He handed her a dark-red velvet box. She opened it. Her eyes welled as he said, “It’s yer engagement ring. It’s a topaz—yer birthstone, so ye can wear it here.” The topaz was about a half-carat round, in a silver setting.
“It’s fer real now, isn’t it?” she said. Tears were on the verge of falling from her lashes as she fixed her wide eyes on his.
“There’s no goin’ back,” he whispered in her hair. He slipped the ring on her left-hand ring finger and enveloped her in his arms.
~~~
As soon as he arrived in Edinburgh, Liam discussed his fast-track plan with the school Dean. Liam proposed to rearrange and add to his courses, as well as work through the summer, in order to finish at the end of the year.
“Why do you want to do this, Mr. Dady?” the Dean questioned.
“I’m marrying this summer, and we’re emigrating to America. I want to be able to take my degree with me.”
The Dean perused Liam’s records. “If you believe you are able to handle the work, I see no reason to hold you back. I see by your records that you’ve proven to be an excellent student so far.”
“Thank you, Dean. One thing, though. My father must know nothing of this plan, other than I’m working through the summer. I still need his funding. He won’t approve of my idea of marrying and emigrating, so I hope you can oblige me, Sir.”
“Are you still willing to—work with Smythe?”
“Yes, I’m willing. And I’ll want June fifteenth and the week after for my wedding and honeymoon.”
“You have it Dady. Good luck.”
Liam and the Dean of the Royal School for Surgeons shook on their deal, and Liam went to Mrs. Ferguson’s to write to Dolly and let her know the good news.
~~~
With his course schedule in place, Liam steeled himself for a long haul, with the week in June his only break until December. For a life with Dolly, he was willing to persevere. After this year, it would all be smooth sailing. Thinking of Dolly would be his strength to be successful.
A week after he arrived in Edinburgh, the students started to filter back. A day before classes would resume, a flood of students washed over the campus like a wave. Kurt returned dejected, having had to leave Elise, his fiancée, back in Germany.
“I took Elise’s virginity on New Year’s Eve,” Kurt said. He spoke with an air of manhood Liam had not seen before.
Liam smiled at the look of pride on Kurt’s face. “Ye sly fox, ye,” Liam said.
Kurt snickered. “It was fantastic,” he whispered, still reveling. “How was your holiday?”
“A bit like yours,” Liam said. “I'll leave it at that.”
“Aha!” Kurt yelled in enthusiasm, forgetting his decorum as they talked in the parlor in front of a roaring fire at the boarding house. He cringed while Liam smiled.
~~~
The day after classes started, Liam, Kurt, and Robbie were in Dean Cemetery, digging into a new grave at three in the morning. It was cold, but the ground was loose enough. By five o’clock, Liam and Kurt were snug in their beds and excused from early class. It was a lecture on new medicines. They would be able to copy notes taken by the professor’s assistant.
After eating dinner, Liam took a nap and was ready at two o'clock to attend a two-hour anatomy laboratory. He decided if he got to sleep after a quick dinner that would make up for the lost time on grave robbing nights. He also got used to sleeping a couple hours before going out after midnight to fetch cadavers after studying. That helped a good deal. Kurt would study downstairs in the parlor so as not to disturb Liam’s sleep. The two kept up their study hour every weeknight, on Saturdays in the morning, and Sundays in the afternoons. Liam had explained to Kurt how he had doubled up on courses to graduate early. Kurt said he was very amenable to changing his study habits because he liked to work with Liam, the exceptional medical student. Liam also started his class at the nearest Catholic Church to convert, which meant attending Mass on Sunday mornings and meeting with his sponsor for an hour afterwards. He made sure he always found time to write a few lines each night to both Annie and Dolly. There were still matters he wanted to stay abreast of with Annie: Shaughnessy and Leary, to be exact. They still posed a threat to Dolly.
