“Yes, Dr. Andersen, Eva and I are involved,” Liam said with certainty. He wanted to get it out in the open.
“I see, and you both seem quite satisfied with that.” Dr. Andersen offered a friendly smile. “How soon would you be ready to join us here, Dr. Dady?”
“I’m ready to start any time.”
~~~
Eva could hardly keep still in her chair. She had improved her conversational English quite a bit since Liam had come into her life. She didn’t understand much of the medical discussion the two physicians were having, but she understood the invitation for Liam to start working as soon as possible.
“Olen niin ylpeä, Liam” she told Dr. Andersen.
The doctor smiled. “She says she’s proud of you,” he said to Liam. “You should be proud of yourself,” he said to Eva. “You brought this man back from a serious illness. And now we are discovering that he is a well-degreed physician.”
“Oh, tank you, Dr. Andersen.” Eva stood up and almost fainted.
Liam, who stood up at the same time, took hold of her arm, sat her back down, and made her stop hyperventilating. When she came around again, Liam looked at her with concern and amusement. “Are ye all right?” he asked her.
“Yes. I’m yust so happy.” She was still shaking. Andersen’s secretary brought her a drink of water. She drank the water and declared herself ready to walk.
~~~
Liam and Eva were in the hall, about to leave, when Dr. Andersen rejoined them. “Liam, come back in for a few moments,” he said. “Eva, if you’ll excuse us for just one minute.”
“I vait here,” Eva said.
Dr. Andersen showed Liam back into his office and shut the door. “Liam, you know Eva’s with child,” he said.
“What?”
“Something tells me you two have been …”
“Since early May,” Liam confessed in a murmur. “How do you know?”
“I haven’t practiced for thirty years without developing an eye for pregnancy. I can spot a pregnant woman a mile away.”
“Oh …”
“Are you surprised?” Andersen's sardonic humor did not diminish his professionalism.
“I shouldn’t be, should I? I’m embarrassed to say we’ve … many times …”
“She’s very early. We’ll wait until she shows morning sickness before we know I’m completely correct on this.”
~~~
Liam decided not to tell Eva what Dr. Andersen said to him. Pleased and relieved by the job offer, Liam took Eva to Murphy’s across the street from the hospital. They sat down at a window table. Ed Murphy came out from the kitchen and took their order.
“What can I get yez,” he asked approaching them from behind the lunch counter.
“Two root beer floats, Ed. Thanks,” Liam said.
As Ed was preparing the floats behind the counter, Eva said to Liam, “Somptink bodder you?”
He searched her eyes. “I’m feeling overwhelmed. Everythin’s changin’ unexpectedly. I need to sit with it for a while.” He took her hand and squeezed affectionately. “I’ll be fine.” What Dr. Andersen said to him earlier about a possible pregnancy was the culprit. It’s not that he didn’t want Eva to get pregnant … I foolishly didn’t expect it. It’s easy to go into denial when there’s too many things that are hard to own up to, or let go.
“I know you vill.” She squeezed his hand back.
Ed brought the floats to the table.
“Ed Murphy, may I introduce you to Mrs. Eva Mattson,” Liam said. “Eva, this is Mr. Edward Murphy.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Murphy.” Eva rolled the two r’s.
“It is my pleasure, Mrs. Mattson,” Ed said. She extended her hand to shake, but Ed kissed her knuckles.
“This is where I came to stay when I left the boarding house,” Liam explained to Eva.
“You two talk same,” she said.
“We’re both from Ireland, but Ed’s from Dublin, not Belfast.” He motioned for Ed to sit down with them.
“What’s the matter with us that we have come to the North American Boreal Forest to live?” Ed quipped.
Both Irishmen laughed.
As they talked, Eva slurped the last bit of soda from the bottom of the glass with her straw. She looked up at both of them and blushed. She smiled sweetly with the straw between her lips.
Murphy looked at Liam good naturedly and asked, “Where did ye find this sweetheart?”
“At the end of a hard, long road,” Liam said. He smiled at Eva and squeezed her hand. Jesus, God, she’s glowin’. Liam could not believe his eyes. Her cheeks were rosy and she looked robust. She had filled out in the last months. “She’s proprietor of Mattson’s Boarding House, down near the train station, where I was convalescin’ before I stayed with ye.”
