Loving Ireland (Loving Places)

by Flynn, Mac

  "I'd say it's the anti-music. Not very stylish for my generation, but it's great for helping friendships. Nobody gets mad if there's nothing to get mad about."

  "Ah, but one's actions can create a rift between friends, or can create a friendship. Don't you agree?"

  I would have agreed to the existence of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster if he would have stepped on the gas pedal. "I didn't really study philosophy in school. I was more of a history major."

  "You mean musty dates and mustier people?" he teased.

  "I guess." I hated to be given my own words back to me gift-wrapped by my arch nemesis.

  "Your vocabulary is very limited this evening."

  "Must be the knock on the head. Rattled my hamsters loose and I haven't been able to catch them yet." I was pleased to hear a chuckle come out of my geriatric driver. "A nice bed would help me put them back in their wheels. Mind ditching the impersonation of a snail and going for a drag racer?"

  "Only if you tell me your name," he insisted. I folded my arms and winced when I put pressure on my battle-weary wrist. "You won't grant me even that small favor?" I turned my face away, though mostly to hide the agonizing scream I wanted to yell out at the pain. "What if I allowed you free rein of my castle?"

  Now that caught my attention, and I whipped my head back to him with suspicion in my eyes. "Why would you do that?"

  He shrugged. "Perhaps my musty ancestors could use a fresh face about the halls, and my library is without a librarian."

  Now he was speaking my language. "You have your own library?"

  MacKenna smiled. "What's a musty castle without an even mustier library?"

  I could just imagine all those sweet books calling my name in deep tones of bold-faced and regular font. I would sit among them and befriend them, and they would reward our friendship with tales of their histories. Then we'd all cook weenies over the fires of the books I didn't like, especially that impudent dictionary. All dictionaries were impudent, long-winded, narcissistic know-it-alls.

  In all that night dreaming of burning books Nazi-style and whipping a library into shape, I recalled one very important problem. Lily hadn't invited me to Ireland to delve into old books in the next-door castle, and I had plans of my own that involved prancing through fields and watching the fat fall off of me, leaving a trail of lard behind me. "It's a nice offer, but I came to see Lily and the scenery. I don't think I'd see much of either of them if I went to study in your library."

  MacKenna smiled. I was starting to tolerate that look on his face. A few more years and I'd probably be happy to see it. "I understand, but Lily and you are still welcome to my home anytime." Even with his driving we were bound to reach the cottage, and in a few minutes we had. Lily helped me out of the car and thanked MacKenna so many times for his help that I suspected she'd forgotten how to say anything else.

  "I'm glad to help," he insisted for the dozenth time. "If either of you are in need, you know how to reach me." MacKenna hurried out of the cottage and escaped the overeager thanks of my friend.

  Lily had seated me beside a roaring fire, a blaze helped on by a few squirts of lighter fluid, and when he'd gone she took the other seat beside me. Her face was aglow with the flickering light and she nervously twiddled her fingers. I knew love when I saw it, and she had a bad case. I leaned in and winked at her. "I have a feeling he really likes you, what with him offering us those rooms and me that ride," I told my friend.

  She whipped her head up from gazing at the fire and had a shocked expression on her face. "Like me?"

  "Sure, and you like him."

  Lily let out such a guffaw that it bounced off the room for several minutes. "Love him? I respect him for his kindness, but I don't love him. He's just not my type."

  "Then why else would he do all those nice things?" I countered.

  She looked at me with a soft smile on her face. "Maggie, it's not me he likes, it's you."

  I stared at her like she'd grown two heads and a dorsal fin. "You shouldn't be joking with a person still suffering from a concussion. Right now in a game of wits I'm handicapped," I protested.

  Lily folded her arms across her chest and looked me straight in the eyes. "Maggie Magee, if you can't see that he's showing me favors because he likes you than you're blind."

  "And deaf, because I didn't hear him say sweet nothings on the car ride back. He was actually pretty gabby," I told her.

  "And that proves my point even more," she insisted.

  "Because I don't know the trick to get him to be quiet?" I wondered.

