Rían: (The O'Malleys Book 3)

by Michelle McLoughney

  Before Tommy left for Clare on the Sunday he called to Siobhan’s house and stood on the doorstep looking pale, nervous and sweaty. Siobhan hid behind the door as Maggie answered it. Nelly sat at the kitchen table in silence staring off into the distance. Since the last beating she had grown quieter in herself. Siobhan knew she was falling apart. Breaking from the inside out.

  “Lovely morning Maggie. You’re looking fine and well. I’m here to see Siobhan.” Maggie smiled at him sadly and shook her head.

  “Our Siobhan’s not here Tommy. What did you want her for?”

  “Oh…Never mind Maggie, I just wanted to ask her an important question.”

  Maggie’s eyes widened as she spotted the small velvet box he quickly stuffed back into his pocket, she gritted her teeth and sang like a canary.

  “She’s here Tommy, she’s hiding behind the door because our daddy beat seven colours out of her and she doesn’t want you to see her.”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her hands. Tommy walked into the room past Maggie and looked at Siobhan, his eyes round and angry.

  “Is this a regular occurrence girls?”

  “It is,” Maggie whispered. He shut his eyes tight and breathed out noisily.

  “Jesus Christ, Siobhan, what did he do to you? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” He reached his hand out and trailed his fingers down her jaw line.

  “Never again. I promise you that Siobhan, never again. Right then, I want to ask you something. I want you ask you a question.”

  He took the teacloth from her hand and hung it on the doorframe. Siobhan rubbed her soapy hands off on her skirt and felt her stomach clench. He was ending it, she had expected that. Most men didn’t want trouble. She pursed her lips at him.

  “Well? Don’t keep me waiting. Let’s hear it.”

  “Marry me, Siobhan?”

  Siobhan’s mouth dropped open and she stepped back from him.

  “What did you say?”

  “Marry me, Siobhan Lynch. Come back to Clare with me and be my wife. I love you Siobhan, with every bit of my heart and soul. Marry me?”

  Siobhan threw her arms around him and he lifted her up off her feet. She squealed as he swung her and kissed her on the lips.

  “Tommy my father will be home soon.”

  “Good, I have a few words for him.” Siobhan looked at him and sighed.

  “Tommy my father might not be too happy about us getting married. He… well he needs me around, who will make him his dinner and do his washing if I leave?” Tommy frowned at her.

  “He has a fine pair of hands himself, he’ll manage. You won’t be his punching bag either Siobhan, none of you girls will.”

  Just then the door opened and her father walked in his face like thunder. He pointed at Tommy and spoke to Siobhan in a low threatening voice.

  “What is this man doing in my house while I’m away? What have you been doing girl?” Siobhan moved back from him and stood behind the table. Tommy glared at him and moved towards the man, a dangerous anger permeating from every pore.

  “I’m here to have a talk with you, Mister Lynch.”

  Her father narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists.

  “So, you think you’ll be taking her away do you Clare man?” He laughed and shook his head.

  “Siobhan’s place is here in the house. She won’t be going anywhere with you. Take one of the other ones if you like the look of them, but Siobhan stays here.”

  Tommy frowned and looked at Siobhan, his decision already made.

  “Siobhan is well capable of making up her own mind Mister Lynch. I’m not asking for her hand. I’ll ask nothing from a man who beats his own flesh and blood.”

  Siobhan moved between the two men, as Nelly and Maggie stood up looking worried and afraid.

  “What’s going to happen Siobhan?” Nelly asked looking at the two men squaring up to each other in their small kitchen.

  “It’s fine Nell, Maggie take Nelly into the bedroom.”

  Maggie looked at Siobhan and stayed where she was, Nelly too stood her ground.

  Siobhan flinched as her father roared. “Get out O’Malley! You’ll get nothing you want here.” Siobhan took a deep breath and spoke up, her voice shaky but determined.

  “Daddy I’m marrying him. We don’t need your permission, I’m over the age.”

  “What did you say to me girl? Brave now aren’t you?”

