Even though the night was warm, Alanna shivered. She didn’t want to think that Liam might be lying in his grave because of a suicide attempt, but the thought of an angry woman planting a bomb under him wasn’t any better.
She wandered down closer to the waving sea grass until she stood at the edge of the lapping waves. Water calmed her and made her think she stood on the shores of the Atlantic in her homeland. Ireland was in her blood, her bones. Her fingers itched to hold her fiddle and play a mournful tune that would whisk her to Hibernia in her mind.
The wind sighed through the tall grass and brought the salt scent to her nose. Liam should be here with her with his arm across her shoulders and his thick brogue in her ears.
“Alanna?”
For a second she thought her daydreaming had conjured up Liam, then she recognized Barry’s big shoulders and shock of golden hair. She put on a smile. “Barry, you startled me.”
She heard a rustle, a slither, then he grabbed her arm and yanked her from the water. The next thing she knew, they were running up the slope. Water splashed behind her. “What was that?” she asked, panting. “The gator?”
Barry slowed their pace. “Pete about had you for dinner.”
“In the seawater?” She’d thought she was safe.
“He sometimes moves around.”
“In seawater?”
“It’s brackish here, not fully salt water. Gators move through brackish water.”
A shiver ran up her spine, and she studied his face. “Did you come out to throw him a kitten?”
His lips tightened. “No.”
She didn’t know if she believed him. Was it the air of danger under the surface that drew her? She didn’t want to experience the warmth in her belly when she looked at him or the racing of her pulse when he touched her hand. Not a man like him.
She stopped at the top of the hill and turned back to watch the moon glimmering on the water. “It’s such a beautiful place to hold such danger.” When she tried to tug her hand out of Barry’s, his fingers tightened. Her desire to pull away melted. He was her husband now. It was all right to enjoy the contact of skin on skin, to relish not being alone. She had no right to judge him.
Barry had feelings for her, and she longed to return them, to put the pain of Liam’s death behind her. She stared up at him in the moonlight. “You’ve been so good to me, Barry.”
His fingers brushed her cheek. “I love you, Alanna. I’ve always loved you.”
“Me or the fact that I look like Deirdre?” She blurted the question that had been lingering in her heart every time she saw the portrait.
“Where’d that come from?”
“Grady says all the men in your family are obsessed with Irish women who look like her. Is that true?”
His lips tightened. “You have to be careful of anything Grady tells you. It’s just a painting. I love you for much more than your beauty. I love your passion for life, the way you care about other people and animals, even the way you run around barefoot.”
“And your desire to marry me hadn’t anything to do with how I look like Deirdre?”
His gaze narrowed. “I’ll not lie to you and say I didn’t notice. I’ve got eyes in my head. You’re a beautiful woman, and it is almost uncanny how much you look like her, but it wasn’t what made me fall in love with you. Satisfied?”
“Why didn’t you tell me how your parents would react to my appearance?”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t important.”
“She accused me of trying to entrap you. Have you told them the baby isn’t yours?”
“My mother can be a little overwhelming, but they won’t be here long before they’re off on another trip. She was just shocked. Tomorrow she’ll be fine.”
She wouldn’t get anything else out of him. And maybe it was enough. Maybe tomorrow would be better. “Did you get your work done?”
He brushed the hair back from her face with a tender hand. “No, but I worried that you might stumble into trouble. It appears I was right. Let’s go in. You’re shivering.”
“You go ahead and I’ll be along. I want to enjoy the night a bit longer. I’ll stay away from the water.”
He bent and brushed a kiss along her brow. “Don’t be long.”
She watched him turn and walk along the brick path to the house. Thanks to Barry she was in a lovely old house and her baby was secure. If not for him, she’d be wondering how she was going to make enough money to support her baby. She might have had to give up the band and live with the Connollys after all. Barry had saved her. Surely that was more important than his affection for an alligator.
He disappeared around the side of the house, and she wandered through the garden. A garden by moonlight held its own brand of magic. The scents floated from everywhere, and light gilded the blooms with gold. The summerhouse loomed at the end of the garden, but she knew better than to poke around there in the dark.