  Lily rolled her eyes. "Because he talked to you at all. Didn't you watch him at the exhibit?"

  I shook my head. "How could I see anything through his throngs of adoring fans? He's got more wind around him than a wind farm."

  "Lord MacKenna is a good landlord and a good man, but he's not known for his ease at speaking. That's why his speech was so short at the unveiling," she told me.

  "You've lost me. What does this prove again?" I asked her.

  "It proves that he's comfortable around you, and anyone that's comfortable around you has to like you," she pointed out.

  My face drooped and my eyes narrowed. "So what you're saying is I make strangers uncomfortable?"

  She shrugged. "You have a very forward way of speaking your mind even when your wit hasn't caught up."

  I lifted my chin and turned away in not-so-righteous indignation. "I see how it is. You think I'm too loud, rude, and obnoxious to speak with strangers."

  "All I see is you're trying to change the subject, but I won't let you," she insisted. "Lord MacKenna has showed us both a great deal of favors these past few days, and they weren't shown until he met you. You add those coincidences up and what do you find yourself with?"

  "Math," I blandly replied. "And a headache from the math."

  She gave an exasperated growl. "You get affection, silly! He bought that painting because it reminds him of you, and he's shown so much patience and attention to you because he likes you!"

  There was some foundation there for her arguments; it was a shaky foundation and probably would have collapsed in an earthquake, but she had something. "So Lord Jerk-"

  "MacKenna," she reminded me.

  I sighed. "So this Lord MacKenna isn't that friendly to other people, especially strangers?"

  "That's right."

  "And he doesn't usually have so much patience for peoples' stupidity like he does mine?"

  "Somehow he is showing a lot of restraint for your stupidity," she agreed. "Maybe you make him laugh."

  "Maybe my dazzling beauty makes him forget my stupid remarks," I suggested.

  "Maybe he believes your exaggerations," she teased.

  "So if I wrapped him around my pinkie, had him make me the sole beneficiary of his estate and bumped him off I could inherit a fortune?"

  "I don't think anyone can stretch the truth that far," Lily countered.

  I sighed and shrugged. "Well, whatever he's thinking, believing or whatever, I already told him I was just fine spending my time with you and Mother Nature, if she doesn't try to drown me or knock my head again with a rock."

  Lily was confused. "Why would you need to tell him that?"

  "He invited me to spend time in his library managing it, or at least I think that's what he was suggesting. He wasn't too clear on the details."

  Lily shot up so fast I expected to see her feet dangling in front of my face from her catching in the ceiling. "And you refused his offer?" she yelled.

  "Well, yeah. Don't you want me around?"

  "I do, but-but you didn't accept his offer?" Lily paced the room and shook her head. "It's a great honor to catch a glimpse of the MacKenna library, much less manage it."

  "Oh, well, I'd rather be out getting some exercise in the nice weather."

  "I'm afraid this won't last. Such breaks as these never do," Lily warned me.

  "Then I'll enjoy it while it lasts, and with a friend I lov
e dearly, though I'm starting to wonder if she loves me."

  Lily knelt beside me and clasped one of my hands in both of hers. She looked up into my doubting face with a smile that would have melted hard butter, and I oozed across the floor. "You know I care for you very deeply. You were such a great help in my days at the university. I would never have been able to decipher the slang without your help."

  "Yes, but finding the definitions to some of that stuff sure did leave lasting scars," I joked.

  Lily frowned. "But you're distracting me again. I really do believe he cares for you. Why won't you believe me?"

  I raised my arms to show myself to her. "It might be because of this."

  "Your arms?" she teasingly guessed.

  "My body," I reminded her. "I'm not exactly the Sleeping Beauty waiting for a prince to wake me up."

  She smiled at me. "No, you're neither sleeping nor being wooed by a prince."

  "How important is a lord, anyway? Can he order around knights and stuff?"

  Lily laughed. "You're very old-fashioned, Maggie."

  "And very tired. Could you let an injured friend get some sleep and we can continue my distracting this conversation tomorrow?" My head swam the backstroke to exhaustion, and my body ached all over from the tumble.