  Her father moved quickly towards her and drew back his hand, she closed her eyes and almost cried out in pain, but it never came. It happened so fast she almost thought she had dreamed it. One minute her father was poised ready to strike and the next minute he was pressed, face first against the kitchen wall. Tommy held his hand tightly behind his back as her father yelped in pain. Nelly gasped and Maggie covered her hand with her mouth. Her father cried out again as Tommy lifted his arm and twisted it a fraction.

  “You will never raise your hand to these girls again Mister Lynch. If you cannot touch them with love then you will not touch them at all.”

  Tommy released him suddenly and glared at him, a look of pure hatred on his face. Her father rubbed his arm and looked with disgust at them all. He spat on the floor and snarled at Siobhan.

  “Get out then, the both of you. Go on boy, take her away to Clare. Siobhan you are banished from his house.”

  Siobhan looked at her sisters and Maggie mouthed GO. Her father smiled suddenly and it filled her with dread.

  “Know this Siobhan, those girls will be on the streets by tomorrow morning if you go.” Siobhan opened her mouth wide in shock.

  “Please, please don’t do this to the girls.”

  “If you go Siobhan, they go too, the decision is yours.”

  He sneered at her then and she knew that she would never escape, never be free. She suddenly felt so sad for her Mammy. Siobhan had told no one that she had followed her mammy that afternoon. High on the cliff top, she had watched her mother as she walked up and down the shore. Siobhan had sat with her legs dangling on the cliff edge watching the beautiful figure of her mammy. Smiling, Siobhan giggled as she watched her dip her feet into the water tentatively testing the temperature. Then she just calmly walked into the ocean, never looking back. Siobhan screamed as she saw her going past her waist, then her shoulders. She ran down the cliff face as her mother’s head disappeared under the waves. Reaching the shoreline Siobhan franticly ran up and down, but it was too late, her precious mammy was gone. Floating off somewhere else, somewhere safe.

  The fishermen found her body three days later washed back up on the sand. Siobhan thought how sad it was that she had ended back where she had started, not much of an escape after all. Her father had cried and sobbed and then went to the pub with the men. Siobhan and her sisters had sat on the end of their mammy’s bed and picked seaweed from her wet lifeless hair as they waited for her sisters to come from the Island to take her home for burial.

  Tommy touched her arm lightly and Siobhan’s eyes flew open, the memory of her mother once again buried inside her.

  “I can’t leave the girls behind Tommy.” Her father laughed joylessly.

  “Now Clare man, you have your answer, get out of my house.”

  Tommy looked at him for a few seconds in disgust before he spoke.

  “What would you think about moving to County Clare girls?”

  Siobhan stared at him. Nelly ran into the bedroom and came back with her mother’s old brown suitcase and began to throw a few clothes and nightgowns into it.

  “Are you sure Tommy?” Asked Maggie.

  “I am,” he said still looking at her father stone faced. He had never met such a cruel and undeserving man. He turned to Nelly and Maggie and smiled at them sadly.

  “I have plenty of room, a big house all to myself and there are plenty of jobs going in Kilvarna.” Siobhan felt as though she had gone from drowning to suddenly finding her feet safely on the seabed.

  “What? Are you sure girls?” Siobhan asked her
eyes wide and hopeful. She looked from Tommy to Maggie and back again.

  “There’s nothing for us here Siobhan.” Maggie stood tall and nodded at Tommy. “We’d love to go to Clare with you Tommy. Thank you kindly.”

  Her father stood at the door and held it tightly.

  “If you leave, you can never come back.”

  “Suits me fine,” said Nelly as she buttoned her coat and walked passed him without so much as a backward glance.

  “Goodbye father,” said Maggie. She was met with stony and bitter silence. Tommy held Siobhan’s hand as he led her out the door. Her father looked at her with fear suddenly darkening his eyes.

  “And who will cook my meals now Siobhan. Your mother would be ashamed of you.” Siobhan felt her eyes well with tears as Tommy led her passed her father and into his car. She was leaving, escaping this life, this house. Leaving for a new life with a man who loved her, heart and soul. Tommy turned to face her father and walked back towards him.

