Kline sat back in his chair and smiled. Samantha had greatly improved since the first time he met her. She had a will to live now that wasn’t there before, and it wasn’t just for her baby. Soon, very soon, he knew, she would demand control of her life back, and he looked forward to the day he could tell her she’d had it all along.
“Very good Samantha. Very good indeed. Now, I have a homework assignment for you. I want you to get out and make friends, socialize, have some fun.”
“But what if I black out again, they’ll think I’m crazy.”
“Yes, your blackouts have been coming more frequently lately and I think perhaps some of that is because you are still weak emotionally. As you said, emotionally exhausted. The stronger you get, the less frequently the episodes will appear. That’s why you need to take the focus off of yourself and put it on your friends. And to do that, you have to make some first.”
“Well, there is this one woman at work, who wants me to play tennis with her. But I think she was hitting on me.”
“Can you just be friends with her without becoming romantically, emotionally involved? Having her as a friend is good, but I wouldn’t advise taking a lover just yet. You need to get past some emotional roadblocks first.
“Yeah, I can be just friends with her. I can’t handle much more than that right now, anyway.” But what Samantha said and what she was thinking were two different things. True, she wasn’t looking for a long term relationship, but who’s to say getting laid wouldn’t be good for the soul.
Chapter Ten
The twin engine plane taxied up to the terminal and the group inside began to disembark. Aidan and Vicky exited first, and were greeted by the sounds of bagpipes blaring, and a waiting entourage shouting, Céad Míle Fáilte, which is Gaelic for, a hundred thousand welcomes to you.
“Do they think that President Trenton is on this plane?” Vicky asked no one in particular.
When they walked up to the waiting limousine, a woman with brunette hair, wearing thick glasses, dressed in a double breasted business suit, extended her hand. She said in an Irish brogue, “Welcome to Ireland. My name is Brigh, and I will be your personal assistant during your stay here. You must be Aidan, is that correct?”
“Yes, ma’am, but I don’t need an assistant. Do you, Vicky?” Vicky shook her head, “Oh, I’m sorry, this is my wife, Victoria Montgomery-Cassidy.”
“A pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” the assistant shook hands with Vicky and noticed the ring on her finger, “That’s a beautiful ring.”
“Thank you,” Vicky looked up at Aidan and said with emotion, “It was Aidan’s mother’s ring.”
“Indeed. You’re very lucky to have such a generous mother, Aidan.”
Vicky thought that was an odd thing for her to say, but Aidan felt the need to explain, “My mother died when I was born, that’s my only keepsake of hers.”
“Oh, I am sorry that she died. But perhaps your father has accompanied you?”
“My father? No way in hell‒‒”
Vicky interrupted before Aidan could get too worked up, as she always did at the mere mention of her father, “You see, Brigh, we’re on our honeymoon.”
“Oh, I understand. Well, let’s get you two over to the óstán, I mean the hotel, and get you settled in.”
Aidan tried one more time, “Ma’am, I appreciate your help, but seriously, we don’t need an assistant.”
“I’m sorry, miss, but Senator O’Malley assigned me to look after you while you’re here in Dublin. Merely as a courtesy, you understand, but we don’t want to disappoint the Senator, do we?”
Vicky and Aidan looked at each other, and Aidan shrugged, “No, ma’am, I guess we don’t.”
The two women were taken to their hotel and shown to their room. Before they could even unpack, Vicky was immediately whisked into the adjourning room to be fitted for her ball gown, so Aidan joined her, bringing her files with her to read. After finishing one dossier, she tossed it to the side and looked up at Vicky, whose arms were outstretched, as the seamstress measured her. She grinned when Vicky became ticklish at the seamstresses touch. She loved seeing that big smile on her wife’s face. Aidan knew that going to a prestigious ball like this one, was something Vicky excelled at. There was no doubt in Aidan’s mind that Vicky would be the queen of the ball, and she couldn’t wait to see it.
“Oh, honey, I can’t wait to go to the ball tomorrow night.” Vicky said, as she turned one more time for the seamstress.
