To Love A Wild Irishman

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Seamus, tell me, have you ever hanged your brother at a nice historic place like this?" Cassandra questioned dryly as the quartet sat on their horses and stared at the ten foot boulder and massive oak surrounding by smaller rocks and boulders.

"Nope. I always hanged him where I found him and Finnegan never did bother with getting around anything that had 'Hanging' in the title," Seamus replied.

"Well I do have a little bit o'sense then, don't I?" Finnegan grinned.

He slid from his saddle and helped Cassandra from her horse. While Cassandra did not need the help, she took it anyway. Finnegan had been doting on her even more than usual since learning she was carrying their child and what woman didn't like a little extra doting?

"You've gotta have some sense," Calvin agreed. "You did marry Cassandra after all."

Cassandra rolled her eyes. "Calvin, you can stop trying to get on my good side. You can't have my cinnamon candy. It's mine."

"I just want one piece!" Calvin explained holding up one finger to emphasize his point and apparently make her aware of how many 'one' was.

"I said no."

"Ya better stop butterin' up and tryin' to take the lass's candy," Finnegan warned, clearly very amused by the ongoing battle between Cassandra and Calvin over cinnamon sticks. "She won't even share with me and I'm her husband."

"She gave me one," Seamus spoke up. "But I was her first kiss after all. A woman tends not to forget something like that and keeps a special place in her heart for that man."

Both Calvin and Finnegan turned accusing glances full of hurt in Cassandra's direction. She threw her hands in the air and strode toward the rock and away from them all. "I didn't give him the damn candy! His Irish blood showed itself and he stole it while I was sleeping. I boxed his ears good for it too."

Cassandra turned her attention to the Hanging Rock but she didn't miss Calvin saying. "Why didn't you steal one for me?"

She rolled her eyes as she looked up into the branches of the oak far above her head. Cinnamon candy had never been something Cassandra had liked until recently. She had heard that some women got cravings for certain foods while carrying a child and she suspected that is what was happening with her. She had kept it in her saddlebags but after Seamus had stolen a piece from there she had begun keeping it in a pouch in her pocket and shared with no one; no matter how much they begged and pleaded.

"Why do they call it the Hangin' Rock then?" Finnegan came to stand beside her. "Ya can't very well hang folks from a rock."

"No," Seamus agreed. "But it looks to me like you have to climb up the rocks in order to reach the branch in that tree that you would hang folks by."

"Then by that logic it should be the Climbin' Rock. I just don't see how ya would get a name like Hangin' Rock for a rock that ya can't even hang folks from."

"Maybe because it sounded better than Hanging Tree?" Calvin offered.

"Yeah, you have plenty of hanging trees all over the country but they would have had the one and only hanging rock," Seamus agreed.

Finnegan scratched at his stubble covered jaw. "Aye, but the rock doesn't do the hangin' does it?"

"Oh my dear merciful God in heaven, does it matter what we call a rock, boys? Really?" Cassandra snapped, having had enough of their bickering.