He glanced over his shoulder. “What’s wrong with now? We’re both of us here.”
“I’d rather do it when you’re not so busy. I’ll come back after the lunch shift if that suits you.”
“You know where to find me, don’t you?” He set the stew and the tea on a tray.
“I do, yes.” She took the tray from him and carried it out to the back booth where her father waited.
“Here we are, Dad. Stew hot from the pot.”
“And smelling like heaven.”
Mick O’Toole was a bantam of a man, small and spare of build with a thick thatch of wiry hair the color of sand and lively eyes that drifted like the sea between green and blue.
He had a laugh like a braying donkey, hands like a surgeon’s, and a soft spot for romantic tales.
He was the love of Brenna’s life.
“It’s good to be warm and snug now, isn’t it, Mary Brenna?”
“That it is.” She spooned up stew and blew on it carefully, though the scent of it made her want to risk a scalded tongue.
“And now that we are, and about to have our bellies filled as well, why don’t you tell me what’s worrying your mind.”
He saw everything, Brenna thought. That was sometimes a comfort, and other times a bit of a nuisance. “It’s not a worry so much. Do you know how you told us what happened when you were a young man and your grandmother died?”
“I do, yes. I was right here in Gallagher’s Pub. Of course, that was when Aidan’s father manned the bar, before he and his wife took off for America. You weren’t more than a wish in my heart and a smile in your mother’s eye. There I was, back where young Shawn is right now, in the kitchen. I was fixing the sink in there, as it had a slow and steady leak that finally made Gallagher give me a whistle.”
He paused to sample the stew, dabbing his mouth with his napkin, as his wife was fierce on table manners and had trained him accordingly.
“And as I was on the floor, I looked over and there was my grandma, wearing a flowered dress and a white apron. She smiled at me, but when I tried to speak to her, she shook her head. Then lifting a hand in a kind of farewell, she vanished. So I knew at that moment she’d passed over and that what I’d seen had been the spirit of her come to say good-bye. For I had been her favorite.”
“I don’t mean to make you sad,” Brenna murmured.
“Well.” Mick let out a breath. “She was a fine woman, and lived a good and long life. But it’s left to us still living to miss those who aren’t.”
Brenna remembered the rest of the story. How her father had left his work and run down to the little house where his grandmother, two years a widow, lived. And he found her in her kitchen, sitting at the table in her flowered dress and white apron. She’d died quiet and peaceful.
“And sometimes,” Brenna said carefully, “those who pass on miss others. This morning, in Faerie Hill Cottage, I saw Lady Gwen.”
Mick nodded, and shifted closer to listen as Brenna told him.
“Poor lass,” he said when she was finished. “It’s a long time to wait for things to come ’round for you.”
“Some of us do a lot of waiting.” Brenna glanced over as Shawn came out with a tray piled with food. “I want to speak to Shawn about this when the pub quiets down a bit. Darcy says there’s an outlet up in her rooms that isn’t working proper. I think I’ll go see to that after we’ve had our meal here, then take some time to talk to Shawn. Unless there’s something else you have for me to do today.”
“Today, tomorrow.” Mick lifted his shoulders. “What we don’t get to at one time, we’ll get to another. I’ll just take myself up to the cliff hotel and see if they’ve decided on which room they want renovated next.” He winked at his daughter. “We could have ourselves a nice piece of work there for the whole of the winter. Where it’s warm and it’s dry.”
“And where you can sneak down and check on Mary Kate in the offices where she’s fiddling with a computer all day.”
Mick grinned sheepishly. “I wouldn’t call it checking so much. But I’m grateful she decided to take a job close to home since she’s done with university. I expect she’ll find work that suits her better in Dublin or Waterford City before much longer. My chicks are all flying the coop.”
“I’m still roosting. And you’ll have Alice Mae for years yet.”
“Ah, but I miss the days when my five girls went tripping over me every time I turned around. Here’s Maureen a married woman, and Patty going for a bride come spring. Don’t know what I’ll do, darling, when you hitch yourself to a man and leave me.”
“You’re well stuck with me, Dad.” She crossed her booted feet as she finished off her stew. “Men don’t lose their heads or their hearts over women like me.”