  "Oh, yes! Where are my manners?"

  "Waiting in line behind your crazy theory about his liking me."

  "It is not crazy, and he does like you."

  "Now you're the one distracting the conversation. I want to go to bed."

  "I'm sorry, you're right."

  "We've had this discussion before."

  "You're correct this time."

  "Ouch, what faith in a friend."

  Lily sighed and helped me off the chair. "Come along then, we'll have you rested in no time."

  Chapter 9

  The next morning wasn't as nice as the others, which was like comparing an umbrella to an lemon if the orange was being squeezed dry to sour the day. Rain poured off the roof in races to see how far the streams could shoot from the cottage, and the slugs reigned in the yard. I sat in the kitchen eating my breakfast and idly wondered if there were life preservers stashed away in some of the closets.

  The door banged open and closed, and Lily came in with wet everything. "The pigs are taken care of, but such weather!"

  "You mean it doesn't always look like this?" I asked her. That made me wonder if there was an inflatable raft in the closets.

  She shook her head. "Not often."

  "Maybe it's panicking because it saw dry patches of ground."

  "Perhaps, but there isn't any now." She plopped herself down in her chair and squished her wet jeans on the seat. "This would happen when I was free to entertain you."

  "You can still entertain me. We just need to find some tap-dancing shoes, cane and top hat."

  She laughed. "Then there would be two hurt people at the table. How is your wrist, by the way?"

  "I took another pain killer so I wouldn't find out, but it's moving stiffly." I raised my hand and cringed when I flexed the wrist muscles. This was going to take some time. I hated waiting. "Very stiffly."

  "Did you need me to call up Doctor Jacob?" Lily suggested.

  "No, no sense risking his drowning unless I'm spontaneously combusting."

  "Then he wouldn't have much of a chance to save you."

  "You're right. I'd have better luck running outside and swimming to the gate."

  "It's not that bad. The water is actually very refreshing."

  "And wet, so you're not getting me out there. I don't like resembling or smelling like a drowned cat if I can help it."

  "Where's your sense of adventure?"

  "Still in bed. It was smart enough to stay there." Lily's scolding showed me I was cranky, but as cranky people were wont to do I didn't care. I hadn't slept well, and the weather oppressed me worse than a Third-World dictator.

  Our dreary world was interrupted by a knock on the door, and Lily hurried off to save the poor soul from drowning. It turned out to be Duffy. He sloshed into the kitchen and looked me over with his strange smile. "A good morning to you, Miss Maggie. Ah've come to see how you were getting along."

  "Like a Sherman tank stuck in four feet of mud," I replied.

  Duffy took a seat beside me while Lily prepared another batch of hot tea for him. "Yer looking as healthy as a horse."

  "The problem is my doctors say I'm as big as one," I countered.

  "Not that again, Maggie," Lily scolded. She set the steaming cups down in front of us. "You know you're a fine-looking young woman." I darkly grumbled, so Lily turned to our guest. "And how are things at the castle, Duffy?"

  "Not so great, Lily. The master is having one of his attacks again and won't be moved from bed." I perked up my ears at this mysterious bad news.

  "That's awful to hear. Can the doctor do nothing about it?"

  Duffy forlornly shook his head. "Not much, but the master's glad for such long days between bouts of the stuff. The last one was three fortnights ago, if it isn't a day."

  "That's much better than when he was younger," she agreed.

  "Mind if I ask what you two are talking about?" I butted in.

  "Lord MacKenna has had severe asthma since he was a boy," Lily explained. "It's what killed his father."

  "Aye, but he has some fine doctors now," Duffy added. "The problems aren't so much in his body as in here." Duffy tapped on his temple. "The master fears dying such a death and keeps himself unhealthy not going out into the fields as is his duties."

  "How awful," Lily murmured.

  "Aye, it is, but there ain't no one hereabouts who can make him see the problem."

  A sly smile crept onto Lily's face, and she slowly turned her head toward me. "I might have an idea of who can help."

  "And I might think you're crazy," I shot back.

