“If she doesn’t want to be a part of Ameriland, Da—” Gavin said.
“Enough,” Mike said, holding up a hand. “She doesn’t get a choice about it and neither do you so everybody just shut up.”
“Mom says you don’t get to choose your family,” John said with a grin.
“Yes, thank you, John,” Sarah said dryly. “Very helpful.”
“I would never choose such a creature as this,” Sophia said, dabbing her napkin delicately on her mouth. “My appetite is gone.”
“Good,” Mike said. “You two can clear out. Regan will help with the dishes.”
Sophia hopped up and held out her hand to Gavin. “Is good,” she said. “I have secrets I’m telling you tonight, mia cara.”
Regan continued to stare at her plate until Gavin and Sophia noisily left the cottage for their own place next door.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Sarah said to her.
“I don’t give a shite,” Regan said.
“Well, that’s fortunate then.” Sarah looked at Mike who rolled his eyes. Both Regan and her mother needed a home. They needed a family. All the pitfalls would just have to be negotiated.
Just like any family.
After John and Regan finished the dishes, they joined Mike and Sarah outside on the porch. The rain clouds had vanished leaving a starry night sky. Mike smoked and he and Sarah shared a glass of wine. For a long while, nobody spoke.
“All this time I thought they left me and Mam behind,” Regan finally said.
“Be glad you were out picking berries,” John said as he tossed a pebble towards the main cook fire.
“It’s a mystery,” Sarah said.
“Well, yes and no,” Mike said.
Three heads turned to look at him.
“Did you find out something in the village after all?” Sarah asked.
“No. But if you think about it ye can riddle it out yourself.”
“Like how?” John said.
“Well, the fact that there was no struggle. What does that tell you?”
John frowned and looked at his hands and then up at Mike. “That they thought the people who attacked them were friends.”
“Aye. Or if not friends, at least not someone they’d expect an attack from.”
“Like our priest,” Sarah said pointedly. Even in the dark, she thought she saw Regan flush. That was a good sign. Regan had conspired with Father Ryan to lure Gavin into the woods where the druids were waiting. She’d been forgiven. But forgetting would take longer.
“Or the police,” John said.
Sarah gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Mike! Do you think it’s the Garda? Why would they?”
Mike shrugged. “Maybe they weren’t comfortable with the thought of a successful functioning community—fully armed—living like our own little country.”
“Do you think it’s that bastard O’Reilly?” Sarah asked.
When Sarah and Mike dropped off their prisoners in Dublin six months earlier, they’d had a run-in with the new Irish provisional government. Until then Dublin had not been aware of Ameriland’s existence.
“I told you guys that I met the new man in charge,” John said. “He didn’t seem like a dick at all.”
“Language, please, John,” Sarah said.
“It’s possible the attack isn’t related to him or the new government,” Mike said. “I got the idea that the Garda didn’t necessarily do what the government told them to anymore. Perhaps an outside party is involved.”
“But taking our electronics and guns is one thing,” John said. “Why would they take our people?”
“I don’t know, lad,” Mike admitted. “I just know that only the Irish police would be able to waltz in here with only a single shot fired.”
A long squeal broke the air and Mike jumped to his feet before the squeal disintegrated into muffled giggles from the cottage next door. Sounded like Gavin and Sophia were taking advantage of the first time they’d had a bed and a door in their married life. Sarah glanced at Regan but it was too dark to read her face.
“We’re not going to figure it out tonight,” Sarah said, as she put a hand on Mike’s shoulder. He turned to look at her and smile, his eyes going to her abdomen as if to ask, everything okay? She nodded.
“Let’s turn in,” she said. “Regan, you can sleep with your mother in Gavin’s old room.”
“I know where it is.”
I’ll just bet you do.
“Don’t stay up too late, you two,” Sarah said as Mike helped her to her feet. “Tomorrow’s a big day.”
“Aye,” Mike said. “And not a pleasant one.”
