“After breakfast, we’ll go to the house and pack. We’ll each take one trunk, for now. When we get to where we’re goin’, Annie and Ed will send more. Ellen, I’ll take you to Katia’s to say so long.”
“But what about Miss Lehto? I love her.” Ellen’s eyes began to well with tears.
“We’ll go to Miss Lehto,” Liam acquiesced after balking at the notion, trying to limit contact to as few people as possible. He kissed Ellen on the forehead and wiped her tears with his thumb, attempting to quell her anxiety. “Right now, we can’t tell her where we are going. We have to say we’re goin’ back east to a job I couldn’t refuse at Harvard in Boston.”
“What’s Harvard?” Ellen inquired. “If I’m gonna tell something, I need to know what it is.”
“It’s a big University in Boston. And remember, I don’t recommend anythin’ less than the truth otherwise. This is a matter of safety for us, Ellen.”
The fragrance of a hearty Finnish breakfast wafted up the stairs. Liam sniffed with subdued delight. “If you girls go down to the kitchen, Mamma and I can wash up and get dressed,” he said. He and Eva were slumped in the double bed, naked as jay birds under the summer weight flannel sheet. “Is that a good plan?”
“Fine,” Ellen said, her pout indicating she felt a little pushed out. “Come on, Liisa. Let’s go eat.”
As soon as Liisa heard the word “eat,” she climbed out of Eva’s arms and toddled to the open bedroom door, grabbing Ellen’s hand. Together, they clomped down the steep enclosed stairs of the little, white clapboard farm house.
“Ellen, tank you for changing Liisa dis mornink,” Eva called out, receiving an indiscernible response from Ellen at the bottom of the stairs. She turned to Liam.
“I don’t want to wash up yet,” he whispered. They could hear the muffled voices of Saimi and elder Arvid as they greeted the girls with sweet, high-pitched words. Dishes and silverware tinkled and clanked from the kitchen underneath the bedroom floor. “See?” He lifted up the sheet to reveal a very hard cock.
Eva feigned awe and surprise, and started to laugh, “Dat’s vhat I do vhen I see Victor’s hard penis first time.” Her eyes bugged and she gasped. “It make me verdy nervous.”
“What does it do to ye now?” Liam asked. He was highly amused by her face. “Or do I need to ask? I think I already know.” He gave her a white, toothy grin.
“It make me—”
“To hell with the noisy bed,” Liam said, climbing on top of her.
“Den, I tought Victor vas hurt vhen he moan.” She was giggling again as Liam couldn’t get into her fast enough.
“In pain?” he said, teasing her. “What did you do to him?” He laughed quietly.
Liam fell into a slow rhythm. Eva’s eyes were closed and for a worried moment he thought she was back in that memory.
“Eva,” he whispered. “Are ye with me?”
She opened her eyes half-way. She pulled him to her and kissed him, her tongue finding his. Her hips shifted to accommodate him. “I vit you alvays,” she said.
They lay cozily together after sex in the growing morning heat. Liam said, “I feel like it’s not all together wrong to leave here, and I’m glad ye’re not angry with me.”
~~~
An hour later, washed and dressed, Liam and Eva came to the kitchen. Eva felt that special, earthy bond they had after a round of sex, with no way to describe it in words. She saw that the girls were outside with Arvid, playing on the homemade swing. The back yard was hidden from the road with trees, a carriage house, and mature lilac bushes. Matti was at the table with a cup of coffee and an empty plate in front of him. Eva presumed he and his son had already milked the cows early that morning. Eva saw a twinkle in Matti’s eye as Liam and Eva poured their cups of coffee. Liam covered his mouth as he yawned and blinked his puffy, tired eyes. Saimi placed a plate full of scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes in front of each of them. Liam dug in with alacrity.
“Liam, can you giff me strawberdy yam?” Eva asked.
Liam glanced at Eva as he gave her the jam, giving her a remember-a-few-minutes-ago look and shoveled in a fork-full of pancakes, not missing a beat.
“Here’s the yam,” he said through bites.
Matti said something in Finnish and the three Finns laughed heartily. Eva blushed with embarrassment.
