The enchanted ring

by Lucy Gillen

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE week following Rupert's collapse was an anxious one for both Laura and Rowan, for they were both very fond of the odd little man, although they appeared to be the only ones who were. Sean treated the matter with far less concern, indeed he seemed to find their anxiety a cause for annoyance, and Rowan thought he was even jealous of the attention Rupert was getting. As for Mary Donovan, she expressed only as much sympathy as her piety compelled her to. ' 'Tis a judgment on him, surely,' she told them at dinner one evening, and Rowan bit her lip to stop herself saying something she knew she would regret. 'That's nonsense, Mary,' Laura scolded her, 'and you know it. Poor Rupert's no bigger a sinner than the rest of us, and I think both you and Sean could show a little more pity for a fellow human being instead of sitting in judgment.' 'If he was ill why didn't he say something about it?' Sean asked resentfully. 'Because he didn't want to make a fuss,' Laura told him, and Sean looked doubtful and prepared to argue. 'It isn't like him not to make the most of any little drama he could raise,' he declared, 'although I don't suppose he anticipated making a dramatic collapse on Doran's doorstep or being found there by Rowan.' 'Of course he didn't,' said Laura, 'and you're being very unkind, Sean. I'm disappointed in you.' Sean chose to ignore the reproach and instead looked at Rowan, obviously having thought of something else 114 that did not please him. "Talking of you finding him,' he said. 'I haven't realised until now where you must have been that afternoon. You were near enough to Tomaltach to run and ask for help do you still say you try and avoid Doran whenever you can?' Rowan flushed, both at the accusation and at the way it was spoken. 'I hadn't meant to go quite so far along,' she said, then raised her chin in defiance. 'But I'm glad I did or I wouldn't have found Rupert.' 'Very convenient that Doran happened to be around,' he remarked. 'I suppose that was coincidence too?' "Yes, it was,' Rowan declared crossly, 'and I've told you before, Sean, I object to being cross-examined on my movements.' 'Doran brought you home,' he accused, unwilling to see the danger signals in her eyes. 'Yes, he did,' Rowan agreed shortly. 'Sean dear,' Laura told him mildly, "Michael Doran was behaving as any well-brought-up young man would. He. could see that Rowan was upset about Rupert and he brought her home to save her the long walk. It was common courtesy, something I would expect from you in the same position.' It was an undeniable fact, although Sean relinquished his position reluctantly and merely acknowledged the truth of it with a shrug. "I suppose you're going to see Brady again tonight?' he asked. 'I'd like to,' Rowan replied quietly, refusing to be further drawn into quarrelling with him. 'If someone will drive me into Gallyborn. I wouldn't bother you, Sean, but you know there's no bus at that time in the evening.' 'Suppose I don't?' Sean taunted, his eyes speculative and rather malicious as he saw a chance for revenge, and Rowan looked at him for a moment without answering. ii5 'Then I'll have to ask someone else,' she told him quietly. . 'There is no one else,' he retorted, and Rowan lifted her chin, a half smile on her lips.i Some little devil of mischief nudging her into-i retaliating with the one thing guaranteed to infuriate him. "Oh, but there is,' she said softly, and Sean stared at her for a moment uncomprehendingly before a flush of angry colour heralded realisation. 'You you wouldn't,' he said, rather uncertainly.'{ 'Would you. Rowan?' 'Only if you refuse to take me,' Rowan assured him. 'Oh no. Rowan, you wouldn't!' Laura laughed, putting a hand over his. 'Of course she wouldn't ask him, Sean,' she told him gently. 'She only teasing you, can't you see that? Aren't you," Rowan?' 'Yes, yes, of course I am.' She answered readily' enough, but Rowan wondered if she really would draw the line at asking Michael Doran to take her in to Gallybom if Sean refused to go. She could not let Rupert down by not going in to visit him. - It was obvious, even to a layman, that Rupert was a very sick man, and Rowan never ceased to wonder at' his tenacious hold on life each time she saw him. She and Laura were his only visitors and she could not have borne the idea of him lying there alone when the other patients had their families round them. Laura had wanted to let his sister, Maggie, know how ill he was, but he had refused to hear of it. He and Maggie, he told her, had never been that close although there was no real animosity between them. Rowan would have been the first to admit that her support of Laura's suggestion was due in part to her curiosity about Maggie Brady. She was curious to' see what kind of