Longing for Home: A Proper Romance

by Eden, Sarah M.

  “The last week or so.” She didn’t like it but wasn’t entirely certain the Reds meant to be hostile. They might just as easily be checking to see if she yet worked for Joseph Archer, to see what she was doing and where. “It seems whenever I am outside—laundry, washing windows, any of those things—someone from the Red Road passes by, and they always slow down and watch me.”

  The strangeness of such pointed scrutiny had quickly given way to discomfort. She didn’t like their staring at her, and she worried over their reasons.

  “This only happens here?” Tavish asked.

  Katie tried to busy herself with the laundry, but the disquiet in Tavish’s tone increased her own tension. “I am only ever here or down the Irish Road. I’ve never seen any Reds down there.”

  His gaze returned to the now empty stretch of road visible from the side yard where the clothesline hung. Katie let her eyes follow his. There was something quite unnerving in knowing half the town kept such a close watch on her.

  “And”—she pulled from her apron pocket the note she’d kept there—“a few days back, this was left at the kitchen door. I don’t know for certain it’s for me, but I suspect it is.”

  Tavish took it from her and nodded immediately. “’Tis your name written on it.”

  “Again, I’m only guessing, but I suspect it’s from the Red Road.”

  His expression grew instantly tight. He unfolded the note and made quick work of reading it.

  “Have you told Joseph about this?” Tavish asked, his words clipped.

  “Not yet. I kept hoping they would stop or I would find out why they were staring at me.” She shook off the tension coiling inside.

  “Where might we find Joseph about now, Katie?”

  She set the last piece of laundry in the basket. “We don’t need to bother him with this immediately.”

  “You blasted well should have bothered someone with this just as soon as it began.” He held out a hand to her. “Let’s go track him down.”

  “He’s likely out in the fields,” she warned. ’Twould be a long walk and no guarantee they’d find him.

  He took quick hold of her hand and tugged her in the direction of the waving grain out beyond the barn. He didn’t keep her hand in his, but he did walk close to her side. His company had generally been enjoyably friendly. But since the céilí two weeks earlier, when he’d sat at her side throughout the storytelling, giving her again and again a look she could only interpret as keen interest, Katie’d found herself a touch jittery around him. ’Twas as if her heart quite suddenly realized it was in danger.

  She’d told Biddy some weeks past that her heart was being tugged by the two men in her life. But having Tavish flip it clear around with a mere glance was worrisome. She could not fall fully in love with a man whose home was here.

  “Why did you not come tell me the Red Road’s been harassing you?” Tavish asked. “Or Biddy at least. She would’ve seen to it someone knew what was going on.”

  “They haven’t truly been harassing, only keeping a close eye.” So Katie had been telling herself.

  Tavish held up the note she’d given him. “’Tis more than that, Katie. ’Tis far more than that.”

  She had no answer to such a declaration. The note, as she’d guessed on her own, was not one of friendliness. Tavish’s tense posture and tone made her wonder just how threatening the words were.

  They made a slow walk along the side of the field, glancing down each row as they went.

  “I know the two sides don’t get along with each other, but I’ve not seen anything too alarming yet. There hasn’t been outright violence.”

  “A couple years back,” Tavish said, “the Irish children were physically prevented from going to town for school for several weeks until the Red Road was convinced to stand down. The windows of the mercantile have been shattered a time or two. Though no one knows just who did it, even the Irish admit it likely wasn’t the Red Road. Animals have been let loose down both roads.”

  Katie moved the smallest bit closer to him. She didn’t at all care for the picture he was painting. “And you think I should be worried about being barred from town or windows in the house being broken?”

  “No one would dare attack Joseph Archer’s home.”

  She swallowed against the thickening in her throat. “But you think they might attack me?”

  “That is a risk I’d rather not take.” He glanced down yet another row. “Joseph,” he called out.

  Sure enough, they’d found the man they were searching for. He seemed more than surprised to see them. After a few words with Finbarr, Joseph moved swiftly to where she and Tavish stood.

  “Is something the matter?” He clearly could sense the answer to that.

  “I feel silly, Tavish,” she murmured. “They’ve not actually done anything.”

  He was unmoved by her reluctance. “They’ve given you reason to worry, Katie. That is something, and it needs to be addressed.”

  Joseph looked from one to the other, brows knit, mouth turned down in a slight frown. “Someone is bothering you?”

  Bothering me? The phrase fit in its lack of urgency. She didn’t like that she’d pulled him away from his work for something as ridiculous as “people are looking at me and sending me unfriendly notes I cannot even read.”

  He was still watching her expectantly.

  “It’s nothing terrible.”

  Tavish jumped in immediately. “Do you have a bit of time, Joseph, to talk this over?”

  The men exchanged looks Katie couldn’t translate, except that they came to some kind of agreement. Joseph turned back toward the field and, cupping his hand around his mouth, called out to Finbarr that he would be down by the house.

  They began walking in that direction. Katie felt terribly foolish. “This wasn’t worth leaving your work.”

  Joseph addressed Tavish, not acknowledging Katie’s objection. “What has happened?”