“Yes, I remember,” Ed said. He nodded at Eva. “It’s yer husband’s funeral he went to.”
“Liam, you don’t tell me you go.” Eva said. Her face registered both surprise and appreciation.
Liam looked at Ed, who gave him a shrug for an apology. “I felt bad when I found the notice in the newspaper,” he said to Eva. “I stayed in the back. I thought if ye saw me, it would’ve been too much, considerin’.”
“He was very concerned for ye, Mrs. Mattson, and may I extend my belated condolences.”
“Tank you, Mr. Murphy.”
Liam thought it was time to change the subject. “Next time we come here, we have to bring Ellen. She’ll enjoy the treat.”
“Who’s Ellen?” Mr. Murphy asked.
“My lil girl. Sees nine years old.” Eva was gaining confidence in her English usage.
This growth in Eva did not go unnoticed by Liam.
~~~
Eva and Liam found the house quiet when they returned. It was late morning. Eva was so pleased Liam did so well at his interview. He’s going to practice medicine. I can’t believe it. Saimi wasn’t there, probably visiting a friend after completing the morning chores. They stood in the kitchen, eyes locked.
“Nobody’s home.”
“Vhat you wanna do?”
“I can think of ten things I should do, but there’s only one thing I want to do.” Liam walked up to her. With his eyes still on hers, his fingers went to the buttons on her blouse.
“Ve go to bed?”
“That’s my intention, unless ye have somthin’ more pressin’.”
“Vhat pressin’?”
“More important.”
“Notink pressin’. Yust you.”
He smiled, put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her. “Come, Eva. I want ye.”
In the bedroom, he resumed taking her clothes off. She laughed and began to help him.
“You go too slow. I vant you … so fast …”
He laughed and took his trousers off and pulled his dress shirt off, throwing it on the floor.
“Liam, come to me qvick,” she said as she scooted on the bed to the middle. She left her stockings and garters on.
He climbed in between her legs, she helped him in.
“Was that qvick enough?” he asked grinning.
She laughed at the tease. Her hands went to her breasts and kneaded them, moaning.
“Jesus,” Liam breathed. He moved with purpose.
“I like …” she whimpered.
His hands went to her buttocks. “I can’t get deep enough.” Another half-dozen thrusts brought him crashing into pure pleasure. He growled into Eva’s ear. He could hear her. She shuddered and went limp. He lay half off her. They gazed at each other and smiled. Tears started to well in Eva’s.
“Why are ye cryin’?” Liam asked her.
“I so happy … for you.”
They held each other, wrapping their bodies together. Eva thought Liam was especially tender and loving. He was staring at her as if he … she couldn’t understand it, but she did not say anything.
“I like more,” she said, climbing on top of him.
He began to pay attention to her brea
sts.
“I can tell you like my breast. You like to kiss dem.” She held them in her hands.
“Don’t you like it?”
“I like it,” she replied. A shiver went down her spine in response to his tongue flicking her nipple. “See. It make me viggle.” She moved her exposed pelvis.
He took a deep, uneven breath. “May I put my tongue somewhere else? It may make you viggle even more.”
She caught the little tease at her pronunciation and giggled.
“I vant you to.” She lay completely exposed to him.
He shifted on the bed and began. She trembled and whimpered in pleasure. Her movements roused him, pushing his tongue harder into her. She moaned loudly in her release. Then he entered her fast, coming again.
With her senses returning, Eva spoke, her words muffled by his chest. “Vhy ve so … need sex?” She could not find the English words easily.
“Perhaps we’ve been so sad for so long, and now that we are allowing someone close to our hearts, we’re makin’ up for lost time.” He pulled her face to his and kissed her tenderly. “Besides, we do it because it feels good.”
She suddenly felt herself veer from her intimacy with him. “I tink ’bout Victor every day and tink maybe in Finland he haff more vomen. He go lotta times to Niemi’s. Sally vas dere. Many times he go, nobody know vhere.” She got a sick feeling in her belly. “Maybe he never luff me, so I make luff to you. I do vhat he do to me—cheat. He had friend Olga …” She pushed that out of her mind.
