Page 31 of Heart of the Wren (Haunted Hearts: Season of the Witch #2)

DARA

I WAS glad to get back to the farm so I could check on the ham joint in the oven. I roped Eddie into helping prepare the potatoes and vegetables while Lorcan and Carol checked on the sheep.

“I’m supposed to be out there.” Eddie dropped a carrot into the bowl on the kitchen table.

“You’ve been out all afternoon,” I said. “You deserve a break. Has Carol given you an answer yet? About moving back to England with you?”

Eddie’s peeling slowed. “I don’t know what else I can do to convince her.

You know for my first month here she was the only person who’d talk to me?

Outside of the family and Lorcan, I mean.

Everyone else ignored me or looked at me like I was planning to steal the silverware.

” He attacked the carrots with renewed vigour.

“But she talked to me like she’d known me forever.

I can’t imagine going back and leaving her here.

I can’t imagine living my life without her. ”

“Have you told her that?”

???

We ate Christmas dinner in the living room of the farmhouse.

Lorcan pulled the leaves out from the table and set four places.

Eddie had bought a pack of Christmas crackers and put them by our plates.

I made a big pot of gravy to serve with the ham and roast potatoes.

Lorcan opened a bottle of red wine. We talked, and laughed, and shared stories.

After dinner, we pulled crackers. Each one snapped, puncturing the air with a brief whiff of gunpowder before a prize tumbled out.

A tape measure and plastic ring were set to one side.

Eddie held up his fake moustache and tried to clip it under his nose.

It pinched and made his eyes water. I ran a purple comb through my goatee, while Carol held out her “fortune telling fish” — a small strip of red plastic shaped like a cod which curled in the palm of your hand.

“See?” I said. “Of all of us, you were the one who got the tool for augury. Meant to be! Synchronicity!”

Carol insisted the fish didn’t actually work, it just curled in the warmth of your hand. She made us all wear the paper crowns which came with each cracker, and read their terrible jokes.

After dinner, Lorcan rooted around in the sideboard and drew out a record.

He slipped the vinyl from its sleeve and set it onto the player.

In moments, Burl Ives’s rich voice filled the room with There Were Three Ships .

“Mam always used to play this when she was cooking Christmas dinner,” he said. “Before Mairead… Before…”

I swayed to the music as I refilled his glass with wine. The blinking lights over the fireplace reflected in his watery eyes.

The snow which had started lightly in the morning grew heavier. Lorcan would have to head out to lock up the farm shortly but for the time being he made the most of the heat offered by the roaring peat fire.

“I’ll go,” Eddie said. “You stay here. Carol, do you want to—?”

Carol sat flipping through the book on Irish mythology I’d borrowed from the library in Tralee but she was on her feet and had taken him by the hand before he could finish. Giggling, she led him outside. Tails wagging, the dogs followed them.

“I should probably go after them.” In the frosty December light, the roaring fire lit Lorcan’s stern face. He wore his worries like a shawl: they weighed his head down. “But first…” He reached behind the couch and handed a crudely wrapped parcel to me.

“What’s this?”

He cleared his throat. “It’s nothing fancy, now, but I didn’t want to give it to you in front of them.”

I set the parcel on my lap and carefully unwrapped it. “Ah, Lorcan, you didn’t need to.” I held up one of a pair of shiny new black boots. Thick soled, leather, and tough as nails.

“Like I said, nothing fancy. I thought you could use a new pair.”

I stared down at the weather-beaten boots on my feet, with their scruffs and tears. I wobbled the loose sole and chuckled. “I suppose you’re right.”

I tried on the new boots while Lorcan explained how he had to guess the size as the information on my old ones had long since worn away.

“Size 10. They’re perfect.” I lifted both legs in the air to get a better look at them before bouncing out of my seat to try them out.

“I suppose I should have given them to you this morning to wear to mass.”

He threw the cheery wrapping paper onto the fire. It crackled as it burned. We stood at the mantelpiece, Lorcan with one hand on it, me rocking back and forth on my heels.

I checked over my shoulder before giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “They’re brilliant,” I said. “Thank you. And I, um, I have something for you as well.” From behind the television I produced a small object wrapped in newspaper. “I didn’t have any proper wrapping paper.”

