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“Oh, goodness, child! I nearly stepped on
you.” Sarah smiled briskly and was about to continue on when the
girl thrust out a hand holding a coffee thermos.

“Missus Aideen says she can’t come right
now, but if you’re going to see Missus Cooper I’m to give you this
here soup for her.”

Sarah paused. She thought Aideen was outside
the camp at Mike’s. Obviously she must be back. She took the
thermos from the child and smiled. “Thank you, sweetie. And tell
Missus Aideen thank you, too, okay?”

The child nodded and then fled down the
path.

Boy, it looks like Aideen
is doing everything possible to worm her way into Fi’s good
graces.
Sarah hefted the thermos, which
felt like it was only half full.
Oh,
well
.
A half
gesture is better than none at all.

She hurried down the path to Fiona’s.

***

“Did you give it to her like I said?”

“Yes, Missus.”

“And said it was from Missus Aideen?”

“Yes, Missus.”

“Very good, darling. Here’s your cookie.
Made with real sugar. Mind you don’t tell anyone or they’ll want
one, too.”

“Yes, Missus.”

Caitlin watched the little girl scamper off
clutching her cookie. It wouldn’t matter if she did tell someone,
she mused.

Who would believe a little gypsy girl over
the camp leader’s wife?

17

The minute Sarah stepped into Fiona’s
cottage she knew something was wrong.

There was a feeling of quiet and finality
that Sarah had never felt before. It literally made the hairs on
the back of her neck stand up—almost as if someone were lying in
wait for her.

“Fi?” She shut the door behind her. She was
about to look in Fiona’s bedroom when she noticed someone lying on
the couch in the front room. If Fiona were sick, Sarah knew she
would be in her room. “Fi?”

A muffled response from the couch and a
glimpse of purple ignited Sarah’s instincts to maximum anxiety. In
two steps she was at the couch and on her knees, her hands reaching
to push the hair out of the eyes of the face she loved so well.

“Papin? What is it? Are you sick?”

Papin gave her a weak smile and her eyes
fluttered open and then shut. She licked her lips and gave every
appearance of being drugged.

How was that possible? We don’t even have
aspirin in camp any more.

“Papin, what’s the matter with you?”

“I was supposed to give the
mushrooms to Auntie Fi to make her sick so that you were blamed for
it,” Papin said, speaking slowly as if the words were hard to form.
“But when she wasn’t here I got a tons better idea.” She opened her
eyes to look at Sarah. “I figured if it was
me
that got sick you for sure
wouldn’t make us go.” She laughed weakly. “I’m right, aren’t I,
Mum? We’re staying now, right?”

“
You…you ate poisoned
mushrooms?” Sarah said, not believing the words as they came out of
her mouth. “You deliberately ate poison?”

“It’s not real poison, Mum,” Papin said
sleepily. “Just enough to make a person sick. Caitlin said they
wouldn’t hurt but they do a little.”

Maybe if she could get her
to throw up she could get the stuff out of her system.
But first she needed to keep her
awake.

“
Why did you want to give
them to Fi?” Sarah sat on the couch and pulled Papin onto her lap.
Her eyes filled with tears.
They had no
antidote. It would take a modern hospital and a very fast ambulance
to even think about trying to possibly.

“To make it look like you tried to hurt her.
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Caitlin promised they’d just make you
stay in your cottage for a little bit. But then you and Da would
get back together.” Papin grimaced and clutched at Sarah’s arm in
agony. When the moment passed, she relaxed again against the
pillows on the couch.

“Papin, dearest girl, we’ve got to get those
mushrooms out of your stomach. You need to sit up now.”

“No, Mum. I just want to sleep now.”

A pounding on the front door jerked Sarah’s
attention away from the pale and sweating from trembling in her
arms. The door flung open and John stood there.

“Mom? You okay? I saw Auntie Fi down at the
jail so I wanted to make sure you…is that Papin?”

“John,” Sarah said, her throat closing up to
try to keep the tears, the hysteria from pouring out of her.
“You’ve got to go get Mike. Grab your pony. Don’t bother saddling
him—”

“But Mom, if I leave they won’t let me back
in.”