Liam looked up and scanned the three amused faces. He chewed and swallowed his next fork-full of breakfast. “What?" he asked. “What did he say?”
Eva explained, feeling self-conscious. “He says men who keep their vife happy at night are verdy tired and hungry in mornink.”
Liam stopped chewing and looked at Matti. He shrugged his shoulder as he gave him an I-guess-you’re-right half smile, then resumed inhaling his breakfast.
Matti guffawed, got up, and slapped Liam lightly on the back. “You haff verdy happy vife. Eva has punaiset posket.” Matti walked out in the direction of the barn.
Liam looked at Eva for a translation.
“I have red cheek,” Eva translated, pointing to her face.
Liam rubbed her cheek with a soft finger and gave her a smile filled with affection.
~~~
Before Liam went outside after breakfast, he looked out the front windows to see if anyone was there. A short way down the road towards town, he saw two men at a removed wheel on a buckboard. Look-outs, he said to himself. Leaving Eva to help Saimi with the breakfast dishes, and feeling a wee bit better, Liam went outside through the kitchen door, avoiding the front of the house. He felt like he had gone through a battle yesterday, his shoulder and muscles stiff and sore from struggling to get away.
“Pappa!” Ellen called from the swing. She was holding Liisa in her lap as they were pushed by Arvid.
“Pa, Pa, Pa, Pa!” Liisa mimicked enthusiastically.
Liam gave them a big toothy smile. “Hello, darlin’s. Make sure ye stay in back, all right?”
“We will,” Ellen promised.
He knew she understood the seriousness of the situation.
He stood at the fence line of the paddock. The cows had long since been milked. They were now out to pasture, grazing on the sweet summer grass. They’d be there until milking at five o’clock that evening. The day was already hot. The sky was a bright blue with a smattering of puffy, white, fair weather clouds. The air wasn’t too humid, but enough for Liam to feel his underarms start to prickle with perspiration after the light excursion.
He stood leaning against the fence on his forearms, regretting that he’d gotten himself into this mess by joining McKay’s syndicate.
I guess ye weren’t thinkin’ straight, just wantin’ to die. The drink … well, there ye have it, he thought to himself. He didn’t feel self-pity, he felt irritated, disappointed in his choices. He also knew very well he could not go back and change a thing.
I just may get to the west as I had originally planned with Dolly and Annie. Liam watched as some robins flew past him overhead.
He began to walk the fence away from the barn, past the fenced-in meadow where the cows were lazily grazing. He made sure he didn’t go too far beyond the cover of the house and the wooded area along the road. A large maple tree stood in his path and he stopped under it, feeling respite from the sun. The cows were thinking along the same lines and started to move under the cooling canopy of leaves. One mostly black Holstein approached him. Liam hadn’t been around any cows in his life in Belfast, so she was a little intimidating with her horns and size. He was glad there was a fence. He then realized she was only being friendly and wanted a scratch on her forehead, which Liam was glad to oblige with a bit of caution.
“What’s it like bein’ a cow? I’ve never met one before, this close.” He felt a little silly talking to a cow, but what the hell.
Just then, Eva joined him. He didn’t feel so silly any more when Eva began to chat in Finnish with the cow, scratching her on her neck. The cow gave a half-moo.
“No wonder she wasn’t answerin’ me. She’s
Finnish,” he said.
Eva smiled. “All cows speak many tongues.”
“Do ye know how glad I am to see ye feelin’ better?” he said, putting an arm around Eva's waist and kissing her cheek.
“I’m glad to feel bedder.” Eva began to study Liam’s scratches and bruises from his ordeal of getting away from his captors. She shivered. He gave her a concerned look.
“What was that?”
She cuddled into him. “Vhat ve gonna do?” She sounded worried.
“How does Montana sound to ye? The train from Duluth will take us straight out. It’s a few days west of here.”
“I don’t know anytink,” she said into his neck. “I never see it.” She sighed deeply.