a girl Michael Doran's reputed ex- 116 mistress was. Her curiosity, although she did not realise it at the time, was to be satisfied sooner than she realised, for Rupert died just two weeks after Rowan found him under the trees at Tomaltach. There was no will, for Rupert had nothing to leave except his verses, and those he gave to Laura in a whispered request that brought tears to her eyes. It was Laura who notified his sister and made all the arrangements, for she knew him well enough to see him to his rest in a way she knew he would approve. It was a warm, soft day and the hills looked mistily green behind the little church. The kind of day Rupert would have loved. Rowan thought, as she stood with Laura while the priest read one of Rupert's own verses in a soft, sad Irish voice that was too much for Rowan's self-control. Tears trembled in her eyes for a moment or two before rolling warmly down her cheeks and she knew that Sean would have frowned impatiently at the sight of them, but she could not help it. When it was all over Laura moved across to speak to the priest and Rowan stood for a moment or two alone, her thoughts with the strange little man who had been so hard to know arid understand. It had been difficult to know when he was serious, quite often, and she knew that he could be cuttingly cruel with his tongue at times, but he had always been gentle and rather charmingly old-world with her. The house, and especially the garden, would never be the same again without Rupert. . "You're Rowan Blair?' She turned, startled at the interruption of her thoughts, and met the curious but bold eyes of the girl she had noticed during the service. She wore no hat, but a light scarf covered black curly hair and framed a face that was just too strong in features to be pretty. Rowan nodded, hastily dabbing away the remains of 117 tears. This girl, she felt, would despise such weakness. 'Yes, I'm Rowan Blair,' she admitted, and knew she was looking at Maggie Brady even before the information was volunteered. 'I'm Rupert's sister.' No hand was proffered in company with the intro-. duction and Rowan detected an edge of resentment on her voice. 'Miss Brady,' she said, 'I'm I'm terribly sorry about your brother.' Dark eyes, less wild but much harder than Rupert's, looked at her shrewdly. "We weren't close,' she told her. 'Not as dose as you and he were, if Laura O'Neil's to be believed.' Rowan took a second to absorb this, wondering just what Maggie Brady expected her to say. 'Laura told you ' Maggie Brady nodded impatiently. 'When she wrote about the funeral, she said you'd like to be there because you and Rupert had been as thick as thieves. Those weren't her words,' she added unnecessarily, 'but I could'read between the lines well enough.' 'I we got on well together,' Rowan admitted, unsure of this hard, self-confident girl. 'So I heard.' The dark eyes studied her for a moment thoughtfully. 'I'm rather surprised, to be honest, he wasn't much of a mixer and he never had time for women as a rule, except for what he could get out of them.' 'Oh, you shouldn't say that!' Rowan protested, her eyes betraying the shock she felt at the harsh judgment, although it was more or less what Sean had said many times before. 'Rupert wasn't like that.' 'No?' Dark brows rose and a faint smile condemned Rowan for a fool. 'Have it your way.' 'I ' Rowan began, but at that moment she saw someone she had not noticed before, not mixing with 118 the few people who had been at the service but standing over near the hedge that surrounded the churchyard. She quite forgot what she had been going to say and shook her head slowly, wondering what on earth had possessed Michael Doran to come here today, even to stay discreetly in the background. Unless Rowan looked quickly at the dark-eyed girl who was already turning to leave. Unless, she thought wildly, he had been curious to see Maggie Brady again, but if the girl noticed him she gave no sign and was already walking away with a bold, insolent stride towards the gates. Rowan watched her, saw her get into a car that waited there for her and whose driver hastily drove away as so
