Cash Cassidy Adventures: The Complete 5-Book Series (Plus Bonus Novels)

by K. T. Tomb

  Tim nodded. It was a fascinating thing to research, actually, and for once it was something Cash could throw herself at and it would not involve her putting herself in danger.

  “How far do you reckon you can trace them all?”

  Cash shrugged. “Don't know yet. But I did do a search in the Book of Knowledge and some other places, and it would seem the name Cassidy started showing up around the time the Redshanks showed up in Ireland. But they might go back further. And a lot of the clans and families up there can trace their lineage back to the Galloglass, which might prove interesting.”

  Tim frowned. Both the terms were unknown to him.

  “Redshanks were Scottish mercenaries from the Western Highlands and the Isles. Galloglass is the name for the Norse Gaels who settled in Ulster, Western Scotland and the Isles.”

  Tim smiled. “So ultimately, you might even be Norwegian then?”

  Cash didn’t answer. She had a sudden image flash before her eyes. It was the image of a flag. A triangular white banner showing a bird in flight.

  Chapter Four

  Cash was actually quite tired when she stepped out into the fresh breeze of the Irish Sea. It was just after two o'clock in the morning, and she had driven there in an hour and a half. She had pressed her foot down solidly on the gas pedal the moment she knew she could get away with it.

  There had not really been a plan. She just got the idea in her head that maybe she should go to Ireland to find out the things she wanted to know about her ancestor and the rest of her genealogy. So she had grabbed some clothes and toiletries, gotten in the car around half past midnight and driven down the coast to Pembroke.

  She stood on the deck of the Isle of Inishmore for a moment longer, smelling the salt air and looking at the distant lights passing through the shipping lanes. Then she went back in. Suddenly the baby kicked. Usually she knew when he was restless, but for some reason he kicked unexpectedly now. It took her by surprise.

  For a moment she thought about that. She always called the baby ‘he,’ despite not knowing the gender. She’d consider it tragic if she would not live up to that grammatical rule for the sake of political correctness. But he had kicked for a reason, she knew that. So she turned back around and looked out. The night was clear and the stars were bright. Despite how she had just left her home and her husband, she was very happy as she looked at the stars and the moon.

  The cat darted off through the foliage and sat still on the top branch, looking at the sky. It was thinking. Pondering the moon and the stars, it sat on the branch. The night was quiet. The only thing breaking through the quiet of the darkness was the rush of wings from the peregrine that always accompanied the cat. The rush was never far away. And she loved hearing it. It reminded her she could fly when she wanted to.

  The rush of wings and feathers came again, but she chose not to fly now. It was dark, she was tired and she was happy sitting in the dark looking at the stars and enjoying the air. Sometime soon, she would head to her lair, but for now she was happy sitting there.

  The boar stirred below her, disturbing her peace. She was angry, hissing down. But then she looked back up to the sky and forgot about him. He was only looking after himself and his family. Looking for roots in the dead of night was the nature of the animal. But it was always there these days. And the more it was there, the more she wanted to fly.

  Cash sat down on a small bench. Her feet felt swollen and tired. She would find a spot below decks to have a quick nap after the ship left the terminal. She pulled her coat tight and leaned back against the cold metal wall.

  After a few minutes, she got up again and headed for the door. Her phone rang. Without looking at the name she picked up, just as the engines roared and the Isle of Inishmore began to move away from the quay.

  “Where did you go off to?” Tim's voice asked worriedly.

  “Right now, I'm at sea.” Cash answered.

  “At sea?” He sounded incredulous. “What are you talking about? You didn't go out to swim in the middle of the night, did you?”

  Cash chuckled. “I figured I should go to Wexford to get some more information on the Battle of Vinegar Hill and how Pat Cassidy might have gotten there.”

  “Ah, Pat...” There was a silence for a moment. “I thought we were past this sort of thing.”

  “Tim...” Cash hesitated. Her first reaction was to snap at him, but she felt she could not. Something was holding that reaction back. “Tim, I'm not fucking off to a warzone or something. I'm heading to the other side of the Irish Sea and I'll be back home soon.”

  “Aren't you supposed to be too far along to be traveling?”

  “That's air travel, darling. I'm taking the ferry for a reason.”

  There was a short silence, and Cash knew Tim had taken the phone away from his ear to swear for a moment.

  “Cash, this really...”

  She cut him short. “Tim, I'm a grown woman, I can make my own choices and I'm not doing anything that endangers me or our child. Stop your whining.”

  “I'm not...”

  She cut him off again. “This is what you do, and I know you do it because you care about me. It's something I appreciate in you beyond a lot of other things. I love you for it. You truly do care and want to take care of me, but I really don’t need to be taken care of. It's time you learned that.”

  There was just silence on the line.

  “Tim, you live in Newport for a reason. You know we can't be together all the time. It doesn't work. You being around all the time will drive me nuts and my way of life drives you mad.”

  “But...”

  “I love you. I don't ever want to hurt you.” Cash paused, surprised by her own words. “But I can't stop being myself and doing what I do. I need to live my life, and I try to do all this without hurting you. But if you cannot accept that, we'll have to have a serious talk about that. Because you will end up hurt just because I am being myself and doing what I do.”

