The Last Bride in Ballymuir (34 page)

“
I’ve missed you,” Michael
said. “A night and day apart and so much has happened.”

She smiled. “So I see.”

He looked at his brothers
and pure pleasure shone even from under the streaks of mud painting
his
face. “I can’t say I was thrilled to
find ‘em sleeping in
my bed last night, but
they’re all right, those two.”

His expression grew more
serious, and he held tighter to her hand. “This will change things
for us, not that events have been any too normal to begin
with. It looks like they’ll be about for a while.
Their…
ah, our…mam doesn’t want them
back.”

“
Over the
chickens?”

He gave a weary shrug. “And probably a couple
of other things, too. Not that it’s any excuse.”

“
No. None at all.” A mixture
of frustration and outrage—both as an educator and from some spark
of maternal emotion—began to simmer. “So your mother thinks she can
just parcel children off when they make a spot of trouble? You
think she would have learned by now where that can lead.” Kylie
shut her mouth and squeezed her eyes tightly shut when she realized
what had just slipped out.

Tentatively, she opened them to find Michael
looking at her with an amused sparkle lighting his expression.
“Amazing. Now you’re going to apologize for speaking the truth,
aren’t you?”

She wished for a bit of that mud to disguise
the color she felt burning on her cheeks. “I’ll apologize for the
way I said it, how’s that?”

“
You said it from the heart,
and it’s the kindest heart I’ve ever known. Truth is truth, love.
And seeing the boys, being able to spend some time with them,
maybe—just maybe—I’ll be able to undo a bit of the damage their mam
has inflicted. I don’t want to see them half a lifetime from now
struggling to learn what I’ve had to.” He paused to take her other
hand, too. “Until my mother changes her mind, or my father notices
the twins are missing, I guess my
days—and
nights—have grown a little fuller. Do you
mind?”

Now mindless of the mud, the boys, anything
but the love she felt for this man, she went up on tiptoe and
kissed him. “I don’t mind any more than you did when I moved Breege
into my house.”

His smile was crooked. “I was just smart
enough to keep my complaints to myself.”

“
Well, I have no complaints
at all. They seem like
fine boys.” She
choked back a laugh as she glanced at
the
sizable “boys” in question.

“
Fine they are, and they’re
also hungry. They eat like young wolfhounds—swallowing rabbits
whole.” At her laugh, he added, “God’s truth, I swear. And I think
I’ll get them on home, fill their bellies, then come have a visit
with you this evening. If you don’t mind having a visitor, that
is.”

Kylie tilted her head and took in the details
that made her heart beat faster—the sensuous curve to his smile,
the way he held himself as though he’d take on and flatten any evil
the world threw his way. “I don’t think you fall under the category
of visitor anymore, do you?”

“
Not a visitor and not quite
a resident,” he said with a teasing tone. “I should be thinking of
picking up an injury or two, then maybe you’d find room for me
under your roof.”

Kylie fought to hide her
instinctive flinch. Michael
looked at her
carefully, as though observing things invisible to the naked eye.
Not for the first time, she wondered whether he didn’t have a share
of his sister’s second sight.

“
Struck a nerve, have
I?”

She tried to smile, but failed miserably.
“Just more birds coming home to roost, and the nest already full
up.”

He was silent a moment, then said, “Your da,
is it?”

All she could manage was a tiny nod of her
head. Anything more and she would either rage and roll in the mud
or break down and weep. And whichever happened, it wasn’t the sort
of impression she wanted to make on Pat and Danny Kilbride.

Michael sighed. “I’m sorry, love, but we’ll
work our way through it. I promise.”

Kylie smiled, this time for real. She loved
being part of a “we,” with all the unity and strength that the word
implied. It was still more wish than reality, but it was all she
had.

“
We’ll be fine, the both of
us,” she said. “And the rest of those wild Kilbrides,
too.”