on as his passenger was in her seat. Maggie Brady had not suffered for her rejection for very long, she thought. She looked across at Michael Doran, unable to resist seeing his expression, curious about him still and, as if she had called to him, he came over. He wore a dark suit with a shirt and tie instead of the more casual attire she was more used to, and she thought how different he looked. The grey eyes looked down at her steadily for a moment or two before he spoke. 'I'm sorry. Rowan.' It was not what she expected him to say and the genuine sympathy in his voice shook her self-control so that she did no more than look at him for a second or two, then nodded. 'I liked him,' she said, as if that made everything clear. 'I know you did. You and Laura were about the only two people in the world he cared for, or who cared for him.' 'Even his sister,' Rowan said bitterly, remembering the unfeeling matter-of-factness of Maggie Brady. 'She didn't even look unhappy.' 119 He shook his head, a half smile on his face for Maggie Brady's shortcomings. 'Maggie wouldn't,' he told her. 'The only person Maggie worries about or cares tuppence about is Maggie.' Rowan looked a little surprised to hear the girl so hardly condemned and to hear him speak so frankly about her. 'You you can say that?' she ventured. 'But I thought you ' She bit her lip on the indiscretion . that had so nearly escaped. He raised one brow, obviously following her train of thought even so. 'You thought I what?' he asked, and a hand on her arm, guided her along the gravelled path as well as forestalling any ideas she had of walking off without him. 'It it was nothing,' she said hastily. 'Nothing?' The grey eyes held hers although she wanted desperately to look away. 'I suppose you're referring to that idiotic rumour-that was circulated at one time, that Maggie Brady was my mistress,' he guessed with dismaying bluntness. 'Was that it, Rowan?' 'I no, of course not!' No?' 'No.' She looked down at her hands clasping a prayer book as if she needed something to hold on tight to. 'No, of course it wasn't 'Rowan ' He brought them to a halt in the middle of the path and took the prayer book from her, holding it between his own hands. 'You wouldn't like to swear that was the truth, would you?' 'I don't have to swear to anything,' she dedared, and looked up at him, traces of tears still in her eyes. 'And please don't bully me today, I'll probably cry and make a complete fool of myself if you do.' 'Then I won't,' he promised softly.' 'But things aren't the way you seem to think. Rowan, I'd like you 120 to know that.' Her hands trembled and it was much more difficult to conceal the fact now that she had no book to hold and help steady them. 'You don't have to explain anything to me,' she told him. His smile crooked briefly into being and he shook his head slowly. 'I know I don't have to,' he agreed, 'but I object to being judged on hearsay and without you hearing my side of it. After all, was there. Maxwell wasn't.' Rowan glanced up quickly, ready to be defensive. 'I ' she began, but a raised hand silenced her. 'I'd like you to know the truth, if you're prepared to hear my side of it.' She hesitated, casting him an uneasy glance from under her lashes, unsure that this was either the time or the place for such a conversation, but realising that he was quite serious about it. 'If if you want to tell me about it,' she said at last, "then then do.' He looked at her for a moment, as if he was unsure how to begin now that it came to the point. 'I suppose you heard that I took Maggie Brady up to Tomaltach as my mistress and then threw her out when I got tired of her, was that it?' Rowan nodded, left a little breathless by the bluntness of the question. "Something like that,' she admitted. 'And you believed it?' ' I don't know.' The grey eyes scorned her reticence. 'Oh, come on, Rowan! You know quite well that you took every word of it as gospel and just added it to the rest of the tales you'd heard about me.' Rowan tilted her chin defiantly. 'Perhaps I did,' she allowed. 'It fitted your image to behave like that.' 'The image Sean Maxwell made of me?' he suggeslai ted, and laughed shortly. 'Well, you have to admit, he's scarcely unbiassed, is he?' 'Sean is not biassed,' Rowan denied fiercely, 'and I thought it quite feasible that you'd behave like that towards Rupert's sister.' Mentioning Rupert's name reminded her where they were and she bit on her lip anxiously. 'Even now you've met Maggie?' he asked quietly. 'Does it still fit in with my image. Rowan?' She looked down at her folded hands and wished she had never allowed herself to become involved in this conversation. ' I didn't have time to judge,' she told him, and he snorted impatiently. 'Oh, don't you give an inch, will you? Well, for your information, my girl, Maggie Brady came up to Tomaltach of her own accord, without any invitation or encouragement from me. I thought she wanted, needed help, but when I realised that she had ideas of a comfortable living, as she thought, at my expense I threw her out on her ear. I don't like spongers and Maggie is an expert, so I've discovered since.' Rowan absorbed the information for a moment or two in silence, then she raised her eyes and looked at him. 'I'm I'm sorry,' she said, wondering why she should instinctively believe him. 'I'm sorry if I misjudged you in this 'instance, but even Rupert thought ' 'Rupert knew what Maggie told him,' he told her, 'that's why I didn't blame him too much.' He looked back at the patch of newly turned earth. 