by Henry, Jane
“I’d never left the lighthouse,” she says.
Surely, she must be exaggerating.
“Never?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Never. My father was an American, so I don’t sound like everyone else. And when I say I was a fish out of water…” she laughs, a pretty little musical sound that delights me. “Well, I’m not exaggerating. I’d never seen a cell phone, driven a car, or so much as walked through the streets of Ballyhock.”
I marvel at her, shaking my head in wonder. And now here she is, gracious and kind, the matriarch-in-training as it were.
“Wow.” My words fail me.
“But Keenan was immediately possessive of me. It’s how they are, you know. They… well, they’re at ease when they’ve a lass to protect, or even a family. They can be possessive. Domineering, even. But you’ll never find a more devoted soul.”
I nod slowly. “Aye,” I say softly. “I’ve seen Lachlan behave that way.”
She nods. “The men of the Clan hold the weight of everything on their shoulders. The wellbeing of the McCarthy family, not to mention the prosperity of all of Ballyhock. They command a small army here on the coast.” She smiles. “They’re old-fashioned men. We like to give them space to pound their chests, as it were.” She winks. “But we keep them on their toes.”
Maeve chuckles. “That you do, love, and you girls make me proud. Not a one of you quakes in the face of danger. You’ve got spines of steel and wills to match theirs. I’m right proud of the lot of you.”
I nod, mulling this all over. I want to be honest with these good, sincere women.
“I have… a past I’m not proud of,” I say, staring at my hands.
“My brother doesn’t seem to be troubled by that,” Fiona says. “And I’ll have you remember, I didn’t exactly come from a perfect home myself.”
Neither did her brother. I squeeze her hand, and she squeezes me back.
“Now, then, let’s see to that ordering,” Maeve says, reaching for my laptop. “You haven’t even scratched the surface of your budget, love.”
I give her a grateful smile.
She squints at the screen. “What the bloody hell is that?” she asks. “Fiona, did you log into a retailer or a damn sex shop?”
Fiona howls with laughter at Maeve’s expression, accidentally knocking over a teacup. Tea goes splattering onto Caitlin, who jumps up and screeches, making Fiona laugh even louder.
“Oh my God!” I say, running to the kitchen for a tea towel, when the door bursts open and Tiernan runs in. If looks could kill, I’d be a dead girl. His eyes are flashing, his cheeks hot with anger. I haven’t seen him this angry since the night he killed my assailant.
“What is it?” I ask. I can feel the color draining out of my face. “Are you alright?”
He looks around the room. The other girls have gone still, all eyes on him. He exhales, leaning against the counter, and shakes his head.
“Heard screaming,” he mutters. “Thought you were in danger.”
“Oh, Tiernan.” I reach my arm to his shoulder, kneading the tight muscles. “We’re fine. We were just laughing, and we spilled some tea…” my voice trails off as I look to Fiona for help.
“My fault, Tiernan, so sorry,” she says briskly, wiping her hands on her trousers. “But relax. All good. I’ll just clean this up.”
“Leave it,” he says, waving a hand. “I need you all to leave. Thanks for keeping Aisling company, but the two of us need to talk now.”
“Tiernan, I—”
He holds his hand up to silence me. “They need to leave.”
My heart beats faster. What’s wrong? Did something happen while he was gone?
“See you tonight for supper, then?” Maeve asks.
Tiernan shakes his head. “We’ll be gone before then, thanks.”
I watch him in silence, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
She gives him a brief hug. “You be careful, then,” she says. “And thanks for letting us borrow her for a little while.”
She walks over to me and kisses my cheek, then winks at Tiernan. “She’s lovely.”
His eyes shine. “She is.”
Fiona gives me a little wave as she leaves. “You be good to her, Tiernan Hurston,” she says sternly.
He glares, which makes her giggle, and Caitlin shakes her head. She waves to me, and the door shuts tight behind them.
I turn to face him. “Are you okay?”