“It doesn’t matter, sweetie. Just go and
hurry.”

“What’ll I do with the puppies?”

“John! Just go!”

Sarah saw the fear on his face as he looked
from her to Papin’s silent form in her lap. He pulled the puppies
out of the room with his leash and she heard his steps pound down
the front porch steps. She looked back at Papin. She had a light
sheen of perspiration on her brow and Sarah wiped it away with her
hand.

“
When you see Da,” Papin
said, her eyes closing, “tell him I’m sorry. I know he knows I am.
He always knows. I was just so mad at you for breaking up the
family.” She froze for a moment and her eyes flew open as if a
terrible thought had just come to her but then she relaxed and
again, her rigid muscles softening in Sarah’s arms.

“Stay calm, darling,” Sarah said, hating the
fear she could hear in her own voice.

“Caitlin said it would feel good to get back
at you but it didn’t. It sucked to see the look on Da’s face. You
never should have sent him looking for me in Wales, Sarah. I was
just too messed up from the start.”

“Don’t you talk like that,
young lady,” Sarah said, the tears streaking down her face. “And
I’m
Mum
to
you.”

“Don’t worry, Mum. It doesn’t hurt. I just
feel real sleepy.”

“My darling girl.”

“I see now how you could give it all up—even
Da, as much as you love him—for me and John. Aideen told me a good
mum would lie down in front of a bus to save her child. I want to
be that kind of mum.”

“You’re going to be a wonderful mother,
Papin. I know you are,” Sarah said, the sobs wracking in her
throat.

“
I’m going to sleep a bit
now,” Papin said, her eyes heavy. “I love you, Mum.”

“I love you, too, darling girl.” A lump
formed in Sarah’s throat and she couldn’t swallow.

“Remember Evvie?” Papin said in a faint
whisper. “I’ve been thinking of her a lot lately. I miss her.”

Sarah held Papin tightly to her chest,
Papin’s cold hands clasped in her own. She knew Mike would never
make it in time. She had brought his poor broken waif through hell
and every evil imaginable to this sanctuary. She had given her love
and a family, a father, brothers, and an auntie who doted on her.
For seven short months, only two hundred days, she had known love
and protection and rest. She had belonged to a loving unit, been
cherished and allowed to be a child again.

And it had always been too late.

Sarah bent her head to Papin’s face and
kissed her cheek. She stayed there and listened to the child’s
shallow breathing until Papin took in one long rasping breath…and
didn’t let it out again.

This time when the door flung open, Sarah
didn’t jump. There was no hurry any more. She looked up to see Mike
standing there, big and blocking out all light from the outside. He
was at her side in two strides and dropped to his knees, his eyes
on Papin’s face, his own frozen in anguish. Slowly, he put his arms
around the both of them. When Sarah felt his arms, warm and strong
around her, she let the tears come, the pain, the grief, the guilt.
All of it, shared and absorbed by the father who loved her,
too.

***

The next morning, Mike stood between Aideen
and Sarah and watched the casket as it was lowered into the ground.
This time of year, bodies couldn’t remain unburied even for a few
hours. Because Papin was buried in the kirkyard at Ballinagh, and
not in the camp graveyard, no one accosted him for his presence,
although Archie and the twins, Cedric and Colin, watched him
intently throughout the brief service.

The priest still lived near Ballinagh,
practically the only person who still did. When Mike was head of
the community, he had seen to it that the man was supplied with as
much food as they could spare. He had no idea if Gilhooley intended
to keep that up.

Declan stood next to Fiona,
his hand on her waist but his face battered and bruised to testify
to the conditions he’d been subjected to while incarcerated. Mike
knew it had been Fiona’s begging to Brian that had allowed Declan
to be released. Mike had yet to tell Fi what Sarah had told
him—that it had been
her
who was supposed to have eaten the poisoned
mushrooms.

Mike’s eyes narrowed as he watched Caitlin
stand by the open grave. She tossed flowers onto the casket and
brought a white handkerchief to her eye to dab at nonexistent
tears.

