Page 99 of Against Ebony Irish Seas

“It is,” he said, nodding. “I have lived with vipers like Mary Kincaid and Orla and Tom MacKenna and others like them, but I have never willingly associated with them. Of course, they have never sought to injure me as they have you and Jamie, and for that, I hope they get their just deserts and more.”

Sophie had never been a vengeful person, but she was starting to really believe in things like karma.

“The number of people who agree with those vipers in our village is small. And yet their teeth are sharp. The school’s principal has certainly shown hers, and I think a complaint should be taken up against her for her actions.”

She raised her brow. “No one’s thought of that.”

“No one’ssaidanything yet. Donal and I have been discussing it. We’ve been debating the timing. Whether it should come before Jamie’s review or after.”

“I don’t know enough about that sort of thing, so I’m glad you and Donal are discussing it.”

“It would be another first for our town.” He combed a few stray hairs from his wrinkled forehead. “But if it helped us obtain justice with Denis Walsh, then I think we can take the same tack with Margaret Doyle. Reportherfor her actions tohersupervisor. What parent wants that kind of woman running the school where their children go? If my grandchildren were still attending, we’d have had a fight, that’s for sure.”

She hadn’t been thinking big enough. She’d only been reacting. “I’m really glad to call you a friend, Eoghan.”

He put his hand to his heart. “Me as well,a leanbh. Now, tell me what else Sorcha said to you. Then I will go pluck Greta from the pool where she’s happily splashing with Sandrine, wearing her new unicorn floatie, the one the fairies delivered.”

The image lifted her spirits, as if the light inside her had changed from gray to golden. “Sorcha says to do what you do best.”

He waggled his brows. “It’s a compliment she’s giving me. Along what lines?”

“Rally the town.”

Mischief flashed in his pale blue eyes. “That I can do, and more. We’ll only share our plans with a few among us for the biggest impact. I’ll return, of course, as quick as a hare. But my, how me and my old bones will miss the Provençal sun.”

She laughed for the first time in days.

“Now let me tell you what we need to do.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

Sophie hadn’t left.

Jamie’s heart had thundered mightily when Carrick told him the news as they dug out rotted posts for replacing the following morning. “But why not?”

His brother speared the damp earth with his shovel, his anger evident. “She’s not up for conversation just now. Same as you. Unless you want to tell me why you’re staying with Mum and Dad now and not the woman you love?”

He locked his jaw. If he told Carrick the truth, his brother would be bashing him with the shovel. “Not particularly.”

“Then let’s keep digging, shall we?” his brother spat out. “And I’ll tell the others to leave you be. For the moment.”

The final words carried the whisper of a threat. They would all pounce soon enough. Likely after the Education Officer made her decision about the charges against him.

The next day, he and his lawyers, whom Linc had found for him, filed his defense well ahead of the ten-day window, but it gave him no relief. His shoulders and back ached from digging up posts, work Carrick must have seized upon to keep him busy, but he didn’t complain. He and his parents were like ships passing in the night, what with them spending their nights defending him. Of his friends, he saw none. He spent the weekend alone, keeping the telly on for company, missing Sophie with all his heart.

He had the quiet he’d always thought he liked, but the silence scraped at his nerves now. Yes, his routine was different and he was living back in his parents’ house, but being alone wasn’t the same. There was no solace in it anymore—only agony.

Monday came, and with it more posts. When he asked Carrick again if he had news of Sophie, his brother ripped out the post roughly and threw it aside. “If you’re ready to talk about your stupidness, then we’ll talk. Otherwise, you’ll need to seek your answers from someone other than me.”

He knew the set of that chin, had known it since childhood. His brother was spoiling for a fight. And as angry and hurt as he was, Jamie still was not the kind of man to give it to him. “Never mind then.”

Carrick ripped off his gloves and stalked off, calling over his shoulder, “I’m going home for lunch if you want to come along.”

He sunk his shovel in the earth. While he’d love to see his niece, if he went, he would put himself in Angie’s crosshairs. She could be just as fierce as Carrick. “No, I’ll just keep digging.”

“You do that!” Carrick shouted back.

He scowled and then jumped as Sorcha appeared on the fence in front of him, sitting on the post. He clutched his heart. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you scared me.”

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