Loving Ireland (Loving Places)

by Flynn, Mac

  "Let's get you to the comfortable fire and I'll fetch the ice pack," Sean suggested. He guided me out into the hall and over to the fireplace with Lily and Anna behind us. Anna was mildly interested in my infirmity; she probably liked to watch stupid creatures suffer. Sean sat me down and went to fetch the ice pack while Lily seated herself at my side.

  "I don't think that four-leaf clover is doing me much good," I told my friend.

  Lily smiled and shook her head. "Nonsense. You would be worse off if not for the charm."

  I doubted her words as my wrist pumped me with pain. "Maybe I shouldn't go on that car ride. With my bad luck I could doom us all to death by sheep inhalation."

  Lily snorted. "I don't believe that happens here."

  "I don't want to start a fad for the sheep, so I'd probably better stay here." What I most feared was being confined in a space where I would continuously bump my wrist.

  Sean returned with the ice pack, and overheard my last words. "What if I promised not to jostle the car too much?" he asked me with a smile.

  "Or I could drive," Lily offered. My blood ran cold with fear, or with the chill of the ice pack Sean set on my arm.

  "I'm sure I'll survive if I stay here," I told them. If Lily was driving I could guarantee it.

  "Then I'll stay here, too," Lily offered.

  "And that makes just you and me, darling," Anna cooed.

  I detected a shudder from Sean. "Perhaps it is a little wet for any of us to be out right now."

  "Oh nonsense, silly," Anna argued with a wave of her hand. "The weather now is no worse than usual so you should have no trouble driving these roads."

  Poor Sean looked so desperate that I wished there was something I could do. That's when an idea hit me, or rather I hit my injured hand against the arm of the chair. "Damn it!" I swore beneath my breath. I'd done too good a job with the whacking as bolts of pain shot up my arm. "If I stay in this condition any longer I'm going to whack my arm clear off. Maybe you can drive me to the doctor's he can just bandage this really quick," I suggested.

  "I don't know about moving you," Sean replied. I frantically blinked at him hoping he understood Morse code and understood I was faking some of the pain. Not most of it, but some. "Or perhaps you should be taken to the doctors house. The road should be fine in that direction."

  "And I can go with you for a shoulder to lean in," Lily offered. She was mild-mannered, but even she wouldn't be abandoned to the company of Anna cheated out of her scenic drive.

  "I suppose I can help somehow," Anna spoke up. The color drained from Lily and my faces, but Sean came to the rescue.

  "I'm not so sure that's wise, Anna-"

  "Aine."

  "With Doctor Jacob so busy I don't expect we'll see him very soon, and the waiting room will be filled with all manner of illnesses. You're better to stay here until we return."

  "And how long will that be?"

  "I'm afraid that's impossible to tell, but we'll hurry back as best we can manage. Kelly, would you fetch our coats?" Sean helped me to my feet and Kelly brought our coats from the front door. It was no easy task pushing my injured arm through the sleeve, but the deed was done and the others were readied. Anna sullenly watched us, and Sean noticed. "Feel free to make yourself comfortable while we're gone. Kelly, see to it that Lady Anna's-"

  "Aine."

  "-Lady Aine's every desire is granted."

  Kelly bowed at the waist. "Very well, sir," he agreed.

  My two nurses led me outside and into the cold, dreary rain. Sean guided us off to the left where stood a small garage made of stone to match the castle. We entered through a side door and saw there were three cars. The closest, and thus most used, was the sporty red one I'd seen him in. Beyond that one was a sedan-type vehicle and the last car was a plain van.

  Sean nodded at the final two. "Would you two ladies prefer luxury and style or an uncomfortable ride in a boxcar with belts or shocks?"

  "I'll pick door number one," I replied.

  "You don't know what you're missing," he teased.

  "I'm pretty sure I have an idea, and it isn't a good one."

  "Very well. If you two ladies would take your seats in the rear then-"

  "I'm sure Maggie would be more comfortable in the front," Lily spoke up. "I can take the one in the back."

  "If you insist," Sean replied.

