“You saw this?” Niall asked.
“Hardly.” His face colored slightly. “I’d drank enough whiskey. The next thing I know there’s Kate banging on the window of the car.”
“And, like a fool, I’m thinking he’s up on the Galway road looking into a traffic accident.” Caitlin reached for Rory’s beer and took a swig. “I’m telling you, Rory McBride, if you ever lie to me again.”
“He’s apologized, Caitlin,” Annie said. “Over and over.” She looked at Niall. “Another beer?”
“No, thanks.” He shook his head, already imagining the rest of the story.
“The first night she was gone, I didn’t think much of it,” Rory said. “But then the days passed and I got worried thinking about what might have happened to her.”
“Not that he really thought he’d hurt her or anything,” Caitlin said.
Rory got another beer from the fridge and gave it to Caitlin. “I started thinking maybe we’d had another fight and she’d fallen. An accident, like. And then when they found her, and everyone started talking about how it was like Moruadh… Well, when it came down to the choice of you behind bars or me, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”
Niall met his eyes for a moment. “You thought I was getting what I deserved, is that it?”
“I did.” Rory smiled a bit, his expression relieved. “That’s the truth of it. I’d always suspected you had a part in Moruadh’s death. I even told Kate that, didn’t I? And of course, Hughie encouraged me along those lines. Not that it takes anything away from what I did.”
“The thing of it is, Niall,” Annie said, “it’s as though you’ve always set yourself apart from everyone else. It wasn’t really until Katie came along, so dead set on you being a good man, that we all started thinking maybe we’d judged you a bit harshly.”
Niall finished his beer. Even if he’d produced Moruadh’s suicide note after her death, he doubted that he’d be sitting in Annie Ryan’s kitchen today if it weren’t for Kate.
“Well…” He stood, not really knowing what to say to any of them. “I have a few things to do before supper.”
“You’ll miss Kate when she goes back to America, won’t you?” Annie asked.
“I will.”
“When is it she leaves?”
“I’m not sure. We haven’t discussed it yet.”
“I can’t help hoping that she might just decide to stay.” She sighed. “No doubt you were probably hoping the same thing yourself.”
“Ah well.” He made a great show of nonchalance. “What can you do?”
“Did you not try and talk her into staying then?”
“Kate’s a headstrong girl,” he said.
“A California girl, too,” Annie said. “Used to the city. Sunshine. That sort of thing.”
“Right.” Niall nodded. “And there’s not much of that here, is there? Sunshine, I mean?”
“There isn’t,” Annie agreed. She looked up at him. “Would California be a place you might consider, yourself?”
“California?” He tried hard not to smile. Any moment now, Annie might just burst from curiosity. “I don’t know, Annie. I’ve my work here.”
“Could you not find employment as a photographer in California?”
“I could, Annie, but I’d find it very hard to leave Ireland.”
“I know what you mean there. I could never leave, myself. Mind you, people do. I’ve a sister in Boston who would never come back. But you being a young man with your whole life in front of you…”
“Right.” He took his jacket off the chair, put it on. “Listen, Annie. I’ve got a couple of things to do. Would you tell Kate I’ll be back soon.”
“I will.”
“And Annie?” He smiled at her. “Do plenty of potatoes, will you?”
AFTER SHE’D HUNG UP the phone, Kate lay back against the pillow. Tears streamed down her face and trickled off her chin, soaking the edge of the sheet. She reached for a tissue, blew her nose and drank some water. The tears wouldn’t stop.
“Katie.” Annie stuck her head around the door. “Cup of tea?” Tray in hand, she came into the room, set down the tray and dropped into the chair next to the bed. “I thought I’d join you,” she said, and then noticed Kate’s face. “What is it, love? Bad news?”
“They offered me a job.” Kate blew her nose again. “A staff job on the magazine. They like my freelance work and they want to put me on staff.”
“Well, that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Annie pulled a tissue from the box, handed it to Kate. “That’s what you were hoping for?”
