Skulduggery Pleasant: Raising Cain

Chapter 187 - Aine Ó'Caoimh

This is dedicated to absolutely no one. No references in this chapter whatsoever. Promise.

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Chapter 187

Due to their actions, Valkyrie wasn't allowed to go back to the Dead Men immediately, so she chose to stay in Ireland with Nadia. She did visit with the help of Fletcher, and they all hugged, but it wasn't anything fun. They were all just relieved to see each other looking healthy and well.

Tanith remained with them, not wanting to be away from Laila for a single second, and not wanting to deprive Ghastly of his child either. It did have one silver lining though – after being taken prisoner by the English Sanctuary, Tanith's parents decided it was best for Laila, who was struggling without Mummy and Daddy, to go back to the Dead Men where she was much happier, and Ghastly had become an even better father. He was certainly good at his job before his week and a half single-father time, but Tanith had taken on at least seventy-five percent of all duties since birth, so now he was a lot better practised at childrearing, and it showed in the way he confidently carried Laila and knew what was wrong with her from a different room just by her cry. It was very touching.

Nadia sighed and rested her head on Valkyrie's shoulder. "I really missed you."

"I know baby," Valkyrie whispered, squeezing her tightly. "The house looks really nice."

"It does. They've almost finished with the extensions," Nadia commented, not moving from their position. They were sitting on a felled tree in on the west side of the garden, looking at the extension and grounds of Grimwood Manor. The new trees and shrubs at the front of the property kept all the new work fairly hidden from passing cars and people walking, but there were a few spots people could look in. They would have to be corrected. The house itself looked really good though, and felt twice the size from the outside by its pretty cream-ish stone bricks, freshly cleaned of centuries of grime, the roof had been done up and solar panels plastered over the back side of the roof, they had a new front door and the front steps into the house had been switched from brick to a more fitting, matching cream-ish stone. It was bright, fresh, and felt like an entirely different property. She liked it.

The library extension was built on the outside with a few bits of tarp for the windows which were apparently going in very soon, and the inside had nothing but scaffolding and structural supports, but it felt very done from where the young women sat together. The garden had been all torn up and was a muddy, frozen mess, but some movement had happened with the slope to make tiers with the ground so they would have dedicated running and playing places and areas for flower beds. Nadia had told Valkyrie all about it and shown her a nice little sketch, and Valkyrie was excited. They were going to have a pond that was entirely self-sustaining with native fish as well, plus a porch with built-in outside kitchen, gazebo, barbeque, smokehouse, all sorts of fun things her family had wanted to include to satisfy their many and varied interests.

"I can't wait for the inside to be done," Nadia said, wrapping her other mitten covered hand around Valkyrie's bicep. "The original fireplace has been restored and prettied up, and it works through all the rooms it passes through again. We don't have a fireplace in our room, but it's going to be really nice to have a real wood fire downstairs."

"I can see the appeal of one right now," she teased, blowing air into her hands. She had lost her gloves but at least she had her Bespoke coat. "When are they going to be ready for interior decorating then?"

"Well, I got to start a little bit. The kitchen and bathrooms are almost entirely prepared and ready to go, we just need to decide flooring, tiles and paint. The worktops are being cut at the moment, I think. All the appliances have already been bought and are in holding with all the furniture from the house. Some of the paint colours and wallpapers have been picked, but not all of them. Luckily, we were able to save some of the original hardwood, but a lot of it is really badly tarnished from use, and some of it was ruined by other flooring being put down on top of it, but we worked it in a handful of places where it would be okay to have the new and old seem seamless enough. I'm excited to see the results honestly. Oh, and the built-in blinds are all picked. I think most of the house has been measured except for the new parts which can't be, but they're making what they can already so they don't get held up. It's all coming together nicely."