“Was Mrs. O’Riley in?”
“She was. Came about an hour and a half ago, and she was a bit distraught when I told her that I was a friend of your brother, and that I’d been instructed not to let Mr. O’Riley alone for a moment. She was all right in the end, though. Mr. O’Riley had his medication at ten, including a mild sedative, just to give him a good night’s rest. I’ve been watching ever since.”
“It’s all right,” Caer said suddenly. “I’ll stay now.”
“We’ll stay,” Zach corrected.
Caer frowned. “But you’ve got your lovely hotel room, and you really need some rest.”
“I can sleep anywhere,” he told her.
“Now then, neither of you has to stay here,” Will Travis protested. “Aidan was a good friend to me when I needed him, and I’ve no problem being here for the night, as planned.”
“Will, thank you. But we’ll both stay,” Zach said firmly.
Travis, his eyes falling longingly on Caer again, said, “I’ll be near my cell through the night, then. If you need anything, just call me.”
“Will do, thanks,” Zach assured him.
He didn’t know why the hell he was so obsessed about staying if Caer was there. He had left the hospital easily enough before, trusting in Aidan’s assurance that Will Travis was the real deal and damned good at what he did.
There was a recliner in the room, and he insisted that Caer take it. He opted for a more conventional chair, but leaned it back against the far wall. The darkness in the room, the muted light from the hall and the hum of the heating system seemed to wrap him like a blanket. He tried to keep his eyes open, but he couldn’t help it. He drifted. He slept lightly, though, knowing that he would be aware and awake if something out of the ordinary happened.
He wasn’t sure about Caer, he thought just as sleep overcame him. He had a feeling that her hypnotic blue eyes remained open in the shadows.
It seemed to Bridey that she was dreaming more than ever these days, and that her dreams were in brilliant color, so real, like those high-definition movies Sean liked to rent.
It was near dawn, and she knew she was asleep, just as she knew that it was just around noon in Ireland. Sean would be on his way back, and this evening he would be home. Zach would be with him, and somehow, she knew, he would set things to right.
She knew all this as she slept and, in her dreams, returned to the sweeping hills and quiet dells of the Irish countryside.
It was all so real. That grass beneath her feet, dew-damp and delicious. And the air…There was such a sweetness to it. She was running through the grass, and she was young and beautiful again.
She could see the cottage ahead of her again, and the man in front of the cottage.
Eddie.
She ran toward him, anxious, worried.
And yet, as she neared him, she slowed.
Because the creases formed by time, wind and wear seemed to be fading from his face as she knew they had faded from her own. He had been like a son to her, just as Sean had been. She’d never had her own children, nor even a husband, but Sean was her blood, and Eddie had become family, as well. Like Sean, he was passionate in his pursuit of history and its treasures—real treasures, like gold coins and long-lost gems, and the treasures that came with knowledge and discovery. She’d loved sailing with her boys, as she called them. Fools, in a way, both of them, daring to go out when the wind howled and storms threatened. But they loved the sea, maybe more than either had ever loved a woman, though Sean had married twice, while Eddie had never settled for one.
“Bridey!” Eddie waved to her as he spoke.
But he wasn’t Eddie as he’d been of late but the lad she had once known, with a twinkle in his eyes and a love of life. The lad who had brought her flowers on Mother’s Day and never forgotten to honor her when St. Pat’s Day rolled around.
She kept going, running through the grass, but he seemed to be getting farther and farther away.
“Eddie!” she called with distress.
“You can’t come yet, not all the way, Bridey. But I’ll be waiting,” he told her.
“Eddie, you have to help us. We can’t find you,” she told him.
He stared back at her, perplexed. “I can’t help you. There’s too much I don’t know, that I didn’t figure out. I wish I could help you, but I can’t. I love you, Bridey.”
“Eddie, lad, we love you, too.”
“Bridey, go back now, go on back. I’ll be here. I’ll be waiting.”
Eddie faded. No, he didn’t fade. He’d been there, then he simply…wasn’t. The cottage, too, was gone, and the sweet, rich scent of the grass that had ridden on the air.
The damp grass was gone from beneath her feet, and there was something hard in its place.