He opened it to find a second-hand book. He read the cover. “ Beyond The Pale: The History of Ross Castle. ”

“I checked your shelves and I don’t think you have it?”

“I don’t. I didn’t even know there was a book about it.” He held it to his chest. “I love it.”

“I wish I could have afforded to get you a signed copy,” I said, “but my boss doesn’t pay me very well. ”

“Here, you.” He playfully shoved my shoulder and we laughed. “This is perfect. Thank you.”

A shriek sent us both running outside. We flung open the back door to find Carol hugging Eddie, spinning round and round. The dogs barked happily and raced around them.

“What is it?” I held my hands up, ready to cast protection spells. “What’s happening?”

Carol held up her little finger, and the plastic ring from one of the Christmas crackers upon it. “We’re engaged!”

“Oh, Jaysus.” Lorcan’s face dropped. “Your dad’s going to kill me.”

???

“I have to.” Lorcan picked up the receiver but Carol grabbed it from his hand and slammed it down.

“Wait,” she said. “Don’t spoil this moment for me, Lorcan.”

“You have to tell your dad! The longer you wait, the worse it will be. For me!” He picked up the receiver again.

She pulled the telephone cord from the socket and dropped it to the floor. “Wait until tomorrow. Please. I’ll tell him first thing in the morning, I promise.”

Lorcan rubbed his face. “Fine. Fine. Eddie will need the head start, anyway.”

Eddie laughed. “You’re joking. He is joking, isn’t he?”

I shrugged. Bullseye had a temper, there was no telling how he’d react .

Eddie flinched when someone knocked at the front door. Lorcan opened it to find Bullseye waiting.

Bullseye leaned around my holly wreath hanging on the door to get a better look at the packed hallway. “Jaysus, I didn’t think you’d all answer. Right, you.” He pointed to Carol. “Come on, your mother is waiting for you at home.”

Carol hesitated. My heart went out to her. She was too young to have so much pressure on her.

“It’s Christmas Day,” Bullseye said, “and you haven’t seen your family. Now, come on. Your mammy is asking for you.”

Eddie, wisely, didn’t say a word. Carol reached for her coat at the end of the stairs.

Bullseye stepped in out of the wintry air. “What’s on your finger?”

Carol quickly hid her hand. “It’s… a Christmas cracker yoke. I forgot I had it on.”

Bullseye tilted his head. He stared at Lorcan.

“She’s after getting engaged,” Lorcan said.

My chest tightened.

Bullseye burned and clenched his jaw. “She’s after doing what? ”

Carol slapped Lorcan’s arm. “You promised you wouldn’t tell him yet!”

He ducked his head. “I couldn’t help it! You know what he’s like when he stares. It’s scary. It’s like his teaching superpower.”

Bullseye bared his teeth and made for Eddie. “C’mere to me, you. I’ll wring your feckin’ neck, ye little bollocks, ye. ”

Eddie backed away. “Now, hang on, Bullseye, let me explain.”

“She’d better not be feckin’ pregnant!”

“Daddy!” Carol followed them into the living room. “Of course I’m not pregnant.”

Eddie kept his distance. “Please, stop, stop! I love her.”

“Ye do in your bollocks,” Bullseye said.

“I do! I do. I can’t imagine my life without her.”

“This is a trick to get her to move to England with you.”

Carol stepped between them. “It’s not. I'd already decided I was going.”

“What?” Bullseye’s arms dropped. “When?”

“It doesn’t matter when,” Carol said. “Before this .” She held up the plastic ring on her finger.

Bullseye took her hand in his. “Is this the best he could do?”

“I sort of did it on the spur of the moment,” Eddie said.

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Bullseye said.

Lorcan caught my eye and tilted his head towards the door. We both crept out to the hallway, closing the door behind us.

“Probably best to leave them to talk it out,” Lorcan said. “Will you come out with me to the sheep shed while I lock up?”

As I took my coat from the rack in the hallway, an object fell from my pocket, clacking against the unplugged telephone.

Lorcan stooped to pick it up by the pins. “What’s this?” He held a black cube, an inch long on each side.

I gritted my teeth. “Now, promise me you won’t get mad…”