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“Well, maybe Brian then?”

“Brian thinks the sun shines out her arse,”
Declan said.

“How in the world did the two of them even
meet?”

Fiona cleaned the cheese knife on a dry
cloth. “When I was showing her about the cottage, she mentioned one
of the twins introduced them.”

“She moved things along pretty quickly.”

“She probably took one look at how easy
Brian was to manipulate and went charging ahead to get him to marry
her.”

Declan laughed rudely. “In a moment of early
camaraderie before I turned back into a slimy Pikey before his very
eyes, Gilhooley mentioned his sainted wife miscarried before they
were wed.”

“Bingo.”

“Yeah,” Mike said. “That would do it.”

“She’s playing him until she gets what she
wants,” Fiona said.

“I wonder what that is.”

“To see the camp torched, I’ll wager.”

“Yes, but how? Or do you mean
literally?”

“I don’t know how this fits into her plans,”
Fiona said looking at Sarah and then Mike. “But I saw her this
morning with Papin looking very cozy.”

“Papin?” Sarah looked at Mike, and for the
first time since they’d sat down there didn’t seem to be a hidden
meaning in her look. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth, her
eyes wide. “What would Papin be doing with her?”

“I don’t know.”

Declan frowned. “Can’t you just tell her to
stay away from Caitlin?”

Mike and Sarah locked eyes again. “Not
really,” Sarah said.

Fiona put a hand on Declan’s knee. “Telling
teenagers not to do something just makes ‘em want to do it all the
more.”

“Blimey.”

“But since Papin’s
leaving
tomorrow, it’s
not really a problem,” Aideen said.

Mike cleared his throat. “Does she know
she’s not going to the States yet?”

Aideen snapped her head around to face him.
“Papin’s not going?”

Sarah ignored Aideen and answered Mike. “I
haven’t told her,” she admitted.

Fiona said, “So Papin
taking up with Caitlin is
not
something that’ll be resolved tomorrow when Sarah
leaves since Papin is not leaving. In fact, it’ll be
my
problem,
then.”

Mike saw a look come over Sarah’s face that
he couldn’t decipher. She looked away and stared into the woods and
no one spoke for a beat.

Aideen looked from Fiona to Mike and then to
Declan. “So?” she said. “What can we do?”

Mike got to his feet and held out a hand to
Aideen to help her up. “Nothing,” he said. “Until she makes a move,
we just need to sit tight and wait for it.”

“Well, that’s a crappy plan,” Sarah blurted
out, and for a moment Mike remembered the Sarah who tried to
bulldoze him into marching into a camp of fifty murdering bandits
with just herself and two others. He nearly grinned.

“Well, crappy or not,” Declan said, “until
we know what’s coming at us, we wait.”

After the picnic broke up, Sarah walked back
to Fiona and Declan’s cottage with the two of them to have a word
with Papin. She knew she couldn’t tell her not to hang out with
Caitlin, but she could at least try to see if she was more amenable
to talking about the identity of the baby’s father. And Mike was
right. Somehow she needed to tell Papin she wasn’t coming to the
States right away.

When they reached the cottage, Iain Jamison
was sitting on the front stoop waiting for them. As Sarah pushed
past him he snaked a hand up her leg and pinched her bottom through
her jeans. She whirled away from him and fell, tumbling down the
steps. Before she could get to her feet, she saw Declan had Iain on
the ground, and was pushing his face in the dirt, and smashing his
fist into his kidneys. Within seconds a crowd began to gather to
cheer Declan on.

Sarah scrambled to her feet. Her ankle felt
weak and she staggered to the steps trying to avoid the two men now
rolling in the dust. Fiona charged from her front door but Sarah
grabbed her and held on. “Fi, don’t!” she said. “Let Declan sort it
out.”

It became quickly clear to
anyone watching that Declan’s idea of
sorting it out
looked like it might
require a body bag for Iain before he was done.

Why did that cretin Iain touch me like
that?

“Dec, stop!” Fiona cried. “You’re killing
him!”

The sound of the gunshot felt like it went
off by Sarah’s ear. She screamed and jumped forward, not entirely
sure they weren’t being fired upon, when she saw Brian push through
the crowd holding the blocky, black form of a semi-automatic
handgun.