Unfortunately, Aidan could not say the same. Just the thought of it made her nauseas. “I’d rather be making out in the pasture with the sheep,” she replied sarcastically. The seamstress arched an eyebrow, but kept working.
Up until just then, Vicky had not considered the kind of pressure something like this would put on her wife. She promised Aidan that she would stay by her side the whole time. She assured her that she only needed to be her charming self to have them eating out of her hands. Aidan knew she could be charming, she just loathed politics, in any country.
After the fitting was finished, Vicky joined Aidan, and together the two women read over the files, telling each other the highlights of each political figure, except for Aidan’s aunt. Aidan read every inch of Senator Peg O’Malley’s file, fascinated with how much she had accomplished in her lifetime.
O’Malley, who was fifty-seven, was one of four siblings, born in Cavan, and was now a widow with three grown children of her own. Tall in stature, she had short auburn hair, and a pale complexion, with an attractive but serious deportment. Nominated by the Taoiseach, better known to Americans as the Prime Minister, she was elected to the lower house of the Irish legislature.
Stapled to the folder was a thumbnail photo of Aidan’s Aunt. She carefully unstapled it and placed it in her wallet to help her identify her aunt when she saw her later. Truth be told, it was really just a keepsake. Vicky, and now this aunt, were all the family she had, and just yesterday she didn’t even know she had that much.
Vicky pulled out the laptop Bradshah had given Aidan, and did some research on Cavan of County Cavan. She told Aidan that the town had a population of just over ten thousand residents, and was surrounded by mostly sheep farms. They both agreed to go there next, as soon as this mission was finished.
“Just think, baby, my mom was from there.”
“Honey, that means you are from there too.”
Aidan marveled at the simplicity of that statement. She now had a heritage, a family history to call her own. This was a wonderful, gratifying thought to her, to belong, to have a lineage. So much so, that her excitement effervesced up in the form of a giggle, totally surprising both her and Vicky. They looked at each other and burst out laughing together.
As she was perusing the research on the laptop, Vicky read about the castle where the ball would be held at. “Aidan, did you know that we’ll be attending the gala at a real castle? Dublin Castle is in the middle of the city, how perfectly romantic.”
Aidan grinned at her wife. Having seen some of Ireland through Vicky’s romantic eyes, Aidan was actually starting to look forward to the ball, just to see her wife in all that dreamy-romantic elegance.
“Hey Vick, maybe after all this other stuff is done with, we can take a tour of the castle and the city before we head out again?” What Aidan didn’t know yet, was that her Aunt had already scheduled their time in Dublin, to include touring the castle and the city, with Brigh as their personal escort.
*
Aidan stood in front of the mirror trying to adjust her lilac Windsor tie, but she just couldn’t get it to look right. She was dressed in a full-back, royal blue vest with a long black tuxedo jacket over it, a laydown collar on her formal black shirt, and matching pleated formal trousers over her favorite black boots. This was the same suit she wore at her wedding, and seeing it on herself again brought a smile to her face of that perfect moment when Vicky said, ‘I do’. Finally, deciding the tie looked fine the way it was, she began placing her medal
s around her neck. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, personally given to her by former President Trenton, for saving his life, and the Congressional Medal of Honor, given to her by President Sherman, for saving her fellow soldiers under duress during combat. The medals were heavy enough by themselves, but together they felt bulky on her chest. She pinned the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart medal to her left chest, and finally she pinned a small, American flag on the upper collar of her tuxedo jacket. The pin had a tiny camera attached to it that was beaming a live feed to Tom Bradshah, who sat in the next room with several laptops, watching the monitor. He would be communicating with Aidan via an acoustic tube tactical earpiece, and able to hear everything within a few yards of her through a microphone taped to her chest.
“Cassidy, can you hear me?” Bradshah asked.
“Roger that, sir,” she replied as she adjusted the earpiece.
Aidan walked into the parlor, waiting for Vicky to immerge from the guest room, when she heard a loud “Wow!” coming from her ear piece. She looked up to see Vicky walking towards her.