  Duffy chuckled. "The master has taken a liking to the young lady here. Kelly tells me he was up most of the night pacing the halls, and that's how he was taken ill."

  "You need to make it up toe Lord MacKenna, Maggie," Lily lightly scolded me. "If not for his worrying over you he'd still be well."

  "Your logic is absolutely astounding," I replied.

  "But she has a point, Miss Maggie," Duffy spoke up. "The master might be liking another look of ye this morning to cheer his spirits." I would have rather taken to spirits than go out in that rain, but in this case it was for a good deed.

  I sighed and nodded. "All right, you two win. When do we ford the roads to get there?"

  "After we've finished with our tea," Lily replied.

  "And what excuse are we going to use for seeing him?" I added.

  "We heard about his sudden attack and, well, um..." Lily faltered on an explanation.

  "There's a leak in the roof, and you'll be wanting to stay someplace else while Ah fix it," Duffy suggested.

  "That's it! A leak on the roof!" Lily gleefully agreed.

  "Don't tempt fate and-" Something fell on my nose, and I glanced up to see a small stain of water on the ceiling above me. "You guys just had to say it, didn't you?"

  Duffy chuckled. "Don't ya worry none about that leak. Duffy will get it fixed before night."

  "Much obliged for the help, Duffy. Now let's be off, Maggie," Lily insisted.

  I snatched my bottle of painkillers from my room, suspecting I would need them and a tranquilizer to get me through the day, and then was half-dragged, one-quarter pushed, and another quarter shoved across the lawn and into Lily's car. My fingers took their positions in the dashboard indents when Lily slid into the driver's seat. The road ahead of us had turned into a river of mud and despair. "Is there a nice cemetery around here?" I asked my friend.

  "A very nice one a few miles away. Why?"

  "I just wanted to know where I was going to be buried."

  Lily sighed and started the car. "Your adventuress spirit is very low today."

  "I'd say it's dampened," I countered as I glanced out the window.
The rain broke land-speed records with how fast it shot down the glass. "Maybe even drowned."

  "We'll see if helping another soul won't help yours," she suggested.

  We shot off down the road and I hung on for my dear, sweet, precious life. The car barreled through creeks, streams, and a couple of nearly-impassible rivers before we arrived at the castle. Lily hopped out and I peeled myself off the dashboard to join her at the front doors. Today the entrance was closed, but our knocks, and my whimpering, soon brought Kelly.

  "Good morning, Kelly," Lily greeted him. "Our cottage roof is leaking, and we were wondering if Lord MacKenna would mind our staying here until Duffy has it fixed. It shouldn't be more than a day."

  Kelly stepped aside. "Warm yourselves by the fire while I ask the lord's permission."

  "Much obliged," Lily replied.

  We sloshed inside and over to the chairs beside a roaring fire. I was so wet from the few moments outside that I wondered if I would get dry even if I threw myself into the tall flames. Kelly went upstairs, but he was back in a few minutes with the lord himself. MacKenna's face was pale and he leaned so heavy on his manservant that I wondered if Kelly would snap under the strain. The pair made it to one of the chairs, where MacKenna grabbed the back and waved Kelly away. "Good morning," MacKenna greeted us in a weary tone.

  "Good morning, Lord MacKenna," Lily politely replied. I couldn't lie that bad about the weather so I kept quiet. "We're sorry to be intruding on you, but our cottage roof-" MacKenna waved off her explanation with his hand.

  "Kelly told me your troubles, and you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like."

  "I'm sure it will only be for a day and we won't trouble you any more," Lily promised.

  "Nonsense. On days such as these there's nothing better than to stay by the hearth and warm one's self over fire and pleasant talk." He sat down with a soft oomph, and Kelly brought him a cane. I recognized it as the one from the portrait of his father, and the similarity in their pale visages startled and worried me. He caught me staring at him, and I blushed and looked away. "How is your wrist today, Miss Magee?"

  "A little sore, but I'll live to write another day," I replied.

  He smiled. "I'm glad to hear that." I was glad when he turned his attention to Lily. "I must tell you how pleased I am with your portrait, even more so than yesterday."