He reaches for me, dragging me closer so that I’m standing in his space, caught between his arms, his forearms resting on my shoulders.
“I’m fine,” he says. “But we need to go sooner than later.”
I can’t help myself. I lean in and kiss the crease across his forehead until it relaxes, then I rest my head on his chest.
“Alright, then,” I say. “Let’s go.”
He holds me to him, rocking me gently back and forth, and my body instantly reacts. My pulse quickens and my palms are sweaty. He’s so strong and powerful, and he smells so fucking good. He reaches down and squeezes my arse.
“What I wouldn’t give to fuck you right now, right against this counter, until you screamed.” He bends and kisses my neck.
“Thought we had to go,” I manage to choke out. My eyes flutter closed.
“We do,” he whispers in my ear. “But you’re distracting me.”
“Me?” I say. “Ha! Hardly. You’re the one to blame here, sir.”
His large palm cracks against my arse. “Ah ah, you don’t. No deflecting of blame, babe.”
He pulls away with a groan and releases me. “You’re okay,” he says, running his hands over my arms until he reaches my fingers. “I was worried.”
I think back about what the girls said about their men. Guys like Tiernan likely meet a need by taking care of others. Tiernan clearly falls in this camp,
We pull away from one another with reluctance. He retrieves a travel bag from the closet and quickly packs, then takes my own meager possessions from the bathroom, as he fills me in.
“We’ve got some people coming up here soon,” he says. “Keenan’s hired them to change your appearance.”
I blink. “Oh?”
He nods, zipping up the bag. “Aye. We’ve no choice, Aisling. Your picture’s plastered all over the bloody paper. They think you were somehow responsible for Edmund Doyle’s death.”
“Edmund… Doyle?”
He sighs. “Prime minister’s son, Aisling.”
I sit heavily on the bed. “But I was, wasn’t I?”
He turns to face me, his eyes growing angry and dark.
“You bloody well weren’t. He assaulted you. I was the one ended him. Not you.”
I sigh and shake my head. “But if it wasn’t for me, you never would’ve… you wouldn’t have been entangled in all this.”
“And if he wasn’t a bloody fucking prick who deserved what he got, none of this would’ve happened as well.”
I shake my head with a sigh. “We could argue this all night.”
“Aye,” he says firmly, his tone brooking no argument. “But we won’t.”
We hear a knock at the door, and a moment later he ushers in an entire staff of people with bags and boxes and things on hangers. I let them do what they need to. I answer questions, lift my arms for them to dress me, bend my head into the sink so they can dye my hair. I watch my crazy curls fall into clumps on the floor, and an hour later, I stare at my reflection.
“Oh… wow,” I whisper. “That’s… quite different.”
My hair’s jet black, cut short, and straightened with a flat iron. I blink. My eyes are a dark brown, thanks to contacts. My freckles are gone, and the makeup they’ve applied gives me an almost exotic look.
Who is this woman?
I stare at my clothes, a tight-fitting dress that dips into a deep vee in the front, hugs my waist, then flares to the floor. I turn around and admire my reflection.
“Whoa.”
Tiernan’s gaze na
rrows on me, and I feel embarrassed.
“You don’t… like the change?” I whisper. “It’s only temporary. We just need it while we…”
But his hands are in my hair, and he’s dragging my mouth to his. His tongue gently touches mine, sending frissons of arousal down my spine. He pulls away with reluctance.
“I love it,” he whispers in my ear. “Let’s get you situated as soon as we can, before I get fucking blue balls.” He groans, pulling away from me.
“Too late?” I ask.
He growls. “Too late.”
I bite my lip, trying to hide how pleased this makes me. I love that I turn him on. I love that this stern, aloof man is affected by me.
But what more can I offer him, except the one thing I’ve offered so many men before him?
“What are you thinking? You left me there for a minute.”
I shake my head. “Oh, nothing.”
“It isn’t nothing.” He frowns. “And I expect you to be honest with me. Are you hiding something, Aisling?”