  There was another long pause. “Maybe we do need to talk,” Tim said eventually.

  Cash felt hurt that he even thought it. “Fine,” she said, not able to suppress a slight hint of anger. “We'll talk when I get back.” With that, she hung up, not allowing Tim to answer.

  She sat down by a table in the restaurant a few minutes later. She wanted a drink badly. Half a bottle of whiskey would help her feel a lot better, but she felt her belly and sighed. It was one thing to get drunk, but another to hurt her growing child. Cash buried her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes.

  Two people sat down at her table. “These seats taken?” an Australian voice asked.

  “Nah,” she answered, not looking up.

  “You look like you can use a cup of tea,” a woman with a London accent said.

  “Yeah, I could use a cup,” she said, looking up. Then she smiled brightly, completely surprised by the two faces she saw before her.

  “G'day Sheila,” the man said.

  “Jack!” she exclaimed. “Makeda, how are you guys doing?”

  Makeda Iyashu leaned over and hugged her across the table. “Doing very well. And you?”

  Cash looked down in answer. “Up the duff.”

  Jack frowned, laying a hand across Makeda's slender shoulders. “You don't seem too happy about it.”

  Cash gave him a wry smile. “I am happy about it. Just that things are always difficult.”

  “Still the same problems?”

  She shook her head. “No. That's all sorted. But I can't stop doing stuff that hurts him, and I don't want to stop them either.” She sighed and buried her head in her hands again. Then she looked up and smiled at her friends. “But what the fuck are you two doing here? Kind of the last place I'd figure to see you.”

  Makeda and Jack looked at each other. “We're thinking about moving to Dublin actually,” Makeda answered.

  “You're moving to Dublin?” Cash asked. “Together?”

  Jack grinned and Makeda smiled. “Yeah,” Jack answered. “I've g
ot a gig there, and if Makeda can work from there, I'm sure we'll be very happy.”

  “What happened to California?”

  “Same company just set up an office in Dublin. And I think I might like it better in Ireland than in fucking California.”

  “The climate in California is more like Perth, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but the people aren't, Sheila.” Jack sighed. “Dubliners don't seem to care about anything, much like people from Perth. Californians care too much about everything. Not necessarily important things either. Pisses you off after a while.”

  Cash grinned. “I see you haven't changed a bit since we last saw each other.”

  Jack reached over the table and lightly punched her shoulder. “You could have come to see us, you know. Facebook, Skype and email just isn't the same, is it?”

  Cash shook her head. “Nah, but I've been busy.”

  “I heard about El Dorado,” Makeda said. “Read the book too. Did you really find it?”

  Cash didn’t answer. She kept a very straight face.

  “She did then,” Jack said. “I'm guessing you promised someone never to tell about it?”

  Cash said nothing, but she knew both Jack and Makeda would know exactly what was going on in her mind.

  “I wish you two would have made it to the book launch. It probably would have been more fun than it was. So what are you going to do now?” she asked eventually, changing the topic. “And what the fuck is happening to that bloody cuppa tea?”

  Jack grinned and winked to a waiter. “I think tea all around would be a good plan. Just bring us a pot, will you?”

  Makeda then filled her in on what they were going to do. “We're going to look at a house in Harold's Cross. Not too big or fancy, but enough for us. And room to expand. Little garden and close to a few parks. Down the street from a monastery as well, so it's probably pretty quiet.”

  “Sounds like you've got your heart set on it then?”

  Makeda shook her head. “From all we found, it looked the best. But we'll see. It's a housing complex really, but the Georgian houses are expensive.”

  Cash tried to recall Dublin, but she had not been to that part of the city. The only parts she was really familiar with was the city center and the road from the city center to Lansdowne Road. She had gone there a few times to watch the Wallabies play Ireland.

  A pot of tea arrived, and Cash wanted to pour, but Jack stopped her. “It's like bloody piss now. It always is. Wait a minute.”

  “You're going to tell me how to make tea now?”

  Jack grinned and nodded. “Because you've still got so much to learn.”

  Cash smiled as well. Suddenly she realized she was happy. She was happy to be on the road and in the company of good friends. She had not anticipated that, but she liked it. The baby in her belly was quiet as well. Obviously he agreed with her. It was a happy, comfortable feeling.

  They ate and talked for a bit, then Makeda remarked Cash looked tired. “You've got a cabin?”

  Cash shook her head. “Was a bit spur of the moment.”

  “Typical you.” Jack smiled. “We did get a cabin. Got a spare bed if you want it. We can share the accommodations, no probs.”

  Cash smiled. “Thank you, Jack. It would be nice to have a lie down.”

  Ten minutes later, Cash was under the sheets in a soft bed. It would only be another three hours before she would have to get up, but she was glad for it. It was a chance to relieve her aching back and feet and for her brain to rest. But as she let her brain rest and closed her eyes, her mind wandered.

  The falcon flew across the sea. It didn’t normally do that, but it did now. It flew over the wide expanse of ocean. For a moment it looked back, and its sharp eyes could just make out the top of the tree it had just left behind. It was wonderful to fly again. To be free of the shackles of the earth and just soar.

