To Love A Wild Irishman

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Finnegan crouched behind the untrimmed shrubbery and said a prayer of thanks for lazy gardeners. Had this been a well groomed hedge he'd never have managed to hide so thoroughly behind it.

Now all he need was for the buxom beauty weeding her flower bed to call it quits for the morning. Finnegan had been crouched here for so long simply watching her that his legs had long since gone numb and his knees were beginning to talk to him... and by talk of course he meant scream obscenities and curse his soul to hell.

Thankfully a babe's wail came from inside the tiny house and the woman sighed as she stood, pulled off her gloves, swiped her forearm across her sweaty brow and walked inside.

Quickly Finnegan rose, shaking out his legs as he quickly entered her yard and prayed no one would see him. He took an apron from her line of drying clothes and carried it over to her garden. Wasting no time, Finnegan laid out the apron and filled it with cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries.

He saw a swatch of some satin fabric hanging from the line and he quickly tied up the apron to hold his stolen bounty and grabbed the satin as well. Cassandra wore no hat and while Finnegan did not either, his skin was tanned enough to be safe from the sun. Cassandra on the other hand was as white as the first snow in January. This would make a good head wrap to offer her a bit of protection.. as well as keep anyone from recognizing the senator's daughter.

Finnegan had a good bit of food now but needed more. Cassandra was not accustomed to missing meals and he had vowed to take care of her.

What had he been thinking?

Finnegan did well to take care of himself and now he had another person to worry about; a person who meant more to him than any other person, (other than himself of course). That was exactly why he hadn't been able to tell her no. She was his best friend and the one person who stuck by him no matter how much of a lost cause he was—that and she knew how to read the damn map and had blackmailed him into agreeing she could come!

Finnegan hid his stash behind the overgrown hedges and then decided he needed to find more food for his new travel partner.

He walked down one of the rutted streets of this run down village and heard children playing, dogs barking and men hollering as they pounded nails. Women were hanging up clothes, chatting on porches and calling out for their children to 'be careful' or 'be back before supper'. Finnegan smiled. Sometimes family life seemed nice... and other times it seemed like a prison that would surely kill an Irishman such as himself. His father had been no good at such things and had drunk all their money away and never been faithful to Finnegan's mother... Finnegan would never marry. He was just like his father and had all of the man's Irish vices, but he would never put a woman through what his father had done to his mother.

Finnegan ducked to the side of a home when the scent of fresh baked pie reached his nose. It certainly smelled as if he and Cassandra would be eating well today.

***

"I cannot hunt the man or your daughter down, Vincent," Police Chief Braynard said wearily as he sat behind his desk.

"Why the devil not? He kidnapped my girl!" Vincent bellowed angrily. He could feel his pulse beating behind his temples and the pain in his head was increasing with every throb.

"According to that letter I read she went willingly enough," Chief Braynard replied with a shrug. "And my crew is pulled in enough directions trying to keep order these days. It's been hard since the war ended."