“Oh, my God!” Aidan gasp, her breath completely taken away, “You are so beautiful.” Before her stood a goddess, a goddess that this mere mortal would gladly worship from her knees.
Vicky was dressed in an elegant royal blue silk gown that molded to her small form, giving the allusion that she was taller than she actually was. The strapless gown revealed her milky-soft, round shoulders, and alluring cleavage. The intricately designed gown had laced pearls at the left breast, running across her abdomen, down to just above her right hip. The pearls gathered up the blue silk and draped it toward the back, revealing the front underlay of virgin white silk that flared ever so slightly at the bottom. Vicky’s soft blonde hair was pulled up and back, highlighting her earlobes, adorned with diamonds, her sparkling, crystal blue eyes and ruby red lips. And bringing the eye down to the wedding and engagement rings, Vicky was wearing a double-strand diamond encrusted bracelet.
Aidan had to swallow to relieve her dry mouth, as she moved in to kiss the gorgeous creature who was taking her breath away. But she heard Bradshah say in her ear, “Business before pleasure, Cassidy”, and Bradshah laughed when he heard Aidan say, “Damn!”
“What, honey, you don’t like the dress?” Vicky wasn’t aware that Aidan had a listening device in her ear, so Aidan explained everything to her.
Vicky exclaimed, “Oh, damn!”
As Aidan and Vicky walked hand in hand, down the hotel hallway, they didn’t see the dark figure slip in behind them and enter their room. Riding down on the elevator, Vicky talked about how excited she was to be attending such a prestigious ball as this one was. She inspected herself yet again, smoothing out her gown and adjusting her jewelry. That’s when she realized, her wedding necklace, the diamond encrusted heart shaped locket that Aidan had given her, was not there.
“Aidan! We have to go back!”
“What’s wrong, kid?”
“I left my necklace on the bathroom counter. I can’t go out without it.”
Aidan knew it would be no use arguing with her, so just as they reached the first floor, she pushed the fifth floor button.
The intruder quickly surveyed the room and walked over to the nightstand, rifling through the drawer. Then went to the bureau and searched it. Just as the intruder headed toward the bathroom, the sound of a key in the lock sent the trespasser into a panic.
“I’ll just be a second, honey,” Vicky said as she walked to the bathroom.”
“Wait!” Aidan grabbed her arm.
*
The woman sat at her makeup mirror, speaking on her cellphone, as she cautiously moved the eyeliner brush away from her eyelash, “My God, you did what?”
“When you told me she would be right here in Dublin, I hired a man to investigate her.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I just wanted to‒‒”
“To what, tip her off?”
“No, to find out more about her. Tá sí mo iníon, damnaigh sé!”
“I know she’s your daughter, but—”
“I also want to know more about the ring, about… him.” Brona said pensively, “What if she brought him with her? What if he’s looking for me right now?”
“Let’s just stay calm and wait. I hardly think he would show up now after all these years, but if it’s not safe we’ll call the Gardaí.”
*
“What?” Vicky turned around to see what was so urgent.
“You’re unzipped. Now, you know I don’t mind,” Aidan chuckled, “but my boss can see your slip.”
Vicky leaned close to Aidan and said into the mic, “Sorry, Tom.”
Bradshah was too much of a gentleman to respond back, but he wasn’t sorry. He still could appreciate beauty when he saw it.
Aidan zipped the dress up and Vicky went into the bathroom to retrieve her necklace. “Here, let me help with that.” Aidan placed the necklace around Vicky’s throat and it came to rest just above her cleavage. She looked at her through the mirror and smiled. “Baby, you put those diamonds to shame.”
“Sweetheart, you always say the nicest things.”
“What do you say we blow off this shindig, and‒‒”
Vicky and Tom both loudly protested, much to Aidan’s amusement.
As soon as they left, the intruder crawled out from under the bed and finished his search. Disappointed that he didn’t find anything of use, he left the room and pulled out his cell phone to report in.
The announcer stood at the entrance to the grand ball room and bellowed, “From the United States, Ms. Aidan Montgomery-Cassidy, of the O’Malley family, and Ms. Victoria Montgomery-Cassidy, her, err, wife.”
