Danny was leaning against the woman who had to be his mother. He was shivering, but he didn’t complain. Luckily the woman looked down and noticed. “Well, just for a short while, I guess. That okay, Danny?” The boy nodded.
“Then come on in,” Maura said, leading the way. Once inside, she added, “Sit anywhere you like.”
“Can we sit close to the fire?” Danny said eagerly.
“Will he mind?” the woman asked, nodding her head at Old Billy.
“Not at all. He’s a regular here—he was a friend of the former owner, and he lives down at the end of the building. Has for years. He’ll be happy to have you. Coffee work for you? And maybe a hot chocolate for Danny?”
“Thank you, I’d like that. Oh, and I’m Hannah. Has Danny been gettin’ in your way?”
“Not at all. I just happened to notice him sitting out front so I went out to say hello.”
“Should he be in here? In a pub, I mean?” Hannah asked.
“If you’re his mother, it’s okay. Danny said you’re related to Anne across the road?”
“We’re cousins of some sort, on my mother’s side, but I never knew Anne well. But I wanted to get out of Dublin, and this was about the farthest place I could think of. You’re American, aren’t you? How’d you come to be here?”
“My grandmother was born around here and her son—my father—was born here. They moved to Boston when her husband died. She knew Old Mick, who used to own this place, and they kept in touch. It’s a long story, but he had no heirs, so he and my gran fixed it up that I’d inherit the place. And his house, out in one of the townlands. Came as a complete shock to me, because no one had told me anything about it. I came over after she . . . passed on, and I’m still here, going on two years later. But I really didn’t have any reason to go back to Boston.”
Rose came up behind and slid Hannah’s coffee and Danny’s hot chocolate across the table, then retreated. “You working in the bar or the restaurant at Anne’s place?”
“The bar, for now. But I guess you’ve already seen that’s a problem for Danny, who gets out before I’m off work.”
“Will Anne let him stay at the inn somewhere ’til you’re free?”
“She says he’d just get in the way. I don’t think she’s pleased to have us around, but she couldn’t say no to us. She was lettin’ us stay in a room there for a coupla days, but then she found us an empty cottage a ways outside of the town. It’s kind of a mess, but I can’t complain when it’s free, can I?”
“How are you getting back and forth? You have a car?”
“A piece of junk that barely runs, and it’s only borrowed. We’ve lots of thing to be worked out, if we decide to stay.”
Maura had the impression that there was a story behind Hannah’s fast departure from Dublin with no plan in place, but she wasn’t going to ask, not yet. She’d do what she could to help, but she’d wait for Hannah to share the story in her own time.
“You could look for a place where you can walk to work, which describes most of Leap, and Danny can walk to school. Or if you got a job in Skibbereen, where there are probably more choices, you could take the bus, I think, so you might not need a car.” Maura stopped herself. “Sorry. Listen to me, trying to sort out your life, when I haven’t even got my own figured out.”
Hannah was shaking her head. “I appreciate it. After being in Dublin so long, I’m kind of looking forward to spending time in a small town. And Danny’s in school now—I thought it was important to get him settled. You have kids?”
“Nope. I don’t have a husband or partner or whatever they call it these days, either. I’m still trying to sort out how to run this place and what I want from it. Look, there are a couple of rooms upstairs here that aren’t being used. Danny could work up there after school while he waits for you, and at least he’d be warm.”
“That’s very kind of you, but I don’t want to put you out.”
“Don’t worry about it—I haven’t figured out what to do with the rooms anyway, so I haven’t done anything with them. And now we’re talking about building a real kitchen and serving food here, so I probably won’t have time to think about other projects before spring. You have any other relatives around here?”
“No. It’s just the two of us.”
Still no mention of Danny’s father, Maura noted. But it was none of her business.
“Well, think about what I said. And be careful if you’re walking—the roads are narrow, and the local people tend to go too fast. Good thing you’ve got that car.”
“I’ll do that, thanks. Danny, thank Maura for your chocolate. We’d better be off if you want supper before bedtime.”
The pair of them went out into the dark night. Once they were past the streetlights in the center of the village, the roads would be dark, and dangerous to newcomers. Maura knew she was going to worry about that, but she didn’t know what to do about it. Yet.
Chapter Five
Mick arrived shortly after Hannah and Danny had left, laden with carry bags. “Where’ve you been?” Maura asked.
“What, overwhelmed by the crowd?” He looked around the main room, where there were only a couple of tables occupied. He raised a hand in salute to Old Billy.
“Not exactly. But I didn’t see you go.”
“Me gran needed some things, so I took care of it for her.” Mick looked after his eighty-something-year-old grandmother Bridget, who lived down the lane from Maura’s house—and who enjoyed her independence, as long as she had Mick to call upon when she needed something done, like mending a fence.
“Billy says he’s feeling winter in his bones,” Maura told him. “How’s Bridget doing?”
“I checked out her stove and made sure she has plenty of fuel. The place is small, so it’s easy to keep warm. As is yours.”