~~~
The letter from Annie came in early April, the one he had dreaded. She wrote that Leary showed up again in the vicinity of the Dady mansion, waiting to see or catch Dolly unawares. One of Patrick’s boys had followed Leary from his church on a recent Sunday, right to the neighborhood, stopping about three blocks away from the Dady’s. The spy watched him for about an hour. Finally, Leary spotted the watcher and took off, returning to his farm. Early the next day, on his way to sell at the market in Derry, he was snatched from the isolated road between his farm and Derry. Patrick’s boys killed him. Annie didn’t know how. They put his body deep into the thick woods in a ravine, where no one would discover it for a very long time, if ever. They scrubbed any trace of themselves from the road, relocated the Leary wagon, unhitched the horses so they would go home, and took most of the meats to make it look like a robbery. Dolly had no knowledge of any of it. She had remained blissfully unaware.
Dropping the letter on the coffee table, Liam sat frozen on the sofa, his hands covering his face, not bearing looking at the letter. Even though he was sitting next to the warm fire in the parlor, a cold shiver traversed his spine. Liam stood, wadded the letter, put it in the fire and watched it burn. He suddenly felt ill. He ran to the downstairs bathroom and threw up in the toilet. Damn Leary! He couldn’t stay away. Liam stood for a few moments, leaning on the water tank and breathing heavily. He was still sick to his stomach. He knew in Leary’s sick mind, Dolly meant more to him than his own life. Oddly enough, Liam understood that kind love for Dolly, even though it was perverted and taken too far. He ran his hands under the cold-water tap, rinsed his mouth, and splashed his face. Back in the parlor, he checked to see if the letter had burned so there would be no evidence of his knowledge of the killing of Edward Leary. There was no trace of the letter.
~~~
One night, in an out-lying cemetery, Liam, Kurt, and Robert were just finishing filling in a fresh grave, when two people tried to take the cadaver they had just retrieved, from them. They surprised Liam and the others as they walked out of the darkness, shovels in hand.
“We’ll take that corpse, then,” said one of the hooded men.
“I don’t believe ye will,” Liam said as he walked up to him.
The hood grabbed Liam by the jacket lapels, probably thinking he was going to get somewhere with that move. Little did he know of Liam’s prowess in the fight ring.
“Take yer hands off me. I don’t want to hurt you,” Liam warned.
“You, Dady? You are a milquetoast.” The hood snickered and let go.
Liam put his hand on the hood’s chest to stop him from walking past. The hood swung a fist, but Liam dodged it and landed a jab into the hood’s face, knocking him to his arse.
“Didn’t I tell ye?” Liam scolded. “Get the hell out before I knock the shite out o’ both o’ yez.”
The hoods did what Liam said, disappearing back into the dark.
Liam was seething the entire ride back.
When he got to the school, he angrily approached Smythe, who explained.
“It’s another professor. I know who it is. He tries to encroach on a regular basis.”
“I’m not going to risk life and limb fightin’ over bodies,” Liam said. “Ye’d better square it away with this other professor. It’s going to ruin any chances of gettin’ what the school needs if the law gets involved.”
“I’ll talk to the Dean, and he’ll take care of whoever else is getting in on it.”
“We have this excellent system worked out with bribes and pay-offs. These others don’t have that.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Smythe was adamant.
~~~
As spring made its way to Belfast, Dolly was more animated than ever.
It was the beginning of May and soon it would be time to see about her last dress fitting with Mary O’Brien. At church the next Sunday, Dolly made arrangements with Mary to come with Annie the following Saturday for the final fitting and have supper with the O’Brien’s.
When Saturday came, Dolly and Annie were free for the evening since the Dadys had supper reservations in town with the Tisdale’s. Annie decided on a cab because it looked like it was about to rain.
Dolly could see that Annie was greatly amused by Dolly's child-like antics in the carriage.
“I remember well how it was, gettin’ excited as the day neared,” Annie said. “I’m so glad you and Liam asked me to be there with ye, and to stand up for ye.”
“I’ve been countin’ the days now, Annie. First, I counted the months, then I went with weeks, then I started at sixty days. It’s now down to thirty days.” She squealed in excitement as she looked at her ring. “Oh, dear God, it’s so beautiful.”
“Liam will wire the travel funds to my bank soon,” Annie added.
Dolly squealed. She could not help it. Any information about the wedding brought on uncontrollable squeals.
“Be quiet, child,” Annie said smiling. “The people we’re passin’ are lookin’ up at the carriage.”
