“More coffee, anyone?” Eva attempted to change the subject, standing and pouring coffee and cutting more nisu from the loaf on the table.
“I want to build a house for us on the lake,” he told Eva’s parents.
“It’s lovely there,” Mrs. Maki said. “We all have fond and fun memories from that place. Isn’t that true, Olli?” She reached out her hand to her husband, who grasped it in his.
Watching them, Victor wondered if they were perhaps remembering stealing away to the lean-to, in the early days. Perhaps Eva was conceived in that very lean-to. Victor smiled to himself, thinking that his and Eva’s trysts weren't that much different than her parents. That guilty pleasure rose in him, a feeling he was beginning to like.
After the second cup of coffee, Victor suggested that he and Eva go to his house and formally announce the betrothal to his family. “We may as well just do it all in one day, don’t you think?”
“Maybe you’re right, Victor,” Eva said. “Let’s do that. Mamma, do you mind if I go?”
“I think it is as good a time as any,” Mamma said.
“Pappa, is it all right with you?”
Eva's father waved a hand to signify “go ahead.”
Eva went to him and kissed him on the forehead, turning to hug her mother in the other chair. “Then we’re off to the Mattson’s.”
As Eva and Victor were leaving, Liisa and Aili were coming in from finishing the sheep stall.
“What’s the rush?” Liisa said. "Where are you two going in such a hurry?”
“We’ve just told Mamma and Pappa that we are going to get married, and now we are going to Mattson’s to tell them,” Eva said. Eva's sisters stared at them with bovine expressions. It appeared as though they couldn’t distinguish if Eva and Victor were joking or not.
“Yes, it’s true,” Eva said, as she and Victor swished away, holding hands. She knew her sisters were wondering what happened, and why it wasn’t Eino she was marrying.
As they walked up the road toward the Mattson farm, Eva spoke first. “It feels magical, Victor. I am very happy. Are you?”
“Of course, I am.” He answered, putting his arm around her neck and kissing her.
~~~
As Eva and Victor arrived, his parents were sitting down to coffee. It wasn’t quite dinnertime, but good-smelling things were cooking on the stove. The kitchen was warm and the fragrance of roasting ham permeated the farmhouse, giving it a homey feeling.
“Hello children,” his mother cooed. “Would you care for some coffee?”
Victor and Eva looked at each other. They had each had two cups at Eva's house and hadn’t used the privy recently, but they accepted gladly. Everything – family and business decisions, announcements – was done over coffee. Coffee time, it seemed, was the unofficial Finnish family forum.
“What brings you two together, on a Sunday?” his mother asked, seeming a little bewildered at the break in routine.
“I have asked Eva to marry me,” Victor said. “I went to Mr. Maki and he gave Eva’s hand. So, we came right over to tell you that it's official.”
“How wonderful,” his mother gushed. “I am very happy.”
“Congratulations, son,” his father crowed and shook his son’s hand. “Eva, we welcome you to the family.” He bent to kiss her on the cheek.
“Tell your brother congratulations, Hannes,” his mother said.
“Congratulations, brother.” He, too, shook Victor’s hand.
“Kiss your future sister, Hannes,” his mother murmured again. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Nothing’s the matter, Mother.” He, too, bent to kiss Eva on the cheek, blushing as he did so. “Isn’t it rather sudden?” he added, seemingly perplexed. “Where did this come from? I didn’t know you two were in love.”
“Well, Eva and I are very much in love,” Victor answered.
“All right, if you say so.”
“What is the matter with you, Hannes?” his mother said. “I tell you, some boys are so embarrassed by showing affection,” she giggled.
Chapter 7
Katie, the housekeeper at the Dady mansion, was getting married to a Catholic shopkeeper and was leaving at week’s end to work alongside her new husband. Liam’s parents were heading to Italy for a month’s holiday. Liam was in the kitchen the morning of their departure and heard his mother talking to Annie.
“I’m leaving it to you to hire a new housekeeper while Mr. Dady and I are in Italy. I trust you to hire and train a decent, hard-working girl,” Mother instructed Annie coldly.