“Yeah. It’s exactly what I wanted. Benefits, stability. I could buy a condo instead of renting.”
“And that’s why you’re crying your eyes out, is it?”
She shook her head, lay back against the pillow again. The tears kept coming, she could feel them in her throat, in her nose. Her head felt liquid with tears. “It’s okay…” She tried to take a breath and it came out in a shuddering gasp. “Post-traumatic stress, or something. I’ll be fine, really. Just give me a minute.”
Annie stirred sugar into her cup of tea. “Mr. Maguire just left,” she said. “He’ll be back in a bit. I asked him to supper. The poor man’s heartbroken about you going back to America.”
Kate wiped her face with the back of her hand. “He said that?”
“Not in so many words, but it’s there in his face. Very fond of you, he is.”
“Yeah.” She sniffed. “I kind of like him a little bit, too.”
“Seems a bit sad when you think about it. Him rattling around in that castle, not to mention the place he has up in Sligo, and the two of you so happy together. An awful shame to have all of that go to waste. But then you’ve your new job back in California, all your friends. Some things are just not meant to be, I suppose.”
“Annie, I know what you’re trying to do.” Her shoulders shaking, Kate held her hands up to her eyes. “God, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Yes, I do. I don’t want to go back, Annie. I don’t want to leave you, I don’t want to leave Niall…”
“Ah, Katie.” Annie caught her in an embrace, rocked her for a moment. “Stay then, love. Don’t go back. Sure, we’d all love to have you here, Niall especially—”
“I don’t think so.” She pulled back from Annie, blew her nose again. “Niall’s never asked me, Annie. I’ve even hinted about staying here, but he made a joke of it. He’s told me twice to stay out of his life.”
Annie looked skeptical. “All I can say is, you should have heard his voice when he called from the jail. If that man isn’t in love…”
“He was frightened for me. I’m not saying he doesn’t care, I just think that after what happened with Moruadh, he isn’t ready to share his life with someone.”
“And you’ve talked about this together, have you?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not really. I mean, it’s not just Niall. It’s me, too. I’m afraid. The whole thing with my mom. She didn’t want to go on living, Annie, because my dad walked out on her. It terrifies me, the thought of losing myself like that.”
“But that was her, Katie. You’re not the same person. Sure, I never knew your mother, but maybe she didn’t have the strength that you have. I’d bet on it, in fact. You believed in Niall, went up to that castle to be with him while we were all telling you not to. That takes a lot more strength than I have.”
“Or stupidity.”
“No, you trusted your instincts. The rest of us were feeding off each other’s fears.”
Kate sighed and drank some tea.
“Love is such a big part of life, Katie. It’s not good to be afraid of it. If you love Niall, what you have to do is find that strength again, and tell him how you feel.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“YOU’RE VERY QUIET,” Niall said as he walked with Kate down the high street to Dooley’s. It had only been two days since her ordeal at the castle, and he worried that she hadn’t fully recovered. “A
re you sure you’re up for fiddle playing?”
“Annie would never forgive me if I missed the Cragg’s Head fleadh,” Kate said. “It’s a hundred times better than the one in Ballincross, she says. Anyway, I want to get my fill of Irish music before I go back.”
Niall put his arm around her shoulder. She’d extended her stay a week, but her departure loomed like a gathering storm they were both trying to ignore. Or he was, and he sensed she was, too. He had something to tell her, but he needed the right moment, and if the noise level coming from every bar in town was anything to go by, that moment wasn’t likely to occur within the next few hours.
Cragg’s Head was humming with activity. People carrying drinks, talking in groups on the pavement. Music flowing from doors and windows. By the time they reached Dooley’s, the dancing had started.
He stood at the edge of the room for a moment, his hand in Kate’s, watching the couples whirling around the room, their shadows flickering on the whitewashed walls. Caitlin, in skintight black vinyl pants, leading Rory around the dance floor; Brigid Riley, resplendent in a green pleated skirt and newly permed hair, twirling around in the meaty arms of the local butcher.
