‘There really is no romance in your soul, is there?’
‘No.’ She really didn’t believe in fairy tales.
His thumbs stroked her cheekbones. ‘I thought that perhaps the prince returning the shoe to Cinderella might say something.’
Hannah stared at him incredulously. ‘I think your romantic gestures need some work.’
‘Oh for the love of God, woman.’ He hauled her against his chest and kissed her again, this time with a thoroughness that left her reeling. ‘I love you, all right. I didn’t want to. Didn’t plan to and I’ve been fighting it all the way. You caught me by surprise when you said you were staying because I realised that I wanted that more than anything and it shocked the hell out of me. I panicked, OK. Because I’m an eejit. Actually, I think you said I was a “big, stupid, arrogant, up-yourself eejit”. And you might have had a point.’
‘You love me,’ said Hannah, dazed by the words. ‘You can’t.’
‘Why can’t I?’
‘Because people like you don’t fall in love with people like me.’
‘What arrogant, up-yourself eejits can’t fall in love with smart, beautiful women? Darn it, that’s a shame because I just did.’ He flashed his Conor grin at her.
‘Do you ever take anything seriously?’
His face sobered and he trailed a finger down her neck. ‘I take this seriously. I want you to stay in Ireland. I want you to be here in the winter. In the spring. In the summer, and all the way to next autumn. I want to share all the seasons of Killorgally with you.’
‘Excuse me,’ said Jason. ‘I’d say get a room but we need to get this bugger down.’
Hannah turned around and realised that everyone had stopped to watch them. She felt her cheeks burn until she spotted Meredith and Izzy grinning broadly at her and even Fliss who rolled her eyes had a smile on her face.
They were moving onto the last few posts when there was an angry shout.
‘Hey! Hey! What do you think you’re doing?’ Hannah recognised him immediately. This had to be Moss Murphy’s nephew. His face was so screwed up with incandescent fury that his features seemed to blur like a crumpled tissue.
Running and almost tripping in what looked like oversize wellies, he stormed up to Seamus who was shaking one of the posts loose. ‘Get off that. That’s my property.’
‘Aye, fella, Niall Flanagan, isn’t it? The post is yours. Not the land,’ said Seamus, relinquishing his hold of the post quite calmly. Flanagan was left holding the post, clearly not knowing what his next move should be.
Conor strode over and Hannah, secure in her legal knowledge and buoyed up by a remnant of anger at their initial confrontation, followed.
‘Flanagan, is it? You’re most welcome to your fence. We’ve put it onyourland. All neat and tidy. Doing you a favour, like.’
Flanagan’s mouth bunched as if he wanted to spit tacks and then his eyes zeroed in on Hannah.
‘You. The lawyer. This is your doing. I knew I should have kept a better eye on you.’
Hannah stared at him, a chill coming at the memory of how frightened she’d been that night. ‘It was you. You were the one in the garden. At the window. You came into the cottage.’
Flanagan gave her a sullen glare. ‘I wasn’t doing any harm. Just wanted to find who you were and what you were about.’
‘Why?’
‘You said you were a lawyer. I thought maybe the Byrnes had guessed what—’
‘That you were playing to steal their land from under them.’
‘They’ve got loads; they wouldn’t have missed this small bit. We’ve a right to make money too, you know. Bloody Byrnes are making a fortune. It’s not fair. And everything would have been all right if you hadn’t stuck your nose in.’ He sneered. ‘I should have tried a bit harder to frighten you off.’
Conor’s fists bunched and he took a menacing step towards him, before saying in a growl, ‘You stay off our land, Mr Flanagan. If I catch you trespassing again, I’ll be calling the guards. But if I find you within ten foot of the lawyer, I’ll beat the living daylights out of ye, so I will.’ Conor’s accent had thickened and the violence in his voice resonated in the dank air.
Hannah shivered. She had no doubt that Conor meant every word and from the expression on Flanagan’s face, he wouldn’t be troubling them ever again.
Drawing himself up straight, Conor added, ‘And I’ll be speaking to your uncle in the morning to remind him just where the boundaries of our land lie. You’d be most welcome to look at the map I’ll be sending over.’ He turned away, deliberately putting his back in Flanagan’s face to make it quite clear that the business was over. ‘Let’s finish up here, lads and lasses. Our work is done.’ He put his arm around Hannah and steered her away. She didn’t normally go in for all that He-Man stuff, believing that she could stand on her own two feet, but, just this once, it was rather nice to feel that her man would go into battle for her.