'I quite liked him,' he added quietly. 'He was quite a character in his own way.' 'He was a wonderful character,' Rowan said softly, feeling more tears chokingly close when they talked of Rupert. 'He would have been sorry to have misjudged you too, I know.' 122 'I believe he would,' he agreed, and handed her back the prayer book, looking over his shoulder at Laura coming across towards them. 'I'd better go,' he added. 'Oh, you needn't,' Rowan assured him, hastily and unthinkingly. "Laura doesn't dislike you.' She realised what she had said, a second too late, when a wry smile crooked his mouth at one corner. 'I'm glad someone doesn't,' he said, 'just the same I won't wait.' For a panicky moment Rowan thought he was going to bend his head and kiss her, but instead he smiled understanding and touched her hands gently. 'Goodbye, Rowan.' He went off and in a couple of strides was out of earshot. Laura looked after him curiously when she joined her. 'I didn't expect to see Michael Doran here,' she remarked, 'and so formally dressed too. How unexpected of him.' 'He he liked Rupert,' Rowan told her, and Laura looked at her curiously. 'Did he?' 'He told me so,' Rowan insisted, 'and I believed him, Laura.' 'He's a strange man,' Laura said, eyeing the tall, departing figure thoughtfully, 'and rather dangerous, I think. As strange in his way as poor Rupert was, and as proud as Lucifer.' Rowan did not feel inclined to argue with either opinion at the moment, and she gave one last wistful look back, before leaving the little churchyard with Laura. It was very simple and quiet,' Laura said after dinner that night, 'just as Rupert would have liked it.' 'God rest his soul,' Mary murmured piously, and crossed herself. 'He wasn't much've a man, but sure he was a sick one an' maybe not realism' what he was 123 doin'.' Michael Doran was there,' Laura said, and Sean's head came up sharply, his eyes seeking Rowan's. 'Why, for heaven's sake?' It was Rowan who answered him, in the same way she had Laura earlier, but perhaps more sharply. Because he liked Rupert.' 'Liked him?' Sean's blue eyes held scorn as well as disbelief. 'That's rich, after the way he treated Brady's sister!' 'Sean ' Rowan hesitated, aware of Laura's eyes watching her curiously. She had not asked what Rowan and Michael Doran had been talking about, but Rowan thought she had been very curious. 'How much do you know about that affair? About Michael Doran and Maggie Brady, I mean? What do you really know?' It was obvious that Sean suspected something more than mere curiosity behind the question and he looked at her warily. 'I know as much as everyone else knows,' he said. 'It was common knowledge that Doran enticed her up to Tomaltach and then sent her packing when he got tired of her.' 'Who told you?' 'Who told me?' He was definitely suspicious now and on the defensive too, his eyes narrowed slightly as he sought her motive. 'I told you, everyone was talking about it. Brady himself spoke about it more than once.' 'He spoke about it to me,' Rowan admitted, 'but Rupert only knew what his sister told him.' 'And you think she's a liar?' 'I didn't say that,' Rowan denied, seeing herself getting into deeper water all the time. 'It's just that Michael Doran's version of what happened is well, quite different.' 124 Sean laughed, a short, humourless sound that grated harshly on Rowan's sensitive ears. 'And you prefer t
o believe his version, is that what you're saying?' His fingers toyed restlessly with the spoon in his saucer and it was easy to see how they were trembling. 'Just when did he tell you his version, darling? Right after the funeral? How charming of him, in those particular circumstances, to malign the man's sister.' "It wasn't like that at all,' Rowan denied. 'We we were talking, that's all, and it it just cropped up in the conversation. He was far more concerned with dearing his own name than with blackening Maggie Brady's.' 'Oh, I'm sure he was,' Sean agreed sarcastically. He leaned forward and covered her hand with his. "Oh, Rowan, for heaven's sake, can't you see what he's up to? He'd do or say anything to have you in the same position that Maggie Brady was. Believe me, my darling, he's no good, he never was, and he won't change now, he's too damned arrogant and sure of himself.' The latter was true. Rowan recognised, but she had been convinced of Michael Doran's sincerity when he told her about Maggie Brady. The manner of the girl herself had made the idea feasible too. Maggie Brady did not appear to be the type of girl who would be easy to take advantage of. 'Then it isn't true what he told me that she went up there to to try and get him to keep her and and not because she needed help?' He shrugged. 'It may have started that way,' he admitted, 'but you'll not convince me that she stayed up there for three weeks just because Doran thought she needed help.' Rowan frowned curiously. 