Page 3 of The Irish Gypsy
She tossed her head at the mention of thehandsome young man. “Arrogant bastard!”
Early the next morning Kitty was on her wayto steal some more milk when a huge black stallion almost ran herdown in the mist.
“You stupid child, I could have killedyou.”
“Little you’d care! I thought you were beingsent back to England,” she taunted.
He laughed and said, “I stopped taking orderswhen I was seven, and I think that probably applies to you too,from your cheek.”
She put her small nose in the air, tossed hercurls and pointedly ignored him.
“Faith, you act like you own the place,instead of being …” He hesitated.
“Gypsy ragamuffin?” she finished for him.“Well don’t look down your arrogant nose at me, O’Reilly; someday Ishall be a lady and have a carriage of my own!”
He threw back his head and laughed, “LadyJane Tut!”
“Lord Bloody Muck!” she flung back.
“There’s only one way to achieve yourambition, and that’s to marry money,” he advised her.
He laughed at the speculative look that cameinto her eyes. “Nay, lass, you can’t have me. I’m disinclinedtoward marriage to begin with, but when I do saddle myself with awife, she’ll bring me a bleach works or a brewery at the least.” Hereached into his pocket and tossed her a coin. “Here’s thatshilling I’m supposed to have promised you,” he said with his eyestwinkling.
She was left standing alone and for once shehadn’t had the last word; that was most rare for Kitty Rooney.
Jonathan O’Reilly sat with his son in thelibrary. “Have you had a chance to assess the estate yet, lad?”
Patrick stretched his long legs to the fire.“Aye, father. Things aren’t good, but remember, it’s all thecounties, not just this one.”
“Quit beating about the bush. You know what Iwant to know. Is the place still able to support itself?”
“No. The crops are ruined. There’ll be nofood for the people and no feed for the herds. It’ll all have to beimported. The tenants won’t be able to pay their rents and theyshouldn’t be pressed into doing what’s impossible!”
“That’s all my arse of a tale!” O’Reillyshouted. “They have the use of the land, they should pay therent.”
“Futile,” Patrick said shortly. “You can’tget blood out of a turnip.”
“Well, I’m determined to have this placesupport itself and not be a continual drain on my pocket. I’ll sellsome of the Thoroughbreds.”
“If you could be farsighted, Father, you’dsee that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do. You should increase thenumber of horses. It’s the only thing you can make money on, andgetting rid of them would put a lot of your people out of work.That’s dangerous.”
“Then where does the money come from?” hedemanded.
Patrick shrugged and said, “You could usesome of the profits from the mills, although if you wereintelligent enough to look into the future you’d see that the millprofits should be turned back into improvements, new machinery andgreater safety measures.”
“Intelligent? That’s what I sent you to thatbloody London university for, and let’s not get off on that tackabout improving the bloody mills. I make a damned good living fromthem mills, so we’ll just let it be. We’re discussing Ireland atthe moment.”
“Yes, we’ll discuss it and then you’ll goahead and do exactly as you please and not take any notice of theadvice I try to give you.”
“Oh, aye, we know there’s only one with anybrains in this family, but let me tell you I’ve got more commonsense in my little finger than there is in that whole bloodyuniversity!”
“You could be right there. It’s crammed withyoung men who are England’s future and once they receive the finesteducation that’s available in the world, they go off and race theirhorses and sleep with their mistresses and fritter away theirfortunes gambling and never, ever, under any circumstances soiltheir hands with trade. But commerce is what makes England strongand if they applied themselves to making money instead of wastingit, we’d be the richest, most powerful country in the world.”
“I always thought we were.”
“How long will it last if everyone’s asshortsighted as you?”
“All right, all right, try me. Give me asuggestion and I’ll carry it out.”