At Mary’s, Dolly could barely contain herself. She tried on the dress with the proper undergarments, including the corset and the veil. “It’s tight! Oh, gosh,” Dolly said as she was getting squished into the corset.
“Ye don’t have to have it this tight if ye don’t want to.” Mary giggled at Dolly’s animation.
As Dolly came into the parlor to view herself in the mirror, everyone present, including Patrick, gasped at the beauty of the off-white, high-necked, lace-covered silk gown. Her hair was pulled up with strands falling down, framing her oval-shaped face. Her high-top button shoes were the same color as the dress. Dolly was stunned when she saw herself.
“I never thought I would be wearing something as beautiful as this dress in my life,” she said. Her voice broke and faltered as tears rolled down her face.
Mary put her arms around her as Dolly sobbed. “It’s a bit overwhelmin’ isn’t it, child,” Mary cooed as she held her, patting her back. Even Annie wiped away a tear or two.
Patrick interjected, “I’ll predict Liam cries when he sees ye, darlin’.” He moved her away from his mother. “Since I won’t be at the nuptials, let me be the first to kiss the bride. Well, other than Liam…” He lifted her veil and kissed her sweetly and quickly on her lips, then wiped away a tear on her cheek with his rough thumb. “God Almighty, ye’re beautiful,” he said in amazement. “Liam is a blessed man.” He gazed at her in a brotherly way and smiled. “No more cryin’ now, ye hear?”
Dolly shook her head and gave Patrick a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for what ye did that day on the street. Ye saved me.” She whispered as they hugged.
“All right then,” Mary broke the spell. “Let’s get this dress off and pack everything away to send to Liam in Edinburgh.” She gently directed Dolly back into the sewing room.
Dolly and Annie helped Mary fold and wrap the entire trousseau in a steamer trunk. The next day, Patrick would take it down to the docks to ship it to Liam.
“It just doesn’t seem real,” Dolly murmured for the one-hundredth time.
~~~
In Edinburgh, Liam was wrapping up the term with final examinations. A letter had come to him recently that he couldn't get out of his mind.
My love,
I just wanted you to know the dress is brilliant. Patrick said you will cry when you see me in it. I hope you are going to like it.
I love you with all my heart,
Dee
One afternoon, Liam gave himself a break to forget the end-of-term work and lay on his bed, dreaming of how the wedding was going to be. He could see Dolly walking toward him, a vision of beauty in her wedding dress. He imagined how he would, on their wedding night, gently remove the dress to make love to her as her husband. After those lovely few moments of imagining, he felt obligated to go back to his studies.
At this point in the term, the class and lab work were done. Kurt and Liam and a few others had group study sessions. Mrs. Ferguson set up tables in the large parlor just for that. There were also hours spent in at the Playfair Hall Library finishing up term papers on diagnosis, treatment, and internal medicines. Liam felt alive with all the work. He thrived being busy with it.
He wrote to Dolly:
... I am enjoying the hard work, and I see us living under that Big Sky, me with a thriving practice and you with our growing family …
One evening Liam and Kurt couldn’t stand sitting any longer, overwhelmed with studying.
“Let’s go for an hour and have one pint,” Kurt suggested. “I’ll buy.”
“I’m ready to scream,” Liam said. “Let’s go.”
At the pub, they sat and chatted, sipping on their ale.
“How are things going for you, Liam?” Kurt asked.
“I will be glad when this is all over, and I can go home. But first, I can’t believe it’s almost June fifteenth.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Oh, aye. I think it’s a combination of nerves and joy,” Liam explained. “When ye get married, ye’ll know exactly what I mean.” He smiled at Kurt.
“I can’t wait,” Kurt said. He answered Liam with a smile of his own.
~~~
In preparation for the wedding, Liam had reserved a first-class suite with a water view and beach access at a hotel at the Portobello Resort on the Firth of Forth. He had reserved the room for an entire week. Father MacKenzie, the Priest that converted Liam, would come to their suite for the ceremony, relenting to Liam’s preference for a shortened version of the Wedding Mass.
