“At a meeting of a ladies’ charity group of which we are both members. Lord Ashburton is now in residence. So are her brother and retinue.”
She looked at my face. I tried to keep my expression that of calm disinterest, but her eyes narrowed. “I meant to ask you about that,” she said. “You were awfully anxious to leave that house. I could tell at the time. You were looking around the room, checking for escape routes. Why was that?”
“This is entirely between ourselves, and not to get back to Grania or anyone else,” I began.
“Naturally. I am not one to gossip, as I’m sure you know by now.”
“I didn’t wish to encounter Grania's brother. I was educated with his fiancee, Henrietta Hartley, and her brother, Justin Hartley, is my archenemy.”
“How so?”
I looked away from her. “He tried to force himself on me when I was a peasant on his estate. I fought him off. He slipped and hit his head on our stove. I thought I had killed him, which was why I fled to America. It turns out I had just gravely injured him—an injury from which he will never fully recover or ever forgive me.” There was silence. “There. Now you know.”
“Don’t worry, my dear,” she said. “There is no reason you should ever have to encounter him again. Cullen said you had courage. I—I hope it will all turn out well for you.”
“This prison break they are planning,” I said softly, “will you be part of it?”
“Oh, good Lord, no.” She laughed. “Can you see this bulk climbing in and out of prison cells? I’d be more liability than asset. Besides, I’m more use to everyone alive than dead.”
I must have gasped because she corrected herself quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. Cullen has everything well planned. You’ve a good chance of getting away. He's grown fond of you, you know.”
“Yes, I know,” I said.
“Then perhaps I should warn you not to become fond of him. I don’t want a broken heart to be added to your list of problems.”
“I’ll try to resist his charm,” I said, with a smile.
“Cullen has sacrificed any hope of a normal life for our cause,” she said, not smiling in return.
“Just as you have, apparently.”
“Oh no, my dear,” she said. “My hopes for a normal life died with my Terrence. I found true happiness, you see. Not everyone is lucky enough to meet their soul mate. I made a horrible mistake when I married Kelly. I was bored, stuck out in the country, and he was handsome enough to turn any young girl's head. But he turned out to be a drunken, mindless brute. Then Terrence appeared, and he was everything I’d ever dreamed of in a man—bright, witty, kind, passionate. And I watched him waste away and die of consumption before my eyes after he’d been held in that English goal.”
She went back to her work and I to mine. She had found true love, I thought. Would I feel that my life was over if Daniel died? Would hefeel that way about me? And what about Cullen? I wondered whether Mary Ann had seen something I had missed, and that I was already just a little bit in love with him.
On October Twenty-first, the day before Kilmainham Goal, Cullen came to my room.
“I came to see how you were holding up,” he said.
“Oh, never felt better in my life,” I retorted. “Stuck up here, watching the rain, thinking about what it would feel like to be hanged.”
“So you’re scared?”
“Of course I’m scared,” I snapped at him. “I’m terrified, if you want to know. I’m not like you. I haven’t done this kind of thing before.” “We’re all scared, Molly,” he said. “Even you?”
“Especially me. I’ve already faced the prospect of life in jail once before, and now I might be facing it again. That would be worse for me than the hangman's noose. Forty years of never seeing the sun, or the green fields, or cows and horses, or watching children play or women dancing.... It's a lot to give up.”
“A terrible lot.”
He put a hand on my shoulder and caressed it gently.
“It's not too late to back out, Molly,” he said. “I wouldn’t want that kind of future for you. You should marry and have children and live out your days happily.”
I was sorely tempted. “And if I backed out,” I said hesitantly, “how would you get yourselves into that jail?”
“I expect we’d manage,” he said. “We’d send your brother in to visit Joseph instead of you.”
That did it, of course. Liam's life for mine. As things stood now, it was Liam in this whole venture who had the best chance for escape. He was a fast runner, and I had seen how quickly he could lose himself in the maze of backstreets. I knew I’d never forgive myself if he was condemned to death or spent the rest of his life in jail because I had taken the easy way out.
“I’m not backing out now, Cullen,” I said. “You can count on me.”
“Molly,” he said, and unexpectedly his arms came around me. He held me so fiercely I could hardly breathe.
In Dublin's Fair City (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #6)
Rhys Bowen's books
- Malice at the Palace (The Royal Spyness Series Book 9)
- Bless the Bride (Molly Murphy, #10)
- City of Darkness and Light (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #13)
- Death of Riley (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #2)
- For the Love of Mike (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #3)
- Hush Now, Don't You Cry (Molly Murphy, #11)
- In a Gilded Cage (Molly Murphy, #8)