Page 100 of Beside Golden Irish Fields
She wandered over and examined the rope’s threads. “But who would do such a thing?”
His jaw ticked. “Teenagers maybe? If I pissed anyone else off, they’d tell me to my face. No farmer around here would do it.”
No, they wouldn’t. “Donal, this is incredible. You don’t think Mary Kincaid would go this far?”
“She’s been decidedly single-minded, but I’m not sure we’ll ever know the culprit.”
He was right, and wasn’t that a bitter brew? Mary was the only person who made sense, but by God, Bets had never imagined she’d stoop to it.
Taking her shoulders in his hands, Donal studied her. “Do you believe it wasn’t my fault?”
Her anger was gone, as was the sadness pulling at her. The worst of it, she realized, had been thinking he’d let her down. She nodded crisply. “I believe someone cut it. I’m sorry for acting like you were at fault. It wasn’t very fair of me to make assumptions without knowing the facts.”
His brows lifted. “You sure?”
“Yes. I love my roses. I was upset you could have been an agent for hurting something I love so much, especially after everything you’ve said to me. It felt like a betrayal.”
He hugged her to him. “I’d never betray you,mo ghrá.”
Oh, his arms felt so good around her, but then he was pushing her toward the car, albeit gently.
“All right, we’ve seen this sabotage. Now we’re going to the special place. I have something else to show you.”
She was silent on the short journey—back to her very own house. “Why are we back here?”
When he parked in her driveway, he strode out of the car with the single-minded purpose of a man on a mission. Only he didn’t walk to her front door. He went around the side of the house. She followed, wondering where in the world he was going.
He took the overgrown path she’d been after Liam to trim, leading to an even more overgrown part of their property, which her son had told her to stay away from since there was a hornet’s nest he’d yet to take down. She frowned, pushing away briars and branches.
Donal led her to the edge of the clearing. “Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I hope this won’t make you cross, but I want you to know Liam helped, if that’s any consolation. My dad too.”
A beautiful view of the beach came into sight as she stepped into the clearing. Then her gaze took in the garden before her. “What’s this?”
“Your new rose garden.” He didn’t need to gesture to the rows of giant hybrid tea roses, blooming in a variety of jaw-dropping colors. Her nose had already caught their inviting fragrance.
“What in the world?”
She pressed her hand to her aching heart as she took the sight in. The hot pink showstoppers Hot Princess, Zach Nobles, and Dublin made her mouth water. Celebrity-named winners, Randy Scott and Marilyn Monroe, were loaded with blooms. And glory be, this was where he’d gotten the St. Patrick rose cuttings from.
But it was the captivating sight of the lusciously fragrant Love’s Magic roses that had her heart beating faster.
“I thought you needed another rose garden well away from where any sheep could find them, especially after Carrick’s got out. Something told me to do it. Seems I was right.”
“But that was two months ago!” she gasped. “Before I’d even agreed to go out with you.”
He lifted a shoulder. “I was hoping to give you one rose at a time as we dated, starting with Falling in Love, but I decided to plant them all and pray this helped the message sink in at the right time. I enlisted Liam’s help to find a sheltered place and to keep you away, and then we came here and planted these beauties.”
“Oh, my God, Donal! I can’t believe you did this.” She made a beeline for Love’s Magic, fingering its giant five-inch red blooms and leaning forward to sniff. God, the perfume was decadent.
“I’d like to put some fencing around them, although I know it will be an eyesore,” he said, coming up beside her. “But if we have a saboteur, we need to take precautions. I’m thinking about getting a GoPro just in case our culprit hears about this place and puts in a repeat performance—although I think you should keep it a secret as long as you can. We should probably grow a few roses in your glass house too. We need to build in redundancies, Bets.”
He’d said “we.” She looked up at him and put her hand on his chest. “I still can’t believe this. You bought all of these for me? Donal, I can’t imagine the time and energy it took to find them. It’s not like they’re regular run-of-the-mill roses. These varieties are so prized, they’re often out of stock if carried at all.”
“I started with nothing but hope in my heart.” He cupped her face gently, a smile touching his beautiful mouth. “They’re rare, but not as rare as you, Betsy O’Hanlon.”
His touch had her leaning into him, and she put her hand on his massive chest. “Donal, I don’t know what to say.”
His mouth drifted into another glorious smile. “Good. Actions speak louder than words anyway.”
