An Irish Country Christmas

A
LSO BY
P
ATRICK
T
AYLOR

Only Wounded

Pray for Us Sinners

Now and in the Hour of Our Death

An Irish Country Doctor

An Irish Country Village

P
ATRICK
T
AYLOR

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

AN IRISH COUNTRY CHRISTMAS

Copyright © 2008 by Patrick Taylor

All rights reserved.

Maps by Elizabeth Danforth

A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Library of Congress has catalogued
the hardcover edition as follows:

Taylor, Patrick, 1941–

An Irish country Christmas: anovel/byPatrickTaylor.—1st edition.

    p. cm.

“A Forge Book.”

ISBN 978-0-7653-2070-4

1. Laverty, Barry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. O’Reilly, Fingal Flahertie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Physicians—Fiction. 4. Country life—Northern Ireland—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.3.T36I74 2008
813′.54—dc22

2008033808

ISBN 978-0-7653-2072-8

First Hardcover Edition: November 2008
First Trade Paperback Edition: November 2009

Printed in the United States of America

0   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

To Dorothy

Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly made his first appearance in 1995. His gradual development was gently supervised by my friend Simon Hally, editor of
Stitches
.

O’Reilly’s growth to maturity has been nurtured by some remarkable people. Without the skilled editorial advice of Carolyn Bateman, my editor and friend, I would not consider submitting a manuscript. Adrienne Weiss was my editor at Insomniac Press of Toronto, which first published the work in 2004 as
The Apprenticeship of Doctor Laverty
. My agent, Susan Crawford, represented the first two books in the series, and Rosie and Jessica Buckman of England handled foreign rights.

Natalia Aponte, then an editor with Tor/Forge Books of New York, saw value in my efforts and persuaded Tom Doherty, publisher of Forge, to share her confidence. She has always had unswerving faith in the inhabitants of Ballybucklebo. Now as my agent and my confidante, she constantly encourages me when my faith falters.

My Special thanks go to Pat Phelan, copy editor Extraordinary.

During the writing of
An Irish Country Christmas
I was stricken with anaemia. My haematologist and friend, Doctor Linda Vickars, of Vancouver, not only dealt with my condition, but also clearly explained the arcana of disorders of the blood to an old gynaecologist.

Doctor Tom Baskett, obstetrician, and my oldest friend from medical school days, advised me on the finer points of breech delivery.

The bulk of
An Irish Country Christmas
was completed in a suite in North Vancouver, Canada, rented to me by Duncan and Kathy Campbell. No author could wish for a better place to work or for more considerate landlords.

To you all, Doctors O’Reilly, Laverty, and I tender our unreserved thanks.

Recommend the
Old Inn
to Ev’ry Friend

Barry Laverty—
Doctor
Barry Laverty—slammed the door of Brunhilde, his elderly Volkswagen Beetle. He hunched his shoulders against the sleet and hurried across the car park of the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down. Night comes early in December in Northern Ireland, and at four-thirty in the afternoon it was barely light enough for him to make out the leafless branches of trees tossing and swaying in the gale, but he could hear the wind battering its way through the glen behind the hotel.

He pushed through the inn’s double front door and went down three steps into a well-lit lobby. Blinking at the brightness, he twitched his shoulders up and his neck down as a trickle of water found its way under his collar.

“Hello, John,” he said to the manager, who stood behind a reception desk at the far side of the lobby.