Born in Fire (38 page)

“I’m not, no.” With renewed vigor Brianna began to pound the dough. “With myself, with circumstances, with fate, if you like. But not with you. It wasn’t your doing, and God knows you warned me it wouldn’t work. But I wish you wouldn’t always leap to defend me.”

“I can’t help it.”

“I know.” Brianna smoothed the dough into a mound and slipped it into a bowl for a second rising. “She was better behaved after you’d gone. And a little embarrassed, I think. Before she left she told me I’d cooked a nice meal. Not that she ate any of it, but at least she said it.”

“We’ve had worse evenings.”

“That’s God’s truth. Maggie, she said something else.”

“She says lots of things. I didn’t come to go over all of that.”

“It was about the candlesticks,” Brianna continued, and had Maggie lifting both brows.

“What of them?”

“The ones I had on the sideboard, the ones you’d made me last year. She said what pretty work they were.”

With a laugh, Maggie shook her head. “You’ve been dreaming.”

“I was awake and standing in my own hallway. She looked at me, and she told me. And she kept standing there, looking at me until I understood that she couldn’t say it to you herself, but she wanted you to know.”

“Why should she?” Maggie said unsteadily.

“I think it was a kind of apology, for whatever passed between you in the dining room. The best she could make. When she saw I understood her, she started in on Lottie again, so the two of them left the way they’d come in. Arguing.”

“Well.” Maggie had no idea how to react, how to feel. Restlessly, her fingers reached into her pocket to toy with the smooth glass drops.

“It’s a small step, but a step it is.” Brisk, Brianna began to dust flour on her hands in preparation for kneading the next loaf. “She’s happy in the house you gave her, even if she doesn’t know it yet.”

“You could be right.” Her breath hitched a bit as she released it. “I hope you are. But don’t be planning any more family meals in the near future.”

“That I won’t.”

“Brianna…” Maggie hesitated, ended by looking helplessly at her sister. “I’m driving to Dublin today.”

“Oh, you’ll have a long day, then. You’re needed at the gallery?”

“No. I’m going to see Rogan. I’m either going to tell him I’m not going to see him again, or that I’ll marry him.”

“Marry him?” Brianna bobbled the next ball of dough. “He’s asked you to marry him?”

“The last night we were in France. I told him no, absolutely no. I meant it. I might still. That’s why I’m driving, to give myself time to think it through. I’ve realized that it has to be one or the other.” She fingered the glass drops in her pocket. “So I’m going, and I wanted to tell you.”

“Maggie—” Brianna was left with her hands full of dough, staring at the swinging back door.

The worst part was not finding him home—and knowing she should have checked before making the drive. At the gallery, his butler had said, but when she arrived there, cursing Dublin traffic all the way, he was already gone and on the way to his office.

Again, she missed him, by no more than five minutes, she was informed. He was heading to the airport and a flight to Rome. Would she care to put through a call to his car phone?

She would not, Maggie decided, stumble through one of the biggest decisions of her life over the telephone. In the end, she got back in her lorry and made the long, lonely drive back to Clare.

It was easy to call herself a fool. And to tell herself she was better off not having found him at all. Exhausted by the hours of driving, she slept like the dead until noon the next day.

Then she tried to work.

“I want the
Seeker
in the forefront, and the
Triad
centered, precisely.”

Rogan stood in the sun-washed showroom of Worldwide Gallery, Rome, watching his staff arrange Maggie’s work. The sculptures stood up well in the gilded rococo decor. The heavy red velvet he’d chosen to drape the pedestals and tables added a royal touch. Something he was sure Maggie would have complained about, but which suited the clientele of this particular gallery.

He checked his watch, muttered to himself under his breath. He had a meeting in twenty minutes. There was no help for it, he thought as he called out another order for a minute adjustment. He was going to be late. Maggie’s influence, he supposed. She’d corrupted his sense of time.

“The gallery opens in fifteen minutes,” he reminded the staff. “Expect some press, and see that they each receive a catalog.” He scanned the room one last time, noting the placement of each piece, the fold of every drape. “Well done.”

He stepped outside into the bright Italian sun, where his driver waited.

“I’m running late, Carlo.” Rogan shifted into his seat and opened his briefcase.

Carlo grinned, tucked the chauffeur’s cap lower on his brow and flexed his fingers like a concert pianist preparing to launch into an arpeggio. “Not for long, signore.”