Eva could feel Liam search under the sheet for her hand and clasp it. “I know he loved ye. Some men can’t get enough from just one woman. Not love. The sex. Maybe it was excitin’ for him to go behind yer back. If it makes ye feel better to have sex with me, then good.” He pulled her closer. “It’s not cheatin’, though.”
“I know. Hees gone.” Eva lay silent for a while. She remembered Eino. I am not telling Liam about that yet. She pushed into Liam. “He luff me?”
“I’m sure he did. Remember, he was ready to fight me for ye. Perhaps when he married, he was so in love with ye that he thought the marriage would keep him from strayin’, if he had been doin’ that. So perhaps he tried to be faithful.”
“After he got yob at Mesabi, everytink go bad.” Then she realized something. “No, he vas gone all day even before Mesabi.” She pulled away from Liam, shooting up out of bed. She grabbed the pictures of Victor on her dresser and placed them face down. “I hate Victor,” she said.
“Eva, remember what …”
“Don’t tell me any tink.”
~~~
Liam watched as the blissful expression he’d seen on her face just minutes ago disappeared. He moved to the edge of the bed as Eva cleaned herself and got dressed. It appeared that Eva's joy in their love-making had been obliterated by the revelation about her dead husband.
Liam could do nothing to save her from going through this. Nothing he could say would ease her mind. His belly felt queasy and his heart ached for her. He decided not to say anything more. She wouldn’t hear it now. As he dressed, he was aware that he didn’t know how to prepare for what was to come next. The fuse was lit.
For the rest of the afternoon, the only attention Eva gave to her surroundings was to Ellen when she came home from school. Later, Ellen sought out Liam. They went to the front porch to talk.
“Why is Mamma sovihainen—angry?”
“Remember on the mornin’ we fished, ye told me a wee bit about yer Pappa and his hurtin’ yer Mamma?”
“I understand,” Ellen said.
“Yer Mamma is letting it come to her now and not hiding it inside her mind. It’s bubblin’ over like a pot not watched. She’s got to go through it. We just need to be here for her.”
“Right.”
Liam studied Ellen. “I think ye know more.” It was her beloved Pappa. She had to have known of his … perhaps more than her mother. Jesus, Victor.
Ellen averted her eyes, turned, and went back inside.
Liam followed Ellen to the kitchen where she took her spot next to her mother. It broke Liam’s heart to see Eva’s anguish and to see Ellen responsibly stepping in to be her mother’s guardian. He didn’t know what else to do, so he set the kitchen table for supper. He didn’t want to leave either of them alone.
~~~
With supper over and clean-up completed, Liam, Ellen, and Saimi went into the parlor to relax. All three kept a watchful eye on Eva, who seemed to be barely containing her agitation. Liam knew that Ellen’s calming effects would disappear as soon as she went to bed at eight o’clock.
Fifteen minutes after reading with Liam, Ellen said good-night. Eva tucked her in, then closed Ellen’s door. From the parlor, Saimi and Liam could hear some sort of activity in the kitchen. Liam glanced at Saimi, who looked as clueless as he felt. A minute or two later, Eva came walking through the foyer and promptly stomped out the front door, unkempt and improperly attired for an evening out. The door slammed behind her.
“Vhat sees do?” Saimi asked.
“I haven’t a clue, Saimi.”
Ellen ran out to the foyer from her bedroom and was about to go out the door in her nightgown.
“Ellen, stop. I’ll go,” Liam said. “Yer Mamma may have some business to take care of. I’ll bring her back when it’s done.”
Ellen ran to him as he got up from his chair. He caught her. Her embrace said, “I’m going to trust you, Liam.” Ellen is just as affected as Eva, Liam thought. She ran to Saimi as he went out the door.
When he got to the sidewalk, he saw Eva walking up Main Street towards town, hell bent for somewhere. “Where are ye goin’, Eva?” he murmured. “What’s down there? Oh, Christ. The tavern and it’s a Friday night.” Jesus, he thought. He knew he'd better get there fast. He started to run as he saw Eva go inside.
~~~
When Eva burst through the door and slammed it shut, all of the patrons of the derelict Main Street Tavern looked up. The place went dead silent.
