“Aye, you would.” Fin paced away and back again. “I’ve given it some thought, and we’ll use that; I’ll think on it more, but use it we will. And I’ve a protection charm for you before you turn in for the night. Is she coming by?”
“She’s not, no. I need a night to myself, don’t I? I’ve work, and I’ve thinking of my own to do without being crowded.”
Fin lifted an eyebrow at the tone. “Had a row?”
“We did not. After I carted her out of the cursed friary, she packed away fish and chips like a starving woman. I took her around to Clew Bay, as she wanted to see the water, then she spotted more ruins, another graveyard, so she wa
ndered about, but there was nothing for her there like the other places. And that was a relief.”
“She handles it well, for someone coming into it later than most.”
“I suppose she does, and it’s a lot on her plate for all her appetite. And it makes me wonder.”
Fin gestured an opening. “Wonder away.”
“I want her here, even when I don’t. Or I think I don’t, then I do.” The words sounded mad to his own ears, but he couldn’t stop them now that he’d started. “And I never have much liked women in my place, as they tend to fuss or leave things behind, or bring little bits over, look to change the order of things.”
“Hmm. And does she?”
“She doesn’t, and that’s suspect, isn’t it?” Boyle jabbed a finger in the air as if his point had been made.
“So if she does those things, she’s encroaching. If she doesn’t, she’s suspect? Mo dearthair, you’re acting the gom.”
“I’m not.” Insulted, Boyle rounded on Fin. “It’s not being a fool to wonder if she’d got some plan under there. She talked of weddings, mind you. Of a wedding at Ballintubber Abbey.”
“Which it’s famed for. Did she propose to you then, along the Stations? I’m seeing no ring on your finger or through your nose.”
“Smirk if you must, but I’m wondering. I think about her too much. ’Tisn’t comfortable. When I have her in bed it’s like nothing else ever was. No one else. So I end up staying, or having her stay, and then there’s breakfast, and on to work. I have to work, don’t I? And she’s pushed into my mind even then. It’s fucking annoying now that I say it out loud.”
“I can see that. It has to be a trial to you, having a woman as pretty as a spring morning, and as fresh and sweet, taking up your time and attention.”
“I’ve a life to live, don’t I?” Boyle snapped back, as every word Fin spoke made him, well, feel as if he acted the gom. “And a right to like that life just as it is—was—before.”
“Sure as I’m standing here I’d trade places with you if I could, to have a woman in my mind and heart who was pleased and willing to have me in hers. But you have, of course, every right to live your life without a sweet and fresh and pretty woman in it.”
“She’s more than that, as well you know. I’ve never seen the like of her, and I’ve seen you, Branna, Connor. But when it’s on her, I’ve never seen the like. It takes my breath. I don’t know why that is.”
“I’ve a speculation on it.”
Boyle mimicked Fin’s gesture. “Speculate away.”
“You sound like a man in love to me.”
“Oh sure and that’s helpful.” Boyle resisted throwing the brush only because it would startle Darling. “I’m telling you, she’s pushed herself into my mind, my life, my bed so I’ve barely a minute to myself. I took a day off work, which I don’t do, as you know, to drive her all around Mayo and Galway. I can’t get away from her even when I’m sleeping.
“I think she’s bewitched me.”
“Oh Christ Jesus, Boyle.”
But Boyle had the bit between his teeth now. “She’s come into it late, as you
said, and she’s full of the power of it. So she’s done a love spell to wrap me up this way.”
“Bollocks. Even if she were inclined, and I don’t see it, Branna would never allow it.”
“Branna doesn’t know everything,” Boyle muttered, and glanced over darkly as Alastar kicked the wall of the stall. “She’s new to it, Iona is, testing her footing so to speak. She’s testing it on me so I’m tangled up taking walks and rides and drives and fixing her breakfast after a night of her sleeping wrapped around me like a vine. So if she’s put a love spell on me, you need to break it.”
“Is that what you think?” Very quietly, Iona stepped up to the stall. “I’m sorry but you were too busy shouting to hear me come in. What a lot you think of yourself, Boyle, and how little you think of me.”