Anna and I exchanged uncertain glances. Devon of the suspicious mustache said, “Knew his dad.” He nodded at Anna. “Yours too, now.”
Anna bared her teeth. “Actually—”
I kicked her before she started spreading any more rumors, and she rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m gonna get another drink.”
They watched Anna go. A man from a nearby table leaned over to speak to Devon. “Doesn’t look much like the old boy.”
One of his cronies joined in. “Has his eyes.”
Devon’s eyes twinkled. “Has his trouble.”
I slammed the flat of my hand on the table. “Sirs. Sirs!”
They all looked at me with surprise—either at my exclamation, or that I was still here. The prematurely gray one—Tim? Tim O’Brien?—smiled benignly. “What is it, lass?”
“It’s Natalie. Please.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s go over what we’ll be doing in the upcoming weeks.” I smiled brightly, making sure to meet everyone’s gaze. “We’re having a specialist come in next week to see if we can identify any interesting subsurface features. We’ll clear the field before—I’ll be supplying the tools. Next week the other three archaeologists will come down from Dublin and we’ll start opening the selected units.”
Green-eyed Colin leaned forward. “You think we’ll really find something?”
Quiet Jan piped up. “How long do you think this dig could last?”
“My wife is a cook—we could get our lunches catered—”
“I can get you a good deal on screens and woods, and my cousin’s a carpenter, so he can build them for us—”
The faces surrounding me were tense with wary hope. Proud faces. Watchful faces.
I chose my words carefully. “It all depends on what we find, but I’m hopeful that this will be a very successful excavation. If it is, we’ll be coming back in the next summers.”
They all nodded. “And you’re the one that decides?”
“It really depends on what we find. And if we can dig up grant money.”
I left first, amidst cheerful goodbyes and after organizing everyone’s appearance next Monday morning. My legs wobbled and my palms were dry and tingly. I knew this was a small village. I knew every extra bit of economy helped. I knew digs often created infrastructure.
I hadn’t realized how much they were counting on it.
Anna didn’t pick up her cell, so I waved down Finn before I headed out. “Have you seen Anna?”
He maintained his aloof and brooding expression, like he’d taken a Heathcliff pill. “Went out with Mary and the others half an hour ago.”
I had no idea who Mary and the others were. “That was water earlier, right? Anything else?”
“Just a cider.”
I didn’t have to worry about her on one cider. Theoretically. I texted Lauren just in case and headed back to the inn.
An hour later, I was sitting in the parlor and pretending to read Yeats—but really trying to figure out what color a curd-pale moon would be, because was that like off white? Had I ever actually seen curds? Did anyone besides Yeats and Little Miss Muffet talk about curds?—when Lauren burst in, her cheeks flushed almost as bright as her hair. She dropped down in the chair across from me. “You’ll never believe what I learned.”
“I won’t? What?” Anna had gone missing? Mike had come back early?
“Maggie used to be engaged to my dad.”
“No!” The photo. The photo in the study of the brothers and Maggie. I’d forgotten it in everything that followed. “Wait, and then she married his older brother instead? Wow. She told you this?”
“No, Paul did.”
“You saw Paul? What happened?” This was all too much for my brain to process.
She waved a hand. “Nothing. Whatever. But no wonder she doesn’t like Mom. And no wonder everyone describes Patrick as bitter, if his wife was in love with his younger brother.”
“Was she still? Who broke up with who?”
“I have no idea. Paul just dropped it in passing, like he thought I already knew, even though he knew I didn’t, and then was all like, nevermind, no big deal. What an ass.”
“So do you think that’s the real reason the brothers were estranged? A fight over a girl?”
She shrugged. “Makes some sense, right? But you’d hope there was a little more than that to a fight that lasted so long.”
It wasn’t really my place to figure out the O’Connors’ past, but I was still dying to know.
Sunday, because I was sick of waiting around for Mike to come back, I took myself on a long run.
I went farther than we’d ever gone, up over the crest, and then flat across the land. Wind streamed from forty-five degrees. Big-eyed bunnies looked up from between wildflowers and then darted away. The path narrowed into a descending staircase, cut into the bluff, and I hopped over a sign that read No Sheep and pattered down until I hit the ground. I raced over a pebbled beach and then another of sand packed by the withdrawn low tide. I ran until the bluffs curved inward, creating a pocket of dry sand that even high tide couldn’t reach. I paused there, looking out over three jagged boulders that rose up from the shallow water.
In this small corner of the world. humans seemed foreign and strange and unnecessary. I closed my eyes, breathing in the salt and sea, the coolness of rain on the way and freshness of wind.
“Hey, you.”
My eyes flew open and I almost tripped at I ran at him. “You’re back!”
He caught me and spun me around. His lips were hot against mine and I clung to him as though the world would spin away if I let go. I wanted to cry. I wanted to laugh. But mostly, I wanted to kiss him, so I pressed my lips against his. He tasted smooth and subtle and rich, and we stood there, kissing languorously, exploring each other like there was nothing else we were meant to do in this world.
He kissed me so thoroughly my bones melted. There was nothing to me except where our bodies met, our mouths, the heat in my belly, the ache lower, and then there was nothing but the slow and golden sensation, sweeping all clarity out to sea.
Later, as we lay there with matching breaths, I remembered one more thing. I rolled over so I could see him. “I told the pub that you played football, so you’ve been drafted into a match sometime in the future.”
He slowly opened his lids, and I almost giggled. “Please tell me you specified American football.”
I pulled my best, and utterly unconvincing “Who, me?” face. “I forgot.”
He smiled disbelievingly as he pulled me on top of him. “You didn’t forget. I bet they didn’t forget. I’ve been pulled into a conspiracy of Kilkarten.”
I leaned down to kiss him. “So how are you at soccer?”
“I’m no kicker. But I’ll be damned if I let Connelly and his friends beat me at any sport.”
I kissed his ear. “At least you won’t have to deal with rain in hell.”
Chapter Sixteen
On Wednesday, Jeremy and the other archaeologists arrived.
All five O’Connors, plus Paul, came out to Kilkarten that morning, and I included them on the tour for the crew. I summarized a history of the land and what we were looking for. Clay that changed color, charcoal pits, beads. Large stones that could be millennia old structures. Ideally, a cache of Roman coins or pottery obviously imported from Rome.
I gave a demo lesson on how to open a unit, how to make good walls and how to sift the earth through a screen. We broke ground close to noon, and after an hour without any amazing discoveries, Kate and Maggie headed out. Lauren sat bickering with Paul on a picnic blanket, while Anna plunged into the dig with enthusiasm, along with two of the local teens she’d befriended. Which, sure. Free labor.