Chapter Nine

The coffee was made and on the table the next morning, and Maura had found a loaf of bread she’d forgotten she had, and there was always butter. Mick was in the shower when there was a knocking at the door. Ciara, so early? She really was enthusiastic about her project. Maura opened the door to Ciara and her two friends.

“Good morning! You’re out early,” Maura greeted them. “Come on in—there’s coffee.”

“Good morning, Maura,” Ciara said. “We’ve heard it may rain later in the day, so we wanted to look at as much as we can before it starts. Then if it rains, we can map out our plans, and maybe do a bit of research online. You said don’t have a computer?”

“Nope. Never did. I used a few at the library when I was in school, but I’ve never owned one. So far I haven’t needed anything I can’t get on my mobile. Where do you think you’ll be looking this morning?”

“The one you saw the other day—it’s the closest. There’s a big one this side of Drinagh a few miles away, another one up the hill beyond at Drinagh West, and others scattered around. We wanted to try a two-prong approach. Darragh will use the ground-penetrating radar to see if anything shows up below the surface, and Ronan will handle the drone, which will record some pictures. It’s nothing fancy, but if Darragh finds something, Ronan can look at it in a different way—his drone is good at capturing geographic details. And we’ll measure and take some notes. I only hope there are no cows around any of our targets.”

“I did tell you about the ring fort up the hill, didn’t I?”

“Past the piggery? I think you did. It’s hard to recognize from the road, or what used to be the road, but I checked on an aerial view on my computer and it does look large, and it’s an interesting site.”

Maura smiled. “There have been known to be cows there. And the road is lousy.”

Mick emerged from the bathroom with a towel around his waist. “Good mornin’,” he said. “You’ll be havin’ a busy day?”

“At least half a day,” Ciara said. “We don’t fancy mucking around in the fields in the rain.”

“Maybe you can talk to Old Billy again,” Mick suggested. “In case yeh’re wondering, he’s always at Sullivan’s, and you’ll have seen that he loves to talk.”

“He does that!” Ciara smiled cheerfully. “We want to get to know the lay of the land a little better, so we can follow what he’s telling us. Give us a couple of days.”

Mick nodded once, then turned to Maura. “I’ll be getting’ dressed now so I can head for Leap. If yeh see Bridget, tell her I’ll try to come by later.”

Maura watched him climb the rickety stairs quickly, and admired the view. She wondered briefly what Ciara made of him, but she wasn’t about to worry. “So, coffee? Yes or no?”

Ciara glanced at her friends. “I think we’d rather get started now. Will you be joining us?”

“If you’re going to the circle we saw earlier, I’d like to know more about that one, since I guess it’s mine. Can somebody actually own a circle, or does the government have other ideas? Like it’s a public monument? But in any case, I should get to work by midday. We all have cars, right?”

“We do, since we have equipment to shift. Three, actually, since I came early on my own, and Darragh and Ronan followed me a day later, and yours. But you know where we’re going. And maybe we’ve time for that cup of coffee.”

Maura filled cups, then joined the others at the table. “You didn’t answer my question. Are fairy forts legally protected by anyone, local or national?”

“Not really. It’s usually the land that matters to people, not what’s on it. There’ve been times when people didn’t hesitate to level the rings to give themselves more grazing land, back in the seventies, I think, but then there were a lot of accidents, so people thought twice about doing it anymore. Nowadays people take good care of them, even if they’re using the field.”

“And are there still fairies around?” Maura asked, trying to keep a straight face.

“There could be. That’s another historic tradition. Time was people in the country took them seriously and were careful how they spoke of them.”

“Were any of those stories due to a bit too much to drink? I thought I should ask, since I do run a pub.”

“Not necessarily. Women often saw or heard things they couldn’t explain, and not everyone had the money for liquor. And there were more outside the villages and towns than within them. It’s an interesting history, but say what you will—the rings are still there. Some say they’re portals to the fairy world.”

“Do I want to know more about my own ring, or should I just stay away from it?” Maura asked.

“Just be polite to whomever you see on the road, and I’m sure they’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Like you said, Irish country people love to talk.”

“True, and I should get to know my neighbors better,” Maura told her. “You ready to go?”

Ciara looked at her friends. “I think we are. I’ll lead the way.”

They reached the field that surrounded the ring in minutes. Maura was surprised again that she hadn’t noticed an odd mound in the middle of the field, but then, there were no fields in Boston, except the Public Garden, so she’d had nothing to compare it to. Plus, seeing it only from ground level made it impossible to tell that it was a circle. Mostly it looked like a large lump.

The guys got out of their car, where they’d been waiting, and started unloading equipment. The pieces themselves weren’t large, so it didn’t take long. Maura didn’t recognize either of the two main items, and they seemed out of place in a rolling pasture with a leafy lump in the middle of it. She wondered briefly what the heck she was doing here; she’d gotten along just fine not knowing anything about fairy forts or fairies in the time she’d spent in Ireland.

She and Ciara had walked around the perimeter earlier, and they hadn’t found anything that looked like an entrance into the interior. Had there ever been one? Or had some later farmer filled it in to keep the cattle from disturbing the fairies? Maura had to stop herself from snorting. There was no way she could come up with a logical explanation of any of this. But Ciara and the guys looked like they were playing a giant game. Ciara couldn’t stop smiling, and Darragh and Ronan followed her around, lugging their borrowed equipment.

“Can I walk along the top of the wall?” Maura called out, although she wasn’t sure she needed anyone’s permission.

“Sure,” Ciara called back. “It’s pretty sturdy—the base is earth, and it’s been there a long time. But watch the brambles—they can trip you up.”

