Page 34 of Choices of the Heart

Burke made a little cut alongside the deeply embedded splinter. Finbarr winced but didn’t flinch. Still laying atop her beloved master’s feet, Madra lifted her head and watched Burke with suspicion.

“How’s your crop?” He had found it best to keep his patients talking when he was causing them pain. It was a good distraction.

“The crop’s healthy, I think. Joseph took a look at it a couple of days ago. He didn’t have any concerns.”

“So, you still interact with Joseph?”

“Now and then.”

Burke pulled the splinter out. It was a decent size. He was surprised Finbarr had gone as long as he had without getting help. Burke wrapped a bandage around Finbarr’s hand.

“Next time, don’t wait to come see me. Splinters are easier to address than infection.”

Finbarr nodded. “I will.”

“And if you don’t want to make the trek all the way to my infirmary, ask Joseph. I’d wager, most of the time, he’d be able to get out a splinter.”

“I’ll think about it.” Finbarr was so reluctant to abandon his isolation.

“Do you get lonely out there on your own?” Burke asked.

“Sometimes,” Finbarr said. “But I need the space and the quiet more than I need company.”

“Meaning, it’s a sacrifice worth making.”

“It is.”

The significance of that was not lost on Burke. No one looking in on Finbarr’s situation would think he could possibly be happy. But, at the moment, it was the compromise he needed to make.

“Having space of your own is worth missing out on being around other people,” Burke said. “What if it stops being worth it?”

“I guess I’d have to rethink some things.”

Rethinking. Sometimes, it seemed that was all Burke did anymore.

Sophie had celebrated birthdays with any number of people over the years. None had shown even a modicum of the excitement Ivy Archer overflowed with at the arrival of her birthday. Her family planned a day of celebrations. Katie baked a cake. And they warned Mrs. Archer that, as tiring as thecéilíscould be, they were nothing compared to what would descend upon the Archer home. Mrs. Archer didn’t seem the least worried. She, after all, had made houseroom for Sophie, who could be exhausting in her own way.

For her part, Sophie was excited. There was something so freeing about life here. She hadn’t worried even once in the last weeks about being overly exuberant.

Joseph returned from his work out in his fields a little early that day in order to celebrate with his daughter and family. Ivy rushed to him as he stepped into the sitting room, and he scooped her up off the floor and spun her about. It was not a sight one would ever see amongst the wealthy and influential of Baltimore. Yet, it came very naturally to Joseph Archer out here. Sophie appreciated seeing it. She felt a little less unsure of her own transformation here in the expanse of the West.

“Have you had a good birthday so far, Ivy?” Joseph asked.

“I have.”

He set her on her feet once more but kept her hand in his. “It’s not yet time for your birthday dinner or your cake. What would you like to do in the meantime?”

Without hesitation, Ivy declared, “I want to play tag!”

Joseph’s eyes darted to the others in the room. “Has she proposed this idea to the rest of you?”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Katie said. She rose carefully, setting a hand on her very rounded middle and using the other to support herself on the arm of the chair she’d been sitting in. “But it is Ivy’s special day. We’ll do what she wishes to do.”

Joseph moved to where his wife stood. He watched her with concern. “I don’t know that a rousing game of tag is quite the best idea for you right now.”

“And I suspect, Ivy,”—Katie looked to her little girl— “your granny’s not quite up for it either. But Sean will have a grand time. I daresay Emma will participate.”

Ivy’s nostrils flared even as her expression turned annoyed. “Emma’s too grown up for games. Especially since Grandmother came. She’s fancy now.”

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