  "Vehemently," she answered. My suspicions were aroused, but Lily helped me into the front passenger seat while she took hers in the back and Sean slipped into the driver's chair. Sean raised the garage door and drove down the road. It was only a minute to the intersection of town and cottage, and just before that point Lily leaned between the two front seats. "Would you mind dropping me off at the cottage? I'm sure I would be a nuisance in the doctor's office and perhaps Duffy needs my help." I glanced over my shoulder and frowned at her, but she only smiled back mischievously. The devil wanted us to be alone!

  Sean slowed down as we came up to the fork. "If that's what you wish."

  "Vehemently," she chuckled. Sean turned toward the cottage and stopped the car outside the gate. I planned on getting out with her, but Lily shot out of the car and pressed her hands against my door. "Enjoy your drive together," she wickedly cackled. Sean smiled and pulled the car away. I glanced over my shoulder and watched Lily wave to us; I'd get her for this.

  Chapter 14

  I was so busy plotting my revenge I didn't notice Sean had spoken to me. "What? What was that?"

  "I was just commenting on how generous your friend was to help Duffy."

  "Yeah, help Duffy. . ." I grumbled.

  "How is your wrist?"

  I glanced down at the offending appendage; the swelling had gone down and the pain lessened to almost nothing. "It's bearable," I replied.

  "Would you be up for a drive through the country?"

  I looked out the window on the country. The rain was nearly done and the clouds hinted at dispersing. "I guess, just as long as we get to the doctor's some time this decade."

  Sean smiled. "I make no promises."

  He took me on a full tour of the countryside which included the green, rolling hills with their bursts of brush and trees scattered about the pastures. There were many quaint cottages much like Lily's own place with stone walls around them, and we passed by and through several large forests that reminded me of Duffy's stories of magic and mystery. I was in awe of the splendid greenery. "Ireland sure is pretty," I commented to Sean.

  "Indeed it is beautiful." Out of the corner of my eye I caught him looking at me when he made the compliment.

  I sighed and turned to him. "You know, you can do a lot better than me. There must be some poor, beautiful girl in the surrounding countryside that you can fall in love with and lift her from poverty."

  "That isn't what my heart is telling me," he countered.

  I didn't want to be mean to him, but I just couldn't believe this was more than an infatuation. "Maybe you need a hearing aid, or maybe your heart is pumping a little off and needs a kick-start."

  "Or perhaps it's because I'm in love with you."

  "Nah, I don't think that's it."

  "Why not?"

  I gestured down to myself, inadvertently causing some discomfort in my wrist. "Does this look like someone anybody could fall in love with?"

  "Beauty is only skin deep."

  "Yeah, our innards aren't really all that pretty."

  "I meant that your personality is what attracts me."

  "You should try a different magnet because I'm just not ladyship material."

  "Perhaps that's what attracts me. You're so different than anyone I've ever met."

  "Are Americans rare in these parts?"

  "You're different from many Americans."

  "Yeah, tourists from every country are pretty mean, but I'm a dime a dozen back home."

  "I would rather think of you as a rough jewel than a dime."

  "You're not going to stop all this cooing talk until I agree to c
oo back, are you?"

  "I'm afraid not."

  I slumped down in my seat, folded my arms across my chest, and remembered my injured wrist. I pulled the wounded limb out from beneath my other arm, and sighed. "I know this sounds strange to a rich guy with a castle and nice looks, but I just don't know where-tree!"

  My shout was punctuated by my finger jabbed in the direction of the road in front of us. A tree limb a foot thick lay in the mud, nearly impossible to see but definitely big enough for the car tires to hit. Sean swerved, but he was too late. The front passenger wheel hit the limb hard and managed to drive over it, but the car body dropped onto the tall branch and stuck there. The bounced tire spun in the air on the opposite side of the limb while I was hung suspended in air. Sean stepped on the gas, but the body didn't budge an inch backwards or forwards.

  He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. I would have done likewise if my hands weren't shaking so bad I would have probably poked my eye out. "My sentiments exactly," I agreed.

  "Are you all right?" he asked me.