“Thanks,” Maura replied, and scrabbled up the bank on one side. It wasn’t hard, and the top was fairly level, maybe five feet above the surrounding land. As far as she could tell, there was nothing to see inside the ring except more dirt and grass and weeds. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting—something made of stone, maybe? A small house, or the ruins of one? Tombstones? But if ever there had been a structure, there wasn’t now. She tried to work out the orientation. Her best guess was that she was standing on the eastern side. The ring was a near-perfect circle, even after a millennium or so, and she wondered how anybody had laid it out. She also wondered again how it had survived, since she did know how often it rained in this part of Ireland. Why hadn’t the earth simply dissolved away over time? One more question she couldn’t answer.

She took a moment to pivot around and look at the rest of the site, and decided there really wasn’t anything much to see. Sure, there might have been houses or cottages or whatever around it in the past, but clearly they hadn’t lasted well. There were a few modern houses visible, but they bore no relation to the ring. She couldn’t see her own cottage from where she stood, and she wondered if it would be visible if all the trees were taken down, but she wasn’t about to do that.

She watched the students walk slowly around the interior, studying small details she couldn’t even see from where she stood. She’d seen the Drombeg stone circle when she’d first arrived in West Cork, but that was made of large stones, the largest being taller than she was. The fairy fort was far wider, but there wasn’t a stone of any size in sight.

Maura realized she was getting bored. In a way she envied Ciara, who was clearly excited to be where she was, doing what she was doing. But Maura was finding that she really wasn’t interested in a dirt circle in a grassy field. No doubt there were others around, but they’d all look more or less the same, although they might vary by size. She wondered briefly if there was anything special about the leafy plants that covered the ring, but she didn’t know anything about plants in general, and Irish field plants in particular. It was good to have seen this monument, on her own land, but she didn’t feel the need to see any more of them. “Ciara?” she called out.

Ciara looked up at her. “What?” she called out.

“I think I’ll head for Leap now. If you find anything interesting, you can stop by the pub and tell me about it, or stop by the cottage tomorrow morning. Good hunting!” Maura turned and stumbled her way down the side of the ring and headed for her car.

As she drove toward the village, she had to acknowledge that she would never have been much of an archaeologist. Maybe there was a good reason she had never had a chance to go beyond high school. More education might have been entirely wasted on her.

She arrived at Sullivan’s before noon, but there were few patrons inside. She did hear giggles coming from the kitchen, so she assumed Susan had come back, and that she and Rose were having a good time, which pleased her. She could only hope they were accomplishing something, but there really wasn’t that much that needed to be done, and they’d have to wait for the appliances, whatever the source, before finishing things up.

Mick was behind the bar. “Any great finds?”

Maura sat on a stool. “Not that I could tell. I got as far as standing on the edge of the fairy ring, but I really didn’t see much but dirt and grass and stuff. Okay, it’s a nice big circle, but there’s not much to see.”

“And were you expecting a fairy wedding or some such?” Mick asked, smiling.

“I don’t think so. But I guess I was hoping it would look more special. The others seemed happy, though. I didn’t stick around long enough to see how their research toys worked, but I told them to stop by here if they found anything interesting. And that’s all I’ve got. Anything happening here?”

“Susan’s back, as if you can’t tell,” Mick told her.

“Sounds like she and Rose are enjoying themselves. And I’m not going to complain if things aren’t getting done fast. It’s nice to hear Rose laugh—I don’t think she has a lot of friends her own age. Did Helen say she was going to pick Susan up later, or does she have her own way to get back to the hotel?”

“She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.”

The day passed slowly and peacefully. Mick had been right, she decided. She owned the pub free and clear, and she had to pay only for as much as she sold. Tourist season hadn’t peaked yet, and things would pick up. There was no point in worrying.

The sun was sliding toward the horizon when Maura heard her mobile phone ring, and she answered it quickly, expecting to hear Helen’s voice. Instead it was Ciara, who sounded breathless and slightly hysterical.

“Maura? Something’s wrong. Ronan and I made a quick trip to Skibbereen to get some lunch, but Darragh wanted to stay behind and run as many scans as he could before the rain started, which it hasn’t. But when we got back, he was gone. Disappeared. With the radar unit. You’re the only person I could think of to call. What should I do?”

“You sure he didn’t just drop by a local farmer’s house to ask some questions? Or maybe he thought he’d take a walk and got lost?”

“I tried his mobile and he doesn’t answer. I don’t know where to look for him or who to ask. I mean, I know he’s a grown man, but he could have sent me a text message or something. Should I call the gardaí?”

“Ciara, I don’t think they’re likely to do anything until he’s been gone a bit longer, and they don’t have many men on duty. But I’ve got a friend there, and I can ask him, off the record, kind of. Let me talk to him first. Maybe he’ll have some ideas. Are you still at the ring fort?”

“Yes. I didn’t want to leave in case Darragh came back. He took his car, and I’ve got mine. At least it’s not dark yet. But I can’t think where he might have gone, or why. He was really looking forward to this trip, and trying out the equipment.”

“Ciara, just stay where you are. I’ll call my friend, and then I’ll come join you, and maybe he’ll want to come. But call me if you hear from Darragh, or if he comes back.”

“All right. Thank you.” Ciara hung up abruptly.

“What’s wrong?” Mick asked as he came up behind her.

Maura turned to face him. “That was Ciara. Darragh seems to have disappeared and she’s worried. He took his car and he’s not answering his mobile, and Ciara doesn’t know what to think. As you must’ve heard, I told her I’d call Sean Murphy and see what he thinks we should do. Can you cover here?”

“Of course. Maura, there’s not much of anywhere out that way that he could go. Let’s hope that Darragh only took a walk and got lost.”

“Or the fairies took him,” Maura muttered, and went into the back room to call Sean.