  “The Red Road has taken to staring Katie down. She said when she’s outside doing her work and any Reds pass by, they slow down and watch her pointedly.”

  She walked alongside them, mutely shaking her head again and again. Joseph was a busy man, one for whom she’d caused enough difficulties already, and he was forced to listen to complaints that people were looking at her. Ridiculous. Embarrassing, if she were fully honest.

  “Do they say anything?” Joseph might have been asking either her or Tavish.

  Before she could answer, Tavish did. “No. They just move down the road unnaturally slow and watch her every move.”

  Joseph pulled off his wide-brimmed hat and wiped sweat from his brow, his mouth in a straight line. Tavish’s expression matched his almost perfectly.

  “And this happens often?” Joseph asked.

  “Apparently every time she’s outside and any of them pass by.”

  The men’s longer strides were quickly outpacing Katie’s shorter ones. “And,” Tavish continued, “it seems someone left this note for her on your back door a while back.”

  He handed it over to Joseph. ’Twas her note and she still had no idea what it said. Joseph didn’t seem inclined to tell her any more than Tavish had.

  They’d nearly reached the yard behind the house. Neither man had even looked back in her direction for several moments.

  “If either of you need me,” Katie said dryly, “I’ll just be over here folding laundry and waving to my slow-moving neighbors.”

  They both turned in her direction practically in unison. Tavish’s lips turned up a bit. Joseph looked a little more contrite.

  “We’ve been cutting you out, haven’t we?” Tavish motioned her up to where they’d stopped. “Come on, then. We’ll let you talk, word of honor.”

  “How long has this been happening?” Joseph asked.

  She untied the work apron she’d not taken off when they set out to find Joseph. “The better part of two weeks.”

  “Two weeks? And you didn’t tell me?” Joseph didn
’t sound at all happy about his ignorance.

  “She didn’t tell anyone.”

  Katie set her apron over the wood railing of the back porch. “Seeing as I had no idea what the note said—still don’t, if you go to that of it—I didn’t realize there was anything more to their watching than a collection of nosey neighbors. Does the note say they mean something by all their staring?”

  “It’s vague,” Joseph answered, “but it isn’t very friendly.”

  The note wasn’t the only thing being vague. Katie looked to Tavish, hoping he would share a bit more.

  “The note was unsigned and said, more or less, that our kind belongs on the Irish Road and nowhere else. It further promised that the Reds would not rest until you were either where you ought to be or gone from town entirely.”

  Katie didn’t like that at all. “And that is being vague, is it?”

  Tavish shrugged. “They didn’t say what they meant to do about it.”

  Joseph jumped back into the conversation. “If I had to guess, I would say what they mean to do is make Katie uncomfortably aware of the fact that they know exactly where she is at all times.”

  “By staring at me.” She’d been a bit unnerved by the scrutiny before. Realizing what the Reds meant by it increased her discomfort tenfold. “But what am I to do about it except ignore it until things are more settled? That is just what Mr. O’Connor said when Mr. Archibald made his complaints. We endure the endurable to keep the situation from getting out of hand. So long as there’s no danger of violence, I’d prefer to let it lie.”

  Tavish moved closer, looking her directly in the eye, his expression earnest. “You’re here every day, alone. There’s danger in that if the Red Road is already up to mischief.”

  Katie knew that well. She’d not truly recognized how alone she was day to day until the first time she’d felt the prickle on the back of her neck from a wagon of Reds watching every breath she took. And yet what could be done? She knew perfectly well how very busy everyone was. They hardly had time to sit about keeping an eye on her and her troubles.

  “What can be done?” She looked to Joseph.

  He didn’t answer immediately. He rubbed at the back of his neck, shifting from one foot to the next. His eyes scanned the empty yard. Katie distinctly heard him mutter a strong word. “I don’t like the idea of you being harassed when no one is here with you. But I really don’t think making it an issue at this point would be wise.”

  He paced away a few steps.

  “We could have someone from the Irish Road here every day, just by asking,” Tavish said. “Not one of us would like to see anything happen to Katie.”

  Joseph shook his head. Katie knew immediately why.

  “The Red Road would see that as an act of aggression.” Joseph paced back again. “Clearly”—he held up the note—“they would calm down considerably if Katie wasn’t living off the Irish Road. But I can’t have another housekeeper here in any less than six weeks, and even that is optimistic.”

  Katie’s heart dropped. She wasn’t taking in more than a fraction of the income she needed to support herself without her housekeeper’s salary. Yet her replacement was nearly on her way.

  “Joseph, might I bend your ear a piece?”

  He opened and closed his mouth several times in quick succession, pure confusion pulling at his features.

  Tavish chuckled. “She wants to talk with you a bit, Joseph.”

  Katie smiled in spite of her worried heart. She looked over at Tavish. “Sometimes I think no one speaks English around here but us.”

  He winked at her. She quickly pushed down a little leap in her heart. Her situation required her attention more than did her budding attachment to a certain blue-eyed Irishman, especially one she didn’t see often enough to be at all certain of his feelings for her.

  “Might I talk with you?” she asked Joseph again.

  He nodded, so she led him a few paces away. She could see Tavish was surprised that the conversation was meant to exclude him. She’d have to explain afterward that the topic was a business one.