Liam didn’t know what to say, fearing Eva would balk at any move. He held her a little tighter. He didn’t blame her for resisting the move. She was dragged away from her family by an incident involving Victor, not her. As then, and now, she had nothing to do with it, yet she had to pay. Perhaps she’s paying now, he thought. It made him feel guilty and angry.
“Christ, Eva,” Liam said. He held her close and tight. “I’m sorry for all this mess. I love ye so much. I want ye to be happy, sweetheart.”
“I am happy. I yust need you, dat’s all, and my seeldren.”
Whenever Liam held Eva, he thought he would burst with joy. He wondered how he had been able to surround himself with so much love, even in difficult times. He was grateful that he’d survived those years of self-flagellation, physical and emotional, after Dolly’s death.
“Did ye ever notice the only thing predictable in life is that it changes all the time?” he asked.
“I tink you right,” she said.
They stood for long minutes, holding each other. Soon they were joined by the rest of their family. Arvid had gone inside. Ellen gently inserted herself in between them. Liisa came to her Pappa and held her arms up.
“Up! Pappa!” she said. It sounded the way Liam would have pronounced it, with his Northern Irish inflection.
“She’s talkin’ so much,” he said, pleased with his baby. He lifted her up and kissed her.
“I tink sees gonna be early talker, like Ellen,” Eva said. “I hear her say lil vords vhen Ellen say dem, in Eenliss and Finniss.”
“Vhat were you two talkink about?” Ellen’s English was becoming more grammatically correct, but it still had a Finnish accent, especially around her mother.
“Oh,” Liam began to explain. “We’re talkin’ about Montana.”
“Is it far? Vill ve be able to come back?”
“Not for a while,” he said. “It is rather far, but if we wanted to, we could take the train back here to visit.”
Ellen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Vell, I guess I von’t be gettink married to Arvid Huttunen, den.”
“Ye never know Ellen, he may follow ye out there if he loves ye enough,” Liam said. “But ye can’t tell them where we’re goin’ right now. The bad men after me may get tipped off. It’s the same with Katia and Miss Lehto. Understand?” Liam was serious.
“Yes, Pappa, you said that earlier. Remember Harvard, the big University in Boston?”
“You remembered well,” he said wryly.
Just then, a ‘Hallo’ was heard from near the house. It was Saimi. She spoke quietly and seemed serious, not the jovial lady who had been joking with Matti and Liam earlier.
“Vatch-man come to house,” she said. “He says somebody comink down road. You come inside.”
“All right, inside we go,” Liam said with urgency, yet coated in calm. Inside, his belly churned.
They hovered in the kitchen while Saimi watched from the open front door. Liam hated the feeling that he could possibly have to fight to protect his family.
“Liam, ve haff rifle if you need it, in closet.” Saimi pointed to a parlor door.
“Fine,” Liam said. I don’t know how to shoot one. Isn’t that grand? he thought.
Much to Liam’s relief, the visitors turned out to be Annie and Ed in a borrowed carriage. They entered through the front door at Saimi’s beckoning.
“Good mornin’, love,” Annie said to Liam. She seemed under as much stress as Liam and Eva were. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked as if she hadn’t gotten much sleep either. She kissed Liam and then Eva. “Did ye sleep at all?” she asked Eva.
“Lil bit,” Eva answered.
“Ye seem worn out,” Annie said as she looked at both of them.
“Come,” Saimi said, “you eat breakfast. I haff pancakes.”
Ed remarked that it would be a shame to pass up Finnish pancakes, and they followed Saimi into the kitchen. Eva and Liam joined them to talk about plans of their exodus. Time was not on their side.
“I’m willing to run the boarding house until it’s sold,” Annie said. They were sitting at the table, being served their pancakes. She asked Saimi if she would be willing to help.
“Yes, I can, for few hours each day. I come on Saturday, too, to fire up sauna.”
Liam added, “Ed, I’ll need to go to the bank, take care of the finances and have Mr. Greene start the sale of the boarding house right away. Eva, you’ll have to sign papers for that. Let’s do that right away, then we’ll go pack. I want the baby to stay here. Ellen can write a list so you can pack for her when I take her to see Katia and Miss Lehto.”
“Have ye decided where ye’re goin’?” Ed asked.
