Page 14 of Heart of the Wren (Haunted Hearts: Season of the Witch #2)

LORCAN

A SINGLE bare bulb fought valiantly against the wintry gloom.

The farm’s largest storage shed had, over the course of generations, accumulated a crushing volume of bric-a-brac.

Old furniture, broken-down farm equipment, tyres, coats, boots, and more than a few damaged kettles were stacked up, stacked on, and otherwise abandoned in the vain hope that someday, one day, they might be useful.

Until then, they huddled in one higgledy-piggledy mass covered with forsaken cobwebs and a sea of dust.

Carol stood in the wide doorway. “ What are youse up to?”

I set down some half-empty paint cans. “The kitchen window smashed and now I need to find some tarp. Eddie, look over there, by the boat. I’m sure it’s in here somewhere.”

Eddie, with his head hanging low, shuffled over to the far side of the shed. The two man boat listed to one side on top of a rusted trailer. He grabbed the gunwale with both hands and hoisted himself up, peering inside. “Why do you have a boat?”

“Dad and Grandad used to go fishing. They brought me with them once when I was a boy. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t made for the sea.” I wiped my hands on my overalls before striding valiantly into the mass of detritus. I tested my weight on a wooden pallet.

“What happened to the window?” Carol asked.

“Did you not hear—?” I caught myself in time. “No, I suppose you were distracted.”

Eddie dropped down from the boat.

I glared at him. “Searched the whole thing, did you?”

“It’s not very big, Lorcan.” Eddie put his hands in his pockets. “It’s basically a dinghy.”

My ears burned. “Check behind it as well, ye eejit!”

“Don’t shout at him,” Carol said. “Who smashed the window?”

I took a deep breath. “Some birds, would you believe? The sun must have been shining on it the wrong way, or they were confused with the sudden snow. I don’t know. I’m not a… bird… scientist.”

“An ornithologist,” she said.

“Have you found it yet? ”

Eddie shot up from behind a bookcase filled with tubs of assorted nails and screws. “Look, I’m sorry for what you saw, it was the first time we—”

I balled my fists on my hips and glared at him again.

“It was only the second time we… You know…”

I nodded. “Oh, I feckin’ know, alright. And so does Bullseye.”

Carol slapped my arm. “You told him already?”

“ Ow , here now, I didn’t tell him anything.

He told me… Well, no, he told me you were up to something but he said I should ask you about it.

He was fairly ratty with me about this whole thing.

I thought he’d caught you two kissing but he wouldn’t get his knickers in a twist over a kiss.

I suppose I know what he caught you doing, now. ”

She hugged herself and walked away.

Eddie uncovered a roll of blue tarpaulin and yanked it free. The remnants of a long-faded logo and telephone number clung to it like ancient text waiting to be deciphered. Eddie took the roll out and lay it under the long florescent bulbs to inspect it.

“It wasn’t sex,” Carol said.

I crossed my arms. “I beg your pardon?”

“That’s not why Daddy is mad. I don’t think he’d be thrilled if he thought… Anyway, it’s not why we’re fighting.”

I crouched down to inspect the tarpaulin. “What is it, then?”

She waited by Eddie’s side. “Eddie wants me to go home with him.”

I frowned. “What, tonight?”

“No, Lorcan.” She rolled her eyes. “He wants me to go with him when he goes back to England. In the New Year.”

“You can’t!”

“Why not?”

My mouth ran dry and the words tripped out. “Because he… You… Young! Too young!”

She blew her lips at me. “You sound like Daddy.” She pointed her finger and scrunched her nose. “ You’re not going anywhere with that fella; you don’t even know him. ” She tutted loudly.

“Sounds like him, alright,” I said. “Which is a red rag to a bull. I suppose now, on top of everything else, you have to figure out if you want to go because you really want to go, or because your dad told you not to.”

“He hit the feckin’ roof at the very idea of it. Who knows what he’ll do if…” She twisted the thin bracelet around her wrist. “He says I’m too young, as well.”

