The Kilternan Legacy (37 page)

“Oh!”

We broke away, or rather I tried to, at the soft exclamation of dismay.

Ann was in the doorway to the dining room, flustered and utterly dismayed at our carrying-on. An amused expression came over Shamus’s face.

“We’d better all be friends,” I said to neither in particular, “and let bygones be. You’ll be seeing a lot of Shay again, Ann.”

“A lot?” Shamus challenged my qualifier.

Ann’s lips met in a firm line of disapproval.

“Yes, Ann, a lot. In fact, you might say a continuous performance, if he hasn’t changed his mind after all the tumult and shouting today.”

Shay’s hand crept up my shoulders to rest on the back of my neck in the most caressing and possessive of gestures. I felt feline enough to want to wiggle with delight at that touch. But Ann was there, and I should Preserve the Image.

The hell with that! I’d preserved, destroyed, tried on enough Images for one person for the rest of her lifetime. From now on I was going to be me, Irene Teasey Stanford … God willing … Kerrigan.

“I’ve discovered that
I
can’t function properly without a man m my life, Ann,” I said, looking at her unapologetically as I pressed closer to Shay. “I like having a man to take care of, who’ll return the courtesy by taking care of me. And yes, I made a mistake, and I may make many more.”

“Not with me, pet,” murmured Shay, so fervently that Ann stared at him in a startled fashion.

“But I’m not about to close the book of my life for one mistake, and you shouldn’t either, Ann Purdee.”

She looked so stricken at my attack that I relented and reached out to her.

“Ann, honey, it’s right for me, for the way I am. I know it is now. I wouldn’t have thought so even three weeks ago, believe me. I’d finished with men. But I’m not too proud or too stubborn or too stupid to change my mind for a good reason. And now that Paddy Purdee’s off your back, you can look around a bit too.

She shuddered at a notion still abhorrent to her. I now appreciated my friend Betty’s wry smile.

“That’s what this is all about, Ann, your being here. It’s probably what Aunt Irene really wanted for you, in good time. It s what women’s lib is all about—you, me, Mary, Sally, the Ladies Brandel, everyone having a chance to find their own way to … Oops, I’m sorry. I’m the last one who should sermonize anyone! Enjoy! Enjoy, Ann, let yourself enjoy even a little!” I broke free from Shay’s insidious proximity and rushed halfway up the stairs in my embarrassment at having spouted so intensely. “If you want to pick up the pieces about seven Shay dear, I’ll be ready. But right now I have to regroup my energies, as Snow used to say.”

“At seven, then, your courtier will await thee, Queen Irene! Shamus swept another of those ridiculously involved, flourishing bows. “She makes a bloody good queen, doesn’t she, Ann? I heard him say as I clattered up the rest of the steps.

“Sure and she does!” replied Ann, so firmly that I knew I could rest awhile. My queendom, for the moment at least, was in good hands!

THE END