Hiding something? Only bloody everything.
“Not now, please,” I say to him, acutely conscious of the staff that still lingers.
“I’ll let you off the hook if you promise to tell me tonight.”
I sigh. “Fine, then. Let’s go?”
Maeve worked some kind of magic, for clothes are waiting for me in bags by the door. “How on earth did they come so quickly?”
He grins. “Oh, she has her ways. Likely went and picked them up herself.”
I marvel at the brand new travel bag, but don’t have time to look at everything before he whisks me away.
The ride to the school doesn’t take very long, and the entire time I pepper him with questions.
“Is it a very strict school?”
He nods soberly. “Very.” Of course it is, I reason. They’re the training grounds for the McCarthy Clan, and the men of the Clan are fearsome, powerful, and brave.
“What was your favorite class?”
“Ealaíona comhraic.” Irish martial arts. Of course.
“Least favorite?”
A grimace. “French.”
For some reason, that strikes me as funny, and I giggle at that.
“Favorite teacher?”
“Malachy.”
“You call the teachers by the first name there?”
“Only him.”
I mull this over.
“Will I get to meet him?”
He frowns. “I hope so.”
When we arrive, a few other cars arrive as well. I look in astonishment to see how many came.
“Goodness, Tiernan. Keenan sent back up, did he?”
“Oh aye.”
I swallow hard. “They take protecting the ones in their charge extremely seriously, don’t they?”
Tiernan nods, but his eyes are a little wide. “Well, of course they do.”
It’s a given, then, for a man like him and so outside my realm of experience, I’m still trying to understand where I fit in here.
“Tiernan!” A tall woman with her hair in a long braid down her back gives him a big hug.
Tiernan’s face breaks into a grin. He bends to embrace her as she gives him a huge, motherly hug. “Oh, it’s good to see you, lad. And would you look at you, how big and manly you are now! Wouldn’t recognize you next to the scrawny lad who came here all those years ago. How long ago was it, anyway?”
Tiernan releases her and chuckles. “Been a while.”
“I’ll never forget the first day I met you,” she says. “Sent you to the headmaster’s office on day one, didn’t I?”
He chuckles. “Aye. Can’t remember why, but I’m sure ’twas something mouthy, no?”
She laughs. “Oh, no doubt.” She turns to face me. “And who’s your lovely companion?”
Lovely companion.
My cheeks flush.
We didn’t discuss my name beforehand. I look to him in a panic, unable to state my real name, but he takes it in stride.
“This is Ruby.”
Ruby? Bloody hell. Not sure I like that. I try not to react.
“So pleased to meet you, Ruby. I hope we can catch up sometime.”
She leaves, and Tiernan reaches for our bags. I take a small bag Maeve packed for me and sling it on my shoulder, but when I go to take one of our travel bags, he frowns and takes it right out of my hand.
Of course.
“Ruby?” I hiss.
“Pretty name.”
“It’s bloody awful.”
He smirks. “All I could imagine was your pretty red arse painted with my handprint, and it seemed immediately fitting. Christ, but it’s good to be back here,” he mutters as we walk around the back of the school. “We’ve simple quarters back here for staff and guests. They used to be nearly spartan, but Keenan decided to improve them a few years back.”
I look around at the rooms that look like simple hotels, sparsely furnished but neat and clean.
He opens the door and tosses our bags in.
“I’ll give you a tour.”
He looks around with pride, as he takes my hand, and I realize, this is the home that built him, that influenced the man he is today. He came from a broken home in Stone City, the poorest of all cities in Ireland. He’s told me before he thanks the McCarthys for raising him, and I know Fiona’s said the same.
The grounds are lovely, ensconced on all sides by flowers and greenery.
“You must have an outstanding landscaper.”
He grins. “We make the boys do it.”
Of course they do. I grin back.
I’ve never been to a place like this before. “Is it all boys?”
“Oh, aye.”
“Can’t let the ladies detract from your work, then?”
He snorts. “Something like.”
