The Last Bride in Ballymuir (26 page)

“
Does she have family
nearby?” Michael asked. Looking every bit as uncomfortable as Kylie
felt, he sat on the hard plastic chair one away from hers. Even
though she understood why he kept the dis
creet distance, she wanted to curl up in his lap and
let
his strong arms push away her
fears.

She shook her head. “Her children emigrated
years ago. One daughter lives in London, and the rest are somewhere
in Canada. She’s never talked of anyone else.”

Michael fell silent, then reached across the
empty chair between them and took her hand. His thumb stroked
slowly over her bones. She closed her eyes and let herself
relax.

“
Her friends in town?” he
eventually asked.

“
I called Edna McCafferty,”
she said without opening her eyes. “She’ll be here as soon as her
son can drive her over.”

They sat another hour before a Sister stopped
to tell them that the doctor would be by to speak to them
“straightaway,” which proved to be another hour, yet.

The doctor cut right to business. “We have
Mrs. Flaherty stabilized, though we haven’t been able to do
anything for the fractures yet.”

Kylie’s hand crept up to
rest at the base of her
throat. She could
feel her heart slamming. “Fractures?”

“
Ankle and leg,” he said as
though checking off items on a market list. “And she was quite
dehydrated. Though the fall wasn’t far, apparently she’d been down
a day, at least. At her age, that’s how we lose them.”

The look he gave Kylie
wasn’t in the least accusatory, but she still felt guilty. “I try
to stop in on her
every day—” she began,
then trailed off as the doctor
glanced at
his watch.

“
You can go in and have a
visit,” he said, “but keep it brief. She needs her rest. This
evening, we’ll be able to tell you more about when she can be
released.”

As a matter of propriety
Michael insisted on waiting in the hallway, but Breege was already
asleep when Kylie entered the room. She pulled up a chair next to
her friend’s bed and sat. For the first time, Breege, farmer’s wife
and mother to half a dozen, looked fragile. A plastic line snaked
to her arm, her hair was mussed, and her skin so thin and pale that
Kylie could see the veins just beneath the surface. She wished she
could give Breege a magic elixir of
her
own youth.

Time slipped by.
Conversation drifted over from the folks on the other side of the
curtain, bits and pieces about medication, who’d died, and who’d
won
the
lottery.

Breege’s eyes fluttered half-open. “They’d
best not be talking about me,” she murmured. “I’m not ready to be
going.”

Kylie softly laughed, then wiped the tears
she’d just noticed running down her face. “And we’re not ready to
have you go,” she whispered. She smoothed back Breege’s hair, then
stood to leave.

Michael guessed the iron-haired woman had to
be Breege’s friend Edna. Not that the thought made him want to cozy
up to her. Edna, if indeed that was who the woman was, kept
shooting him hostile looks. Worse yet, not so much in appearance as
in attitude, she reminded him of his mam. He had enough making him
break into a sweat without adding the chilly stare that was his
mam’s trademark.

He stood and moved to the
far end of the row of chairs. He didn’t want to begrudge Kylie her
time with Breege, but he also didn’t know how much longer he’d last
without suffocating. When Kylie called, he hadn’t hesitated. He
truly wanted to be here for her. He just didn’t want half of
Ballymuir knowing that he was, then going back and
whisper
ing it to the other half. Old Edna
looked to be just the
sort to relish a
nibble of gossip.

And then there was the more
insidious reason that
he wanted to hide,
the one that ate at his soul. He felt
as
though a thick, inflexible wall of glass separated him from the
rest of the world.

It was more than his stay in prison still
holding him captive. He had no idea how one was supposed to
behave—or react—at a time like this, and it shamed him. It angered
him, too, that he’d been raised by his mother to be so distant. He
didn’t know how to change. Not at this late date.

From her end of the row, Edna cleared her
throat, stood, and turned his way. He considered bolting down the
hallway, but was saved the run. Kylie was approaching.

“
Edna,” she cried and
hurried to the old woman. Michael took his cue and
disappeared.

Kylie grasped Edna McCafferty’s broad,
gnarled hands. “I’m so glad you’re here. She’s sleeping now, but I
know she’ll feel better just seeing you once she wakes.”

Edna pulled Kylie into a hug, then released
her. “Poor child, you look knackered. Tell me what happened.”

Kylie gave Edna a quick
version of finding Breege,
and the doctor’s
prognosis.

“
It’s lucky that you found
her, then,” came Edna’s brisk response. “And they’re taking care of
her, so you can quit looking like the world’s gone black on
you.”

Kylie nodded, not trusting herself to speak
without tears.

Edna smoothed out her
rumpled dress. “Now then, I’m going to settle down for the wait,
then give that old bird the sharp side of my tongue for refusing to
move to town, as I’ve been begging her to do for
the last twenty years. You go on back home and
have a cup of tea, or something even stronger, if you know
what I mean,” she added with a broad grin. “You
need to get your feet back under you.”

Edna gestured down the
hallway. “I’m assuming that big, hulking one’s here for you.” She
paused, looked in the direction she’d been pointing and gave
a shake of her head. “I could have sworn that was
the
Kilbride man I saw lurking about. You
know, Violet Kilbride’s elder brother ...”

Kylie glossed over Edna’s speculative
question. Gathering her coat from the chair where she’d left it,
she said, “I’ll get home right enough. And your son will be back to
get you?”

Edna nodded, still looking down the hallway,
her brows knit as if she were trying to mentally recreate a crime
scene.

“
Well then,” Kylie said as
she buttoned her coat, “I’ll be talking to you later,
Edna.”