Eddie threw a hand in the air and turned away. “You’re nearly 18.”

“He says it’s too far away.”

Eddie’s voice jumped. “It’s England, not the moon! It’s not as if your family can’t visit. Or as if you’ll never come back.”

Carol hugged herself again. “I think he’s afraid I won’t want to come back.”

She looked so young in that moment, in the stark electric light of the shed.

Eddie threw a lineless fishing rod out of his way. “Who would blame you?” He found his foot tangled in some netting and tried to kick it off. “You’ll never have to come to a place like this again. ”

I cleared my throat. “Excuse me, what’s wrong with it?”

He held his arms wide. “Look at it! It’s a museum.

No, museums are useful. It’s a tip. A rubbish dump.

And not just in here. The whole farm — the whole bloody village — nothing but a tiny, freezing cold, muddy speck on a hill in the middle of nowhere.

And don’t look at me like that, Lorcan. I’ve heard you complain often enough.

” He took Carol’s hand. “People are leaving Ireland every day for a better life elsewhere. There’s no work here.

I’ll get a nice job in the city, buy us a nice house with a nice garden.

It’ll be…” He flicked a viscous blob from his hand.

“Nice,” Carol said.

“Exactly,” Eddie said. “Do you want to come with me?”

Her eyes flickered over to me. “I told you I hadn’t made up my mind.”

“Well you can’t keep me waiting forever, Carol. It’s torture.”

An almighty crash made Carol all but jump out of her skin. A shabby wardrobe stuffed with leftover wallpaper had fallen and cracked open at the seams. The shelves fell and the whole thing split into pieces.

“You must have disturbed it pulling that yoke out.” Carol pointed to the roll of tarpaulin.

Eddie started to clear up the mess but sat on the harsh concrete floor, instead.

“I don’t want to be like this,” he said.

“I don’t want to spend my life getting annoyed at sheep and having to search through—” He gestured to the mounds before him.

“—all this .” He sighed. “I want to make a proper life. And I want to make it with you.”

Carol lingered behind him. She reached out and almost touched his shoulder but instead she walked away, past me, and out into the snow.

I followed her to the arched bridge. “I’ll say this for him: he’s sincere.”

The snow hadn’t let up and it sat high on the bridge’s walls.

“He is. It’s one of reasons I like him. And he can actually have a conversation and never once mention tractors, or beer, or the GAA, unlike the lads in the village. He’s… worldly. Mature.”

“Good-looking too. Which helps.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Are you going to go?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided yet. Honestly, I haven’t. I thought I could talk to Daddy but he flew off the handle.”

“Which is why Eddie’s been in a mood these past few days, then.”

“He keeps asking and asking, and I don’t know what to tell him.” She made a snowball from the wall and threw it into the trickling stream.

“Do you love him?” I asked.

She bit on her necklace. “I don't want to be stuck here for my whole life.”

“Do you love him?”

“I... Not yet. But I will. Or I might.” She paced back and forth. “And look, it’ll be easier for me to train as a nurse over there. We’ll have more opportunities… I know Daddy complains about everyone emigrating when we should be staying here, trying to make it work, but…”

“Hold on, hold on. You want to be a nurse? I thought you wanted to be a vet? ”

She ran her hands through her hair. “Either. Both. I… If I stay here I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything.”

“I don't want you do anything you'll regret.”

“I know,” she said. “But I can't shake the feeling that if I don't leave now, I never will.”

I put my hands in my pockets. “Dara would probably tell you to trust your instincts.”

She smiled at me. “He's strange. But I like him. I've got a good feeling about him. I think you two should…”

“Should what?”

“You should be happy. You know. Together.”

I cleared my throat.

“It’s okay. I know you and him are bent. I don’t mind.”

“Hmm, well, don’t tell your father.” My ears burned again. I put my arm around her shoulder. “Come on, let’s get back inside. This snow isn’t stopping.”