Nodding, she traded me the baby for the bag and scrubbed her dirty hands down her dirty skirts.
The little thing felt too small and breakable in my clumsy hands. “Here.” I thrust the wriggling bundle toward Rían’s chest. “Do something useful.”
“Oh god,” Rían choked, holding the baby out from his waistcoat. “This one smells.” One of the burlap sacks reappeared.
“Don’t even think about it,” I clipped, giving his ankle a kick.
Ruairi lumbered toward us, the boy tucked beneath an arm, thrashing and squealing. “Ye have to bring Jordie,” he cried. “Ye have to bring Jordie! Please! I can’t leave her!”
“There’s another one?” Rían groaned.
“She’s my pet,” Cian wailed.
Right. What was one more? “Where’s Jordie?” I couldn’t see a dog or cat anywhere. If we couldn’t find it, then the thing stayed. I’d get the boy a new pet.
When he pointed toward the pigs, Rían choked. “Give me the girl.” He gestured to Mila. “You get the swine.”
The little boy thrashed and wailed, his cries muffled by the growing wind. Ruairi cursed, dropped the boy, and clutched his forearm to his chest. “The little fecker bit me!”
“Ye have to bring Jordie,” Cian bellowed, sprinting for the sty. “Please. Please, don’t leave her. She’s the best pig we got.”
I evanesced in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. When I asked which pig it was, he said she was the cutest one. As if any of the animals covered in shite could be considered cute. “That one?” I pointed to the smallest of the lot.
Nodding, the boy scrubbed his dirty, tear-stained cheeks with his grimy sleeve.
The fence was low enough to step over. My boots immediately sank into the muck. I’d never cared too much about dirt, but the way my footstepssquelchedleft me wincing. This wasn’t just muck. It was a sloppy mix of mud and shite. I’d never get rid of the foul stench.
Jordie slept with the rest of her piggy family. Before I could pick her up, one eye opened, and she took off like a feckin’ banshee, squealing and racing toward the gate.
I’d almost grabbed the little bastard when my feet slipped, landing me face-first in shite. I managed to get my feet back underneath me only to slip again.
By the time I left the feckin’ sty, I was head-to-toe in the foulest smelling dirt I’d ever come across.
Rían took one look at me and said he’d take it from there. I didn’t have it in me to protest, handing Cian his pet and making my way toward the beach to let the icy waves beat me clean.
* * *
Keelynn was the first person I wanted to talk to about what had happened. An hour later, I found myself back in Gaul, standing in Robert’s small, shadowed garden.
As much as I wanted to, I wouldn’t break into her room again. Still, I didn’t need to go inside to be near her. I sank onto a bench next to some dead roses and stared at her night-darkened window.
“Tadhg.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I could’ve sworn I heard my name.Wishful thinking.
“Tadhg?Are you there?”
Not wishful thinking. Keelynn had called for me.
What did she need? Was she in trouble? What if Fiadh showed up again? What if she changed her mind about staying married to me?
“Where are you, Tadhg?”
I evanesced into the room, and before I knew what was happening, Keelynn’s arms were around me, and she was hugging me and pressing her face into my chest, and I was so happy I’d bathed and changed after my fall in the sty.
“What is it?” I choked past the lump swelling in my throat. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s awful,” she cried. “I’m so sorry. So sorry.”