To Love A Wild Irishman

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

"Seamus tells me there's a problem with the map," Calvin said as he took a seat beside Cassandra on the blanket draped crate . She had been awake for hours, though it was the middle of the night, trying desperately to make sense of this map. Both Seamus and Finnegan were sound asleep and she had thought that Calvin was as well so she told him so.

"Couldn't sleep," he replied. "Every time I move it jars my shoulder."

"I'm sorry," Cassandra whispered sympathetically. "The doctor did send you with laudanum."

Calvin shivered. "I hate the way it makes me feel. I turn into a mindless, brainless, bumbling idiot every time I take it."

"So it turns you into Finn?" Cassandra asked with a smile and Calvin laughed quietly.

"Seamus told me that neither you nor Finnegan knows how to read the map," Calvin said, glancing at the parchment in Cassandra's hands. "He also says you haven't let him see it."

"Finnegan didn't want him to before because he thought I already knew how to read it. The brothers have a few issues between them if you hadn't noticed."

Calvin rolled his eyes, "I noticed. You'd think they'd get over it. It seems like they aren't happy unless they're pissing the other one off."

Cassandra nodded and threw her head back with a groan. "Annoying isn't it," she gasped. "They've always been like that; even when we were kids."

"Would you let me take a look at it and see if I can figure it out?" Calvin asked, holding his hands out for the map.

Cassandra shrugged. 'Sure." She handed it to him. "Maybe you'll see something I don't because as far as I can tell it's just a bunch of scribbled nonsense."

"I've been to Montana once so maybe I'll recognize something," Calvin agreed.

Cassandra sat back and leaned against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself and moving the kerosene lantern closer to Calvin to give him added light. He stared at the map a long time without saying something and Cassandra felt her hopes fall. She knew that she and Finn needed this money. True her father had enough money to pay Finnegan's debts so that they could begin a new life but she knew that would never happen. Her father hated Finnegan too much to help and even if he was willing Finnegan would never accept a hand out from the man.

"Cassandra?" the sound of Calvin's voice startled Cassandra out of her thoughts.

"What?" she asked.

"Look at this...."

Calvin held the map out and Cassandra moved closer to him. He pointed to some squiggly lines that Cassandra had noticed before but not been able to identify. "What about them?"

"I know where that is.... Or at least I think I do. It's the first checkpoint on the map so maybe if we go there we'll be able to figure out what that circle by that rock is..."

Cassandra felt her heart begin to race. "What is it, Calvin?"

"It's some old stone fences; basically just rocks stacked on top of rocks. They are crooked and uneven and there are four rows of them just like on the map."

Cassandra frowned, 'Fences?" She looked at the squiggles, tilting her head in various directions, she even tried crossing her eyes, but nothing about them resembled fences to her. "Are you sure?"

"I'm eighty percent sure," Calvin nodded with excitement.

"Well that's eighty percent more to go on than we've had so far." Cassandra took the map and folded it gently. She wrapped it back in its leather binding and threw her arms around Calvin's neck. "You are a genius!" she exclaimed before kissing his cheek.