Mick had reason to know that since they’d been spending a good deal of time at her place over the past few months, when they weren’t both at the pub. Like Bridget, Maura savored her independence, but having Mick around on a regular basis was kind of icing on the cake. One more thing she was adjusting to.
“How well do you know Anne Sheahan?” she asked, changing the subject.
Mick raised an eyebrow. “I know she and her husband have been runnin’ the inn for years, and his family before him. You’ve probably talked to her more than I have these past few months. Why are yeh askin’?”
“Because I met someone who’s supposed to be her cousin—whatever that means around here—who just showed up from Dublin. Actually, I met her son first. He was sitting on the bench out there and he looked cold, so I gave him a hot chocolate. He was waiting for his mother to get off work—I gather she’s tending bar for Anne in the afternoons, but I don’t know if that’s going to last. Anyway, he’s in school up the road, and he had time to kill. When she came over to collect him, I asked them both in.”
“So now yeh’re takin’ in strays?” Mick gave a half smile.
“If you want to call it that. I’d rather call it paying it back. People helped me when I got here, so I’m just trying to do the same. And the woman—Hannah—seems like a fish out of water here. I’m going to guess she’s spent most of her life in Dublin or some other city, and she doesn’t know where she fits in a village like Leap. She didn’t say anything about a husband. Maybe he’s dead or in jail, or maybe she was never married at all. Anyway, she’s on her own, with the kid.”
“Or maybe she’s on the run from the man.”
“Mick, you haven’t even met the woman. Why would you say that?”
“Because how many women of her age leave the city to come to a tiny place like this, unless there’s a good reason?”
“To give her son a better chance?” Maura suggested. “He seems like a good kid, from what little I’ve seen of him.”
“How old is he?”
“I’m guessing eight or nine.”
“So he’d be in the third grade here. How’s he goin’ to fare in a small class?”
“I hear what yeh’re sayin’, Maura. But if I were in yer place, I might have a word with Anne, find out what the real story is.”
“Mick, I’m not a nosy person, you know. And Anne and I get on all right, but we’re not exactly friends.”
“Did Old Billy know anything?”
“Not that he shared with me. Which I suppose is odd, since he’s known more than one generation of Sheahans here, and he usually remembers all the family connections. I’ll let him think about it for a day—maybe he’ll remember something. Oh, and there’s something else I wanted to ask you about.”
“And what would that be?”
Maura explained Seamus’s vague idea about betting on the identity of the growing sculpture across the road. “Nothing formal. Do you think it would be worth doing?”
“Might do. But it would be a one-off, since it’ll be finished by Sunday.”
“Do you have any clue what it is?”
Mick smiled. “Are yeh talkin’ about insider information? I have none. I wouldn’t swear to Seamus’s innocence, but if he’s playin’ us, the stakes are pretty small. Maybe he’s lookin’ fer braggin’ rights.”
“So you think we could run with this raffle idea? Saturday? It should be good for a laugh. And Rose can put it out on Facebook or something, maybe bring in some more people.”
“I can’t see the harm in it. There’s no music scheduled on the night.”
“I’ll tell Rose.”
• • •
Maura had finished outlining her ideas to Rose—who promised to put together something for Maura’s review, so she could have it uploaded and distributed by the end of the evening, plus printed flyers for the windows—when she looked up to see Garda Sean Murphy come in. “Sean! I haven’t seen you in here for a while. We haven’t committed any crimes lately, have we?”
“Good evenin’, Maura. No, I’ve had no reports, unless you’ve been holdin’ out on me. It’s only that I’m off duty and fancied a pint on me own time.”
“You’re more than welcome, Sean.” When Sean had settled himself on a bar stool, Maura asked, “Do you know anything about the thing they’re building across the road there?”
“That odd construction? Only that it’s a county project—the council seems to have found some extra money this year and this was what they decided to do with it. It’s only fer the smaller villages—there’s no space to do such a thing in Skib. There was some talk of putting a few up in the roundabouts on the near end of town, but it was voted down because of the risk that drivers would be so distracted that there’d be a rise in road accidents. The gardaí were relieved, let me tell you. But the traffic moves slower in the outlying villages, and the road’s good and wide here in Leap. Do you know what it’s to be?”
“Since I’ve only just noticed it, I have no idea. I was thinking of doing a raffle this weekend, along the lines of ‘guess the . . .’ whatever it is. Decoration? Sculpture? I’ve been calling it the Thing. Do I need a permit or somebody’s permission to do that?”
“Would yeh be makin’ money off it?”
“We might ask for a small contribution, but I’d be happy to give that to a place or person who needs it. Mostly it’s for fun. I figured we should do it Saturday night, because I’m told it should be finished by Sunday.”
“Might be. Or not. Christmas is a long ways off. Is it the only one of its kind in Leap?”
“That’s the only one I’ve seen, although there could be others farther down the road. I don’t get much chance to just drive around the village. Would the kids at the school be doing something along those lines?”
“Yeh mean a holiday display? They’ve not done in the past, but this might inspire them. Hard to keep the students focused on their books at this time of year, and they might welcome the distraction.”