“Yes, Mum.”
Liam was looking forward to being free of the irritation and oppressiveness of his parents, even if it was only for a month. He considered himself damn lucky not to have been kicked out in April because of the row he’d had with them. At least he had a roof over his head and money in his pocket—and Annie.
~~~
After his parents left, Liam found himself feeling lighter. On a beautiful afternoon, he’d been roaming the East Belfast streets. He was in another part of the riverfront, a bit away from the big shipyard of Harland and Wolff, sitting on a low pylon that used to be part of a pier. He could see the giant gantries and hear the cacophony of noise coming from the active shipyard downriver. His senses were at a heightened state as he noticed the sounds of the laughing gulls, watched the puffy, white, fair-weather clouds moving freely across the sky, and felt the fresh, pungent sea air on his face. He felt himself let go of the low-level anxiety he constantly carried with him. He found himself thinking of Dolly, her face behind the rouge, the color of her eyes, and that wheat colored hair. I want to go see her again, he thought.
He was interrupted from his drowsy, pleasant state by an abrupt, unpleasant voice.
“It’s fuckin’ Dady,” a voice said. The pock-faced Jimmy Ryan from the Protestant East Belfast shipyard row houses was walking toward Liam. “The animal who beat the shite out o’ me Cousin Sean when we were sixteen.” Jimmy was accompanied by two equally unpleasant-looking companions, one with a serious limp.
It was Jimmy then, in the junk yard, Liam thought. It’s the same voice. Could it be the dog-bit one, too?
Jimmy was not a friend of Liam’s. A few years ago, at the end of a church service, Liam had accidentally bumped into a girl named Colleen and knocked her bible to the floor. Colleen was the girlfriend of Sean Ryan, Jimmy's cousin. Liam, being polite, had picked up the Bible for her. Sean apparently had seen Colleen smile prettily at Liam and all hell had broken loose. Sean hadn’t waited long to confront Liam after school on the cobblestone street.
“Saw ye with me girl, Dady,” Sean had said. “What do you have to say fer yerself?” Sean was the neighborhood thug and just as pock-faced as his cousin.
Staying cool and calm, Liam said in a level tone, “I have nothin’ to say to ye, Sean, other than get the fuck out of my way. Who I talk to is none of yer concern.” Liam didn't want to fight this cretin. He’d rather turn and walk, but the eejit wasn’t going to let him.
“Not to my girl ye don’t!”
“Well, I heard she doesn’t like ye all that much.”
Sean took a swing at Liam’s face, but Liam deftly dodged it. He then began to pummel his would-be assailant into the ground, stunning Sean’s gang and the small audience that gathered to see it. A few by-standers had to pull Liam off the shocked and bloodied Sean. Otherwise, Sean would’ve been seriously damaged, since Liam was not about to stop on his own.
Of course, Annie had a nervous fit when Liam showed up that night covered in blood.
“What the hell, Liam!” Annie almost never swore or took the Lord’s name in vain, but this was an instance during which she did. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”
“At least it’s not my blood. It’s Sean Ryan’s. He thought he was going to tell me who to talk to.”
Annie brought him into the laundry room to the big sink. The shirt came off and she began to wash the blood stain out of the front.
“Thank the Good Lord, Liam, ye only have skinned knuckles. Jesus, ye’re goin’ to be the death o’ me. What is the matter with you boys at this age?”
“It must be we’re all cretins,” Liam said to add levity.
Liam’s attempt at humor did not work. Annie was upset to the verge of tears, but she kept them at bay.
“I’m sorry. I tried to walk away, I really did. He wouldn’t let me.” Liam lowered his eyes. “Annie, I’m sorry.”
Now, eight years later, Liam still was loath to have anything to do with any Ryan.
“What are ye doin’ over here?” Jimmy asked now. He sounded annoyed.
Liam didn’t answer. He just stood up from the pylon and walked toward Jimmy.