He hugged her and laughed at her shocked cry
as his mud became hers. He rubbed his face into the sensitive crook
where neck met shoulder, and growled, “Wild, Kilbrides are we? You
haven’t seen the half of it.”

Kylie laughed, too. Pat and
Danny merely
watched, one commenting to the
other, “Not half f—,
uh bad, for a
teacher.”

Chapter Twenty-One

If it isn’t better, may it not be worse.

─
Irish Proverb

Vi Kilbride scrutinized the
down-at-the-heels inte
rior of Ballymuir’s
Village Hall. “A bit of paint, a few
banners, and we’ll be set—in a minimalist sort of
way.”

Trailing in Vi’s wake, Kylie grimaced. Even
with paint and banners, there was a certain ill-used air to the
place she needed to address before it was ready for her students’
show, which was just a matter of days away. She tapped her index
finger against her lower lip as she considered the
possibilities.

“
I suppose you have the
materials for banners at your studio. And the village council might
be willing to pay Pat and Danny to do a little paint-up. Assuming
Michael can spare them, that is.” He’d kept them running dawn to
dusk for the week they’d been in town.

Just then, sharp heels drummed across the
dusty wood. Kylie turned to see Evie Nolan closing in on them.

“
So is it true?” Evie gave a
little wiggle to settle her sausage-tight top.

“
Is what true?”

“
Your da, of course. I heard
at the pub that he was coming back to town today. Didn’t you go get
him?” She looked around as if he might be lurking in a
corner.

“
I work. I’ve got no time to
be driving all the way to County Laois.”

“
Then he’s taking the bus?
Do you think he’ll be in
tonight? It’s
nearly eight already.”

Kylie knew neither when nor
how her father was arriving and had been struggling mightily not to
care. He had called more than once in the past several days, and
each time she had avoided him, using Breege as an unwilling shield.
All because she couldn’t bring herself to speak five blunt
words:
I don’t want you here.

She spent the anger she felt toward herself
on Evie. “Why the sudden interest in my da’s arrival? Been sending
love notes off to prison?”

“
Just wantin’ to know
whether it’s time to lock up my pocketbook.”

Defending Johnny O’Shea to Evie, who’d been a
petty thief for as long as Kylie could recall, bordered on the
absurd. “Lock up your pocketbook? You wouldn’t want to do that
until you were through stealing from your da’s till, now would you,
Evie?”

Evie’s plum-painted lips snapped shut. Her
low growl was quickly lost in the chime of Vi’s laughter.

“
Kylie me girl, I’m liking
you more every day,” Vi
said, accenting the
words with a pat on the back that had the air escaping from Kylie’s
lungs with a whoosh.

As Kylie recovered, it
occurred to her that she was
liking herself
more every day, too. Feeling plenty strong to face down Evie, she
pinned the girl with a glare.

“
Are you here to help with
the art show? Because
if you are, you’re
not dressed for it. And if you’re not,
leave us to our work. You could always go wheedle gossip back
at the pub. Tongues are looser after a pint or two.”

“
As are some women, from
what I’ve seen,” Vi said. At Evie’s rude response, she cautioned,
“Be careful what you say. Life has a nasty way of coming back and
biting you in the bum.”

Evie stalked away. Halfway to the door, she
teetered on the slope of her ridiculously high heels, then fell
off. Arms flailing, curses spouting, she righted herself.

Vi smiled brightly. “Bloody things’ll kill
you if you’re not careful.”

Kylie suspected Evie’s fall had more to do
with Vi’s uncanny abilities than bad shoes. The slamming door
signaled Evie’s departure.

Vi gave a wry shake of her head. “That one
will never grow up.” She ran her finger along the back of a worn
bench, then said, “So your da’s due back. Must be a bit of a shock
even though you knew the day was coming.”

“
It’ll be more of a shock
for my da when he learns
that Breege is
living in my house, and her peacock in
my
shed.”

The noise of Michael’s power
tools had sent Martin
scurrying for a more
placid location. Suddenly, Kylie
wondered
if she hadn’t invited Breege into her house to attain exactly the
same thing.

