Page 27 of An Irish Kiss
“I live here, brother dear, in case you’ve forgotten.And Mam is here too.”
“Hi Mam.”
“Hello, Son,” Mam said.
“And I need you to tell us who our solicitor is,” Rory continued.
“Why?Is Ash in trouble again?”
She ignored Aisling’s rolled eyes.“No, but we might all be.There’s someone questioning about whether the Griffin family or the Quinns own the old castle, and we need to see title deeds and boundary maps and all that kind of thing.”
“Are you serious?Who’s pulling your leg like that?You know it’s on our land.”
“Yes, we know that, but we may need to prove it.There’s an Australian guest here who is a lawyer who is looking into it—”
“Oh, an Australian,” he scoffed.
“And Mary Connolly seems to think he may be right,” she insisted.
“But he can’t be.No.That’s nonsense.I can’t believe Mary would think something like that.”
“So all we need to do is prove it and this all goes away.So who is our solicitor?”
“It’s Patrick Fuller from Kenmare.”
“Thank you.”Finally they had a lead to go on.“We’ll let you go.Hope your meeting goes well.”
“I do too.”
“Say hello to Kara for us, the next time you’re talking to her.”
“Oh, you can be sure I will.I’m heading to Suffolk again after this trip.”
“Weren’t you there last week?”
“Ah, but what’s a man to do when he’s in love?You can’t honestly expect a good boyfriend to stay away from his girl when it’s in his power to be near?”
Rory exchanged smiles with Mam and Aisling, and they soon ended the call.
“He doesn’t sound too worried,” Rory said.
“That’s because he knows like the rest of us that any other challengers don’t have a leg to stand on,” Aisling said confidently.“You’ll see.”
The tightness in her chest eased, and the headache thump dropped to manageable.
Her sister was right.Say what they might, Aidan and Mary were mistaken.And the old castle was theirs.Not anyone else’s.
By the timeshe arrived at the bookshop, five minutes early for once, she was feeling far more assured.Until she recognised the dark head of a tall man standing talking with Mary.
Her steps slowed.She hadn’t seen him at the hotel this morning.Admittedly, she’d gone out of her way to not see him nor be seen by him, unable to escape that sense of resentment that someone had taken advantage of them while proving most Trojan horse-like in his schemes.That, along with a small sense of shame at how she’d treated him, was bound to make any interactions a little awkward.Heaven knew it would be awkward enough with Mary, whom she’d known all her life.But she really didn’t need to have the two of them ganging up on her.Especially this morning.
Still, the thought that she could call Patrick as soon as his office opened fuelled hope that all this silly nonsense could soon be laid to rest.And it had to be silly nonsense.Her family’s good name depended on it.
She braced, pushed open the door, and pasted a smile on her face.“Morning.”
“Ah, you’re here,” Mary said.
“Indeed I am.”She forced herself to meet Aidan’s gaze.She’d feel less like a child if she acted like an adult and pretended nothing was wrong.“Good morning.”
