The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

were still some clouds brooding in the southwest, the air was beautifully warm. The sea sang out its song, and on the hills, the buttercups sunned their faces. She spotted a white-tailed rabbit seconds before the yellow hound scented it. Betty took off, a sleek bullet after the bounding white blur, only to romp back moments later. Her tongue lolled in a sheepish expression as if she wasembarrassed to have once again been lured into the chase.
    Five minutes of watching the puppy race around Betty, tumble, and yip put Jude in a better mood.
    By the time she reached the grave site, she was soothed, and sat down as was now her habit to tell Maude the latest news.
    “We had a wonderful ceili last night. Everyone said it was good to have music in the cottage again, and people. Two of Brenna O’Toole’s sisters came with their young men. They look so happy, all four of them, and Mollie just beams when she looks at them. Oh, and I danced with Mr. Riley. He seems so old and frail I was afraid I’d just shatter him, but I could barely keep up.”
    Laughing, she shook her hair back, then settled down on her heels for the visit. “Then he asked me to marry him, so I know I’m accepted here. I baked a ham. It was the very first time I ever did, and it worked. I didn’t even have scraps left for the dogs. Late in the evening Shawn Gallagher sang ‘Four Green Fields.’ There wasn’t a dry eye. I’ve never given a party where people laughed and cried and sang and danced. Now I don’t know why anyone gives any other kind.”
    “Why don’t you tell her about Aidan?”
    Jude looked up slowly. It didn’t surprise her to see Carrick standing on the other side of Maude’s grave. Another wonder, she supposed, that such a thing didn’t seem the least odd to her now. But she raised her brows because there was temper glittering in his eyes and a snarl on his mouth.
    “Aidan was there,” she said calmly. “He played and sang beautifully, and brought enough beer from the pub to float a battleship.”
    “And the man took you out in the moonlight and asked you to be his wife.”
    “Well, more or less. He took me out in the moonlight and said he needed a wife and I would fill the bill.” Jude glanced down as her puppy sniffed around Carrick’s soft brown boots.
    “And what was your answer?”
    Jude folded her hands on her knee. “If you know that much, you know the rest.”
    “No!” The word exploded out of him, and the grass shivered and lay flat. “You tell him no because you haven’t the sense of a carrot.” He jabbed a finger at her, and though they were feet apart she still felt the impatient stab of it against her shoulder. “I took you for a bright woman, one with a fine mind and manner, with a good strong heart as well. Now I see you’re fickle and fainthearted and mulish.”
    “Since you think so little of me, I won’t subject you to my company.” She got to her feet, jerked up her chin, then gasped when she turned and rapped straight into him.
    “You’ll stay where you are, madam, until you’re given leave otherwise.”
    For the first time, she heard royalty in his tone, the threat and power of it. Because she wanted to tremble, she stood her ground. “Leave? I’m free to come and go as I please. This is my world.”
    As his eyes flashed with fury, the skies shuddered and went storm-dark. “It’s been mine since your kind still huddled in caves. It will be mine long after you’re dust. Have a care and remember that.”
    “Why am I arguing with you? You’re an illusion. A myth.”
    “And as real as you.” He gripped her hand, and his flesh was firm and warm. “I’ve waited for you, a hundred years times three. If I’m wrong, and must wait for another to begin it, I’ll know why. You’ll tell me now why you said no when the man asked you to wife.”
    “Because that was my choice.”
    “Choice.” He let out a half laugh and turned away from her. “Oh, you mortals and your blessed choices. They’re always such a matter to you. Fate will have you in the end anyway.”
    “Maybe, but we’ll choose our own direction in the meantime.”
    “Even if it’s the wrong direction.”
    She smiled a little as he turned back to her. His handsome face was such a study in honest puzzlement. “Yes, even if it’s wrong. It’s our nature, Carrick. We can’t change our nature.”
    “Do you love him?” When she hesitated, it was his turn to smile. “Would you bother to lie, colleen, to an