'Why would she go up there in the first place?' she asked. 'Apart from being 125 invited, I mean.' Sean pursed his lips, making little of the incident. 'About that time the Bradys lost their house,' he told her. 'It was burnt down one night during the winter before Brady moved in here. They went to somewhere in Gallyborn for a bit, but then they moved back here, or rather they came back here, they'd no belongings left. Brady came here to Laura and Maggie went up to Tomaltach.' 'You don't think she tricked him into taking her in?' He narrowed his eyes sharply. 'Is that what he told you?' Rowan nodded. ' I believed him, Sean, I honestly thought he was sincere, and I still find it hard to believe he wasn't.' Sean shrugged. 'Well, you can believe who you like, of course.' She could believe anyone she chose. Rowan thought, but both stories sounded equally convincing and she was unsure which one best fitted Michael Doran's ' character. Certainly it had been easy enough to believe his version of the story after seeing the hard-eyed callousness of Maggie Brady which she could not help comparing with the apparently sincere sympathy he had shown. She missed Rupert even more than she had expected to, considering he had spent so much of his time wandering off on his own. There had been something about him that made him impossible to forget, and Rowan remembered his solemn forecast of her own future the first time they met. She remembered too the words that had, at the time, puzzled her although now they made more sense. 'You will give pleasure and comfort to one who needs it,' he had told her, 'and he will bless you for it before he 126 goes.' So much of that had been true, she realised, for she had, with her friendship, given pleasure and comfort to Rupert and he had blessed her for it immediately before he set off on his last walk, although she had not recognised it. She felt a prickle of tears in her eyes as she recalled his last words to her ' remember me in joy.' They had struck her as rather odd at the time, it was only now that they made sense. August had been a warm golden month and September looked like following suit. By now the garden that Rowan had worked so hard on began to show signs of order, its borders and beds neat and tidy, if almost empty, and the lawn mown and trimmed. Laura was delighted with the. transformation and told her more than once that she was worth her weight in gold. The passing weeks, however, did nothing to make Sean any more patient and Rowan felt she must soon make a decision and tell him for certain one way or the other whether she would marry him. 'Don't you care for me at all?' he asked one day, impatience as usual edging his voice. 'Oh, Sean, of course I do,' Rowan assured him, and sighed. 'That's the trouble, probably, I'm very fond of you and it's difficult to know just how fond. It would be much easier if I didn't like you very much, wouldn't it?' 'I suppose so,' he allowed with a wry face, 'but I'm glad you don't where there's like there's hope.' She pulled a face over the adage and laughed. 'I've only been here just over three months,' she reminded him. 'It's not very long really, Sean, some people know each other for years before they even become engaged.' 'Well, I don't propose waiting for years,' he informed her. 'Although I'd settle for just an engagement even, just as long as I have some hope.' 127 'No, Sean.' 'Why not?' he demanded, and she sighed. 'Because I'm too unsure of myself, it wouldn't be fair to either of us.' He set his mouth into what Rowan thought was a sulk, and his eyes had a dark resentful look. "Are you sure that's the only reason?' he asked. "Of course.' She frowned for a moment. 'I don't see,' she added quietly, her cheeks flushed faintly as she thought she followed his meaning, 'what you're trying to say.' 'Don't you?' He drew a deep breath and his hands were tight round her arms so that his fingers dug into her and hurt. 'I mean that you see too damned much of Doran for you to make up your mind about me.' 'Michael Doran? Oh, Sean, that's not fairl I only see him when I absolutely can't avoid it, you know that.' 'I know that's what you tell me,' Sean retorted, 'and it's what I'd like to believe, but how true is it, Rowan?' 'It's true,' Rowan insisted, bright-eyed with rising anger. 'I only see him when it's unavoidable, and you have no right to suggest otherwise.' She thought he would argue further, and for a moment he looked at her uncertainly, then suddenly turned on his heel and strode across the hall to his rooms. He turned when he reached the door and looked at her, uncertain still but reluctant to leave her in anger. 'Rowan ' He would have come back, she thought, but she merely shook her head slowly and walked away from him out of the front door. 128