“Vat womans here sleep vit my husband, Victor Mattson?!” Eva hollered in anger. “I am Eva Mattson, his vife. You and Victor break my home and hurt my daughter, Victor’s daughter. You should be shame! Victor vas shame before hees die. You say sorry to my lil girl!”
She had nothing further to say. Her heart was racing and her mouth was dry. She felt gentle hands on her shoulders from behind.
“Come, Eva. It’s all over. Ye’re a good girl,” Liam whispered in her ear.
As they left, he noticed the entire bar patronage was silent and all eyes were on her. Some women had looks of regret. He didn’t know if Eva saw that.
Eva walked in dead silence all the way home with Liam physically supporting her. She stopped once and vomited in someone’s hedgerow. When they walked in through the front door, he asked Saimi to get Eva’s bathrobe from her bedroom door. Ellen came out of her bedroom.
“It’s all over, Ellen,” Liam said. “I’m goin’ to give her a hot bath. She’s safe. You can go to bed now, darlin’.”
“Mamma, minä rakastan sinua.” I love you, Ellen said, coming to give her mother a hug.
“I luff you, too,” Eva said, bending to kiss Ellen on her forehead. “I be all right.”
Ellen retreated to her room.
When Saimi returned with the robe, Liam took Eva to the bathroom upstairs and ran a hot bath. With the tub filling, he undressed her, took her hastily piled-up hair down, and put her in the hot, soothing water. He kissed her softly. “It’s all better now,” he cooed. “Ye’re a strong girl, Eva. I’m proud of ye for standin’ up to all of them.”
She gazed into his eyes, tears streaming down her face.
“It’s a relief, isn’t it?” he asked her.
He kept her in the tub for a long time, letting the hot water calm her. He would’ve taken her to the sauna, but it was cold on a Friday. He felt she needed the warmth to ease the anger and agitation she had nursed all afternoon, not to mention the verbal explosion at those she believed we
re complicit in Victor’s infidelity. Suddenly, Eva dunked her head under the water and came back up, which Liam took as a sign that she was thawing, releasing her consuming anger at Victor and his accomplices. She finally made meaningful eye contact with Liam. She looked exhausted.
“Can you vass my hair?” she said, her voice hoarse and squeaky from her outburst.
“Of course,” he said with a half-breath of relief.
She continued to grow more relaxed as he scrubbed her head softly. He imagined her anger melting away. The hurt, however, would take more time. He knew her heart ached. “My love,” he said, “ye can’t let anyone or anythin’ ever keep ye from bein’ happy again. Not Victor, not his unfaithfulness, not his death, and certainly not any of the women who helped Victor cheat on ye. Take yer strength back, Eva. Don’t give it away to them anymore. Tonight, ye took a big step in takin’ it back, and I’m proud of ye.” He finished washing her hair.
She slid down into the water and stared up at him as he rinsed her hair. She looked like she had just climbed her own emotional Mt. Everest. Her eyes showed the exhaustion, but also a strong glimmer of relief.
When the bath was finished, he took her into the kitchen and fixed her a glass of warm milk to help her sleep.
~~~
That night, Liam stayed with Eva, his body wrapped around hers. He could hear the nocturnal sounds of peepers and crickets that signaled warmer weather. Far away, a dog was barking. He could make out her light hair, splayed over her back and shoulders, wavy with ringlets at the ends, freshly washed. Her breathing was deep and even.
In the wee hours, he wept silently as he remembered the words he’d said to Eva about taking her strength back, that not even the death of loved ones should stop her, or him, from being happy again.
~~~
Early the next morning, Eva dreamed of Victor. He looked as handsome as he always had. He smiled the disarming smile he used when he wanted something. In the dream, Eva looked to her right. Liam was at her side, dressed in a formal suit. Suddenly, the surroundings turned from the lake house into a church. There were white wild roses in vines covering the church walls and pews. She looked down, and her familiar farm clothes turned into a beautiful ivory, high-necked wedding dress. Victor was the pastor and he was standing at the altar, preparing to marry Liam and Eva. As Liam kissed Eva, Victor seemed pleased. He handed Liam a gold ring from the pages of the Bible he held, and Liam put it on Eva's finger.
Eva and the Irishman Page 43