  “There’s a pot there and water in the pump. You’ll work it out. One man’s loss is another’s gain. I thank you for all that I have gained today.”

  With that he turned on his heel and walked over to the car shaking his head. He drove until they were out of sight and then pulled over to the side of the road. Turning to the girls he spoke to them softly.

  “You’ll never have to worry about any man laying a hand on you again girls. That ends now. Just do one thing for me, please. Don’t let it define you. Don’t let it break you. Put it behind you, your life starts now. We are family now, and we will fight for each other. Together no one will ever break us.”

  He put his hand out and Siobhan laid her small hand on top of his. Maggie reached out and then Nelly, until their hands were united in the promise of a future together. Nobody would ever break them.

  They moved into his house in Clare, a big rambling old homestead that had been left to him when his parents had died, gradually the Lynch sisters made it their own. Cherry Tree Farmhouse was alive with laughter again. Nelly found work in the village school and Maggie went to study in the city and became a nurse. A few years later Maggie married Joe McCarthy, the local doctor who was quiet gentle and honest and went on to have six children. Nelly never married. She didn’t want to be tied to anyone; instead she made friends aplenty and enjoyed her nights surrounded by books and a drop of whiskey in front of a warm fire. She lived with Siobhan and Tommy for the first five years until Maggie married, and then she took a flat in the village. Tommy and Siobhan had begged her to stay, but she was as headstrong as ever and said it was time for her to make her own way in the world.

  Tommy paid his cousin Ann O’Mara to drop in on Siobhan’s father every now and then. Old man Lynch never asked after his daughters, and when he died some ten years later, it was alone and bitter in his bed. The house in West Cork was sold and the girls each got their share of the sale. They met in town one day, their handbags filled to bursting with cash. The three Lynch sisters walked into the woman’s shelter in the city in silence and handed the money over to the shocked manager. They wanted nothing from their past, nothing from the man who was their father in name only. He had given them so little, so grudgingly throughout their young lives, they would take nothing from him in death. Siobhan sighed and rubbed her finger across the photograph.

  Nelly was gone now, lost over fifteen years ago when the Alzheimer’s took her mind and her body quickly followed. Maggie had moved her back into her home for the last few years and cared for her lovingly. When the end came, they sat together at her bedside, the Bossman, Siobhan, Maggie and Nelly. The four of them united in pain and loss, as they had been all those years before. More lucid in those final hours than she had been in a year, Nelly took Tommy’s hand in her own and whispered to him.

  “They never broke me Bossman.”

  Tommy cried openly and held her hand tightly, rubbing it and tracing each liver spot on her skin with his index finger.

  “No Nell, nobody ever broke you. No one even came close.”

  Nelly nodded and turned her head gently to Siobhan and Maggie. She smiled widely at them, summoning her last ounce of strength.

  “Mammy is waiting for me girls, she wants me to run with her in the fields again.” Siobhan squeezed her eyes tight, hot tears leaking from the corners. Maggie stroked Nelly’s grey hair gently and spoke to her softly.

  “Then you go Nelly. You go to mammy and you catch her.”

  Nelly closed her eyes and drifted off into an endless sleep. Maggie threaded rosary beads through Nelly’s fingers as she crossed her sister’s hands across her chest. She placed her own right hand on top of them. She looked to Tommy and Siobhan. Siobhan nodded and put her right hand on top of Maggie’s and finally Tommy placed his own on top and squeezed gently. Never broken.

  Little did they know that only a short two years later Tommy would be gone as well. When his dog Freckles had returned home alone from their afternoon walk, Siobhan immediately knew that he was gone. She never called the boys, she just followed the dog as he skipped in front of her into the orchard, and there she found him. Peacefully lying against the big old apple tree, the first one they had planted, and the newspaper open on his lap and a little smile on his lips. Siobhan sat down gently beside him and placed her head on his shoulder.

  “Ah Tommy, why did you go without me?” She spent an hour with him, just the two of them together as she remembered aloud all the things she loved about him and the memories that were solely theirs and theirs alone. When she was done and had cried herself dry, she clicked her tongue at the dog and wandered back to the farmyard to get Gearóid and the others. A well-deserved peaceful death for a man who was loved and respected by all who knew him.

