ pockets.
“Oh, I’ll make certain he will. If you see him, tell him I’m looking for him.” Without another word, Mary Leary disappeared into the crowd and I finally made my escape, emerging into the twilit dusk.
Taking a deep breath, I settled my hands on my hips before striding around the side of the hall.
I’d find Da and relay Mary O’Leary’s message once I returned to the fray.
But for now, I would breathe, and not worry about failing crops or Síofra’s choice of suitor, or Michael being gelded by Eileen Mangan’s father.
There was only one thing I needed to puzzle out, and that was how Teddy planned to announce our secret engagement to his father.
I wasn’t worried about Mam or Da, for so long as Teddy convinced his parents, mine would gladly follow suit.
One of their daughters? Marrying a landed Anglo?
It was the stuff dreams were made of, and I’d dreamt and planned since I was old enough to understand what a marriage truly meant, and what a good one could do for my family.
My parents would just be bothered that I settled so young. They had this idea that I should be twenty-three or four when I wed, so I might better know my mind and be sure of what I want.
“Bah!” Hands came around my waist as the deep voice yelled in my ear, and my pulse set off at a gallop. “Did I frighten you, lovedy?”
“Teddy,” I exclaimed, turning in his arms, my heart now pounding in my ears. I gave his chest a light thump with my fist, and he laughed—a beautiful, honey-sweet laugh that lit up that handsome face.
“Forgive me, forgive me,” he begged, bending to plant a light kiss just beneath my earlobe. “Oh, I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I said with a sigh, melting into him before quickly pushing away.
We were a secret, a clandestine smile that only we two shared.
Glancing around, it didn’t appear we had an audience, but prying eyes were everywhere.
I took four steps back and drank him in, cheeks heating as I fought against the grin playing along my lips. “You’re back.”
Nodding, he took a step forward, and another. “I’m back.”
“But leaving for school soon.” I took a step back, and he advanced once more. Reach me. Touch me. What might have started as a calculated plan to marry leagues above my station had melded to all-consuming love two years since, and my skin prickled with anticipation as I bit my lower lip.
“Yes … but surely you won’t let me go without a proper send-off?” Another step forward.
“Perhaps I will. Mayhap I fell for another while you were away, neglecting my heart.” This time I stood my ground, and my love—my heart—silenced me with a deep kiss.
“Silly poppet,” he murmured against my lips, kissing me once more before pulling away, taking my hand in his. “There is only ever I for you, and you for me, wife of mine. Come.”
A thrill ignited within every time he called me by that title, “wife.” It promised the world, and so I had already given all that was precious to me in return.
“I’m not your wife yet,” I breathed.
“Shall we abscond to Limerick? Find a drunken minister in that great city, and elope?” he asked, a smile toying with the corners of his lips.
“Will you be able to stand up to your papa when he seeks an annulment for marrying without his consent?” Teddy’s face fell, but I squeezed his hand.
“Stop, breathe, and think, my love. I want to be with you as much as you want to be with me. But we must stick to the plan. Trust me. Then I can stand beside you and give you courage.”
“Prove it,” he countered. “Show me how much you missed me.”
“Where?” I asked with a smile, not truly caring so long as it was with him.
“Where else? The summerhouse,” he replied.
To make love among the flowers, to affirm our promises, once more, beneath the stars.
And the woes of the world could simply melt away.