  “You said it’d take at least six weeks more to have a new housekeeper here,” Katie pushed right into her topic. “I know the Red Road has given you grief over my being here, but so long as they realize you’re working on a replacement, they’ll likely be appeased.”

  He watched her without comment. She hoped that was a good sign.

  Before she asked her favor, she needed to give him her best arguments. “I’ve been doing some figuring, and I’m bringing in less than fifty cents above what I’m spending each week on my baking. I came to Hope Springs expecting two hundred dollars a year, and I accepted when it was cut to one hundred. But, as near as I can tell, where I am now, I’ll only make about twenty dollars in an entire twelvemonth.”

  She could see her figuring wasn’t in error. Joseph didn’t disagree with her numbers. More than that, he looked concerned.

  “I cannot possibly rent a room and pay for the use of someone’s oven and the fuel to heat it, as well as feed myself on twenty dollars a year, Joseph. It can’t be done.”

  He quickly shook his head. “Your business is young. You’ll gain customers over time.”

  She had thought of that. “That argument won’t hold. The town is small, and I can only sell to half of it.”

  An overly warm bit of wind blew hard against them both. Tavish yet sat just out of hearing range, watching the conversation closely. Katie kept all signs of her growing worry tucked out of sight. She’d already come across as vulnerable to them, with the Red Road staring her into fits of discomfort and leaving her notes of warning. She’d not add to that by breaking down over this.

  “You’re saving them money,” Joseph said. “Eventually the Irish families will buy every loaf they eat from you.”

  “Eventually, perhaps. But I have to figure ‘now.’ And the reality is, I haven’t the money to support myself yet.” Katie clutched her hands in front of her, attempting to keep herself calm. She was about to ask an enormous favor and wasn’t at all comfortable with it. “I hoped you might delay bringing in a replacement, even just for an extra month or two, so I’d have time to save a bit of my salary to live on while I’m waiting for things to turn around.”

  She could see resistance in his face and rushed on before he could voice it.

  “I’m a hard worker, Joseph, and I’ve done good work for you.”

  “Of course you have. I’m not faulting your work.”

  Press on. Press on. “I know the Red Road is unhappy, but it would only be a bit longer.”

  “The Red Road’s displeasure is great enough already.” He turned away, to pace, she’d guess.

  Katie stepped around him, keeping herself in his line of sight. Hopefully she’d be harder to argue with if he had to do it to her face. “They have already accepted that you need time to bring someone new here. A little delay would be understandable.”

  But he was shaking his head. “The Red Road has made perfectly clear they are running out of patience. They will not be easily convinced to wait out a further delay.”

  “They’d believe it coming from you, Joseph. And we could make absolutely certain they were aware of my efforts to find a new situation on the Irish Road. That would keep things calm, I’m certain it would.” It simply had to work. She didn’t know what else to do, how she’d live.

  “That might be,” he conceded. “But the answer is still no, Katie. I need a new housekeeper, and I need to get her here sooner rather than later.”

  If he thought the Red Road would accept the delay, why was he so anxious? “You said you had no complaint with my work.”

  “I don’t.” But he wasn’t looking her in the eye.

  “Then your complaint is with me, personally?”

  He started to say something but shut his mouth firmly. He turned away again.

  “Then it’s me you want gone, not simply the trouble an Irish employee is bringing you?” As painful as the idea
was, it made sense. He hadn’t tossed Finbarr out. She had come up short in his estimation somehow.

  “I think it would be best for everyone if I had a new housekeeper as soon as I can get one here.” He spoke quietly but firmly.

  The words sliced through her with all the devastating precision of a knife. She’d worked tirelessly in his home. She’d expertly seen to the mess she had been handed. In the weeks she’d been there, she had started to feel like an accepted part of their family life. Had she misunderstood so entirely?

  “You’ll not even grant me a couple of extra weeks? A few days, even?”

  He shook his head no.

  Katie’s throat tightened painfully. With effort, she managed to speak. “I’ll set myself more earnestly to finding a new situation.” She took a quick breath and set her shoulders. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have laundry to take in.”

  She quickly spun about, making certain her face was entirely hidden. She pressed her lips together hard, trying to breathe calmly through her nose. Each step took effort. He wanted her to leave as soon as possible. She’d thought herself more a part of the family’s life than that. She thought she’d become valuable to them.

  Something hurt deeper than even those realizations. Perhaps she had something of the answer she’d been searching for with him. The tiny bits of affection she’d sensed sat firmly on her side and hers alone. Katie pushed the thought away fiercely. Evaluating her pain never made it go away.

  She pulled clothes off the line, folding them in jerky movements. Fear for her future mingled with regret at her abrupt dismissal. And she yet had the Red Road’s animosity to deal with.

  She told herself ’twasn’t anything near as bad as the many crises she’d passed through. Still, pain clenched her chest.

  “Katie?” Tavish’s whisper came from directly behind her.

  She hadn’t heard him approach. His hands clasped her arms just below the shoulders. She kept a distance between them, not ready to let herself trust him or any other person she’d come to care about. In that moment, trust meant vulnerability, and she’d been hurt enough already.