The Last Bride in Ballymuir (9 page)

“
Well, you’re here early,”
Evie said, pulling a bar stool so close to his that they touched.
At his blank expression, her eyes grew harder. “You were to meet me
here, remember?”

He did. Now. The bartender
set a platter of food in front of him, the greasy scent of the
chips tickling his
nose.

“
The pint, Rory,” Evie
snapped as the man turned away.

“
It’s settling out, same as
always.”

Amused, Michael watched as the man slowed his
pace to a snail’s on the way back to the taps. After bolting down a
bite of the thick sandwich, he asked Evie, “‘Meeting friends
tonight?”

Her glance flicked over him. “Just one.”

She ordered food and they ate without much
talk between them. At one point or another, his whiskey glass was
refilled and quickly emptied. Time passed but his mood stayed as
dark as ever. Eventually they played a few games of darts, came
back, and drank some more.

Michael’s concentration
began to slip. The pub was starting to fill, but it wasn’t just the
noise and laughter rising. Evie’s hand kept traveling insidiously
up his thigh. With unwelcome results, too. He frowned at her and
she gave a smile as content as a cat with cream. She’d probably
been teasing
men
since she’d first popped breasts. He knew it—hated it—yet
parts of him didn’t care. Not one damn bit.

“
I want to dance,” Evie
said, leaning closer. Even over
the
thin
whitish curl of his cigarette smoke he
could smell her cloying perfume.

“
There’s no
music.”

She
stood and tugged him off his stool. “Doesn’t
matter.”

He supposed it didn’t, and if this small
thing would make her settle down and leave him be, he was all for
it. But then she towed him to the long, narrow hallway between the
men’s and women’s washrooms.

“
Here?” he asked giving a
dubious glance at the close quarters.

Wrapping her arms around his
neck, Evie launched herself against him. Unprepared, Michael
staggered back against the wood paneled wall. As
her
mouth anchored over his, he discovered
that he hadn’t managed to drown his sense of discretion,
either. He reached back to untwine her hands from
his
neck, and wrenched his mouth free at
the same time.

“
Don’t
tell me you’re not wanting this,” Evie said nudging her
breasts up against him.

He clamped his hands around her upper arms
and tried to fend her off. He’d have better luck holding an eel.
“There’s wanting, and then there’s doing.”

She worked her way in closer. “Then you do
the wanting, and I’ll take care of the doing.”

Persistent, she was, and too busy with her
seeking hands and attitude. But he’d been raised never to insult a
woman. “That’s a fine offer, but—”

He was cut off by the sound of someone
clearing her throat with loud intent. He glanced up and saw Vi
bearing down on him. Inconsistent as it was, he was delighted to
have her come tidy up this bad moment for him. He wasn’t drunk, but
he was staggering tired.

Giving the clinging Evie a
scathing glance, Vi said
to him, “You might
think of having that removed.”

“
I’ve been trying to.
Stubborn, though.”

“
This isn’t a laughing
matter.”

“
There you’re wrong, sweet
Vi,” he said. Miss Nolan was laughable indeed when measured against
the rest of his woes. He unreeled Evie and patted her
on her round bum. “Go on. Time for a family
meeting.”

With a toss of her head, Evie sniffed, “I
don’t like being treated this way.”

“
Then you’d best learn to
behave, yourself,” Vi chided her. “Now run along, Evie, before you
make me lose my patience.”

Evie spared Michael one last pouting face,
then sulked her way back to the front room.

Michael leaned against the wall to let a
woman edge by on her way to the loo. He gave his sister a long,
curious look. “Not that I don’t appreciate being rescued, but what
are you doing here? I thought we’d agreed no spying.”

“
I’m not spying, you big
oaf. I come an hour or two most Monday nights for the
sessiun.
Though why is it
when you’re left to your own devices, I always find you with a
woman in your arms?”

