He and Aoife didn’t mention art or the priesthood, or the future—or the past.
When they reached the ruins, they walked up the hill to the Celtic crosses with their view of the sea. “I’ve loved this spot since I was a girl,” Aoife said. The wind whipped her dark hair into her face as she turned to him. “I hope it brings you the same peace and clarity it’s brought me time and time again.”
“You only painted it that one time, in the unsigned landscape that was stolen with the cross and the two Jack Butler Yeats paintings and wasn’t returned.”
She sighed out at the gray sky and sea. “Somehow I knew it was for him.”
Finian realized she didn’t mean Oliver York, the wealth Brit, the mythologist, the martial arts expert, the gentleman farmer, the wily art thief now in love with his childhood playmate. She meant the eight-year-old boy who’d watched his parents murdered in front of him.
“Stay here awhile,” Aoife said. “I’ll have tea and soup hot when you get back.”
She left him there. He watched her almost skip down the hill to the lane. She knew every tuft of grass out here, all the spots that could trip her up. In a moment, she disappeared past the gravestones of the old church ruin, through the greenery that covered a stone wall.
Finian touched his fingers to a bell carved into one of the crosses. Saint Declan’s bell, which, according to legend, had led him through a raging storm at sea to this part of Ireland.
Finian decided he wouldn’t think too much about what was next for him, beyond tea, soup and a hot fire. For now, he was home.
* * *
Author Note
Rival’s Break is the ninth book and the tenth title (including a novella) in the Sharpe & Donovan series, and it was as much fun to write as the first, Saint’s Gate. Since then, I’ve received countless comments from readers who love diving into this world of Emma Sharpe, Colin Donovan and their family and friends. I’m humbled and grateful.
In researching Rival’s Break, I consulted my niece, Sarah Josti, who graciously shared her medical expertise with me. My friend John Moriarty in southwest Ireland once again pointed me in the right direction on a number of questions, from whiskey to mushrooms. I once almost took a mushroom foraging class in Ireland, but it was a rainy November day and I sat by the fire instead and read! I appreciate the online sources I consulted on wild mushrooms, including the North American Mycological Society and the Journal of Wild Mushrooming. Any mistakes and liberties are mine.
New to Sharpe & Donovan? You can find more information on my website, CarlaNeggers.com, and sign up for my newsletter. Finian Bracken appears in every story, including the prequel novella, Rock Point, and our elusive art thief is first referred to in Declan’s Cross, the third book in the series. We meet Henrietta Balfour in Thief’s Mark. The series settings of Boston, Maine (including Mike Donovan’s Bold Coast), Ireland, London and the Cotswolds are ones I love to visit personally...and quietly. I’ll leave the villains to fiction!
Many thanks, and happy reading,
Carla
CarlaNeggers.com
ISBN-13: 9781488035098
Rival’s Break
Copyright © 2019 by Carla Neggers
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