This made Jimmy take a step backward. “Well, we saw ye sittin’ here and we wanted to come to ask ye somethin’,” Jimmy said nervously.
“Ye have about ten seconds before I walk away.” Liam turned to go, but Jimmy stopped him.
“Wait. We were wonderin’ if ye’d like to fight for us in the pubs. There’s a lot of money to be had. We manage, you fight. You win, and we all get a lot of money.”
Liam stood still for a moment in contemplation. His father had been a little more withholding on his allowance lately. But this proposal would mean fighting and injuries. “Where’s the next fight?” he asked. “I want to see what this is about before I decide.”
“Tonight, at Flannery’s.” Jimmy kept a hopeful, wide-eyed gaze on Liam. “Be there at seven. We’ll show ye what it’s about.”
Liam turned to go without giving his answer.
~~~
Flannery’s was a Protestant pub on the edge of the docks, not that far from the brothel where Liam met Dolly. Flannery's was a higher-class joint, with mahogany booths surrounding the perimeter of the taproom and a big room in the back for parties and, tonight, fist fighting.
Liam arrived around seven-fifteen and pushed the door open. The smoke and stink of drinking men hit him hard in the face as he squeezed his way to the bar for a pint. He had heard of these fights as he was growing up, but his father designated them barbaric and low class.
“People of our standing, Liam, do not entertain them. I expect you will stay away,” Father had said, talking down his nose at the idea.
His pint in hand, Liam took a sip and turned to see the crowd. He leaned back on one elbow at the bar. His father was right in his assessment of fighting being low class, but Liam found it intriguing. Also, as he scanned around the room, Liam saw a few men in expensive suits, so perhaps it wasn’t all that barbaric. Perhaps the money was good.
Liam spotted Jimmy snaking his way through the dense crowd toward him. Jimmy’s face was animated, his pupils dilated, and his cheeks flushed with heat.
“I see ye have a pint. Let me take ye back.” Jimmy turned and walked through the shouting, nearly impenetrable crowd.
Liam followed, scanning the mass of faces for anyone familiar. He felt on guard and tense. He did not like to be surrounded and always needed to spot a quick way out. He noticed a side door to the left and kept that in mind.
Inside the back room at last, Jimmy made his way to his gang. No ropes designated the ring. It was just an open space in the middle of the floor with rows of people four deep, backed up to the wall surrounding the center. At one end of the room three men at an elevated table seemed to be taking bets and keeping the program organized.
Jimmy leaned into Liam and said, “The first fight is about to start—oh, here they come from the back storage room.”
Bare-chested and bare knuckles wrapped in a few layers of gauze, the two opponents readied themselves. With a referee standing by to call the fight, the fighters’ fists came up and they waited for the starting bell to ring. No more bets were taken.
The bell clanged in Liam’s ear and the two opponents began to dance around, eyes intent on the other, waiting for the right moment to make the jab or hook that would make contact.
Liam was wondering why they didn’t just get on with it. Perhaps it was about the show and not so much the fighting. He would have to watch and see.
When the first bruising contact was made, the crowd cheered. Now the blood flowed and the barbarity began. Managers of either contender hollered strategies to their fighter. Both were at equal skill, so when the first of three rounds was finished, the fight hadn’t been decided. They would have to go more rounds.
For the fourth time, the bell clanged in Liam’s ear to his great annoyance, but he kept his focus on the fighters. He noticed one of them was blinded by a reopened cut on his eyebrow, leaving him vulnerable to his opponent. And then the fight started to turn. The blood in the one’s eyes was fodder for the other to start a series of hooks and jabs, and one upper cut to the chin. It seemed that was the final blow. The referee completed the count, and the sprawled-out man was deemed knocked out. The winner bounced around triumphantly as his supporters crowded around him, exuberant. The floor was cleared and the blood was cleaned up for the next fight.
“So, what did ye think, Dady?”
“What do ye mean, what did I think?” Liam looked at Jimmy with irritation. “It was a fuckin’ fist fight.”
Jimmy appeared to be speechless. He just stood there, mouth agape.