“
The Kilbride charm?” At her
frustrated hiss, he
came as close to
laughing as he had since the Garda’s
visit.
“No?” he asked. “But I have to point out that I was in Evie’s arms,
and not the other way around.”

“
Whoever was doing the
holding, have a care.” Vi glanced back up the hallway. “Anyway,
that’s not why I’m hiding back here with you. Tell me what went on
with Gerry Flynn—the Garda—today.”

“
How’d you know about that,
with you not spying on me?”

Vi waved aside the question. “Kylie O’Shea,
but we haven’t time to discuss that right now. Flynn, what happened
with him?”

“
Just a friendly greeting,”
Michael said with a bitter turn of his mouth. “Let me know they’d
be keeping an eye on me.”

Vi gave another glance up
the hallway. Slowly the
message came to
Michael that she was nervous about
something.

“
What is it?” he
asked.

“
Flynn walked in the door
the same time I did. If you were anyone other than a Kilbride, I’d
suggest that you be on your way now, but I know better than to
commit that sin. Just be careful, Michael. He’s not been with the
Gardai long, and is arrogant with power.”

Masking the fury—and the guilt—that his life
had come to this again, Michael shrugged. “He’s got no power over
me. I just want to finish my drink and leave.”

“
I’d rather you left now,”
she said, her love for him plain in her eyes. “No good can come of
this.”

“
Don’t you see? If I’m to
cower every time Flynn
comes around, I’d
just as well go stick myself back in
that
cell. Now meet with your friends, and if you’re of a mind to do
anything for me, sing me a song. It’s been years since I’ve heard
you.”

Vi went up on tiptoe and
brushed a kiss against
his cheek. “You
smell of whiskey and cigarettes,” she said, wrinkling her nose. She
leaned closer, then with
a disgusted little
sound stepped back. “And Evie Nolan, too. Even a walk home in the
rain won’t wash that away.”

“
And those are the lesser of
my sins today,” he joked in a half-hearted manner.

“
Then don’t tell me about
the rest,” his sister ordered.

Michael followed Vi back to the pub’s main
room. The local musicians had drawn themselves into a circle just
beneath the half-curtained front windows. Elderly women with their
hair fussed and lacquered sat shoulder-to-shoulder with plain-faced
farmers. The serious musicians sat head down tuning their
instruments. The more congenial laughed with their mates.

Nowhere did Michael see Flynn, though today
he’d focused more on the uniform than the face. Evie was easier to
find; she waited for him at the bar. He pulled out his stool and
bought a few inches of space between himself and Evie’s wandering
hands.

“
She’s a meddling bitch,
your sister.”

“
She’s—” Ready to defend Vi,
Michael trailed off when he spotted a willowy figure at the end of
the bar.

Kylie wasn’t
sure
what got her
attention, there in the unfamiliar laughter, noise, and smoke. It
might have been Evie Nolan’s shrill voice carrying her way, or the
feel of Michael’s eyes on her. Whatever it was, she wanted to turn
and flee.

She wasn’t meant to be in this foreign world.
She hadn’t missed the surprised and disapproving comments when
she’d arrived. And she wasn’t meant to watch Evie lean toward
Michael and tug his face in her direction as if she owned the
man.

But she couldn’t leave
without ruining Breege’s night. Resigned to staying, Kylie sipped
the pretty colored drink she’d ordered, then winced at its dreadful
taste. No wonder Rory O’Connor had asked her if she might not be
wanting something a
bit plainer. Too late
now, just as it was too late to pre
tend she
hadn’t seen Michael. But there was some merit in a tactical
retreat; she’d just slink back over by Breege and the
others.

Kylie was halfway to the front of the pub
when she saw that the others included Vi Kilbride. She turned back
to the bar. While she aimed for the far end, the press of people
around her sent her toward the only open spot. Right next to
Michael Kilbride.

Keeping her eyes averted, Kylie set down her
drink. A large, warm hand closed over hers.

“
I know you saw
me.”

She tugged her hand free. “I did, but you
were looking busy.”

