Flanagan retreated, watching balefully as the last post was removed and handed over the wall to him.
‘All done,’ said Conor, with a shark-like smile. Flanagan looked a little sick. ‘You’ll not be accessing the road this way. If I were you, I’d give up on your grand property developing plans and head back to Dublin.’
With a nod he turned and was flanked by Seamus and Peter.
‘Nicely done, boyo,’ said Seamus. ‘The aul sleeveen thought he was gettin’ one over on us. Murphy won’t be up to his tricks anytime soon.’
‘He will not,’ agreed Peter, chuckling to himself. ‘That was mighty.’
Conor gave Hannah a rescue-me grimace but she just grinned back and fell into step next to Izzy. There was time enough to catch up and she wanted to relish this fizzy feeling inside as she gave him covert glances, still not quite believing that he’d said he loved her. Did that really happen? She’d always thought falling in love was a gradual slow-build, and when she’d tumbled off the cliff edge, it had never occurred to her that Conor might do too. She was still coming to terms with it and knew she had a silly smile plastered across her face. Conorlovedher.What were the chances? If she’d had the chance to think about it, it wasn’t a risk she’d ever have taken.
‘You OK?’ asked Izzy, her freckled face covered in rain and strands of hair plastered to her cheeks but her face stretched in a teasing smile.
‘Yes,’ said Hannah, unable to hold back her grin. ‘A bit knackered and my hands feel like they’re full of splinters.’
‘Hannaaaaah! You’re not going to talk about that kiss?’
Hannah pinched her lips together but she couldn’t hold the happiness in. ‘Nothing to talk about,’ she said but her eyes told another story altogether.
Izzy wasn’t deterred. ‘I knew something was going on. Meredith and I said there was. Alan didn’t agree. Merry’s going to be pleased to tell him he was wrong. It was almost as if the air pressure dropped when the two of you were in a room together.’
‘It did not,’ scoffed Hannah.
‘Did, so. Are you going to tell me how long it’s been going on?’
Grazing her lip with her teeth, Hannah toyed with telling her the truth but then at the last minute, decided not to. Some things were best kept private. So instead she said evasively, ‘It just developed in the cottage.’
‘And that’s all you’re saying.’ Izzy tucked her arm through Hannah’s. ‘Well good for you. He seems to be a good ’un.’
‘He is.’
Izzy shivered. ‘It’s not every night you stand in the pouring rain pulling down fences but I have to say it’s been fun.’
‘Jason certainly enjoyed it,’ said Hannah with a wry smile.
‘If he doesn’t make it as a chef, there’s a job in demolition with his name on.’
‘I have to admit,’ said Meredith, chipping in from the other side where she and Alan were walking arm in arm, ‘I feel a terrific sense of achievement. A bit like Robin Hood,’ she glanced at Alan, ‘or Maid Marion. Or should that be Matron Marion.’
‘You’re not that old,’ he muttered, nudging her before muttering something in her ear to which she laughed in delight but didn’t share with the other two.
Izzy exchanged a smile with Hannah. Alan and Meredith seemed so well suited; it was difficult to believe they hadn’t always been a couple.
Out of the gloom, like a pistol shot, Adrienne’s voice rang out, ‘Conor Byrne! What in the name of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is going on?’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Adrienne strode towards them, her Driza-Bone coat flapping like bat’s wings, flanked on one side by Bridget in a bright-red sou’wester hat, pink polka-dot wellies and a floor-length see-through mac over her party dress with Franklin and Niamh in matching cagoules on the other, followed by Fergus who held an outsize umbrella which wasn’t doing anything to protect him from the rain at all.
‘Uncle Con. Why d’ye leave the party?’ asked Niamh.
‘It’s a long story but it’s done. Come on, let’s get out of this rain and I’ll tell you what’s been going on.’
‘Did you find the prowler?’ asked Bridget, skipping along as she tried to keep pace with Conor’s long strides. Everyone followed up the path to the cottage without invitation. It seemed they all wanted to join in and take credit for their part in the drama – all except for the two pigmen who waved goodbye.
‘Some of us have an early start,’ called Seamus.
One by one they entered through the porch, draping wet coats on the hooks and the doors, and discarding shoes and boots so that there was a haphazard pile that would take some sorting to match up the pairs. Hannah grinned at the sight. This place felt like home, and everyone in it like family. The thought of it lit a warm glow in her heart. This was what she’d been looking for and she hadn’t even realised it. A community of her own. With sudden confidence, she knew that she could build one here, in Ireland with her old friends, her new friends, and Conor. It might not last for ever but it was worth taking the risk to find out.