  I checked myself for missing limbs. "Fine except for my heart. I think I swallowed it."

  Sean smiled and unclipped his seatbelt. "I'll get out and check the damage. You stay in here."

  "I think I've sat in here long enough, so I'm going with you." I unclipped my belt, and we both slid out into the muck. I immediately regretted my decision when my feet disappeared into the mud; I hoped I'd find them again.

  "Careful, it's slick out here," Sean warned as he ducked down to inspect beneath the car.

  "I don't think it's-yipes!" I had tried to pull my foot out, but it stuck hard and I ended up falling forward. In a rerun of last night I caught myself with my hands and my wrist screamed out for me to stop bothering it, couldn't I see it was in enough pain? I could see and feel the pain because the swelling worsened and the agony shot up my arm. "God damn it!" I swore.

  "That's not very ladylike," Sean teased, unknowing of my condition.

  I cradled my injured arm against my chest as I sat in the mud; my feet were still gobbled up by the muck. "I kind of hurt myself again," I snapped back.

  His head whipped up and he glanced over the hood. "How badly?"

  "Not broken, but it sure does feel like it," I told him.

  Sean climbed over the hood and splatted down beside me, tossing mud all over my muddy self. He knelt beside me and pulled my wrist from my chest to look at the injury. His lips pursed together and he looked up at me. "This isn't good."

  "I can feel that."

  "We must walk to the nearest house."

  "How far is that?"

  "I'm not sure."

  "Don't tell me that."

  "You need to be told the truth."

  "I can't handle the truth."

  "I'm afraid you're going to have to, just for a little while," he teased. Sean helped me up, pulled my feet free of the muck, and guided me to sit on top of the fallen limb. "Just rest while I see if my phone works." He pulled out his cell phone, glanced at the bars, and forlornly shook his head.

  "No signal?" I guessed.

  "I forgot to charge my phone," he sheepishly replied.

  I sighed and reached for my phone; it wasn't there. "Uh, it looks like I forgot mine at the house."

  "Then we had better gather our wits and decide which way we need to travel." He guided me to the grass at the side of the road where we could wipe off the mud and figure out the direction we needed to walk. I glanced up and down the road. Both directions looked the same; dark, wet, muddy, wet, and slightly damp.

  "I have a feeling this walking stuff isn't going to be very fun," I told him.

  "I'm afraid not, but the only other choice is for you to stay in the car while I go for help," Sean replied. I looked at the stuck car as it sat there in the gloomy weather; it wasn't exactly inviting.

  "I think I'll risk the damp and go with you."

  Sean smiled. "Perfect. Let's get started."

  Sean led the way down the road in the direction we'd come. We trudged along in silence for a while until I couldn't take the silence. "So, uh, how long have you known Lady Brown?"

  "Anna? Most of my life. Our fathers were old friends and we played together often."

  "And made a promise at the tender age of ten?" I teased.

  "Yes, well, it was a promise, but one I can't keep in good faith."

  "Anna seems to think the opposite."

  "Anna is a very stubborn girl, and thinks what she pleases."

  "That's being kind."

  "She is an old friend."

  "So are you ever going to sit her down and tell her the truth?"

  "That I don't care for her the same way she cares for me? I have."

  I choked out a laugh. "You have, and she still goes after you?"

  He nodded. "She hopes that I will tire of the bachelor life and take her as my wife."

  "I'm guessing that hasn't happened yet."

  "Not yet, but I won't want to live alone forever."

  "The bachelor life getting boring?"

  "Lonely, actually."

  I sighed and glanced around for a place to sit; my feet were in cahoots with my wrist and trying to kill me. A dozen yards ahead I spotted a large boulder and limped over to it. I plopped myself down and stretched my legs straight out. "Well, Mr. Lonely, how much farther do you think we stranded people have until the nearest house?"

  He leaned his nice tush up against the rock and looked around. "Perhaps a few kilometers."

  "That translates to how many miles?"

  "About two."

  I groaned and slumped my shoulders. "That's like forever."

