Page 38 of Faithless Vows

My fingers close around Alannah’s ring until its thin edge bites into my palm. My thumb brushes over the knotwork etched into my own band—the Celtic knot Alannah chose, endless lines woven into one another, no beginning and no end. Our lives bound together.

You can’t pull one thread without the other following,she’d said at the jeweller’s, tracing the pattern with herfingertip.That’s why I chose it for you. It means we’ll always be woven together.

I look down at my ring. The lines are still woven together in cold gold, exactly as she said they always would be. But Alannah isn’t here.

She’ll turn up. She’s probably just cooling off. Took a room somewhere. Needed some time away from me after what I did.

That’s all this is.

She has to come back.

Chapter Fourteen

Alannah

I lie awake in the guest room at the O’Shea house for the second morning in a row, staring at the ceiling and knowing I need to get up.

I’m leaving today.

Grandda rang last night to tell me he’d booked two seats on a flight to Ireland this afternoon. Aidan is coming with me to make sure I get home safely, then he’ll fly back to Boston. Knowing I’ll be on that plane in a few hours is a relief. Grandda’s contacts here have all told him the same thing: the Byrnes have men scouring the city for me. The longer I stay in Boston, the more likely they are to find me. And I do not want to be found here.

I just need to get home. Once I’m back in Ireland, Grandda will keep me safe. Cormac Byrne and my father won’t be able to get to me there. They won’t be able to force me back to Ronin.If Ronin even wants me returned to him.

A soft knock at the door pulls me from my thoughts. “Lanalana! Mam says breakfast’s ready,” Fia calls from the hall.

I smile as I push back the blankets and swing my legs over the side of the bed. “Just let me get dressed.”

“Hurry,” she calls back. “It’s your last day here, and you have to spend it with me!”

A giggle slips out before I can help it. Fia, Aidan and Eilís’s seven-year-old daughter, has made me laugh more than once since I arrived, even when I didn’t think I had it in me. When Eilís introduced us that first evening, Fia took one look at my tear-stained face, smiled up at me, and called me Lanalana. The nickname stuck before bedtime.

All three of them have been my saving grace these last couple of days. Aidan and Eilís haven’t pushed me to talk about what happened or asked questions I wasn’t ready to answer. They’ve opened their home to me, looked after me, and let me be. After everything that happened, being here with them has made me feel safe again.

I dress quickly and open the door. Fia beams up at me and takes my hand. “Come on,” she says, pulling me toward the kitchen. The smell of toast and tea drifts down the hall. I know exactly why she’s in such a rush. The sooner we finish breakfast, the sooner we can play dolls again.

“Good morning, Alannah,” Eilís says as we step into the kitchen, handing me a steaming cup of tea.

“Morning, Eilís. Thank you.” I wrap both hands around the mug and follow Fia to the table, where a plate of toast is waiting. Fia climbs into her chair and takes a slice. I sit beside her and do the same.

Aidan comes in shortly after with the morning paper tucked under his arm and sits across from me. He murmurs good morning, his eyes flicking briefly to the toast in my hand before he reaches for a slice of his own and opens the paper.

Fia, however, is not nearly as subtle. She watches me until I reach for a second slice. “Ooh,” she says, leaning closer. “That’s very pretty.”

I follow her gaze to my Claddagh. It’s still on my right hand, exactly where I put it the morning of the wedding. I draw my hand back and look at the ring I’ve worn for the past year, ever since Ronin proposed, and the sight of it makes my heart ache. “It was a gift,” I say quietly.

Fia tilts her head, studying it. “What kind of ring is that?”

I look at her earnest little face and hold my hand out so she can see it better. “It’s called a Claddagh,” Isay. “The heart is for love, the hands are for friendship, and the crown is for loyalty.”

She considers that, her brows drawing together. “That’s a lot,” she decides.

“It is,” I agree, curling my fingers around the mug until the ring disappears from view. I’d forgotten I was even wearing it until Fia pointed it out. Now I can’t stop feeling it on my finger.

When I finish eating, Aidan looks up from his paper. “Our flight’s at three, Alannah. We’ll need to leave here by noon.”

“Okay.” I look at him. “And thank you again for coming with me.” I glance at the clock on the wall, then turn to Fia. “Looks like we have three hours, Miss Fia.”

“Dolls!” she squeals, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward her room.