She nodded to Evie Nolan, who had leaned
forward on the bar to scowl at her from Michael’s other side. Their
homeland might be lacking snakes, but it held its share of venom,
Kylie thought as she took in Evie’s flat eyes.

“
Never too busy to say hello
to a friend,” Michael said in a way that sounded as though he’d put
in a long day drinking. The thought unsettled her even more. Far
too many of her mornings had been spent nursing her father back to
the living after one of his infamous “investor
meetings.”

“
I won’t be keeping you from
... well, whatever,” she said, trying very hard not to glance
Evie’s way. “But I do want to thank you for what you did on the
playground today. You’re quite the hero for rescuing Alan ... at
least, that’s what the children are saying,” she stumbled
on.

“
Thank the children for me.”
His green eyes remained perceptive, unclouded by whatever he’d
spent his day doing. Maybe she’d been too hasty, assuming he’d
drunk more than his share.

“
Would you sit with me a
while?” he asked. “Please?”

A note in his
voice—yearning, yet hesitant—tugged
at her
notoriously soft heart. She was about to say yes when she noticed
Evie’s crimson-painted nails posses
sively
curled around his arm. It was too much for her, one more confusing
detail in this odd landscape.

“
I’ll leave you to your
friend,” Kylie said, then pushed her way back through the crowd and
away
from Michael Kilbride. As she neared
Breege, a hand
settled onto her shoulder.
Praying it wasn’t Michael, she spun around.

“
We need to have a word,
Kylie,” Gerry Flynn said.

This was all the night needed.

“
Another time,” she
answered, then tried to hurry past. He stayed her, keeping his hand
wrapped around her upper arm. She was forced to stop
and
look at
him.

It amazed her how a man could change while
his face remained essentially the same. Gerry still had hair that
was not quite red, yet not quite blond. His eyes were the same
almost-gray they’d always been. What had changed from the boy she’d
known was the light that used to dance in those eyes. He’d always
been full of laughter and smiles, just a bit of a devil when they’d
been in school together. Now he was hard. From the grip of his hand
to the set of his mouth, he had no lightness about him.

“
That
man—Kilbride—you need to keep away from him.”

After seeing Michael with
Evie, she hadn’t consid
ered doing anything
else, but Gerry’s tone angered her. “Are you giving me an
order?”

“
More a word of friendly
advice.”

“
You’re not looking very
friendly this evening, Gerry,” she said as sweetly as she could.
“But thank you just the same.”

His thick brows drew together over eyes
carrying an edge of possessiveness that frightened her. “I’m
telling you this for your own good. He’s evil, and you don’t want
to be dragged down with him.” His fingers closed tighter. “You need
someone to take care of you. To watch over you.”

She wrenched free, but kept a forced smile on
her face. “I can take care of myself.”

Gerry muttered something under his breath and
shoved off. As her heart slowed, she wondered what incomprehensible
quirk of the human mind allowed Gerry to think she’d ever let him
care for her. Not after he’d so thoroughly abandoned her years
before.

Relieved to see that Vi was
deep in conversation with others, Kylie sat down on a tall stool
next to
Breege and waited for her frayed
nerves to settle. The
music began, slow at
first as one musician then the next picked up the tune. She tried
to take pleasure from it, but her gaze kept returning to
Michael.

It was no hard thing to spot him now that the
crowd had settled. Though people were tight up to each other all
the way down the bar, there was a telling gap around him. Even Evie
had wandered off somewhere. From her vantage point at an angle from
him, Kylie watched as he used the broad mirror to observe the
activity around him. A whisper of sorrow touched her soul at the
lonely sight.

Her attention briefly slid
back to the musicians. Showing all the concentration of a virtuoso,
Breege played a brisk rhythm with a pair of spoons. The music grew
more raucous, and even the patrons at
the
bar turned around to give an ear.
All except Michael, Kylie noticed. He still watched through the
mirror.