  "At the very least we are getting our fill of exercise," Sean pointed out. I shot him a death glare and he grinned nervously. "Not that I believe you're fat."

  I turned away and ran my hand along my face. "I guess you'd be right to say I am. I'm not exactly Olympic-athlete material here except for the luge, and then only as the sled."

  He chuckled. "You play yourself very poorly."

  "It keeps my spirits up beating them down every now and then. Means when somebody really does hurt me it doesn't sting as bad."

  "Forever a pessimist?"

  "I'd like to think of it as a realist."

  "Perhaps your reality isn't the truth."

  "If we're going to be playing a game of wits then I call handicap points."

  "I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to pry into your beliefs."

  "I kind of noticed a lot of Irish people apologize a lot."

  "We're a very modest people, and take our mistakes very seriously."

  "How modest of you to mention that."

  "I'm sorry."

  I rolled my eyes and hopped back on my feet. "Let's get going. If we don't keep moving the mud might swallow us like quicksand."

  Sean laughed and shook his head. "I doubt any of the puddles are-ah!" His comforting comments were interrupted when he stepped close to a puddle and his foot sunk into mud up to the top of his boot. He fell forward and caught himself with his hands, but his hand planting was off. His left-hand fingers slipped on a rock hidden beneath the mud and on the way down his wrist knocked against the rock. The wrist twisted in a grotesque manner, but I didn't hear any cracking of bones over his howl of pain.

  Sean clutched his injured wrist against himself and tried to pull his foot out. I rushed to his side and yanked his foot out of the hole before he thrashed it clear off. "Hold still!" I ordered him. He stiffened but held still, and I helped him back to the rock where I sat him down. I looked at his wrist and saw there was already swelling, but no bones protruded out of the skin. It was sprained like mine. I was starting to think that swallowing Duffy's lucky charm hadn't been one of my brighter ideas.

  "So this is your pain," he grimly chuckled through gritted teeth.

  "I think yours might be worse." The swelling had just upgraded itself from apricot to grapefruit level. "How about you stay here and I find that house?"

  Sean stubbornl
y shook his head and stood. "Not without me. The last trouble we need is your getting lost."

  The way everything was going that was a very real possibility. "Good point, but I'll lead the way so you don't fall into any more holes."

  "And yourself?" he asked me.

  "I'm an expert at accidents, so I'll be fine."

  "Is that a degree offered by your colleges?" he teased. I was glad to see his humor had returned.

  "No, it's something you learn over a lifetime of clumsiness, and it's really useful to everyone except me." I marched forward and he followed.

  "Why is that?" he wondered.

  "We're the ones who made companies put on all those warning labels. Without us countless people would have died from eating tubes of glue and melting their faces off with hairdryers."

  I detected a hint of sarcasm in his tone when next he spoke. "We sad, careful people are grateful for the sacrifice of you experts of accidents."

  "We prefer the name Accidental Experts, or Your Royal Highness."

  "My apologies, Your Royal Accident."

  I snorted. "All right, I admit I walked into that one." We thrust and parried our way through conversation, and unknowingly the miles passed beneath our muddy feet and a house came in sight. There was even movement in the windows. "We're saved!" I cried out.

  Sean grabbed me before I could race to our salvation, and pulled himself ahead of me. "Perhaps I would be a better diplomat," he advised. I wasn't conceited enough to disagree, and we both squished our way past the rock fence and up to the simple, battered wood door. Sean rapped on the entrance, and in a moment a woman of middle age with a bright, friendly smile answered. There was a little girl attached to her apron.

  "What can I do for ye?" she asked us.

  "We were needing to use your phone," Sean replied. "You see, we had an accident and our car is stuck on a branch."

  "Ah'll be glad to let you use our phone, and if'n you're needing a mechanic there's none better than me husband," she told us. "He's not around now, but Ah could call him and he'll help you out. Lord, where are my manners? Come in out a the mud before you catch cold." She stepped aside and allowed us to enter the small but warm cottage.

  Sean turned and bowed his head to her. "We'd be much obliged for the help, and pay for the services," he promised.