“It’s a really small school, isn’t it?”
“Something like fifty children in eight grades, I think. Does that surprise yeh?”
“It does. You could probably guess that Boston schools are a whole lot bigger. I think the individual classes have about twenty kids, maybe thirty, but there are a lot of classes.”
“Ah, but this is the country. No doubt things are different in Cork or Dublin.”
“I met a kid this afternoon who was living in Dublin and has just arrived here, and he’s in school here now. This must be very different for him.”
“It would be indeed. Ta, Rosie,” Sean said when Rose placed his pint in front of him, and turned his attention to her. “How’s the cooking goin’?”
Maura backed away discreetly. While Rose wasn’t yet eighteen, she had a good head on her shoulders, and she and Sean seemed to have something going between them. Sean was a good guy and an honest garda, and Maura approved of the match, so long as Rose kept her focus on the full plate of improvements she wanted to see at Sullivan’s—the website, the kitchen renovation, and probably more. But Sean was still the youngest garda at the Skibbereen station, and he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to settle down. No more than she and Mick were. She had already learned that things moved more slowly in this part of Ireland than they did back in the States, and that included personal relationships. That suited her fine, and Mick seemed comfortable with it.
A few minutes later Sean drained his pint and came over to say goodbye to Maura. “Don’t worry about yer little raffle, Maura. There’s no problem unless you draw a crowd in the hundreds.”
“I wish! Though there’s not really enough room for that many.”
“Let me know how it goes, and what you do with the take.”
“I’ll do that. And you let me know if you can think of anybody who deserves it. Feel free to put in your guess, as long as you put in your euro too.”
Maura waded her way back to the bar and told Rose, “It looks like everybody’s on board with our idea. You’ve got the Internet part covered?”
“I do, but I’ll keep it simple. I’ll show yeh when it’s ready. Will you be makin’ the thing to put the money in?”
“I guess so. You have any ideas? A box? A jar? Is there something in the cellar that would work?”
“Something with an opening too small to put a hand through,” Rose said firmly. “There may be an old pot that would do.”
“You think people would steal the proceeds? I can’t imagine there’d be a lot of money, and all of it coins. Hard to sneak off with a clinking pocket full of coins.”
“There is that, but better not to tempt anyone. How’re we going to know if anyone cheats?”
“Like, if he knows one of the guys putting the thing together?”
“Could be.”
Maura waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not going to worry about that. And we’ll need to keep an eye out for anyone trying to make a guess without putting his euro in. Besides, the whole thing is supposed to be fun, isn’t it? Let’s hope for the best.”
“Oh, I’ve a class in Skib early tomorrow, but I should be in well before lunch. You’d best have your receptacle ready early, if my post goes live tonight. Will the drawing be at closing time? And I’ll remind those who aren’t regulars to let us know how to reach them if they win.”
“Rose, you are miles ahead of me, but I’ll do my best. Anyway, the drawing will be on Sunday, when they reveal it officially.”
For a spur-of-the-moment plan, it was coming together nicely. Oops—she had forgotten to ask Sean if it was all right if Danny spent his waiting time inside the pub, upstairs or in the back room, if no one was using it. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t object. What she didn’t know for sure was how long Danny might need a space. Odd that Anne wasn’t making things easy for
Hannah and Danny. Yes, she’d offered Hannah a job of sorts, but unless she was just passing through, she needed more than a few hours behind the bar each day to make ends meet. Maura knew she had been lucky when she arrived, walking into a business and a home without even asking. And she hadn’t even had a child to worry about. Maybe Hannah had no plans to stick around, although she’d cared enough to see that Danny was in school. There had to be more to her story, but Maura couldn’t see an easy way to sit down and chat and worm the story out of her. And they’d only just met. She could give it a couple of days.
Chapter Six
By Friday morning Rose had posted the announcement of the pub’s holiday mini-raffle, or so she said in the note she had left on the bar, reminding Maura that she would be at her cooking class in the morning. Maura took her statement on faith, since there was no computer handy to check and she probably wouldn’t know how to access Rose’s work anyway, much less make any changes. Luckily Rose had left a printed copy of the announcement for her to look over. She’d done a good job: the result was eye-catching but included all the important information, including some things Maura hadn’t even thought of. The basic facts were that the raffle would run from opening through closing on Saturday, and the winner would be announced on Sunday. The cost of entry was one euro, which seemed quite reasonable. No purchase of beverages was required to enter but would be welcome. The proceeds of the raffle would be donated to a worthy cause (still not named, Maura noted), and Sullivan’s would offer a free drink to anyone who had entered the raffle and came in to request it. Maura decided that she’d use the honor system, rather than try to keep track of each person who’d entered. Goodwill mattered more than the cost of a few pints.
Rose had also left a stack of printed slips, with space for a name and contact information, and the person’s guess for the Thing, plus a handful of full-page printed announcements, and Maura taped a couple of them to the front windows. When had Rose found the time to get all this done? Maura wondered. She wasn’t that much older than Rose, but she’d never had that kind of energy.
Tied Up with a Bow Page 3