Rory spotted Niall and nodded, and then Brigid Riley glanced over in his direction. If it wasn’t exactly a smile that crossed her lips, it wasn’t the look of hostility she usually reserved for him.
He brought his mouth to Kate’s ear. “I’m going back with you,” he whispered.
She turned to look at him. “Back to California?”
“Right. I was going to wait to tell you, but…” He grinned. “I’ve bought the tickets already. Three weeks.”
“Three weeks?”
“If you can put up with me that long.”
“God, Niall…I don’t know what to say.”
“Are you happy?”
“Of course.” She bit her lip. “Sure, I mean that’s fantastic. Great.” Across the room, she spotted Annie and Patrick and she waved to them. “Listen, we can talk about it later. Annie has a table for us.”
Niall followed her through the crowd, a little let down by her reaction. Or maybe she still wasn’t feeling quite herself. He sat down next to her, put his arm around her shoulder. Across the table, Annie smiled at them.
“I was just saying to Pat—” Annie looked at Niall “—that I’ve never seen a couple as much in love as you and Katie.”
“Annie.” Kate frowned at her. “Please.”
“Seems a shame,” Annie went on, “her going back to America leaving you here to pine alone. Sure, you’ve been a different man since she arrived, it’s a terrible shame, so it is.”
“Actually, Niall’s going back with me.” Kate gave him a quick glance. “For three weeks. Cool, huh?”
Annie folded her arms across her chest. “You’re going to America for a visit?”
“Right.” Niall saw Kate and Annie exchange looks. He was getting the very definite impression that he’d gone wrong somehow. “I’d like to see Santa Monica, where Kate lives.”
“And what then?” Annie asked. “You’ll just come back here and rattle around in the castle by yourself? And Katie in Santa Monica by herself. That makes no sense at all.”
“Annie.” Kate drew her fingers across her throat. “Stop, okay?”
“Leave them be, Annie,” Patrick said. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. If it isn’t, all your interfering won’t do a bit of good.”
“Interfering, indeed.” Annie shook her head. “You’ve lost your romantic streak, Patrick Ryan, no two ways about it.” She sipped her beer, her eyes distant. A moment later, she set the tankard down. “Are the two of you not going over to Gossamer Island tomorrow?” she asked.
“We are.” Niall thought of the boat he’d borrowed from one of the fishermen he’d photographed. The Macushla. He had the day all planned out. Bicycles, a picnic by the water. He glanced again at Kate. She’d shredded her napkin into little pieces. When she caught him watching her, she gathered them up into the ashtray and smiled. Something was definitely wrong.
“What I’ll do,” Annie said, “is bake you a nice loaf of barm brack to take with you. You remember what I told you about barm brack, do you, Katie? You never know what you’ll find in a slice of it.”
“I WANT YOU TO KNOW that I had to pay another visit to the fairy ring,” Niall said the following day as he maneuvered the Macushla into Gossamer Island’s tiny harbor. “It’s hard to find sunshine in February, but I thought for your last day in Ireland you should have it. At considerable cost to myself, I might add.”
“Sunshine?” Kate peered into the misty air. “I hate to break it to you, but I think you were taken. So far we’ve had wind, clouds, rain and fog, but I don’t see sun—”
“Come over here.” He held his hand out to her, watched as she picked her way past the picnic basket, camping gear and bicycles stacked in the middle of the boat. “All right, California girl. What do you call that?”
Kate smiled. They were sailing out of the misty shroud that had enveloped them for the past hour and into shimmering sunlight. She blinked her eyes against the brightness. Breezes gently shook the tall green grasses on the shore, lace-curtain clouds hung in a pale blue sky and, off on the horizon, like the entry to a magical land, was a double rainbow. Wind, rain, clouds and now sunlight.
Beguiled, she turned to look up at Niall. As she did, a lock of hair blew across her eyes. He brushed it away and they stood in the soft light, smiling at each other. Sun shone down like a benediction, sea-birds serenaded them. The breeze caressed her face.