Liam glanced at Eva, and then looked around to see where the boys were. They had gone back out. “I think we’ve decided on Montana, Helena to be exact. I read in a medical journal that the hospitals out there are beggin’ for good doctors. I can have Andersen wire the hospital administrators and write a letter of recommendation for me to carry, along with my credentials from medical school. A St. John’s Hospital in Helena is looking for someone to start immediately.”
“At least ye’ll start right when ye get there,” Annie said.
Liam could see the relief in Annie, but he also saw disappointment and anxiety. He reached for her hand and held it.
“The Sheriff will be at yer house to give you an update, Liam,” Ed added.
“As soon as you two are done with yer breakfast, I’d like to get goin’ on all this,” Liam announced.
Eva spoke to Ellen about quickly writing a list of the most important things she would want with her, as well as items for Liisa. Saimi gave her paper and pencil.
“Den ve pack second trunk to come lader,” she said.
Ed informed Liam that he still had his guys on the look-out. “I’ve got ’em at the train station and all up and down Main Street, startin’ right outside,” he said. “I’ve got a detail that’s willin’ to travel some with yez. We’ll finalize everythin’ in the next couple of hours.”
~~~
Liam called the Sheriff when they arrived at the boarding house. He said they would meet him at his office to save him a trip out. Ed went to the attic with Liam to fetch the trunks, and Ellen, Annie, and Eva began packing. A short time later, Liam left with Ellen to say goodbye to Katia and Miss Lehto.
“When it comes time to say where we’re goin’, let me do the talkin’, all right?” Liam told Ellen. “So ye’re not doin’ the lyin. I don’t like doin’ it, but it must be done.”
~~~
By the time four o’clock rolled around, all errands were complete. The people that needed to be seen had been seen, finances were taken care of, and the boarding house was surreptitiously put up for sale. The hastily-packed trunks were taken to the station by two of Ed’s associates. Eva packed three carpetbags for their train trip. Everyone except the banker was told that the Dadys were heading back east for a lucrative physician’s position in Boston.
Dr. Andersen had wired St. John’s Hospital administrators the day before. It was arranged that Liam would meet Drs. Johnson and O’Neill in approximately a week’s time.
Saimi had supper ready upon their return to the Huttunen farm. Annie and Ed stayed for a last e
vening together. They would come back tomorrow to put Liam, Eva, and the girls on the two o’clock train to Duluth. The Dadys would stay overnight in a hotel, and then get on the morning’s eight o’clock, heading west over the Northern Pacific Rail Line. They talked as they ate. It was a somber atmosphere.
“When I bought your tickets at the train station, I asked the clerk how long it could take to get to Helena,” Ed said. “It would be four days. The train stops at all the towns to off-load mail, supplies and goods, and they have to yield to freights. I booked first class. Ye’ll have as comfortable accommodations as possible, and a wait staff. Ye can have seats in the day and beds at night.”
“Dat make me feel bedder,” Eva said. “I don’t know how easy it gonna be ridink dat lonk. Vhen ve come from New York to Minnesota, it vas dat lonk. ’Course I vas not expect. Dis time Ellen help vit Liisa.”
Every time there was a pause in the conversation, the sadness came back within the make-shift-turned-permanent family. Liam saw the sadness the most in Annie’s face. In the short time they had had together in Minnesota, they had created a cohesive, loving group.
“Hey, Ed,” Liam suddenly said. “Perhaps you and Annie will make it out there to live. I know yer daughter’s out there, and isn’t she expectin’ your first grandchild?”
“Yes, she is. Annie and I would have to talk things through, surely.”
“Ed, I’d leave in a heartbeat with ye,” Annie said. “Ye don’t have to convince me of anythin’ where Liam is concerned. It does break my heart he’s leavin’ me again.” She started to well up, but she seemed to fight it. “And I don’t want to be long from him, if I can help it. The decision is yours in the end, though.”
“All right, my darlin’. We’ll talk. I’d be pullin’ up stakes, meself. We’ll talk tonight.” Ed reached over to squeeze Annie’s hand.
Eva and the Irishman Page 59