Page 47 of Heart of the Wren
“Not at all,” I said. “I’m not the jealous type. So long as I got to kiss you too. And him, come to think of it. Handsome devil, isn’t he?”
Lorcan laughed and took my hand. “Not as handsome as you.” He kissed me in the moonlight.
“Careful, you never know who’s watching,” I said.
“At this time of night? Sure we might as well be the last men in Ireland.”
Chapter 29
LORCAN
ON THE afternoon of Christmas Eve, I opened the door to find Bullseye on my doorstep.
He removed his flat cap and shook the snow from it. “Have you a minute?”
“Come on through. I’m watering the plants.”
In the greenhouse, I picked up my watering can. “What’s the matter?”
“I’ve been debating whether or not to tell you this.”He set his cap on the potting table. “I was talking to Father McDonagh on Sunday about getting the kids ready for Christmas mass. He had a quiet word with me. He says… he says he saw you and Dara.”
I poured water into a spider plant. He couldn’t have seen us in Ross Castle, surely? “He saw us where?”
“On the laneway on Saturday night. After you left Casey’s. He told me you two were…” He swallowed hard. “Kissing. He said you were kissing each other.”
My heart thumped faster. “He’s lying.”
“You know as well as I do that sort of thing is illegal. Two men, I mean. And he says when you finished kissing, you started doing… other things.”
“What sort of things?” I asked.
“Look—”
“I think I have a right to know what I’m being accused of, Bullseye.” I slammed the watering can down. It gurgled as the water sloshed within.
“He said you two started groping each other.”
“He's lying, Bullseye.”
Bullseye fiddled with one of the buttons on his coat. “We’ve been friends for a long time. And I've always suspected you might be…one ofthem. But as long as you keep it in the bedroom, I don't care what you get up to. But you can't be doing it out in the open where children might see, Lorcan. Now, it’s not right. And I’d say it to a boy and girl as quickly as I’m saying it to you.”
“For feck sake, Bullseye, listen to yourself. You think we were, what, riding each other in the post office? Sucking mickeys on the roundabout?”
“Ah, Jaysus, come on now, Lorcan…” He looked away, turning pale.
“Don’t give me the innocent routine,” I said. “Sure wasn’t it your idea for all the boys in our class to have a pulling competition in the woods when we were at school? To see who could shoot their shot the farthest?”
“Ach, it’s not the same thing at all!” His face turned pink. “Boys being boys in the woods is a far cry from… what you two were doing.”
“We’ve never done anything in the village,” I said. “And you're going to take that blow-in’s word over mine?” I felt sick at the thought of Father McDonagh following us in the dark.
His eyes grew sharper and his gestures grew wilder. “I wouldn't normally but since Dara arrived you've been different.”
“Different how?”
“Just… different. Moodier. And that’s saying something. You’ve never been a ray of sunshine but lately you’re acting like you’ve the world on your shoulders.”
I frowned at him. “Am I not allowed to have problems?”
