I sent her a text right before we came down, a simple How r u?
I haven’t gotten a response.
“She’s fine,” I say, even though I don’t feel that she is at all.
I have to trust Keenan. He put a guard on her, and he says she’s under surveillance.
Keenan clears his throat. “Thank you all for coming tonight. We need to discuss what’s happened here recently at our home, and where we go from here.”
Everyone quiets.
“We received word, more like a rumor we could call it, the night of the fire, that the Scots in the north were causing trouble. Malachy heard from insiders at the school that they were on the move to Ballyhock.” A low murmur of surprise ripples through the crowd. “As most of you know, the men of the mountains don’t come to Ballyhock for naught.”
Maeve shakes her head. “I’ve been here for thirty-nine years, Keenan. They’ve only come once, to witness a wedding at Holy Family. One of their own married a local.”
“Aye,” Father Finn chimes in. “’Tis the only time I saw one of them myself.”
He knows everyone in Ballyhock and beyond, and though he doesn’t spy for us and likes to keep the church and family distinctly separate, there isn’t a person he doesn’t know, or a birth or death he isn’t privy to.
“It’s why we thought there’d be trouble,” Keenan says. “But upon further investigation, doesn’t seem like that was the case at all.”
I raise my fingers toward the ceiling, a signal that I need to speak.
“Tully?”
“The night of the attack, I was coming back from Ballyhock centre. I’d heard the Scots were causing trouble, and thought I’d confirmed that suspicion when I saw them on their bikes, all headed toward the mansion.”
“Not sure it was the Scots that came here, but it may have been,” Lachlan says. He looks sharply at Keenan. This is where he can’t speak freely. Lachlan was one that removed the bodies, and he doesn’t want to say so in front of the women and Father Finn. “Some of their ink was consistent with the men of the north.”
“Aye,” Keenan says. “Which corroborates with what I heard as well.”
He gives us a minute as the low murmur of surprise ripples through the room.
He clears his throat, and everyone looks his way. The only sound in the room the gentle clicking of glass as the staff removes our dishes.
“Father Finn’s had a visitor. Father?”
Father Finn stands, and walks to the door that leads from the dining room to a sitting room.
“Come in, Mary.”
I start in amazement when a woman walks in the room. There are audible gasps all around us, murmured exclamations. I stare myself, in amazement.
She looks exactly like McKenna, though distinctly different. She’s the same height, has the same eyes, and even wears similar glasses, but her hair’s a shade lighter, and she doesn’t walk with a limp.
People begin to whisper, and some eyes go to me. I sit in silence, waiting to hear who this is and how she impacts why we’re here.
Father Finn ushers her in like a grandfather, a gentle hand on her shoulder. Lachlan rises and pulls out a chair for her to sit beside Fiona, but she stands.
“I’ll stand, thank you,” she says. My God, even her voice is like McKenna’s.
“Mary came to me recently and told me she’d heard news,” Finn says. “Mary, can you tell us who you are?”
She nods. “Aye, sir. My name’s Mary Fleming, and I’m…I’m now housekeeper for the Cowen Clan.” She’s more timid than McKenna, that’s immediately evident. And perhaps a bit older, but not by much. It must’ve taken a lot of courage for her to come here, to tell us whatever she’s come to say, for her hand trembles a bit as she speaks, and she looks as if she’s facing a roomful of jurors.
Her eyes rove over the table and she gives us a gentle smile. “The Cowens saved my life, and for that I’ve dedicated my life in service to them.”
How does she fit in with what happened here?
“It… came to my attention some two years ago who my birth mother was. I knew she was a woman in Ireland, and that she’d married one of the infamous McCarthys.” She smiles, and a few at the table smile back. “Seems I’ve a sister in Ireland but I haven’t found her yet.” Keenan’s eyes come to me, a silent question in his eyes, but I shake my head. I knew nothing of this woman.
She continues. “And I haven’t found me mum. I came to Father Finn, since Leith Cowen told me he’d know where to go.”
Keenan nods. “Aye, we can help you. Go on, Mary.”
“Mr. Cowen sent guards with me, to keep me safe.” Her voice drops. “And on the first night I came to Ballyhock, my guard was attacked.” We listen in silence. “I alerted Mr. Cowen, of course, and they came immediately to my aid. Sent a heavier guard.” Her eyes go wide, her cheeks flushed pink. “You have to understand, they don’t leave the highlands, Mr. McCarthy. Not ever. They came because I needed them, and when they came, they investigated the murder of their guards.”