Destiny's Path (13 page)

Conn and Kathleen walked out to the stables in silence. ‘I’ve set up as a horse breeder, as you know.’

‘A poor occupation for a lawyer. Can you not practise the law here now that you’ve been released?’

‘I don’t want to. The law that brought me here – an innocent man – is not worth serving. I want no hand in putting other innocent men behind bars.’

‘Are you still claiming to be innocent?’ She sounded surprised.

‘I
am
innocent.’

‘But they had proof of your guilt. Michael and your father both explained it to me.’

‘I’m quite sure Michael was the one who set a trap for me, and that Father knew about it.’

She stopped walking to stare at him, open-mouthed. ‘I don’t believe you. That’s a terrible thing to say of your father without a scrap of proof. He was very upset about what you’d done.’

‘Was he? He must be a better actor than I realised. All the so-called proof was faked by someone. Who else could it have been? Michael and my father told lies in court, on oath. I thought it was because they believed it, but now that I’ve had a lot of time to think about it . . . well, I’m sure they did it on purpose.’

He was glad he hadn’t suspected back then that it was his own family or it might have sent him mad with the pain of such a betrayal from those who should be closest to him. Now, he’d learned to endure so much that such knowledge seemed like only one more problem to add to his basket of troubles. Basket? Cart load, more like, now.

They started walking again.

‘Why did you never come and visit me in prison?’ he asked. ‘I could have explained my side to you.’

‘Your father said I shouldn’t go to such a dreadful, dirty place. He promised he’d look after me when you couldn’t. And he did, right until he died. He was
kind
to me, let me ride all his horses, took me to visit his friends. I was happy at Shilmara.’

Her tone rang with pain and Conn was surprised to find that he felt sorry for her. He changed the subject, though. He didn’t want to hear any praise of his father. He stopped at the paddock where two or three yearlings were kept, horses he was proud of breeding.

‘We need strong horses here. That’s more important than whether they’re beautiful or not. Look at those! Great animals, they are.’

She stood by the rails, studying them. ‘They look well fed and exercised. Good glossy coats. But I prefer beautiful horses.’

‘The roads are rough here and many of the riders use a horse to death.’

‘I’d have the riders whipped for that. I like the looks of the chestnut stallion over there.’

‘Yes, he’s fathered two good foals already. I’m trying to find another mare or two for him.’ He waited for her to look her fill, then asked gently, ‘Why did you come here, Kathleen? Tell me the truth, now.’

‘I told you: to ask your mother to come back and live with me.’

‘I can’t understand why you thought that would help.’

She looked at him in surprise. ‘I was received socially when I lived with your father, but once he died, except for Ronan’s mother, people didn’t even speak to me after church – so I thought if your mother came to live with me, I’d have some chance of a decent life again.’

‘My mother isn’t fit to travel back to Ireland. You must have seen how hard she finds it to move now. Maia has to do nearly everything for her.’

There was a long silence and he didn’t interrupt it.

‘Yes, I can see that,’ she said at last. ‘So I’ll have to stay here too. But I’m still not sharing your bed.’

Why did she hate the idea of him touching her so much? He wasn’t vain, but he knew women found him attractive. ‘Don’t worry. You’ll not be invited into my bed.’

‘No. You’ve got your eyes on your mother’s maid, haven’t you? She’s a slut, so she should satisfy your needs.’

‘How did you—?’ He broke off, realising he’d betrayed himself. ‘I’ve not touched Maia in that way, and I won’t. She’s a decent young woman.’

She looked at him thoughtfully. ‘I believe you. You always were too soft with servants. But you want to bed her, don’t you? And you will one day. You men are all dirty-minded like that. No better than stallions when a mare’s in heat. Your father explained it to me.
He
was different.’

‘If you feel that way about men, I think you should go into a nunnery. You’ll be quite safe from men there.’

‘You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Locking me away. That’s what my brother wanted to do. I’d go mad locked up behind stone walls.’

She reached out to stroke the nose of a young mare and the animal let her, though normally it shied away from strangers.

‘You can’t stay here, Kathleen,’ he said, but without the heat of his earlier remarks. ‘We’d make each other unhappy.’

‘I don’t have anywhere else to go. And I’m unhappy already.’

‘You can stay till I find you somewhere else to live, but remember, this is my mother’s house, not yours. She gives the orders here and I’ll not have you ill-treating my servants.’

Anger flashed in her eyes but she didn’t say anything, just pressed her lips together.

‘We’d better rejoin the others.’

‘I’ll stay with the horses till it’s dinner time.’

‘I’ll send someone to fetch you when the food is ready.’ He looked up as someone moved out of the stables.

She followed his gaze. ‘That’s Sean. I remember him from Shilmara. He helped your mother escape. Your father was very angry. You shouldn’t keep such a villain working for you.’

‘I was glad to have him, glad he’d helped my mother. He’s very good with horses.’

‘That’s all you care about, your mother and your horses.’ She turned away and began to walk along the edge of the field towards the next enclosure where some yearlings were grazing.

He hesitated for a moment or two, not liking to give her free rein to wander around, but unable to think what else to do with her. At least out here she wasn’t being rude to his mother and servants, and he trusted her with animals.

He turned to Sean. ‘Don’t let her order you around.’

Sean shrugged. ‘She’ll try. But she’ll not hurt the horses, that’s the main thing, and being here gets her out of your mother’s way.’

Conn smiled briefly as he walked back to the house. Sean always knew what was going on, even though he spent most of his time in the stables.

After hesitating for a moment, he went to find Ronan. How terrible that his mother had died on the journey here. No wonder Ronan looked so sad at times.

8

A
n hour’s drive away from Galway House, the eldest of the four Blake sisters, Cassandra, sat beside the bed of her old friend, Kevin Lynch.