********
The next morning, Sarah and Mike were both the first ones up. The baby had been very active most of the night. As Mike lit the wood in the cook stove and settled the teakettle on top, Sarah sliced the bread she’d baked the day before and set out small bowls of honey and jam.
She paused to look out the kitchen window. It wasn’t raining for a change and she could see how spring might really happen this year after all. After the winter they’d all lived through, spring hadn’t always seemed like a sure thing. Mike came up behind her and slid his arms around her belly and kissed her on the neck.
He’d been through so much, first with Gavin and now Fiona. The last thing Sarah was going to let him do was worry about her, too.
“I love you, Mike,” she murmured as she turned in his arms. He dropped one hand to her bottom and gave it a squeeze.
“And me, you, darlin,” he said.
“We’ll find her. Whoever took them wanted them alive. That’s a good sign.”
“Aye.”
“Morning,” John said loudly as he came around the corner. “Or should I say warning?”
Sarah laughed. “Don’t be silly, sweetheart.” She broke away from Mike and went to her son to tussle his hair and kiss him on the cheek. “Did you sleep well?”
“Sure. When are we leaving to find them?”
“We have a few chores first,” Mike said ominously.
Sarah knew he was referring to Kendra’s burial. It was a sad way to start the day but long overdue.
“Not until after breakfast,” she said firmly as John sat down at the kitchen table. She looked over her shoulder as Regan emerged from the bedroom.
“Good morning, Regan,” Sarah said. “Your mother…?”
“She’s fine,” Regan said, rubbing her face sleepily. “Wants to rest a bit more.”
Sarah exchanged a glance with Mike. Whatever was wrong with Ellen was pretty clearly nothing in their power to address. It was true she was malnourished but her spirit was wounded which just made everything else worse. Her eyes were vacant and it seemed she had lost the will to live. At first Sarah thought it might be cancer. But Ellen didn’t look like she was in pain. She looked like she’d given up.
“Regan, you told your mother that your father didn’t just abandon you, didn’t you?” Sarah asked as Mike poured boiling water into the large brown teapot on the table.
“Aye,” Regan said as she sat down at the table. “Are the newlyweds still abed, then? Reckon Gavin’s making sure he gets it double this morning.”
The kettle hit the steel sink with a loud crash, making everyone jump as Mike whirled around to face Regan.
“We’ll not be having your filthy talk in this house,” he said loudly. “D’ye hear me, girl?”
Tossing the kettle in the sink had clearly produced its desired effect. Regan looked at Mike with stark fear in her eyes. Sarah could only imagine what she’d endured in the four months she’d been on her own. She went to Regan and put a hand on her arm.
“It’s all right,” Sarah said. “You know Mike would never hurt you, don’t you?”
Regan looked at Mike as if to confirm this, but her eyes were wide and unsure.
What in the world had happened to her?
“I’m sorry,” Regan said. She glanced at John and blushed and looked down at her hands.
&nb
sp; “That’s all right,” Sarah said again, patting Regan’s arm. “We’ve all developed some bad habits in the last few months. And it’s going to take a while to get back to normal. Right, Mike?”
He looked so ashamed of how he’d frightened the girl that Sarah was torn between which of the two of them to hug. She opted for sitting down heavily in her own chair.
“Tea cups, John?” she said, surprised to find herself out of breath. John hopped up to collect a half dozen mugs and cups and brought them back to the table where he poured the brewed tea into them and then scooted them across the table to his mother and Regan.
“I’m sorry, lass,” Mike said. “Sure, Sarah’s right as rain. We’re all on edge these days. You watch your mouth and I’ll watch me temper. Fair?” He smiled at Regan and she nodded.
**********
The sun was full up by the time Mike and Gavin and John carried the forlorn bundle that was Kendra’s last remains to the plot behind the compound. There, Sarah stood with Sophia, Regan and Ellen and watched while the men dug the grave next to Mickey Quinn’s. There were hints of flowers peeking out of the woods that bordered the small clearing. Later, Sarah would ask Sophia to gather them up for Kendra’s grave. It would help her feel a part of the proceedings. Even though she hadn’t known poor Kendra, it would connect her in a small way.