To Rogan’s credit, he barely lifted a brow as the car leaped like a tiger from the curb, snarling and growling at the cars it cut off. Bracing himself in the corner of the seat, Rogan turned his attention to a printout of figures from his Roman branch.

It had been an excellent year, he decided. Far from the staggering boom of the mideighties, but quite good enough. He thought perhaps it was best that the days when a painting could demand hundreds of millions of pounds at auction were over. Art, with so high a price tag, was too often hidden away in a vault until it was as soulless as gold bullion.

Still, it had been a profitable year. Profitable enough, he thought, that he could implement his idea of opening another smaller branch of Worldwide, one that displayed and sold only the works of Irish artists. It had been a germ in his mind for the last few years, but lately, just lately, it had grown.

A small, even cozy gallery—very accessible, from the decor to the art itself. A place that invited browsing, with good-quality art priced in a range that invited owning.

Yes, he thought the time was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

The car screeched to a halt, all but rearing up like a stallion. Carlo hurried out to open Rogan’s door. “You are on time, signore.”

“You are a magician, Carlo.”

Rogan spent thirty minutes with the head of the Roman branch, twice that in a board meeting, then granted back-to-back interviews to promote the Concannon tour. Several hours were devoted to studying Rome’s proposed acquisitions and to meeting artists. He planned to fly to Venice that evening and lay the groundwork for the next stop of the tour. Gauging his time, he slipped away to place a few calls to Dublin.

“Joseph.”

“Rogan, how’s Rome?”

“Sunny. I’ve finished up here. I should be in Venice by seven at the latest. If there’s time, I’ll go by the gallery there tonight. Otherwise, I’ll do the preliminaries tomorrow.”

“I have your schedule here. You’ll be back in a week?”

“Sooner, if I can manage it. Anything I should know?”

“Aiman was in. I bought two of his street sketches. They’re reasonably good.”

“That’s fine. I’ve an idea we might be able to sell more of his work after the first of the year.”

“Oh?”

“A project I’ll discuss with you when I get back. Anything else?”

“I saw your grandmother and her friend off to Galway.”

Rogan grunted. “Brought him by the gallery, did she?”

“He wanted to see some of Maggie’s work—in the proper setting. He’s quite the character.”

“He certainly is.”

“Oh, and speaking of Maggie, she was by earlier this week.”

“By there? In Dublin? What for?”

“Didn’t say. She sort of dashed in and out. I didn’t even speak with her myself. She did send a shipment, with what seems to be a message for you.”

“What message?”

“‘It’s blue.’”

Rogan’s fingers paused on his notebook. “The message is blue?”

“No, no, the message reads, ‘It’s blue.’ It’s a gorgeous piece, rather delicate and willowy. Apparently she thought you’d know what she meant.”

“I do.” He smiled to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “It’s for the Comte de Lorraine, Paris. A wedding present for his granddaughter. You’ll want to contact him.”

“I will, then. Oh, and it seems Maggie was by your office, and the house as well. I suppose she was looking for you for some reason.”

“It would seem so.” He debated a moment, then acted on instinct. “Joseph, do me a favor? Contact the gallery in Venice. Tell them I’ll be delayed a few days.”

“I’ll be glad to. Any reason?”

“I’ll let you know. Give Patricia my best. I’ll be in touch.”

Maggie drummed her fingers on a table in O’Malley’s, tapped her foot, blew out a long breath. “Tim, will you give me a bookmaker’s sandwich to go with this pint? I can’t wait for Murphy all bloody afternoon on an empty stomach.”

“Happy to do it. Got a date, do you?” He grinned at her from over the bar, wriggled his eyebrows.

“Hah. The day when I date Murphy Muldoon’s the day I lose what’s left of my mind. He said he had some business in the village and would I meet him here.” She tapped the box on the floor with her. “I’ve got his birthday present for his mother.”

“Something you made, then?”

“Aye. And if he’s not here by the time I’ve finished eating, he’ll have to come fetch it himself.”

“Alice Muldoon,” said David Ryan, who sat at the bar puffing a cigarette. “She be living down to Killarney now, wouldn’t she?”

“She would,” Maggie agreed. “And has been these past ten years or more.”

“Didn’t think I’d seen her about. Married again, did she, after Rory Muldoon passed over?”