  As she looked at Rían through the glass, Siobhan crossed her arms, set her jaw and nodded towards the picture of the four of them. Siobhan, Nelly, Maggie and the Bossman sitting in a field drinking bottles of fizzy orange, taking a break from the harvesting. She smiled as she saw the white cat sitting on Nelly’s lap, her belly fat with kittens. Nelly’s face was full of happiness and excitement, and Maggie had her head on Nelly’s shoulder, laughing at their old friend Neddy O’Neill behind the camera. Siobhan’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered the warmth of the day, and oh the laughing they had done back then. She looked back at Rían and made the same silent promise to him that the four of them had made to each other in the car, all those years ago.

  They will not break you boy. They will not break you while I am alive to stop it.

  She picked up the phone and dialled Maggie’s number.

  If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get fleas

  -Irish Proverb

  Liadh arrived back at the cottage feeling physically sick from what had happened to Rían’s deer. This was all her fault, she knew in her heart and soul that Liam O’Brien was behind it. Maybe it was time to leave Kilvarna before she brought anymore harm to the O’Malleys, to Rían. As she unlocked the door she spotted a package on the kitchen windowsill and took it into the house.

  “Hey Liadh, what’s up buttercup?” Bonnie was sitting on the counter top eating a toasted sandwich and kicking her legs out in front of her.

  Liadh looked at her and burst out crying. Bonnie threw the remainder of her sandwich on the side plate and rubbed her hands off each other to disperse the crumbs.

  “What the hell happened to you, did Rían upset you? I’ll kill-”

  Liadh sobbed and wiped the tears away with her fingers.

  “No. The deer are dead Bonnie. Someone shot them all. All except Fia. Liam O’Brien shot them Bonnie, because of me, he killed them because of me.” Bonnie covered her mouth with her hands.

  “Oh, Liadh, that bastard! I’m so sorry. Is Rían gone looking for him? What can they do about it? Jesus Christ, he’s a fucking maniac!” Liadh nodded and dropped the package on the table.

  “I got an offer on the cottage yesterday Bonnie. I’m going to take it. I had decided against selling, but I can’t stay
now. All the O’Malleys will know that Liam O’Brien killed the deer because of me. I don’t know why he hates me so much!”

  “Are you sure, Liadh, don’t do anything hasty okay. Talk to Rían first, please.”

  Liadh nodded and picked up the box, she turned it over in her hands and tore off the paper. Zoning out Bonnie’s voice she wished death and crabs on the body of Liam O’Brien. As she opened up the package she stood up slowly, staring at it not sure what to do. Her fingers trembled as she shook it onto her table without touching the contents.

  Reading the scribbled name on the brown paper that covered the book she gasped, ‘Fred Aston and sons, special effects make up.’ Understanding dawned on her suddenly, the picture on the cover was of a woman with a huge port wine birthmark across her face. The image stared back at her, taunting her, crawling underneath her skin. As she turned the box over she noted the make up job that had been done on the face. Flawless was written underneath the photo. Dropping the box from her hands Liadh bent down and picked up the note that had fluttered in the air and slowly landed beside her. Turning it over she read the words, her vision blurring as she took in every word of venom unleashed upon her.

  “Please use this when in public, looking at your face is upsetting to everyone around you. Hide your face. You look like a freak.”

  Signed,

  Residents of Kilvarna.

  Bonnie’s concerned voice filtered in and out in the background, but Liadh couldn’t make out the words. Trembling, and breathing heavily Liadh dropped the note and walked over to the brass mirror. Looking at her face, she studied it from every angle. It was true, wasn’t it? Her face was never going to be beautiful again; her face was never going to look like it did before the fire. This was her punishment for being her mother’s little bastard. The sin.

  Drawing her hand back she smashed it into the mirror roaring over and over again, grabbing it from the wall she threw it against the kitchen table. Blood poured from her hand unnoticed, as she screamed and cried. For herself. For her mother. For her broken heart.