  It knew where it was heading to. It was heading for that hill on the other side of the water. The place where the assembly took place. It didn’t think there would be an assembly, but it was the same place as the assembly. It would fly in that direction and see whether it couldn’t find a prey, either there or on the way back.

  The sea was not broad here, or it would not cross it. The falcon knew too there were always fish there.

  A boat drifted on the water below, but there were no men manning the nets. Yet there were nets there. The falcon swooped down and flew past. There were fish in the nets. It rose again and flew down, snatching at the fish with its claws. But the sharp claws didn’t grip the fish. The falcon rose again and swooped down onto the prey, but once again, the claws couldn’t grab a single fish from the net. It tried again. And again. Yet it kept snatching and never grabbing the fish. Eventually the falcon gave up and flew off.

  The wind was changing and the falcon didn’t think it would be able to fly to the assembly place and back. Instead, it turned back toward the coast. It locked the top of the trees in its vision, only to realize they were not the same trees. Yet, as the falcon came closer, the smells and sounds were the same. She smelled the cat, and the boar and sow below the trees. And she smelled all the other familiar smells. But the trees were not the same.

  Chapter Five

  Cash drove the car from the ferry in Rosslare and in front of the train station, she pulled over and waited. About ten minutes later, Makeda's BMW M5 pulled up. Jack had explained that the car he’d bought to get around while living in Dublin was being shipped as they spoke. He was so pleased about it too. It had made Cash grin. Jack looked like a proper gentleman and could act like one, but at heart he was a true ruffian. Him ordering a Holden Maloo to drive the moment he was in a country with right hand drive again was testimony of that. Makeda had not understood her pleasure at this, but then she had not actually heard or seen what her partner had bought.

  When Makeda and Jack caught up with her, Jack opened the window and told her he knew a good hotel in Enniscorthy and they could have breakfast there. It was the town Cash was on her way to as well, so she was only too happy to agree, if only to extend her time in their company a little longer.

  It was a forty-five minute drive through the Wexford countryside. Cash knew very little about Wexford, but she had managed to find out a few new facts, having looked them up before she left. For a start, she knew it was one of the longest settled Gaelic regions of the island, and the town of Wexford itself was a Viking town. And she could see why the Vikings had come to settle this area. Looking at a map, you could see the position of Wexford and Rosslare and how they made for perfect harbors. But it was the lush green land that would have made it attractive to the new settlers. There were also the mountains and hills and forests that could still be seen everywhere. It would have been easy to build boats there, which must have been important for a nation of seafarers.

  In Enniscorthy, the M5 weaved through the streets and Cash had trouble following it with her big Land Rover. But she didn’t lose track of it and eventually she pulled into a parking spot outside an old hotel. She saw Jack had already jumped from the car and was running into the building. Only moments later, he came back out and gestured to Cash. She grabbed her hastily packed bag and got out of the car, groaning as she put her weight on her feet. She walked to the door, feeling how tired she actually was. She was in great shape, but she had not taken into consideration the effect that a night time trip would have on her. She really wanted some breakfast and a bed.

  It turned out that an Irish friend of Jack's ran the hotel. They had met playing football in Perth, and since Jack had been around, they had played a few games of Gaelic Football here. Taidgh was a jolly man, someone who was quick to laugh and was very hospitable. He made Cash feel at home and at ease instantly. Yet, she could tell from his attitude and from the emptiness of the hotel that he must be far more stressed than he let on. She remarked on the emptiness instantly and saw his face fall. But he shrugged and answered with two words only. “The crisis.”

  She nodded sympathetic
ally. It was the answer to most of the trouble in Ireland at the moment. Everything good that had come with the Celtic Tiger had been drained from the country with the ‘Credit Crunch’ and the austerity measure imposed by the EU, the ECB and the IMF. She had sort of followed the Irish news and seen how the protests and riots had increased in the latest months. It had gone south very rapidly with the water charges.

  She mentioned it to Jack and Makeda when they sat down for a big Irish breakfast, and Taidgh weighed in when he overheard them in the empty dining room. He had refused entry to people of Irish Water himself, only to have the Gardaí knocking on his door a few days later, pulling him out onto the street and keeping him out of his own establishment while a water meter was installed. His plumber brother-in-law had since removed it, but it had left a bitter taste.

  After breakfast, they said their goodbyes and began making their way to their rooms. In the hallway, Makeda and Jack invited Cash to stay on with them in Dublin. Even if they did buy the house immediately, they would be staying in a hotel suite for a couple of weeks, and it would definitely be possible for her to stay with them. And they would be happy to entertain her.

  Cash went to bed immediately after and she slept quietly for the first time in a long time. It was well past two o'clock when she woke up, and she doubted it would be much use to do her research around Enniscorthy around that time. Instead she pulled on her running shoes and changed into her running gear and went out into the streets. She knew she would struggle with the hills, but she actually liked the prospect of the challenge. She was rested and she knew she had been slacking off on her training in the few days her husband had been staying with her.

  She ran out of the town, and then saw the place of the battle she wanted to investigate east of the town. She turned a corner and ran down the country lane to Vinegar Hill.