> “The right one will.”
It took all her effort not to let her gaze wander toward the kitchen. “I won’t be holding my breath. Besides, we’re partners, aren’t we, now?” She looked up and grinned at him. “So man or no man, it’s always O’Toole and O’Toole.”
Which, Brenna thought as she used Darcy’s bathroom to wash away the rest of the soot, was just the way she wanted it. She had work that pleased her, and the freedom to come and go that no woman could manage with a man attached to her. She had her room at home as long as she wanted it. The companionship of family and friends. She’d leave the fussing with keeping a house and pleasing a husband to her sisters Maureen and Patty. Just as she’d leave office work and marking her time by a clock to Mary Kate.
All she needed to get by were her tools and her lorry.
And her wanting Shawn Gallagher brought her little but frustration and annoyance. She imagined that one day, eventually, it would pass.
Knowing Darcy well, Brenna made certain she cleaned up every spot of dirt. She left the little white sink gleaming and used her own rags to dry her hands and face rather than the frilly fingertip towels Darcy had on the rod. Which, to Brenna’s mind, were a complete waste of fabric, since no one who really needed to use them would dare.
Life would be simpler if everyone bought black towels. Then no one would shriek and curse when their fluffy white ones ended up grubby.
She spent a quiet few minutes replacing the broken outlet in the living area with the new box she’d brought along. She was just screwing on the cover when Darcy came in.
“I was hoping you’d get to that. It was irritating.” Darcy dumped her tip money in what she called her wish jar. “Oh, Aidan said to tell you that he and Jude want to have some work done in what will be the baby’s room. I’m going over to see Jude now, if you want to come along and see what she has in mind.”
“I’ve something to do first, but you can tell her I’ll come ’round in a bit.”
“Damn it, Brenna! You’ve left dirty boot prints all over the floor here.”
Brenna winced and hurried up with the screws. “Well, I’m sorry about that, Darcy, but I cleaned the sink.”
“Well, now you can clean the floor as well. I’m not scrubbing up behind you. Why the devil didn’t you use the loo in the pub? It’s Shawn’s week to clean up there.”
“I didn’t think of it. Stop bitching about it. I’ll see to it before I go, and you’re very welcome for the electrical work I’ve just done for you.”
“Thanks for that.” Darcy came back out, pulling on a leather jacket she’d splurged on as a Christmas gift for herself. “I’ll see you at Jude’s, then.”
“I suppose,” Brenna muttered, annoyed with the idea of washing the bathroom floor.
She muttered her way through the chore too, then cursed viciously when she noted she’d left little clumps of dirt and dried mud across the living room as well. Rather than risk Darcy’s wrath, she dragged out the vacuum and sucked it all up.
As a result, the pub was quiet when she came back down, and Shawn was nearly finished with the washing up.
“So, did Darcy hire you to clean her house as well?”
“I tracked mud in.” At home, she poured herself a cup of tea. “I didn’t mean to be so long. I don’t mean to keep you if you’ve something to do before you’re needed here again.”
“I’ve nothing in particular. But I want a pint. You sticking with tea?” he asked with a nod of his head.
“For the moment.”
“I’ll just draw me one. There’s a bit of pudding left if you want.”
She didn’t really, but having a weakness for such things, she dug out a few spoonfuls for a bowl. She was sitting and settled when he came back in with a pint of Harp.
“Tim Riley says the weather will be turning milder by tomorrow.”
“He always seems to know.”
“But we’re in for wet before much longer,” Shawn added and sat across from her. “So, what’s on your mind, then?”
“Well, I’ll tell you.” She’d tried out a dozen different ways in her mind, and settled on the one that seemed best. “After you’d gone off this morning, I stopped off in your parlor to check your flue.”
It was a lie, of course, and she was prepared to confess it to her priest. But she’d be damned if she’d tell him she’d been playing with his music. Her pride was worth the penance.
“It’s drawing well.”
“Aye.” She agreed and added a shrug. “But such things bear checking now and then. In any case, when I turned ’round, there she was, right in the parlor doorway.”
“There who was?”