Ellen stood with her arm looped through Sarah’s as they watched the shovels lift and fill, lift and fill. The sound they made was the only noise on the air. Not even the birds sang today.
If Mike was right and it was the Garda who had come and taken everyone away, then surely they’d taken them to Dublin. No one in the village had clear information about what they’d seen that day—if anything—so it looked as if the compound was the only target. That made it seem all the more likely that the visit had had something to do with Mike and Sarah’s run-in with them last December. The timing was right, too.
Four months.
Sarah felt Ellen’s hand pinch her arm as if trying to hold onto her tighter and so Sarah put her arm around the woman’s bony shoulders. Four months for a woman to waste away, body and mind, for a girl to be so desperate that she’d sell her body. Four months for whatever had happened to Fiona and Dec and all of them to still be going on. Were they better off than poor Ellen and Regan? Is wherever they are better than scavenging in the woods?
It didn’t seem possible that no one had escaped and returned. In four months? On the other hand, those were the winter months and they were hard for anybody everywhere in Ireland these days. And they had the children. Even the best escape plan would be handicapped by children.
A humming sound came from Ellen, deep and primal. When Sarah turned, surprised, she saw that the woman had her eyes closed. Regan stood on the other side of her mother, frowning. Regan took Ellen’s arm, but her eyes were on the body as the three men lowered it into the grave.
Goodbye, Kendra, Sarah thought. You were brave and strong. And we needed more of you not less.
The sounds that came from Ellen were low and melodic. She was singing, her eyes still shut.
“A Stór Mo Chroí,” Ellen sang, her voice clear and high, the only sound on the wind.
“When the evening's mist
Over mountain and sea is falling,
won't you turn away from the throng
And maybe you'll hear me calling.
For the sound of a voice that is surely missed
For somebody's quick returning.
A ruin, a ruin, oh won't you come back soon
To the ones who will always love you.”
They stood in silence until Mike broke the stillness by digging into the earth with his spade and throwing the first clods of dirt in the grave. Gavin and John began to slowly fill in the grave and Sarah touched Sophia on the shoulder.
“I need to get Mrs. Murdoch back to the cottage,” Sarah said. Ellen still hadn’t opened her eyes after her song and Sarah could feel the strength drop from the older woman’s fingers as they rested on her arm. Sophia nodded but glanced warily at Regan.
Sarah headed back toward the compound walls. The walk to the burial plot along the western wall of the compound had been a pleasant one thirty minutes earlier, but now the clouds had come out and an afternoon chill tore at their jackets and shawls. She was relieved to see Regan move to block the worst of the wind from Ellen who stumbled along between them.
Would they be able to leave Ellen alone to go find Fiona? Was that possible? If they left wouldn’t Regan just go right back to the village? Sarah’s pregnancy weight threw her off balance when she tripped over a tree root in the path. She let go of Ellen, grabbing instead for Sophia’s arm to keep from falling.
Ellen gasped and flung both her arms out, pushing Regan away.
“Barney!” she screamed.
Chapter 6
The man stood like a phantom at the edge of the woods. His hair and beard were long, his clothes rags. He held a large staff in his hand.
Ellen wrenched away from Regan and ran to him. He never moved. He stood near the path but not on it. He watched her come. Sarah grabbed Regan’s arm and hauled herself to her feet, pushing her hair out of her face. She could hear Mike coming up fast behind her.
“Who the feck is it?” Mike yelled. He reached Sarah and pulled her and Regan both behind him. Sarah clung to his sleeve, not wanting him to go further, afraid for all of them.
Ellen staggered down the path. “Barney!”
“Mam!” Regan screamed. “Mam, no!”