How could this have
happened? Of all the people Caitlin wanted to hurt, how did it end
up being poor defenseless little Papin?
Mike’s anger swelled inside him to combat the growing grief
he didn’t want to give in to.

His frantic gallop to camp yesterday after
John delivered the news that Papin was sick had been filled with
every horror Mike could imagine—including the reality when he
stepped into Fi’s cottage and saw Sarah holding the body of the
poor dead girl.

He squeezed his eyes shut
and his arm reached down without his mind giving permission to
touch Sarah’s hand. Instantly, her fingers laced with his. He
didn’t care what it looked like to anyone else. But it made him
sick to know that the one thing Papin wanted so badly,
the one thing she died for
, was the one thing he and Sarah were now doing: standing
together, united.

Mike watched as Caitlin looked impatiently
around at the mourners and then nodded to Jamison who promptly
turned toward where Mike was standing with Sarah and Aideen. Sarah
must have felt him tense because she looked up to see what he was
looking at.

Jamison stood before them. “Missus Woodson,”
he said, “I’ll be needing you to come back to camp with me for
questioning in the death of Papin Woodson.”

Sarah just stared at him.

Mike took a step toward him, conscious of
the Glock jammed into the back waistband of his jeans. Gavin had
brought Mike his guns and his tools before the service.

“Back off, Jamison,” he snarled. “She had
nothing to do with Papin’s death and everybody here knows it.”

Within moments, Brian and Caitlin joined
Jamison. Mike felt Aideen grab his arm and he knew she was
entreating him not to pull the gun, to stay calm.

Caitlin’s eyes raked him with revulsion.
“She was with Papin when she died and she admitted that Papin was
killed with poisoned mushrooms. There was a thermos of poisoned
mushrooms in the cottage. A thermos she was seen carrying into the
house.”

“You got a forensic lab up your arse,
Caitlin?” Mike said. “Because unless you do, and can test the body
or the thermos, you’re fucked and it’s a suicide.”

Gilhooley sucked in a harsh
breath at Mike’s language and Mike knew he wanted to chastise him
in some way. But they were outside the camp.
He wasn’t leader of shite out here.

“Come, my dear,” Gilhooley said, taking her
arm. “As much as it pains me to say it, he’s right. Everyone
believes it to be suicide and there’s no way to prove it’s anything
else. Besides, she was the girl’s adopted mother. She had no motive
to harm the poor creature.” Gilhooley nodded at Sarah. “I am sorry
for your loss, Mrs. Woodson.”

Mike stepped away from the group and,
because he was still holding hands with Sarah, pulled her back with
him. He didn’t know if she would speak or react, but he was pretty
sure it would be better for everyone if she didn’t. He realized too
late when he moved, that Aideen could see his physical connection
with Sarah.

When Brian dragged his wife away toward
their waiting pony cart, Jamison turned to Mike. “I know you think
you’re off the hook, Donovan, what with your boy giving testimony
the little gypsy said you didn’t shag ‘er after all, but nobody
believes it. You’re still not welcome in Daoineville.”

When Mike didn’t respond, Jamison gave Sarah
a nasty look, then followed to where the Gilhooleys were waiting
for him by the pony cart. Mike noticed Aideen had moved a step away
from him. He was sorry to have upset her, there just wasn’t
anything for it.

Fiona and Declan walked over to them and Fi
instantly put her arms around Sarah. Mike thought Declan looked to
be in pretty bad shape. His face was battered and he limped. He
held his arm against his chest at a funny angle too. John and Gavin
came from where they had been standing and John slipped his hand
into his mother’s.

Sarah kissed him and stroked his face. “I
can’t help but think if I’d have just told her that we were staying
after all…none of this would have happened.”

“Don’t think like that, Sarah,” Fiona said.
“Therein lies madness.”

“You were staying?” Mike was
thunderstruck.

Sarah nodded. “I was going to make a formal
announcement at dinner last night and tell everyone we were
staying. If only I’d told Papin first…”

“Was it because of Papin?” John asked. “The
reason we were going to stay?”

Sarah hesitated, glancing briefly at Mike
and Aideen, and then nodded.

“So now there’s no more reason to,” he
said.