Her Irish Surrender (15 page)

Lorcan was confused by his words, not to mention the
sound of calm in his voice, as hands grabbed him and began to drag him through the chaos. “No!” Lorcan shouted. He wasn’t about to be taken along with Brennan like some prized pig at a fair, and fought against the hands holding him.

“You mule-headed idiot!” a familiar voice shouted in his ear. “Don’t’ ye know I’m trying to rescue yer worthless hide?”

“Finn!”

“Aye, now let me finish the job, or yer wife will
kill
me!”

Lorcan laughed despite the chaos and danger around them. Men were still s
houting, shots were still firing, and Finn was pulling him safely through it all …

* * *

“Lorcan Brody!”

Lorcan’s head shot up at the familiar voice. “Addy!” His slid off the back of Finn’s horse, stumbled in the grass, but still managed to find his wife in the darkness that might forever surround him. “Addy …”

She gripped him with everything she had
, then kissed him with a fierceness any man would be jealous of. When she broke the kiss, however, she was furious. “What do you mean by getting yourself kidnapped? Do realize how worried I’ve been?” She said and struck his chest for emphasis.

He grabbed her wrists and held them. “
Addy, I’m here now.”

“Lorcan!” she sobbed. “Don’t you ever go and get yourself kidnapped again!”

He smiled at her hysterics. “I don’t plan to.” He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her to settle her down. His world was a dark blur of sound and feeling, and he still wasn’t used to it. What he did notice, was his growing ability to see, yet not see. There were things he just … knew.

He lifted his face from his wife’s. There now, lass. Are you better?”

She looked up at him with her tear-stained face and put a hand to his jaw. “No. But as soon as I am, I’m going to …”

“Kill me?  Really, you’ll have to come up with something better than that. After all, that’s
Maither’s
way of talking.” He took a deep breath. “Why not say, I’m going to kiss you?”

“What?”

“Aye, whenever you’re upset with me, you can say you’re going to kiss me.”

She laughed. “Lorcan Brody, I do love you …”

“But aren’t ye still upset with me?” he asked, his brogue suddenly thick.

“Aye,” she answered.

Mrs. Lorcan Brody then showed her husband, just how upset she was …

Epilogue

Clear Creek, Oregon, Five months later …

  “What’s taking them so long? What are they doing up there?” Adeline asked as she paced the small parlor of the doctor’s house.

“Land sakes, child. You’ll walk a hole in my floor, sit down and have some tea.”

Adaline looked at the elderly woman that spoke. Her name was Mrs. Waller, but everyone in town called her Grandma. She was the wife of the town’s aging doctor. But Doc Waller wasn’t the doctor she and Lorcan had traveled all this way to see.

“You’ve seen him do one, haven’t you?” she asked the old woman.

Grandma Waller looked up from her cup. “A miracle you mean?” She set her cup on its saucer, and looked to the hall and the stairway in it. Doctor Bowen Drake along with her husband Doc Waller, had been upstairs in the patient room with Lorcan Brody for several hours. “I might be married to a doctor, but there are some things about doctoring I still don’t know. Doc Drake has had a lot of schooling child. He’s an educated man. There are things he knows about doctoring none of us have ever heard of.”

“But have you seen him do it? They say he’s a miracle worker.” Adaline twisted a corner of her shawl. She’d picked the habit up from her mother-in-law, Mrs. Brody. “Can he help Lorcan see again?”

Grandma Waller looked on her with the utmost compassion. “Ain’t it funny how the good Lord picks who to throw a miracle onto? I’ve seen Him do miracles in all sorts of ways, child. Some big, some small, and through all kinds of folks. But no matter who or where the miracle comes through, it’s still the Lord it comes
from
.”

Adaline stared at her. “You have seen him do it.”

Grandma took a sip of her tea. “It’s not up to Doc Drake what the Lord does, child.”

Adaline looked to the stairs. The last five months had been grueling for she and Lorcan.  Doctors came and went, and on top of all that, strangers
came to town looking for him. They questioned Lorcan for hours about the Englishman that kidnapped him, then as suddenly as they came, they left. It was then Mr. Van Cleet suggested they travel back to Clear Creek with them to see if Doc Drake could do anything. He was said to have performed miracles on some of the people in the tiny town.

Adaline sat, her heart heavy. “He’s been through so much. I don’t want him to have to go through any more …”

Grandma Waller set down her cup and smiled. “No matter what happens, you love him don’t you?”

Adaline looked at her, “Aye.”

“Spoken like a true Irishwoman,” a voice said from the hall.

The women looked up. Ian Mulligan stood there, his hat in his hands. “How’s my nephew doing? Any word?”

Adeline shook her head.

“I can bring some sandwiches from the saloon. Or stew if you like. Mrs. Dunnigan just made a batch.”