“Tiernan? That you, lad?”
A man some years older than Tiernan, tall and muscled with Irish ink on his neck and arms, ambles out, his hands in his pockets. His iron-gray hair is cut short, his jaw clean-shaven, his eyes as steely gray as his hair. His eyes twinkle, but there’s a hardness about him I don’t miss. He’s got a scar along his temple and one on his chin as well.
He claps Tiernan on the back. “How’ve you been lad?”
Tiernan lights up like a little boy on Christmas, nearly bursting with pride. It’s then that I realize that this place, this school, was home to him, too.
“Excellent.” He gestures toward me. “Malachy, meet Ruby.”
Ruby. Ugh. I can’t get over the name.
I plaster on a smile and shake his hand.
“Pleased to meet you, love,” he says, leaning in to whisper. “Keenan’s told me everything. You two need anything at all, you let me know.” He stands and gestures to Tiernan. “And if this bloke doesn’t treat you well, you let me know.” He cuffs Tiernan good-naturedly. “I can still kick his muscled, full-grown arse.”
Tiernan snorts and ducks the blow.
“You think so, old man?” Tiernan’s already bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to go, and Malachy grimaces.
“Actually, probably not,” he says, and the two of us laugh.
“Got a class to teach, will see you later,” Malachy says. Tiernan waves, and opens the door for us to go inside.
“I don’t understand,” I say to him. “What makes it safer here? Why didn’t we just stay at the mansion? I mean, there’s those heavy gates and security…”
“And we likely would’ve been fine there, aye,” Tiernan says, as the door swings shut behind him. “But no one will think to look here, when doing a cursory investigation anyway. St. Albert’s is damn near its own little island, as it were.”
“Oh? How so?” I’m intrigued.
“Well, they’ve got their own staff, for one. Private schooling. All attendees board, and we have a full school board panel as well.” He goes on, explaining the hierarchical structure of the school’s staff.
“Ah. That really is like a little isl
and, isn’t it?”
He smiles grimly. “’Twas the first place I felt truly safe and at home.”
My heart squeezes for him. I’m glad he’s brought me. I’m not sure I’d have been able to see every facet of Tiernan Hurston without this.
“Right, then. I love that for you.”
He holds my hand and squeezes me back.
When we enter the school, there’s a boy sitting in front of an office. He’s scowling, leaning forward with his arms on his knees. When we enter, he looks up, and his eyes go wide.
“You’re Tiernan Hurston, of the McCarthy Clan,” he says. The McCarthys are like celebrities here. I notice how all eyes come to Tiernan, and the boys that walk past whisper among themselves. The boy here before us has a shock of reddish brown hair and a freckled face. He’s rail thin but I can tell he’s got a will of iron. There’s a toughness about him I’d recognize a mile away.
“Aye,” Tiernan says. “And your name?”
“Deacon Shae,” the boy says with a note of pride in his voice.
“Pleased to meet you, Deacon,” Tiernan says. His gaze is stern, fixed on the boy, and Deacon squirms under Tiernan’s penetrating look. He crosses his arms on his chest and narrows his eyes. “Now, what has you outside the headmaster’s office?”
Deacon blushes to the roots of his hair.
“Aw, let him alone, Tiernan,” I whisper. “C’mon.”
Tiernan shakes his head at me, his eyes on the boy. “Tell me.”
The boy clears his throat, his cheeks bright pink. “I, um… may have lost my temper in Chem class.”
“Did you or didn’t you?” Yikes, Tiernan’s turned the full force of his stern gaze on him. My heart thumps a little. Can I be attracted to this side of him?
Oh, hell yes, I am.
Deacon sighs. “I did.”
“And what’d you do in your fit of temper?”
I’m as uncomfortable as Deacon is, poor lad, but Tiernan’s bent on making sure the boy’s chastised, it seems.
“I… broke a beaker or two, sir.”
Tiernan’s brows raise. “Which was it? One or two?”
The boy grimaces. “Three.”