Page 56 of Heart of the Wren
I rushed ahead of them into the hallway and, touching a tattoo on my arm, I closed my eyes and cast a protective seal over the front door, hoping to stop any dark forces from crossing the threshold. Behind me, Bullseye was putting his arm into a coat sleeve.
“Ah, you’re not leaving already,” I said.
“It’s late,” Bullseye said. “I’d better be going.”
“Not at all, not at all.” I slapped on my biggest smile and stopped Bullseye from putting his coat on fully. I all but stripped it back off him. “Get back in there now and we’ll all have a nice cozy drink and, ah, and we’ll talk about the hurling match and you can tell me how you beat them last year.”
“Ah, well, you know I scored the winning point, of course. And—”
“Carol, pour your dad a drink.” I made wide eyes at her, hoping she’d get the message.
Thankfully, she did. She took a bottle of Jameson and poured some into a glass.
“—no one’s ever beaten my record of—”
“Good, good.” I guided him back into the living room as gently as I could. “Now, we’ll be with you in a second. Eddie, Carol, can you give me a hand in the kitchen? Won’t be long.” I smiled again at Bullseye who slowly sat on the couch.
Carol shut the living room door behind her and hissed at me. “What’s going on?”
I told her to keep her voice down. “We saw someone out in the farmyard.”
“Who was it?”
Lorcan led the small girl by the hand into the hallway. His eyes were wet. “Carol. Eddie. This is Mairead. This is my sister.”
Chapter 33
DARA
THE DOGS took one look at Mairead and scuttled under the kitchen table, whimpering all the while.
“You must be freezing.” Lorcan brought Mairead upstairs to the third bedroom. He pushed open the door and walked inside.
At the top of the stairs, Eddie tugged on my sleeve. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. Go back down and keep Bullseye in the living room. Go on, we’ll make sureLorcan’s alright.”
Carol and I crept to the bedroom door and held the handle, expecting resistance. The door opened fully. Gone were the old mattresses and boxes of clothes. Gone was the oppressive musk and decades of dust. Instead, the room had flowery wallpaper in a style popular in the 1950’s. Small bluish petals on thin stems, repeating over and over. A pretty blanket covered the bed and a single pillow, buttercup yellow sat on top. A doll lay in the corner, next to a stack of books. Unlike the ephemeral wisps of Ross Castle, this was the past brought bodily into the present.
Lorcan opened the wardrobe while Mairead sat silently on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling over the side.
“I’ve got your jumper here,” he said. “Your favourite one. Do you remember?” He took a moss green jumper and shook it out.
She lifted her arms as he put the jumper on, making sure her hair — silver and bright as moonlight on fresh snow — didn’t get caught in the neck.
“Lorcan, what are you doing?” I tried to keep my voice calm but my whole body lit up from the inside out. Electricity raced through every fibre of my being.
“She was outside in only this little dress.” He lay the backs of his fingers on her pallid cheek. “She’s stone cold.”
“Why is her hair white?” I asked. “You said her hair was chestnut brown, like yours.”
“She’s been away,” he said. “When her body drowned, they took her spirit away to the Otherworld. Just like the groom in that story you found. They kept her safe.”
“Who?” Carol asked. “Who took her away?”
“Why don’t you wait downstairs?” he asked.
And still Mairead was silent.