She wiped his brow and smoothed back his sparse white locks. ‘Can I get you a drink?’

‘No, lass. I’m beyond . . . thirst . . . now.’ He paused a moment to catch his breath. ‘I’ll not be . . . troubling you . . . much longer.’

She didn’t try to deny that. He’d lived longer than anyone had expected him to and they’d all been happy together. ‘We shall miss you, Kevin. You’ve taught us so much about farming in Australia. I don’t know how we’d have coped without you.’

He smiled. ‘You’ve been like . . . the children I never had.’

Reece came into the room as Kevin said this and went to sit on the other side of the bed. He raised one eyebrow at his wife and she gave a little shake of her head. He took Kevin’s wasted hand gently in his.

‘Need to tell you.’ The old man fought for breath. ‘I’ve left everything . . . to you, lad.’

‘I thought this farm would go to your nephew,’ Reece said.

‘He never wrote back. Doesn’t deserve it.’

‘That’s very kind of you,’ Cassandra said.

A small child began crying in the next room and Kevin smiled at her. ‘Go and tend to . . . little Sofia.’

When she’d gone Kevin said, ‘Conn has the will. Drawn up properly . . . and witnessed.’

Reece bowed his head, thinking that fate was being very kind to him and his wife. They’d come to Australia with almost nothing and now they’d have a farm of their own, small but promising. When he looked up again, Kevin was asleep, breathing shallowly and slowly.

He sat on for a few minutes, still holding the old man’s hand, thinking what a difference it’d make to him and his family to own this farm, then something about the silence made him look more carefully at the figure on the bed. Kevin had simply stopped breathing. His expression was tranquil. It had been an easy passing.

Reece closed the staring eyes, murmuring, ‘Thank you. And not just for leaving us the land, but for everything you’ve given us.’ Then he raised his voice. ‘Cassandra?’

She came to the door, the child in her arms.

‘He’s gone. So peacefully I didn’t notice it at first.’

‘I’m glad it was easy for him. Eh, but I’ll miss him.’ She went to pat Kevin’s cheek with her free hand, then became practical and set her little daughter down while she covered his face with the sheet. ‘We’ll bury him tomorrow, shall we?’

He nodded.

‘You’d better go and tell the Southerhams. They may want to attend, out of respect for a good neighbour, even if he was once a convict.’

Reece grimaced. ‘I don’t enjoy going there. The farm is in a worse mess every time I visit them. Leo does his best, poor lad, but except where animals are concerned, he doesn’t think to do something unless they tell him – and half the time Livia has her head in a book or Francis is sitting with his beloved horses, so they don’t guide him as they should. It’s a good thing they’re not relying on the farm to bring in money, because it never will as long as they’re in charge. That’s gentry for you!’

‘Not all gentry are as impractical as them. Conn’s doing very well for himself.’ She looked round in a kind of wonderment. ‘It’s kind of Kevin to leave everything to us, isn’t it? Imagine owning our own home! That’ll make a big difference, won’t it?’

He gave her a quick hug, as he often did. ‘We’d have bought a place once your money came through from England, but this way I’m bringing something substantial to our marriage as well and that makes me feel good. I did wonder if Kevin might leave us something, from remarks he’s made lately. He never said it outright, though.’ Then he shook his head. ‘It seems wrong to be rejoicing when he’s just died.’

‘Life goes on and he’d want us to be happy. We didn’t care for him for gain, after all.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’

‘Go on! Let the Southerhams know. We won’t be able to get a priest here to bury him, but we can certainly hold our own ceremony and say the prayers. He’s already picked out the spot where he wants to lie. It’s beautiful there at the top of our little hill.’

Reece gave her another hug and dropped a light kiss on Sofia’s nose as the child came to cling to her mother’s skirts. ‘I’ll do that and afterwards I’ll ride over to Conn’s and see if they want to come to the burial. I’ll ask him what we need to do about the will while I’m at it. There’s plenty of time to get there and back before dark and I don’t think it’ll rain for a while yet. I’ll dig the grave first thing in the morning.’

‘I’ll lay him out.’

‘Do you want me to help you with that?’

‘No. I did it for my father and I’m happy to perform this last service for Kevin.’

‘You’re a wonderful woman and I’m lucky to marry you.’ He patted her stomach, which was just starting to swell. ‘If this one is a daughter, I hope she’s just like you.’

She chuckled. ‘She couldn’t be much more like me than Sofia is.’

His face softened into a smile. ‘Eh, she’s a little minx, that one.’ They both turned to smile at the child, who had dragged out a box of wooden blocks Kevin had made for her and was building a tower.

A short time later Cassandra saw Reece go striding off along the path through the bush that linked the two properties. She had so much to be thankful for, but most of all the fact that although Sofia wasn’t his child, her husband loved her as if she was. He always said she’d been sent to replace the child he’d lost when his first wife died in childbirth.

Cassandra turned to attend to Kevin, the last thing she could do for him. Keeping one eye on her daughter she brought water to wash the body and dressed him in clean clothes for his final journey.

Reece saw Leo digging in the Southerhams’ vegetable garden and waved to him. The two of them were lucky to have him, but he was lucky to have found a home with them, as well. His stepfather had sent him to Australia to get rid of him because he was slow-witted. He had a gift for looking after animals, though, which gave him the means to earn a living anywhere. He kept the stables in perfect order for the Southerhams without needing telling what to do, but wasn’t nearly as much use at the other farm jobs.

Reece shook his head at the sight of the ramshackle collection of sheds that he’d helped Francis build when he was working for him. Francis had begrudged the money to buy milled timber, so they’d used fallen trees and whatever they could find, just as Reece would be doing now that he had his own farm. The outbuildings might not look pretty, but they were waterproof and spacious enough for several horses, which was the main thing Francis cared about.