The sound of Patrick’s youngest child crying at the top of her voice gave his legs an extra surge of power and he reached the McGrother house way ahead of the two brothers. Lily was pacing around the garden, pointing out the flowers to a very upset toddler. As soon as Ellen saw her father she wailed even louder and pulled away from Lily, stretching out her small arms to him.
“Is she hurt? Where’s Catherine? Hush now, my wee angel,” Patrick consoled his daughter, rocking her in his arms.
“She got a fright. I took her out as soon as I could, but it all happened so quickly. Jamie came outside with me, so I sent him to fetch you. It was Mary-Anne’s fault, not Catherine’s,” said Lily.
Thomas and Jamie had arrived at the house and stood beside Patrick. The men waited for Lily to explain what had happened to cause Ellen so much upset. Loud voices could be heard from inside and Thomas asked if his father had returned home.
“Not yet,” said Lily.
Ellen had calmed down considerably and was even giggling at Jamie’s attempt to make her laugh by pulling faces at her.
Patrick kissed his little one on the forehead and held her out, “Take her for me, please, Lily. I’m putting a stop to Mary-Anne’s tongue-lashing once and for all.”
“I’ll come with you,” said Thomas. “Lily, I think it would be wise for yourself and Jamie to take Eliza for a wee walk on the beach.”
Inside the cottage Mary was sitting on her chair by the fireside, rocking backwards and forwards with her head bowed. She was crying softly to herself and Thomas rushed to his mother and knelt on the floor in front of her, easing her hands from her face. The arrival of the two men brought a hush to the argument that had Mary so upset and Maggie came away from where she had been standing, in between Catherine and Mary-Anne.
“Bless us and save us, I never saw the likes of it in this house before. I thought those two were going to kill each other. Come on back to my house Mary and we’ll have a nice cup of tea. I have a wee sup of whiskey we can put into it to calm our nerves,” Maggie helped Thomas raise his mother to her feet.
Before the two older women had even left the house, Mary-Anne was pointing a finger at Catherine and shouting at the top of her voice. Patrick told her to calm down and settle her differences with his wife like a grown woman. He had taken Catherine in his arms, leading her to the chair that Mary had vacated, and sat her down.
“Hush now, love, and let Thomas deal with your sister,” he spoke softly to his shaking wife.
“I heard that, Patrick Gallagher. No man is going to deal with me. I’m no longer the witless young fool who used to follow you round like a lap-dog. Do you hear? The one favour my sister did for me was to marry you and save me from the drudgery of bearing your disgusting offspring and have them hang out of my apron strings. The thought of it sickens . . .”
Thomas clamped a hand around his sister’s mouth as he grabbed her from behind, stemming the flow of her venomous words. “That’s enough, Mary-Anne. Enough,” he said, his own voice shaking with anger.
He pulled his squirming sister as far away from the young couple as the room would allow and waited until her struggling had stopped before taking his hand away from her mouth.
“You’re all a bunch of cowards, do ye hear? And the biggest coward of all is my father. He could have had you run out of this village any time, Patrick Gallagher, if he’d the guts to do it?”
James stepped through the doorway and glared at Mary-Anne. The silence that fell on the room was so intense, nobody wanted to be the first to break it.
“Da, what are you doing home? Ma said you’d gone to town,” said Mary-Anne in a completely calm, sweet voice.
The look on her father’s face was so full of disappointment and sadness, it made the other two men in the room feel as if they were intruding and Patrick lifted his wife up to lead her outside. Thomas also began to walk towards the door.
“Stay where ye are, the three of ye. Your sister has somewhere else she’d rather be. Is that not so, Mary-Anne?” James spoke in a controlled even, tone that belied the hurt in his eyes.
“I do, as a matter of fact. I must be off back to my room at the Gilmores to pack up the rest of my belongings. I cannot say that this has been the happiest of partings, but I will miss you all, none the less. Even yourself, Patrick, even you,” Mary-Anne gave a sly smile to her brother-in-law.
Catherine watched in amazement as her sister walked across the room to her father’s side and stood on her toes, reaching up to kiss his cheek. James looked straight ahead, keeping his eyes averted from the other members of his family and held his breath until Mary-Anne had left the house.