“She did.” Tim took up the story while he built a pint of Guinness. “Married a rich doctor name of Colin Brennan.”

“Kin to Daniel Brennan.” Another patron picked up the tale, musing over his bowl of stew. “You know, he that runs a food store in Clarecastle.”

“No, no.” Tim shook his head as he walked over to serve Maggie her sandwich. “’Tisn’t kin to Daniel Brennan but to Bobby Brennan from Newmarket on Fergus.”

“I think you’re wrong about that.” David pointed with the stub of his cigarette.

“I’ll wager two pounds on it.”

“Done. We’ll ask Murphy himself.”

“If he ever gets here,” Maggie muttered, and bit into her sandwich. “You’d think I have nothing better to do than to sit here twiddling my thumbs.”

“I knew a Brennan once.” The old man at the end of the bar spoke up, paused, blew a lazy smoke ring. “Frankie Brennan, he was, from Ballybunion, where I lived as a boy. One night he was walking home from the pub. Had a fill of porter, he did, and never had the head for it.”

He blew another smoke ring. Time passed, but no one spoke. A story was in the making.

“So he went walking home, reeling a bit, and cut across a field to shorten the way. There was a fairy hill, and in his drunken state, he trod right over it. Well, a man should know better, drunk or sober, but Frankie Brennan got less than his share when the Lord passed out sense. Now, of course, the fairies had to teach him manners and respect, and so they tugged off all his clothes as he went staggering across the field. And he arrived home, stark naked, but for his hat and one shoe.” He paused again, smiled. “Never did find the other shoe.”

Maggie gave an appreciative hoot of laughter and propped her feet on the empty chair across from her. They could keep Paris and Rome and the rest, she thought. She was just where she wanted to be.

Then Rogan walked in.

His entrance gained him some glances, appraisals. It wasn’t often a man in so fine a suit strolled into O’Malley’s on a cloudy afternoon. Maggie, the pint glass nearly to her lips, froze like stone.

“Good day to you. Is there something I can get you?” Tim asked.

“A pint of Guinness, thank you.” Rogan leaned back against the bar, smiled at Maggie while Tim turned the tap. “Good day to you, Margaret Mary.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Why, I’m about to have a pint.” Still smiling, he slid coins across the bar. “You’re looking well.”

“I thought you were in Rome.”

“I was. Your work shows well there.”

“Would you be Rogan Sweeney, then?” Tim slid the glass to Rogan.

“I would, yes.”

“I’m O’Malley, Tim O’Malley.” After wiping his hand over his apron, Tim took Rogan’s and pumped. “I was a great friend of Maggie’s father. He’d have been pleased with what you’re doing for her. Pleased and proud. We’ve a scrapbook started, my Deirdre and I.”

“I can promise you you’ll be adding to it. Mr. O’Malley, for some time to come.”

“If you’ve come to see if I’ve work to show you,” Maggie called out, “I haven’t. And I won’t if you breathe down my neck.”

“I haven’t come to see your work.” With a nod to Tim, Rogan walked to Maggie. He sat beside her, took her chin in his hand and kissed her softly. And kissed her long. “I’ve come to see you.”

She let out the breath she’d forgotten she was holding. A frowning glance at the bar had the curious onlookers turning their attention elsewhere. Or pretending to.

“You took your sweet time.”

“Time enough for you to miss me.”

“I’ve hardly worked at all since you left.” Because it was difficult to admit, she kept her eyes trained on her glass. “I’ve started and stopped, started and stopped. Nothing’s coming out the way I want it to. I don’t care for this feeling, Rogan. I don’t care for it at all.”

“What feeling is that?”

She shot him a look from under her lashes. “I’ve been missing you. I came to Dublin.”

“I know.” He toyed with the ends of her hair. It had grown a bit, he noted, and wondered how long it would be before she whacked away again with her scissors as she said she sometimes did. “Was it so hard to come to me, Maggie?”

“Yes, it was. As hard as anything I’ve done. Then you weren’t there.”

“I’m here now.”

He was. And she wasn’t sure she could speak for the pounding of her heart. “There are things I want to tell you. I don’t—” She broke off as the door opened, and Murphy came in. “Oh, his timing’s perfect.”

Murphy signaled to Tim before heading toward Maggie. “You’ve had lunch, then.” In a casual gesture, he scraped up a chair and snatched one of her chips. “Did you bring it?”