The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

for to loving. What will you do if he falls in love with you?”
    “He won’t.” She nearly took a step back, from the question and the idea. “Of course he won’t.”
    “Don’t hurt him.” Darcy got to her feet. “Please don’t hurt him.”
    “I—” But as Darcy had already turned away, Brenna had to hurry after her. “Darcy, you mustn’t worry so.” Brenna gripped the banister when Darcy turned, halfway down the stairs. “We both know what we’re about, I promise you. We’ve already taken a vow to stay friends through it.”
    “Make sure it’s a vow you don’t break. You both mean a great deal to me.” She worked up a smile because her friend seemed to need it. “Sleeping with Shawn,” Darcy said with her usual bite. “What is the world coming to?”
     
     
     

 
TEN
     
     
     
    A FTER CLOSING, WHEN the village was so quiet that only the heartbeat of the sea could be heard, the Gallaghers gathered around the kitchen table of their family home with tea and with whiskey.
    “Here’s where we stand.”
    “Aidan laid a hand over Jude’s as he spoke, and hers turned under his so their fingers linked. He had a sudden, vivid picture of his parents joining hands in exactly the same manner when they’d sat at table’s head for a family meeting.
    The Gallagher way, he thought. One link leading to another in a chain of tradition.
    “Well, where do we stand?” Darcy demanded.
    “Sorry.” Aidan shook his head. “My mind went wandering. So, at the start. Finkle may be a Yank, but he’s no green one when it comes to horse trading. I wouldn’t believe as successful a man of business as Magee is reputed to be would send any but a sharp individual to look after his interests.”
    “Be that as it may,” Shawn considered, “he fell for the man from London.”
    Aidan grinned in appreciation and nodded. “Well, now, we’re not green either, come to that. And the Irish were horse traders before those looking for America ever found her. But that’s neither here nor there.”
    He started to toss the patiently waiting Finn a biscuit, then remembered the presence of his wife and cleared his throat. “Finkle, he liked the look of the land, the setup, the location, and so forth. I’m sure of that, though he made little noises and grunts and pulled on his lip rather than commit. He said again how the Magee is set on buying, and I said again how that was easy to understand, and a man likes his own and so on and so forth. But how we’re set on leasing.”
    “We’d have more money sooner, and could put it to work for us making more if we just sold,” Darcy piped up.
    “That’s true enough.” Aidan nodded toward her. “
    “And we’d have more control,” Shawn put in, “part of the profit, and a hand in what’s done with what’s ours if we hold the lease. Look ahead, Darcy, to ten years down the road. And twenty, and the legacy to your children.”
    “Who says I’m having any?” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I see your point. It’s a hard thing for me to resist grabbing the money held out at the moment.”
    “A hundred years’ lease is our offer.”
    “A hundred?” Darcy’s eyes popped wide, and Aidan merely looked at his wife.
    “A hundred’s the number of magic.”
    “This is business, not fairy spells.”
    “You use the fairies where you find them.” Shawn added a drop of whiskey to his tea. It seemed to go with these dealings. “If Magee is forward-thinking, a lease of a hundred years will appeal to him. Brenna knows something of his company.” He caught Darcy’s jerk to attention out of the corner of his eye at his mention of Brenna. “From what she told me, he’s a fair man, but far from green himself. So I’m thinking he’ll look even beyond the century.”
    “As should we. A pound a year for a hundred years.”
    “A pound?” Darcy threw up her hands. “Why not just give him the bloody land, then?”
    “For that price we ask for fifty percent of his theater.”
    Darcy settled again, her eyes sharpening. “And settle for?”
    “Twenty. And at the end of the term the land, and the theater, are owned, equal shares. Gallagher and Magee.”
    “It’s a sweet deal if the theater takes hold.” Darcy agreed. “And leaning heavily in our direction.”
    “It’ll take hold,” Aidan said with a gleam in his eye. “With Gallagher luck and Magee money.”
    “I’m willing to trust that. Now, why should he agree to those terms?”
    “I—” Jude