Three Fates

a couple hours yet. You don’t strike me as a man who makes the same trip twice without good reason. What do you want?”
    “Another invitation to tea?”
    “You won’t get it.”
    “Now that’s cold. Other than me, have you noticed anyone hanging around, taking this tour, walking by your house, maybe showing up along your daily routine?”
    “You think we’re being watched?” Rebecca shook her head. “She doesn’t do it that way. She’s not worried about what we’re doing here in Cobh. She’s concerned with what one of us might be doing when we’re not at home. She tracked my brothers when they went off, and I think she did that through the airline tickets—the credit card, you know. It’s not that difficult to get such information if you’re clever with the computer.”
    “It’s not simple either.”
    “If I can do it, she, or someone she pays, can as well.”
    “And can you?”
    “I can do damn near anything with a computer. I know, for instance, that you were divorced five years ago, after one year and three months of marriage. Not such a long time.”
    “Long enough, apparently.”
    “I know your address in New York City, should I want to pay a call sometime in the future. I know you went to Oxford University and graduated in the top ten percent of your class. That’s not too bad,” she added. “Considering.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I know you have no criminal record, at least none that shows on a surface look, and that your company, which you started twelve years ago, has a strong, international reputation and has given you an estimated net—net, mind you—worth of twenty-six million American dollars. And that,” she said with the first hint of laughter in her eyes, “isn’t so very bad either.”
    He stretched out his legs. “That’s a lot of digging.” And very impressive work, he thought.
    “Oh, not so very much.” She waved it—and the six hours she’d spent at her keyboard—off. “And I was curious.”
    “Curious enough to take a trip to Dublin?”
    “Why would I want to go to Dublin?”
    “Because I’m going, tonight.”
    “Is that a proposition, Jack? And while my mother’s voice is coming through the speaker?”
    “It is, but whether it’s personal or business is up to you. There’s someone in Dublin I need to see. I think it’ll be worth your while to tag along.”
    “Who would this be?”
    “You want to find out, have a bag packed and be ready by five-thirty. I’ll come by for you.”
    “I’ll think about it,” she replied, but was mentally packing her bag.

Fourteen
     
     
     
     
    “I knowI’m leaving you shorthanded, Ma.”
    “That’s not what concerns me.” Eileen frowned as Rebecca rolled up a sweater like a sausage and stuffed it into her bag. “I said I had a good feeling about Jack Burdett, and that I trusted him to be an honest man, but that doesn’t mean I feel easy about my daughter going off with him after one day’s acquaintance.”
    “It’s business.” Rebecca debated between jeans and trousers. “And if it were Mal or Gideon heading out like this, you wouldn’t think twice.”
    “I’d think twice, as they’re as precious to me as you. But as you’re a daughter instead of a son, I’m thinking three or four times. That’s the nature of things, Rebecca, and there’s no point in getting sulky over it.”
    “I know how to take care of myself.”
    Eileen laid a hand on Rebecca’s tumbled curls. “You do, yes.”
    “And I know how to handle men.”
    Eileen lifted her eyebrows. “Those you’ve had dealings with up to now. But you haven’t dealt with the likes of this one before.”
    “A man’s a man,” Rebecca said dismissively, and ignored her mother’s hearty sigh. “Mal and Gideon have been traipsing all over the world while I stay here, at the wheel or the keyboard. It’s time I had some part of the adventure of it, Ma. Now I’ve a chance to, if only to go as far as Dublin for it.”
    She’s always fought to stand toe-to-toe with her brothers, Eileen thought. And had worked for it. Earned it. “Take an umbrella. It’s raining.”
    She was packed and walking out the front door when Jack pulled up. She wore a light jacket against the steady rain and carried a single duffel. He appreciated both promptness and efficiency in a woman, and the independence that had her tossing the bag in the backseat before he could walk around to take it from her.
    She kissed her mother, then ended up exchanging a hard,