“If I do this,” Liam said, “I get sixty percent of the winnin’s each time, no negotiations.” He paused and looked at the eager faces. Then he concluded his deal. “I do this for the summer only. I’m not sure what I’ll be doin’ come fall.”
Jimmy tried to dicker on the sixty percent. “I don’t think we can do that, Liam. There’s four of us splitin’ forty—”
“Take it, or find another fighter.” He stared at Jimmy, waiting for his answer.
“Fine, it’s a deal,” Jimmy said. “Next fight is here next week. We’ll sign ye up. If ye want to train, come to my house in the back shed. No one’s home durin’ the day.”
Liam handed Jimmy his empty pint glass, then turned and went out to the front taproom. He wasn’t happy with what he just agreed to, but he needed his own source of income. He could put the money in the bank, in case his current source dried up at the whim of his father. Liam decided he would go to Jimmy’s in the coming week to get into better physical condition with the punching bag.
He made his way back to the bar for another pint. As he sipped it, leaning with both elbows on the sticky bar, he felt a light touch on his shoulder. The gentle touch surprised him, and he was still more surprised when he turned to find Dolly looking coyly up at him. He didn’t know what to say at first, and settled on a faint smile, feeling himself blush.
His erection was instantaneous and intense. Neither one spoke as he chugged part of his pint in a big gulp, put it down on the bar, and grasped Dolly’s elbow. He took her through the crowd, out the side door, and into the dark alley.
He still could not say anything as he pushed her against the wall of the building and pulled her skirts up, out of the way. She opened his trouser buttons deftly. He lifted her high enough to enter her. She wrapped her legs around his hips as he ground away at her until he suddenly released his pent-up desire. She, too, panted in hers. He collapsed onto the cobbled-alley floor with Dolly on top of him. They lay holding each other tight, her head nestled into his neck.
Finally, he spoke. “I’m sorry I took ye so fast,” he said. “It’s just when I saw ye, I couldn’t help myself.”
“I was so glad to see ye Liam. My heart …” She stopped.
“What about your heart?” He gently ran his finger along her cheek bone.
She whispered in his ear. “My heart jumped and my belly tickled.”
He smiled at that. “My belly tickled too. Then I wanted ye very much.”
She pulled herself away from his neck and kissed him long and sweetly. He put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her in kind. “We should probably get up off this dirty cobblestone,” he said.
He grabbed a small barrel nearby and sat on it. Dolly climbed on his lap to cuddle more.
“I don’t know, Liam. All I know is, I just want to get away from what I’m doin’. I never felt this wanting, not until…” Her voice became soft. “Not until I met ye and I was afraid I would never see ye again. I don’t even know if … ye care at all fer me.”
“I care for ye Dolly, very much.” He hadn’t realized until that instant how much he cared. He felt, right then, true love for her. He put his arms around her and held her fiercely, kissing her neck and face in little pecks that made her giggle. They looked at each other in the brash light from the building’s windows. His heart beat loudly in his ears as she shifted her legs, straddling him. They kept their eyes on each other as they made love once more on the barrel, eyes closing when each had their release.
When a loud noise from inside the building forced them out of their love spell, she drowsily stood up.
“I’ll come for ye tomorrow mornin’.” Liam said. “Pack yer things and put a nice suit on. Ye’ll be meetin’ someone who’s goin’ to hire ye as housekeeper.”
“At whose house, Liam?” she asked.
“Mine.” He was grinning. “Can ye get back home all right?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ll take a cab.”
He kissed her passionately at the alley head, not wanting to part from her. He felt hesitant as he left her standing at the alley head.
~~~
Dolly's heart sang. She had no idea Liam would care for her as much as she cared for him. Thank you, God, for answerin’ my prayer to find him again! Her heart felt the way it had at their first parting.
She was just about to walk to the cab across the street when a harsh voice startled her. A hard, vicious hand gripped her upper arm, making her yelp in pain. It was Shaughnessy, the pimp from the brothel.
“Where’s his pay, cunt?”
Eva and the Irishman Page 6