And then, from out of nowhere, a powerboat roared by, rocking the Macushla in its wake. Knocked off her feet by the sudden motion, Kate sprawled across the deck, landing on a canvas bag of sails.
Laughing, she looked up at Niall.
“That’s what you get for doubting the power of the fairy ring.” He docked the boat, hauled a couple of ancient bicycles onto the little wooden pier and held out his hand to her. “Ready to ride?”
THEY RODE for most of the morning. Across fields, along winding roads, past small farms and cottages, finally completing a full circle back at the harbor. Her mind on what she wanted to tell him, Kate followed Niall through a small grove of trees and onto the rocky beach. After she’d thrown down her bike, she removed her boots and socks and walked down to the water’s edge. The tide was out, the sand soft. She stood for a while, watched the water lap over her feet, then made her way back up to the grass where Niall was unloading the basket that held their picnic.
“Ham sandwiches,” he said, setting a waxed-paper-wrapped package down on a red-checkered tablecloth. “Two different kinds of cheese, tomatoes, crisps—or potato chips, I suppose you’d say, and a bottle of plonk. Actually, it’s quite a nice Bordeaux.”
“Great.” She dropped down onto the blanket opposite him, plucked a blade of grass and ran her thumbnail down the middle of it.
“Are you hungry?” He glanced up at her, then grinned. “Ah, a stupid question, I’d forgotten. You’re always hungry, aren’t you?”
“Usually.”
“But not today?” He sat with his back against a tree, legs stretched out in front of him. “What is it?”
“I want to talk to you.” She examined her green-stained thumbnail for a moment. “I’ve thought this out very carefully. It’s not an impulsive decision. I’m absolutely sure it’s what I want to do.”
Niall unwrapped the sandwiches, then glanced up at her.
“I don’t know what it is. Something’s happened to me, I can’t explain it. Maybe I’ve fallen under your stupid fairy spell.”
“Remember the last time you maligned fairy spells?”
“Okay, it’s not stupid. All I know is that you’re incredibly important to me.” She cut a tomato into sections, sprinkled salt on them and glanced down at the front of her sweater. Her heart was doing its sped-up-drumbeat thing, thumping so hard she thought it would show. “Anyway, I know things will change, but you were right ab
out what you said about love adding a dimension. Not that it solves every problem, I know that.” She sprinkled salt on the tomato, remembered she’d already done it, and tried to brush it off with her fingers.
Niall reached over and took the saltshaker from her.
“I mean, even though right now everything is all magical and shimmering and it doesn’t seem as though anything could ever come between us—”
“Kate.”
“What?”
“You’ve been talking for the past five minutes, you’ve emptied half a saltcellar and I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying that I’ve decided to stay in Ireland.”
As though it demanded meticulous attention, Niall carefully opened a bag of potato chips. “And?”
“And, well, I’ll have to go and take care of things back in Santa Monica. Tell Modern World I’m not taking the job, but I can still do freelance work for them. And I’d like to help Annie do some public relations for the tourist bureau. The Pot o’ Gold used to be an orphanage. Did you know that?”
He nodded. “Very well. I’ll tell you about it sometime.”
“Well, Annie showed me all these old photos stored up in the attic. They would make a great visual display. I could write some promotional material. I’d be working, so I’d have my own money. I mean, I wouldn’t be sponging off you or anything.” Unable to meet his eyes, she watched an ant make its way across the checkered tablecloth. “So anyway, that’s what I wanted to say. I want to stay here.” She made herself look at him. “With you. Which is why I was less than thrilled when you told me you’d bought a ticket to California.”
He touched her foot with his shoe. Sunlight dappled his dark hair, cast shadows on his face. The blue ocean reflected in his eyes.
“What?”
“Look me in the eye and repeat what you just said.”
“I want to stay in Ireland. Live here. With you.”
“Why?”
“Because I hate my apartment in Santa Monica. I’d rather live in a castle and a lighthouse.”
The Man on the Cliff Page 24
