‘Aidan, fräulein, it is true. The samples prove it. Gott im Himmel. We have found oil.’
Aidan paled and stiffened. I gasped aloud, and Lily let go of me and clapped her hands.
‘We don’t think it’s a deep pool that could give us a gusher, but if it’s wide enough then it could flow for years.’
Suddenly Hans stopped talking. He turned around and looked back at the well. A tremor had begun to shake the ground. I thought it might be an earthquake and I clung to Aidan’s arm. Then a sound, like an animal’s growl, rumbled near the well. It grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening. Aidan pushed me back roughly.
‘Get away,’ he shouted.
I ran with Lily to the edge of the field, while Aidan and Hans raced towards the well. When I looked back the derrick had begun to shake violently, sending shards of metal everywhere. As it did so, the roughnecks leaped off the plank, and site workers started running in all directions. Hans and Aidan stood as if paralysed. The onlookers watched and waited. Then, without warning, a widening column of black liquid thundered out of the well with an ear-splitting roar. As it rose into the sky, silhouetted against the setting sun, the crowd murmured in awe as if witnessing a miracle.
Mayhem erupted. People cheered and wept and applauded, children squealed, gunfire exploded, and church bells began to ring. From somewhere in the distance came the sound of mariachi music. Townspeople ran towards the well and pranced around, wiping their oil-covered hands on their heads as if in baptism. I stood, not knowing what to do next. I was afraid to go back to the well, when Aidan had ordered me to leave. Suddenly I was grabbed from behind. I swung around and there were Mayflower and Nora.
‘C’mon,’ shouted Mayflower above the din, ‘don’t stand here like dummies.’
Nora’s eyes were wide. ‘What in the name of God is happening?’ she said, blessing herself.
‘It’s Daddy’s well,’ shouted Lily. ‘There’s oil in it.’ She grasped Nora’s hand. ‘Come on, Miss Nora.’
‘But . . .’ Nora hesitated, looking down at her shoes. ‘Ah, sure I’ll never see the like of this again!’ she said and kicking off her shoes ran barefoot with Lily towards the well.
The oil was still pumping out, the plume well over one hundred feet. Aidan and Hans were covered in the black sticky liquid. Aidan looked stunned, while Hans was jumping up and down. He ran over to Mayflower, grabbed her around the waist, and began dancing. Lily ran to Aidan, who picked her up and swung her around. He set her down and extended his hand to me. I walked into his embrace.
‘There’s money to drill a hundred new wells now,’ shouted Mayflower.
Aidan turned sombre. ‘Unfortunately, Mr McCabe has signed his lease over to Sullivan. We can’t drill any more wells on his property. But my father-in-law can and will get rich.’ He took a deep breath. ‘But we must thank God for what we have.’ He looked at me and Lily.
Nora looked from me to Aidan. Then she let go of Lily’s hand and pulled a paper out of her bag. She held it out to Aidan.
‘’Tis the lease Mr McCabe signed,’ she said. ‘I never gave it to Sullivan or Kearney. I’m sure Mr McCabe would be very glad to tear it up.’
We stood in silence for a second, before Hans and Mayflower let out loud whoops and Lily cheered. Aidan went towards Nora and took the lease from her.
‘Thank you, Nora,’ he said. ‘I see now that you and Delia are true sisters.’
I walked over to Nora and we hugged each other through tears.
Hans and Mayflower began to dance again, and Lily twirled Nora around. Aidan turned to me and bowed.
‘May I have this dance, Miss Sweeney?’
‘Why of course, Mr O’Hanlon.’
As we danced, oil rained down on us, painting rainbows on the ground beneath our feet.
DELIA
The day after the oil find, I stood with Nora at the train station.
‘Do you have to go so soon? Can’t you stay another few days?’
She shook her head. ‘’Tis best I go now.’ She smiled wanly. ‘And, besides, I’d never survive in Texas. ’Tis hot as hell, and it’s filled with dangerous men and dangerous animals. Could you picture me up to my knees in snakes and armadillos and every other class of vermin?’
I smiled at the image she’d painted. Then another thought struck me.
‘Could you not go somewhere besides New York? I’m afraid Sullivan might find you and take it out on you for the way things turned out. He’s not the man to be on the wrong side of.’
Nora waved her hand. ‘That oul’ bastard? I’m not afraid of him any more. He’ll be lucky if they don’t send – what is the word – a posse up to New York to give him a taste of Texas justice.’
I laughed. ‘Would serve him right! What will you do in New York?’
‘I don’t know. But what I do know now is that there’s more to me than just an empty-headed girl who wants nothing more than to land a rich husband. That’s all Ma thought I was good for. Now I have my own view of myself. I may not be as well educated as you, Delia, but I have a knack for business, especially selling. I could sell candles to a blind man.’ She smiled. ‘I think I might try my luck. There’s bound to be plenty of opportunities in New York.’
‘Will you see Dom?’
Her face clouded. ‘Ah, sure at one time my pride would never have let me go near him again, but if what you say about the Kathleen one is true . . .’
‘It is,’ I said, taking her hand. ‘Please promise me you’ll give him another chance.’
She smiled. ‘I suppose I’m saying I want an adventure, just like you always wanted, but now I’ve seen you and Aidan together, I realize that all the adventure in the world is a bit empty without someone to really love and who loves you back.’
‘If we’re lucky, we can have both.’
‘Aye.’
‘We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Nora?’
‘We have.’
As the train steamed out of the station, Nora opened the window of her compartment and leaned out, waving. I waved back until the steam from the engine enveloped her in a fog. I thought back to another time when we were at a train station, back in Donegal when we were setting out for America. Who could have known what awaited us? Disappointment and sorrow, and self-doubt that nearly destroyed us. But we also found the courage and strength to become who we were meant to be. And we finally found each other.
‘Good luck, my sister,’ I whispered, ‘and God speed.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks to my US agents, Denise Marcil and Anne-Marie O’Farrell, of the Marcil-O’Farrell Literary Agency in New York, whose steadfast guidance and friendship has sustained my writing career since the beginning. Thanks also to my UK agent, Anna Carmichael, of the Abner-Stein Agency in London. I also want to thank Susannah Hamilton and Poppy Mostyn-Owen at Corvus, as well as Nicky Lovick, for the attention and insightful editing they have given to this book.
A special thanks goes to my dear friends, and ‘first’ readers, David Hancock and Bernard Silverman for giving so generously of their time. And an extra thanks to David – a self-described Titanic maven – for keeping me straight on all things Titanic, right down to the menus.
No acknowledgement would be complete without a shoutout to my friends and staff at the infamous Lucky’s Café in Dallas – known collectively as the ‘Lucky’s Gang’ who have cheered me on throughout the writing of all four books to date.
And, as always, I am grateful for the love and support of my dear sister, Connie Mathers, of Meigh, County Armagh, who always keeps a welcoming light in the window for me.
Finally, I would like to honor all the souls who were lost on the Titanic, especially the eleven young people from the village of Lahardane in County Mayo, whose dreams of a new life were never fulfilled.
Patricia Falvey
Dallas, Texas
June 2019
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