Aidan, with Vicky on her arm, entered the large, circular room as the photographers snapped their pictures. The ball room had a large three tier antique crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling that set the tone for the rest of the room. There were oil paintings of Irish ancestry, hanging from the walls covered with burgundy wallpaper. The floor to ceiling windows had extravagant dark burgundy silk drapes, with double-layered tieback tassels. Large vases of fresh cut flowers filled the corners of the room, giving off an approving aroma. The room had an old world feeling to it, but the people were anything but old world. The women were elegantly dressed in the latest formal gowns and expensive jewelry, and the men looked very aristocratic in their finest tuxedos. All eyes turned to Aidan and Vicky as they entered the room, and Vicky greeted their curious stares with her prettiest smile. Feeling a bit conspicuous, she intended to win over these high society types with her southern charm and cheerfulness. But where Vicky saw romance in the ambiance, Aidan saw intrigue.
Though her first priority was the mission, Aidan looked around anxiously, hoping to recognize her aunt. But her search was interrupted when Vicky patted her arm to alert her to the Prime Minister, who was standing by the fireplace, receiving guests. The two made their way over, and when it was their turn to greet him, Aidan handed his assistant her card, and he announce them. I don’t much care for all this formal stuff. Aidan thought, just give me an old fashion hand shake and a slap on the back and call me friend.
“Tá sé áthas chun bualadh leat, Príomh-Aire,” Aidan said apprehensively, then repeated in English, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Prime Minister.”
“Tá sé áthas orm bualadh leat chomh maith, Ms. Cassidy,” he replied, and then also repeated in English for Vicky, “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Cassidy. And Ms. Montgomery, welcome to Ireland. President Trenton sent a dossier on each of you, and I must say, I’m very impressed.”
“Thank you, sir.” Aidan said staunchly.
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. We are very excited to be here.” Though Vicky was normally too much of a lady to gush, she still considered it, simply because her surroundings warranted it.
“Perhaps, when we have more time, you’ll tell me the story of how you foiled that terrorist
s attempt to blow up your hospital. I must say, that was intriguing. I can’t imagine the kind of pressure you must have been under. All those patients in harm’s way and yet you had the presence of mind to see to their needs first, over your own. Impressive.” He looked at Aidan next and continued, “And you, Ms. Cassidy. It was incredibly brave of you to stand up to that terrorist, not once, but twice. Remarkable indeed.”
Vicky smiled proudly at the Prime Minister and assured him that she would be happy to tell him all about it at his earliest convenience. Not usually one to try and impressed the dignitaries, this time it was different. This time she felt it was for Aidan.
Looking around, the Prime Minister stepped closer to Aidan and quietly said, “I understand the need for this, Special Agent Cassidy, but I want no disruptions, understood?”
“Understood, sir. Any misgivings I find, I am to report solely to my director.”
“Very good,” then softening his tone again he continued, “Ms. Cassidy, I understand you have an Aunt in our parliament that you’ve never met? Senator O’Malley, correct?”
“Yes, sir. I was hoping to find her in this crowd, but‒‒”
“If you’ll turn around, I believe you’ll run right into her,” the Prime Minister said with a smile.
Aidan immediately turned around and there stood a tall, auburn haired woman, with a cream colored face and laugh wrinkles that made her green eyes twinkle. They looked at each other, until finally, her aunt spoke first.
“Are you? Are you mo neacht?” Peg O’Malley asked her, the wonderment obvious on her face. She scrutinized Aidan’s facial features, her height, her hair, and knew before Aidan could reply, that this was indeed, her niece.
But Aidan couldn’t reply, she was too dumbstruck, too nervous to speak, so Vicky gleefully volunteered, “Senator O’Malley, may I introduce to you, Aidan Marie Cassidy, your niece.”
“Mo neacht! My niece! My sister’s baby!” The Senator grabbed Aidan and hugged her tight. “Look at you! I thought you were dead.”
Remember, It's Our Honeymoon Page 10