Kylie took the lift to the
ground floor and found Michael outside. He was sitting on a
concrete bench, his hands tucked into his jacket pockets, and his
face tipped up to catch the bit of sun that had fought its way
through the clouds. She called his name
and
closed the distance between them.
His broad smile made her feel less bleak and tired. Unable to
resist temptation, she brushed her fingers through his crisp black
hair. He took her hand and kissed it before standing.

“
It’s time we get home,” he
said. “We’ll leave your
car till we come
back this evening.”

Kylie tucked her arm through his as they
walked toward his car. “I’d like to stop over at Breege’s. She’ll
be wanting her own gown once they let her wear it, and a book or
two.”

He closed a hand over hers. “You’re a good
friend.”

She didn’t feel like a good friend. A good
friend would never have left Breege alone long enough for her to
lie there like that on the kitchen floor. A good friend would
have—

Michael’s low growl interrupted her thoughts.
“Sweet Jesus, you’re at it already, aren’t you?”

“
Whatever do you
mean?”

He stopped and set her close
enough to him that
her
neck bent at an uncomfortable angle as she
met
his eyes. “I mean you’re busy
punishing yourself over Breege’s accident. ‘I should have been
there sooner,’ “ he mimicked in a tone close to her own dark
thoughts.
“ ‘I should never have left her
alone at all.”

His loose grip on her upper arms tightened.
He shook her with just enough force to gain her full
attention—which he already had. “You’ll stop this now. You are a
good friend, and a fine neighbor, and I won’t watch you do
penance.”

In the face of all that bluster, she laughed.
Small wonder she loved him. He had her pegged, down to the last Act
of Contrition.

Michael’s hands dropped to his sides. “This
isn’t a laughing matter.”

“
Of course it’s not,” she
said, fighting down the last of the laughter. “You know me too
well, that’s all.” She wrapped her fingers through his. As they
walked the rest of the way to the car she tried to explain a welter
of emotions she could scarcely understand herself. “I was feeling
guilty for Breege’s
accident, like I
somehow caused it, and I’ll admit that
was
silly. But I still feel
responsible
for her.”

His forehead creased with a full-out scowl.
“I can see where this is going.” He opened her door, and she slid
in.

Once he was settled behind
the wheel, Michael looked at Kylie with one brow raised in a
resigned
sort of slope. “We’re off to
Breege’s house, I’m guess
ing. And for more
than the gown and books you mentioned.”

How anyone could overlook this man’s
compassion was beyond Kylie. Sometimes she wondered whether all of
Ballymuir had fallen under a spell and could see nothing
clearly.

“
You’re a good man, Michael,
and a good friend, too,” she said in an echo of his own words. She
smiled when he cleared his throat and stared straight out the
windshield. She could have sworn he was blushing.

An hour later, Kylie could find little else
to smile over. While Breege’s house wasn’t dirty, neither was it
the orderly haven it had always been. There was little food in the
kitchen, and the preserves Breege must have been getting from the
shelf when she fell were old enough to qualify as a National
Treasure.

Scrubbing the kitchen floor
to get up the last of the
sticky fruit,
Kylie announced, “She’s staying with me.”

Michael, who’d just finished walking Breege’s
cow to a neighboring farmer, said, “Till she’s on her feet, of
course she will.”

“
No. Forever.”

His sigh was weary. “How did I know you’d be
saying that?”

Kylie stood and rinsed out
the rag. “Look at
the
ladder she was climbing when she fell, and I promise
you that being in plaster and bandages up to
god-knows-where won’t slow her any!” The thought of what might
happen sent a shiver through her.

“
And when she’s well,” she
continued after drawing a breath, “Breege’ll be back out trying to
patch a
roof or whitewash the barn. She
needs to be with me.
At my
house.”

When he opened his mouth, Kylie raised her
hand palm out, the same way she silenced her students. “Don’t you
dare say I’m doing this as penance, or you’ll be sorry you
spoke.”

He sent his gaze up to the ceiling, and
rolled his shoulders like a fighter readying for a match. “I wasn’t
planning on saying a thing.”

“
Good.”

“
Except what about the
daughter in London?” He sounded like a man grasping the last straw,
and knowing it’s the short one.

“
I’ll ring her up, of
course, but I’m not hoping for much. She and Breege don’t speak
often.”

Michael took the rag from her hand and tossed
it into the sink. He drew her into his arms and rested his chin on
top of her head. His broad hand rubbed comfortingly up and down her
back. Kylie wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her cheek
against the solid wall of his chest.

“
Darlin’, I know you’re
doing this with the best of intentions, but had you noticed that
you’re just the smallest bit short of room in that house of
yours?”

“
We’ll make do.”

She heard a smile in his
voice when he answered,
“I’m sure you will,
love. You seem to have an unholy
talent for
it.”

In the end, it took all of
Kylie’s powers of persuasion,
and a few
threats, too, before Breege agreed to her offer. Less than a week
after the accident, she was released from the hospital, and with
Michael’s help, settled very nicely at Kylie’s. Even then, it was
“just for a while” and “only because Edna’s rooms are too small to
change your mind in.”

Kylie was content that she’d
done the right thing. It was well worth all of Michael’s grumblings
as he moved furniture and ferried over Breege’s essential
belongings. Kylie regretted the loss of privacy every bit as much
as he did, but there were some things that couldn’t be helped. And
looking at Breege, with the color beginning to return to her cheeks
and the sparkle to her watery blue eyes, while privacy
didn’t
seem a small sacrifice, it seemed a
worthy one.

Breege parted the covers on
either side of her and laughed. “Well now, who’d have thought
you’ve been hiding a bed like this, Kylie O’Shea? Quite a secret
you’ve been keeping.” She sent a cheery smile
Michael’s way, and Kylie noticed that he moved back
to the threshold.

“
The bed was my mother’s. I
know it’s a bit much for a place like this, but I haven’t had the
heart to get rid of it.”