Page 14 of The Duke’s Sharpshooter (The Duke’s Guard #14)
O’Malley dropped his hand. “The tiny lasses have a way of grabbin’ hold of yer heart without ye knowin’ it.
I’m not embarrassed to be admittin’ I handed mine over to me daughter when Deidre was minutes old.
” He shook his head. “Took a bit longer for me heart to realize that Gwendolyn was the only one for me. They’re me life, Rory. ”
“I won’t let anyone speak ill of Temperance or Maddy,” Flaherty replied. “She’s yet to confide what happened to her husband, but I’m thinking ’twas a shock—tragic. It won’t matter; she’ll come around to realizing she needs me. They both do.”
O’Malley’s eyes darkened. “What if she doesn’t?”
“I’ll be marrying the lass in name only, if that’ll convince her that I’m meaning what I say. I’m the man she needs to watch over her and protect her and Maddy.”
“What if the rumors are based on fact?”
Fury sliced through Flaherty that his cousin would even suggest that Temperance had lied to him. He rounded on him. “Ye’ll eat those words now, and never repeat them!”
O’Malley’s face was devoid of expression, his voice even as he challenged, “Or what?”
“I’ll be resigning from me post. There’s no way I can work with anyone who’d question me gut. ’Tis what’s guided me through life and kept me safe.”
Incredulous, O’Malley asked, “Ye’d break yer vow to His Grace?”
“’Tisn’t breaking me vow to resign.” Though it gutted Flaherty to do so, he stretched the truth and said, “Working for the duke is like any other position. Ye know when it’s time to move on.”
O’Malley’s lips thinned, but it was the tone of his voice that tipped Flaherty off to the fact that he wasn’t merely angry—he was furious.
“’Tis a job few can handle, working side by side with family protecting the duke’s.
Our brothers and cousins have bled for the duke.
Our cousin Sean O’Malley nearly lost an arm.
Darby Garahan is all but blind in one eye.
Emmett, me youngest brother, died—if we can believe what we’ve been told—and was resuscitated.
Yer older brother Seamus nearly bled to death when he was shot in the back… twice!”
Flaherty’s anger was raging too close to the threshold where he would no longer be able to control it. “Aren’t ye forgetting the times our other brothers, cousins, and ourselves have been shot, knifed, and clubbed over the head?”
“There’s no need. We both know the number of times is not the issue. Yer willingness to throw away all that we have built in these last two years working with Coventry and King in our bid to widen our web of protection over the duke and his family and extended family is!”
Flaherty shoved O’Malley out of the way with his shoulder, grabbed the door handle, and yanked. He’d made his decision. He would ask the lass to marry him and promise to protect her and Maddy with his life when she accepted his offer. She did not need to love him—she needed to trust him.
As for the harsh words he and O’Malley had tossed at one another, he’d meant every word. Though family was the glue…he’d given his heart to Maddy and Temperance. If they left, they’d be taking it with them. The shell of the man they’d be leaving behind would be of no good to his family or the duke.
Halfway to the kitchen, O’Malley grabbed hold of Flaherty’s arm. “I’ll have yer word now that there will be no more talk of resigning until we ferret out the truth.”
“Aye, but I’ll not be forgetting that ye’d even suggest Temperance isn’t telling the truth. I cannot work with any man—family or not—who is so quick to judge the woman I love.”
O’Malley glared at Flaherty. Flaherty glared back, two hulking brutes challenging one another over hard words, and the one thing neither of them could tolerate or accept…being lied to.
Flaherty knew he owed it to his cousin’s position as head of the guard to be the first to capitulate. He gave a brief nod.
O’Malley scrubbed a hand over his face and did the same, and the tension eased. “I’ll do the talkin’.”
Flaherty snorted. “Don’t ye always?”
Though he’d tossed his resignation in O’Malley’s face when his temper was up, now that it had cooled, Flaherty realized that he’d meant it.
For Temperance and Maddy, he would walk away from the life he and his brothers and cousins had built.
The foundation had faltered a few weeks ago when his brother Seamus and their cousin James Garahan had gone so far as to send resignation missives to the duke, due to a situation that involved Viscount Chattsworth and Seamus.
Though it had been settled, the idea that the duke’s guard was not as tight nor as solid as everyone believed had been brought to light.
Brothers had been known to turn their backs on one another when their core beliefs had been challenged—but they would eventually come around and stand side by side.
Cousins did not always have as strong a bond as brothers, and there was often a bit of healthy jealousy between them.
Toss together sixteen hardheaded Irishmen—brothers and cousins equal in strength and size—and you had the makings of a melee Flaherty would pay money to be a part of.
Flaherty always preferred using his fists to weapons. It was far more personal. He’d go along with O’Malley for the moment, but if he did not convince the duke to allow Flaherty to go to the inn to question either the innkeeper or his sister, all wagers were null and void.
His future wife and family were being threatened.