“
You’ve not talked to your
da, have you?”

“
Not precisely.”

Vi simply looked at her, brows raised in the
inquisitive curve of a mother confessor’s. She was obviously
itching to say more.

Kylie watched dust motes drift and dance in
the glow of the overhead light. The expectant silence grew too
thick to be ignored. “Go on then, before you explode.”

“
It’s not my business to be
telling you anything, but since you asked. You owe your father and
yourself the truth,” Vi said.

She’d been short and sweet, at least.

“
I’ve known I do, but it
seems that every time I get
a grasp on
happiness, Da finds some way to wrench it free. He doesn’t mean to
hurt me, but he always does. As much as I can’t bear the thought of
having Da under my roof, I feel even worse for depriving him of a
place.”

“
So scrabbling for a home of
your own while trying to repay his debts wasn’t quite
enough?”

She shook her head. “He’s my father. That’s
something, even if it no longer seems to be quite enough. And
you’re a fine one to be arguing this with me, anyway. You took in
Michael, didn’t you?”

“
It’s not at all the same
thing. He’s with me because it’s where he’s meant to be, how he’s
meant
to start. Now, your father, he chose
his path long ago,
and stuck to it even
when he knew it would leave you living in ruins. Michael,
he’s—”

The front door’s rusty hinges squealed,
drawing Kylie’s attention. “Walking in the door right now,” she
quickly cut in.

“
The hall hasn’t seen this
much traffic since old
Aislinn Greavey’s
wake. Evening, brother,” Vi called
across
the room. “And how are you?”

“
Better, now that you’re
through gossiping about me,” he replied before giving Kylie an
all-too-quick kiss in greeting.

He kept his hand resting on the curve of her
waist, and she leaned into that casual touch, imagining how it
would feel against her bare skin. Elemental emotion jumped and
sizzled between them, almost a palpable thing.

Michael swallowed once—hard—before adding,
“And I’d be even better yet, Sis, if you’d kindly clear the room
and leave the keys to the place.”

Vi jingled a keyring between
her fingers. “And risk
having my first
niece or nephew conceived in the
Village
Hall? On behalf of Miss O’Shea, here, I’ll hold out for silk sheets
at the Connaught following a proper
ceremony in front of Father Cready.” She nudged
Kylie. “Quit your swooning or he’ll think you’re
easy.”

Easy didn’t begin to
describe it. A week of deprivation had done its work. She felt
rounder-heeled
than
Evie Nolan. She stepped away, but the current between herself
and Michael arced the distance.

Michael shot his sister a gimlet stare.
“You’ll pay for this, sweet Vi.”

“
You’d best ask Kylie what
happened to the last soul who crossed me.”

“
He’s not wearing spike
heels,” Kylie pointed out.

Vi’s smile was positively feline. “But men
have certain inadequacies in their armor, so to speak.”

Michael took a sharp breath and clutched
Kylie’s hand. “To the door.”

“
And be quick about it,
before I toss a bucket of
cold
water over you both,” Vi said.

Once they were safe outside and had finished
a good laugh at Vi’s audacity, the pull between them seemed
stronger then ever.

“
Walk with me,” he said, and
she looped her arm through his.

The village streets were
quiet, and the air damp with the rain that had fallen all day.
Kylie’s fingers rested against the hard muscle of Michael’s upper
arm. Without paying any attention to their route, they strolled
down the hill and along the edge of the
quay. A breeze carrying the fertile scent of sea eddied
around them. The water lapping against the stone
seawall seemed to surge in time to Kylie’s heart.

They reached the end of the
pier. Michael cupped her face between his palms. Just as she rose
on her toes, he leaned forward to kiss her. A chorus of male
laughter sounded from
a boat
in the
harbor.
They both started, and Michael pulled away. He
drew her from light they’d been standing near, and into the
protection of last twilight. Kylie knew the laughter had nothing to
do with them. Still, the moment was lost.