Mike pushed past Sophia who stood on the path, her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide in astonishment and fear. Ellen held her arms out to the man who still hadn’t moved. She walked to him and then sagged to her knees in front of him. Slowly she dropped her hands and head to the ground as if in supplication. Mike reached her but never took his eyes off the man. He touched Ellen on the shoulder.
“Come, lass,” Mike said. “It’s not your Barney.” His eyes filled with tears and he angrily brushed them away. He took two steps toward the man and pulled him hard into his arms.
“Granddad!” Gavin yelled. Sarah watched him bound over to the two men. Mike turned and knelt by Ellen while Gavin hugged his grandfather. The old man stood as if stunned, his eyes looking over Gavin’s shoulder at Sarah. She smiled. And when she did, it seemed to break something inside him. It was as if he’d been warring with himself over whether this was all a dream.
“It’s really us, Archie,” Sarah said softly, knowing he couldn’t hear her from this distance. “We’re finally home.”
**********
So now they knew. The whole story of how it happened. And Mike had been right. And oh, so wrong.
Archie sat in Mike and Sarah’s cottage—his cottage too four months ago—with a mug of whiskey in his hand. He’d aged a decade since Sarah had last seen him, looking much older than his seventy-two years. After the attack at the compound he’d been living in the woods and then in an old abandoned cottage. When Sarah hugged him she felt a tremor in his right hand.
When Regan and Sophia got back to the compound, they worked together to calm and settle Ellen who, once in bed, fell quickly to sleep. There was no real resemblance between Archie and Barney, who was twenty years younger. But if there’d been any doubt as to the extent of Ellen’s fragile psychological state, this afternoon had eliminated it.
“You found the lads then,” Archie said with a nod at both Gavin and John. “I knew you would.”
“It took us awhile,” Mike said as he refilled the old man’s glass. “We just got back day before yesterday. Coming home was a shock as you can imagine.”
Archie’s eyes glanced at his shaking hand as he reached for the glass.
“So it was the Garda,” Mike said.
“Aye. Rounded everyone up. Piled them into trucks waiting outside. Then came back in and cleared out whatever else they were looking for.”
“They took guns and some electronics,” John said.
Archie nodded, then lo
oked at Mike. “Who was it ye were putting in the ground?”
“One of the compound women. Kendra.”
Archie made a sound of distress. “I remember the lass well. A good fighter. Was she living here alone, do ye think?”
“She’d been dead a long time. Likely killed the day of the attack.”
“I didn’t know. I came back several times but I never really…searched, ye ken? The place always felt so empty. I just felt in me bones it was empty. Stupid.”
“It was too late anyway,” Mike said. “Why, Archie? Did they say?”
“I’ve asked meself that question for four months now,” Archie said. “Why not just turn us out if they wanted to ransack the place? But they brought the trucks because they wanted them. They wanted our people.”
“How did you escape?” Gavin asked. He sat with his arm around Sophia. Regan sat on the other side of Mike, her face implacable.
“I didn’t, did I?” Archie said. “They herded everyone onto the trucks—the women and kiddies in one and the men in t’other, and no room for an old man. They didn’t care what I did. They just left me.”
“Wait,” Sarah said. “They divided them up?” She looked at Mike. “Why would they do that? Why would they separate the men from the women and children?”
“And they didn’t fight?” Gavin asked. “When they saw what was happening?”
“Well, aye, a bit,” Archie said. “But it was the Garda, ye see. At first we thought it was maybe a safety issue or something. What with the plague and all.”
“You expect the state police to protect you,” Sarah said. “Not kidnap you.”
“Exactly so, lass,” Archie said, finishing his drink. He rubbed his hand across his face. “I waited,” he said, his voice muffled by his hand. “I waited for ye to come back. It was all I knew to do.”
Mike leaned out and placed a solid hand on Archie’s shoulder.
“Ye did all ye could, Arch. Ye did the best anyone could.”
Sarah got to her feet and massaged the small of her back. The baby had been particularly active today. And she hadn’t slept well.
Irish End Games, Books 4-5-6 Page 52