“I should go after her, Da,” said Catherine. “We had a disagreement and it got out of hand.”
“Leave her go. Your sister has made us all perfectly aware of her feeling towards us, has she not? Patrick, I need to speak with you, alone,” James turned and walked through the doorway.
“None of this was Patrick’s fault, Da. He wasn’t even here when it started,” Catherine made an attempt to follow her father.
Patrick sat his wife back down on the chair and asked her to make some food for them all. His stomach was turning and eating was the last thing he felt like doing, but he knew the task would help to steady his wife’s nerves and bring some normality back to the house. Whatever James was going to say to him, it would not change his mind about America, especially after Mary-Anne’s latest attack. The more distance he could put between the two sisters, the better.
When Patrick stepped outside he saw James at the gable end of the house beckoning to him. Following his father-in-law to the back of the cottage, Patrick found him tending to the new donkey he had recently acquired, after the death of his old one. He stood beside James, stroking the animal’s back.
“Did you know that Maisie asked me to call this one after herself? When I told her it was a boy, she asked me to call him after you,” said James.
Patrick didn’t reply, unsure where the conversation was going. He had been expecting James to blame him for Mary-Anne’s outburst and was surprised at the softness in his voice.
“I’ve done you a great injustice, Patrick. I want to make it up to you. And to Catherine,” James took an envelope from his pocket and held it out.
“What’s this?” asked Patrick.
“Go on, take it. It’s for you and Catherine. Put it to your savings for America, you’ll need every penny you can get.”
Patrick, opened the envelope and stared at the notes within.
“I cannot accept this, James. It’s too much, I know by looking at it,” he said. “Why are you so friendly towards me all of a sudden? Is it because I’m about to take your grandchildren away? I’ve already promised that I’ll make sure they see you again. I don’t need your money to make me keep my word on it.”
James offered his hand to his bewildered son-in-law and waited for him to shake it. Patrick hesitated at first, then clasped it firmly. He could see in the older man’s face an expression that had never been directed at him before, and knew instantly that something had given James McGrother a change of heart about their grievances.
“I was sure you were going to give me a piece of your mind, James. I almost walked away in the opposite direction when I followed you out of the house, it was Catherine being so upset that stopped me. I couldn’t leave her here in such a state. What is it that has changed your mind about me?”
Remembering his promise to Catherine never to tell Patrick that Tom was not his son, James wanted to make sure the young man believed his friendship was genuine. He needed to convince him that he now realized the animosity he had felt towards is son-in-law was undeserved and unjust.
“It has taken me a long time to admit it, but you’ve been a good husband to my daughter, Patrick. And a good father to my grandchildren. What more could a man ask for? I owe you much more than a few pounds. Can you forgive me for making it so hard for you and Catherine? It was seeing what Mary-Anne has been putting you through that made me come to my senses. That and the fact that you will soon be leaving us. I don’t want us to part on bad terms.”
Patrick laid a hand on his father-in-law’s shoulder as he placed the envelope in the inside pocket of his jacket.
“As long as you know it wasn’t the money that sealed our friendship, James. I’m much obliged for it and so will Catherine be, when I tell her.”
James asked him to keep it between themselves, until they were settled in their new life in America.
“You can give it to her then, Patrick. It will be a nice surprise for her when she gets there. Now, I had better go and have a word with Mary-Anne. She’s another one I cannot allow to leave with such bad feelings in her heart. I know she’s caused you a lot of trouble, son, but she’s my flesh and blood, all the same.”
Patrick had wondered why James was harnessing the donkey to the cart as they spoke.
“I’m off to fetch Mary and I fear she may not be up to much walking in the state she’s in. It will break her heart to let Mary-Anne go, but she needs to say her goodbyes and I need to let her know I’ll always be her father, no matter what she thinks of me.”
As James led the donkey from the back of the cottage and out onto the road, Patrick remained in the garden. The envelope sat like a weight in his pocket and he was aware of a lump forming in his throat. It had taken a lot of courage for his father-in-law to admit to his faults and not let pride get the better of him. Patrick knew that he himself had not made it easy for James to make amends and as the years went by, each encounter with him had been strained and unyielding on both their parts.
“If I’m half as good a husband and father as yourself, James McGrother, I’ll die a happy man,” Patrick whispered.