When she turned back to the two men on the
ground, she saw Declan rising to his feet, his eyes blazing with
anger. Iain, although moving and groaning, stayed down.

“What the hell is the meaning of this,
Cooper?” Brian said. “Answer me!”

“The maggot attacked Mrs. Woodson,” Declan
said, brushing off the dirt from his jeans.

“He assaulted you?” Brian turned to look at
Sarah. Brian crunched his face into an expression of obvious
disbelief.

“Yes,” Sarah said.

Sarah saw Caitlin appear by her husband’s
side, her eyes going first to Sarah and then to Iain. “Katie,
darling, stand back. I won’t have you hurt.”

Caitlin moved to where Iain lay struggling
to sit up and knelt by him. His face was bloodied and it looked as
if Declan had rearranged his nose.

“I told you the Pikey was unpredictable,
didn’t I?” she said over her shoulder to Brian. “Now just look what
he’s done. He’s an animal.”

Brian held the gun, now pointed in the
general direction of Declan.

“
What the feck is going
on?” Mike’s voice boomed out from behind the crowd of gathered
community members and they quickly moved to let him through.
“Jaysus, Gilhooley, did you shoot your own man?
Already?”

“Shut up, Donovan,” Brian said, not taking
his eyes off his wife’s careful and tender ministrations to Iain.
“Jamison, did you lay hands on Mrs. Woodson?”

Sarah watched the toad shake his head in
denial. He spat out a loose tooth. “I never,” he croaked.

“That is a lie,” Sarah said, forcing herself
not to look at Mike. She could feel the anger roiling off him even
from this distance.

“Well, as it’s your word
against his, the way I see it the only crime that’s been committed
is the brutal beating of an innocent man. Cooper, you are relieved
of your position as sheriff of Daoineville. I’ll ask you to stay
confined to your cottage until Sheriff Jamison and I come to a
decision as what’s to be done. Come along, my dear. I’m sure
Mrs
. Jamison will want
to attend to her husband.”

Caitlin stood up and glanced Sarah as she
turned to her husband. Sarah was astounded to see her smile coldly
at her. “Dearest?” Caitlin said to Brian as the group began to
break up. “Perhaps this would be a good time for me to make our
little announcement?”

Sarah looked at Brian, who had tucked his
handgun back in the belt of his pants. He held a hand out for
Caitlin but she ignored it. Instead, she walked up the stairs of
Fiona’s porch and turned to face the growing crowd.

“Good people of Daoineville,” she said,
holding her hands out to them. “Thank you all for your warm
welcome. My father and brothers thank you, too.” Sarah turned to
see that Archie Kelly and the twins had joined the crowd. Mike
stood with his arms crossed. She could tell he was working to keep
control of his temper. Declan and Fiona stood just inside the door
of their cottage, his arms wrapped protectively around her.

Caitlin walked to the edge of the porch and
beckoned to someone in the crowd to come forward. Sarah craned her
neck to see who it was and failed to prevent an escaped gasp when
she saw Papin reaching a hand up to Caitlin to be helped up to the
porch.

“Papin!” Sarah took a step toward her but
Iain was still sitting in the dirt and, because of the gathered
crowd, blocking her way around him. She turned to see Mike’s
surprise, then his face contorted into a thunderhead when he saw
whom it was.

Papin stepped up to stand next to Caitlin.
She was wearing a new dress, obviously one of Caitlin’s since Sarah
had never seen it before, and unless she’d become about four months
more pregnant since the last time Sarah had seen her, she was
wearing a pillow under her dress, too.

What was going on?

Caitlin addressed the crowd. “Some of you
don’t know me, but for the ones who do, as my husband has already
said, I hope that our time together here will erase old hurts and
put us on a path to a more united community. I’m sure everyone
would agree we can’t truly be healed if we don’t address the wrongs
that have hurt us. And nowhere is that more true than in the damage
that was done to our own Papin, who came to us as a hurt and
wounded soul only to find treachery and betrayal.”

Sarah was on the porch, pushing past Caitlin
when her fingers wrapped around Papin’s thin arm. “Papin, I don’t
know what you think you’re doing—”

“Ow! Mum! You’re hurting me!” Papin
whimpered, trying to pry Sarah’s fingers from her arm.