Dolly’s trousseau had arrived at the end of May. As promised, Liam had not looked in it. It was at a storage room at the hotel and would be pulled out upon Dolly’s and Annie’s arrival on June thirteenth. Kurt had accepted Liam’s request to be his best man. Both had their suits cleaned and ready for the fifteenth.
~~~
At the same time in Belfast, the Dadys were preparing to go to France for a month with the Tisdales. From Liam’s letters, Dolly knew they were unable to persuade Liam to join them. Liam wrote to his parents saying he was speeding up his course work as he wanted to graduate early and begin his career as soon as possible. Hence, he was remaining in Edinburgh for the summer and fall and not returning to Belfast until Christmas. Dolly knew his mother wrote back in high hopes of a sooner-than-later wedding between Mary and her doctor-son, suggesting that Christmas would be the perfect time to propose.
It still irked Dolly to hear the chatter of Mrs. Dady about Mary Tisdale. “It’ll be the wedding of the decade!” Mrs. Dady cried during dinner one evening. It was June eleventh. Dolly inconspicuously left the dining room, stalked off to her bedroom, and fumed. Annie followed her in at the appropriate time so as not to alert the ever-vigilant Mrs. Dady.
“She riles me so, Annie. Why is she so mad for Liam to marry Mary Tisdale?” Dolly bristled.
“Do I need to remind ye,” Annie said curtly, “that shortly we’ll be on the boat goin’ to yer weddin’ to the very man his mother thinks is marryin’ Mary Tisdale?”
“In two days,” Dolly said with renewed happiness. “It’s just sometimes it crosses my mind that I’m not her choice. I’m just her servant, ‘the girl.’”
“Ye can’t ever change what’s in that woman’s mind. It’s so closed off,” Annie said. “I know it’s not the storybook weddin’ where the boy’s mother and father welcome ye with open arms, and I’m sorry for that. But, child, who counts here? Who’s chosen you, the real beauty, over a self-indulgent pretty girl?”
Dolly sat on her bed, wringing her hands. She looked up at Annie. “Liam. It’s me he’s chosen,” she said quietly with a faint smile. Her thoughts went inward to Liam. She looked at the ring on her left hand. Her heart soared and she beg
an to tear up, emitting a joyous noise that was more of a sob.
“They’ll be leavin’ in an hour. Then you and I can make our final preparations and board our boat the day after tomorrow.”
“It will be a bad day, Annie, when the Dadys find out Liam married me.”
“Well, we’d best be prepared for it, darlin’. I’m sure Liam has thought of what will come after.”
~~~
Dolly ran to the exit before the train stopped and was ready to jump off the steps when it came to a stop in Edinburgh. Liam and Kurt greeted her and Annie on June thirteenth. It was sunny and warm and felt deliciously of summer.
“Liam!” Dolly fell into his arms from the step.
He twirled her around in a full circle. He kissed her long and hard, leaving her breathless as he placed her on her feet.
“God, I can’t believe ye’re here.” Liam took her face in his hands and studied her.
“I can’t talk, Liam,” Dolly said. “Ye have my face squashed in yer hands.”
He let go, but grabbed her again in another embrace.
“You must be Mrs. MacDonald,” Kurt said. He extended his hand, taking Annie’s and kissing it. “I am Kurt Meyer, Liam’s friend and fellow boarder.”
“Call me Annie, and I’m quite pleased to meet ye,” Annie said cordially.
“Do you think we can pry them apart to go have dinner?” Kurt spoke so Liam and Dolly could hear.
“I’m not sure,” Annie said. “It’s been a long time since New Year’s. Liam,” she called, “are ye not goin’ to say ‘hello’ to me?”
Liam looked up from his embrace, smiled, and opened an arm to pull her in. Annie shrugged at Kurt, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped into the proffered arm of Liam. “I heard ye the whole time, and of course I’m goin’ to say ‘hello,’” Liam said. Dolly allowed Liam the other arm to embrace Annie properly.
The four of them had a beautiful dinner of seafood at the hotel dining room. They had a gorgeous view of the firth and the resort beach. Dolly gorged herself on broiled salmon, potato cakes, and fresh salad greens. They talked, laughed, and shared two bottles of French champagne. The alcohol made Dolly’s nose tickle on her first sip.
Eva and the Irishman Page 26