“Nothing, thank you.” Adaline whispered.

Mr. Mulligan met the eyes of Grandma Waller, and shook his head sadly. “It is what it is lass. He’s either meant to see, or not. It’s not up to us.”

Adaline looked at him, tears in her eyes. “I understand.”

“Mrs. Brody?” a voice called from upstairs.

Adaline jumped to her feet and ran to the hall. “Yes?”

Doc Waller came down and motioned her to go up
stairs.

She did, taking two at a time, and rushed into the bedroom where they had her husband. “Lorcan?” she said as she approached the bed. The room’s light was dim, and she didn’t know what to think, if think at all.

“Addy …”

She walked to the end of the bed and looked at him. His eyes were open, and staring straight ahead. “Oh, Lorcan …” She made her way around the bed, her head low. She was glad he was blind to the disappointment on her face. She stopped and closed her eyes against her tears, and then froze, her heart in her throat, as she realized his head was turned in her direction. She relaxed when she figured he must have heard where she was. Yet …

She looked at Doc Drake standing in the doorway, his face calm, then back to Lorcan. As quietly as she could, she began to walk around the bed again.

Lorcan’s eyes tracked her.

Her hands flew to her mouth, and she stifled a sob. She held out a hand, and moved it to the right.

Lorcan’s eyes and body tracked, yet, it was as if he didn’t see.

She moved her hand to the left.

He did it again.

“What’s this?”

“I don’t know,” said Doc Drake. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s still blind, yet his intuitive sense is amazing. He … he
feels
everything.”

“I don’t understand …” she said, her heart still in her throat. “We
came here looking for a miracle,” she sobbed. “But he’s still  …”

“
Addy,” Lorcan whispered. “It’s all right, lass. Don’t cry.”

  But she did, and found she couldn’t stop. Lorcan leaned forward, and reached directly for her. Her head shot up at the action, and she
took a step back. “I thought you said he was still blind?”

“He is,” said Doc Drake. “All I did was help him focus his intuitive ability, so he can see better, if that makes sense.”

“I don’t understand …”

Doc Drake sighed. “That’s okay, neither do
I.  In all my days, I’ve not heard or seen anything like it. It’s a miracle, what he’s able to do.”

Adaline started to cry again. “Lorcan … Lorcan
Brody you big, mule-headed … leave it to you to get a miracle and it be …”

“Different?” Lorcan finished for her.

“Aye,” she nodded and went to sit next to him on the bed.

“I don’t understand it either, I just know it works. It just … is.”

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We do what we’ve always done, lass. Live. Work, have babies.”

“We haven’t done that yet …”

“We will.”

She sniffed back her tears. “Where do we go from here?”

“I fancy the hotel business, myself. I think that maybe
Maither
and
Da
would like it here.”

“What about Brody’s Books?”

“We’ll move it. Clear Creek could use a bookshop. Besides, have you had Mrs. Dunnigan’s pot roast yet? It’s better than
Maither’s,
but don’t tell her I said so.”

Addy reached up and brushed his cheek with the back of her hand. “Lorcan Brody, I do love you, and if moving to Clear Creek is what you want, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“Aye, lass. It’s what I want.”

She smiled, and kissed him on the cheek. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Lorcan’s face broke into a grin. “”Ye’ll have two more townsfolk to tend to, Doctor Drake. Better make that four, once I tell my folks.”

“Five,” Addy said softly.

“Five?” Lorcan asked.

Addy took one of his hands, and placed it on her belly. “You heard me, Mr. Brody. Five.”

“Why, Mrs. Brody!” He lifted a hand to her face, and cupped her cheek. “I do love you, Adeline Brody.”

She smiled. “And I you.”

  “Er, I promised Finn we’d name our first after him,”
Lorcan confessed.

“Fine,” she said. “Because I know he loves you too.”

Doc Drake backed out of the room, and closed the door softly behind him. He looked down the stairs, and listened to the familiar voices in the parlor.  Clear Creek was the best place for the Brody family to be.  The young couple would fit right in, and mesh well with the rest of the townsfolk. After all, Clear Creek was full of miracles …

The End

About
the Author
:
Kit Morgan, aka Geralyn Beauchamp, has been writing for fun all her life.  When writing as Kit Morgan her books are whimsical, fun, inspirational sweet stories that depict a strong sense of family and community. When writing as Geralyn Beauchamp, her books are epic, adventurous, romantic fantasy at its very best.

The Holiday Mail Order Bride Series:

The Christmas Mail Order Bride

The New Year’s Bride

His Forever Valentine

Her Irish Surrender

The Springtime Mail Order Bride (Coming in March)

To find out about upcoming books, check out my blog at: www.authorkitmorgan.blogspot.com