“Unhand her!” Brian roared. He pulled his
gun back out as Mike and Declan both made movements to step
forward. “Nobody is to go near my wife or her…or Papin.”

Sarah took her hand away. “Papin, what is
going on?”

“What is going on, Mrs. Woodson,” Caitlin
said, firmly pushing Sarah away from Papin. “Is that Papin has
finally gotten the courage to name the father of her baby.”

A murmured wave of whispers swept the people
standing, watching. Sarah saw that the crowd had grown now. It
wasn’t just the gypsy men gathered and listening with rapt
attention but almost every single person in camp. Caitlin had timed
her exhibition well. It was the hour before dinner when most people
were in camp.

Caitlin turned back to her audience. “And
why wouldn’t she be afraid to name him? He, the vile sod who took
her—a child, herself—by forcing his perverse lusts upon her?”

What was she saying? That
Papin was raped?
Sarah twisted around to
see Papin’s face but it was implacable. Neither guilt nor shame nor
fear showed there. If anything, she looked like she was
beaming.

“Aye, who is it among us who could have done
this horrific deed? Papin? Will you, name him, lass? Will you name
the animal what done this to you?”

Sarah could hear the far off whine of one of
John’s wolf puppies. She was grateful he wasn’t here to see this.
She watched as Papin nodded sweetly to Caitlin and then stepped
forward to address the crowd. The quiet was absolute.

“The man what done this to
me,” she said, her voice breathless and small as her hand came to
light on the swelling beneath her dress, “is me own
da
, Mike
Donovan.”

15

Sarah’s mouth fell open as Papin addressed
the crowd. Caitlin stood next to her with her hand on Papin as if
in support. In the crowd, she saw the look of confusion on Mike’s
face as if he was sure he hadn’t heard correctly. Two young
men—both from the gypsy group—appeared on either side of him,
flanking him. They hadn’t touched him yet. Their eyes were on
Gilhooley as if awaiting orders.

The crowd gasped in surprise and turned as
one to look at Mike. Some craned their necks to see Sarah’s
reaction.

“Only, I did want to clear
up one thing,” Papin said meekly. “It
weren’t
rape. I was happy to do it
to please him.”

The roar that came next could only have come
from one source. Sarah recovered her senses in time to see Mike
being restrained now by the two gypsy men. His face was purple with
fury as he struggled to free himself.

“Papin! What are you saying, girl? Have you
gone mental?”

“I know it were a secret, Da,” Papin said,
shrugging. “Sorry for telling.”

“Papin, me girl, if I get my hands on you, I
swear –”

“Perhaps you’ve done enough damage with you
having your hands on her,” Gilhooley said, stepping in front of
him, his hand once more on his pistol.

Mike lunged at him. “You disgusting pervert,
I consider her my daughter.”

“Which makes this situation all the more
revolting. Laying with your own adoptive daughter—and a child, at
that!”

“Papin!” he shouted. “Tell them the truth or
so help me God—”

“Maybe you could stop threatening the poor
child,” a voice yelled out from the crowd.

Gilhooley turned to the girl on the porch
and addressed her kindly. “Papin, lass, if you’re afraid to tell us
the truth, you needn’t worry that Donovan will lay another finger
on you.”

“No, I’m not. Only he didn’t force me.”

“Papin, tell them the truth!” Mike
shouted.

“I am, Da,” Papin said, her eyes round and
wide. “I mean, I told Caitlin it were only the one time and you and
me know it was lots more.” She smiled shyly at him.

“I will
throttle
you, Papin!”

“Now, now, that’s enough of that,” Gilhooley
said. “Since she’s obviously afraid to stick by her original report
of rape, it looks like we’ll not have the pleasure of you in our
new jail facility, Donovan. But neither can we abide having a child
molester in our community. Remove him from the camp at once.”

“It
was
rape!” Caitlin said, who seemed
to be as stunned as the crowd at Papin’s words. “She told me he
took her against her will! Didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry if you was to misunderstand me,
Missus Gilhooley,” Papin said. “But it were never rape.”

Caitlin was red-faced and sputtering,
looking very much like she needed to be restrained herself. If it
weren’t for the large crowd, Sarah had little doubt Caitlin would
have physically launched into Papin.