Anne Scott, another local woman Eliza had come to know a little, said, “Eat enough of it, and you might accidentally turn yourself Irish.”
“I’d blend in well, then, wouldn’t I?”
“With half of the town, at least,” Ciara said with a laugh.
They were fun to talk with, so happy and light and friendly. Maura had been that way, more or less, during their time together at the Widows’ Tower. She’d always been friendly and loving and welcoming, and they’d had moments of happiness and lightness. But the atmosphere here was more than that. The lightness lasted longer and went deeper.
Emma and Aidan slipped in among them all. They approached Eliza, of all people.
“The little ones are playing Duck, Duck, Goose,” Aidan said. “And they’re all giggling and running around and having so much fun.”
“May we take Lydia over to play with the others?” Emma asked.
Lydia would enjoy that. She could make some little friends, and Aidan and Emma were rather like an older brother and sister to her. And they wouldn’t be far away. “You’ll look after her?”
“Aidan is very careful of her,” Emma said, a little quietly, and a lot sweetly. “He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
Aidan just laughed. “You make me sound like a saint.”
Emma bumped him with her shoulder. Everything in her posture spoke of a girl in the throes of young love.
“We’ll take care of Lydia,” Aidan promised.
That was reassurance enough for Eliza. She leaned near enough to talk softly to her daughter. “Emma and Aidan are going to play games with you. Go on ahead with them. You’ll have fun.”
Lydia thought on it a moment, finger over her lip.
Aidan hunched down in front of her. “Come with us, sweet girl.” He tugged softly on her dolly’s dress. “You can bring your dolly with you.”
That seemed to convince her. She climbed off Eliza’s lap and took Aidan’s hand with the one holding her handkerchief. Aidan looked over at Emma and smiled. Her answering smile was unmistakably besotted.
They’d not gone far when Maura spoke up. “Rather adorable, those two.”
Everyone smiled and laughed and agreed.
“Does Aidan return her regard?” Eliza asked.
“I don’t think so,” Maura said. “But he’s kind to her, and they get on well.”
“Poor Emma,” Katie said, having joined them. “She seems destined to lose her heart to O’Connor lads who think of her only as a friend.”
Eliza hadn’t heard the girl speak of anyone else in a way that made her suspect a tenderness. “Who else has she lost her heart to?”
“When she was tiny,” Ciara said, “she was forever asking about and following after Tavish. It wasn’t quite the same kind of attachment, but a deep, deep fondness. Then Finbarr started working at the Archer home. She was a little older then and fell more than a little in love with him.”
Eliza was the only one smiling about that. Why?
Katie’s expression was heaviest of all. “I don’t know that her heart has ever recovered from the blow he dealt her. It’s done Joseph’s mind good to see her warming up to Aidan. While none of us expects anything to blossom between them other than friendship, we’re hopeful their connection won’t turn painful.”
The other women offered their thoughts, the conversation pulling everyone’s attention.
Eliza turned to Maura. Lowering her voice, she asked, “Do you know what she’s talking about?”
“Not entirely, as it began before I came to Hope Springs. But I do know there is a lot of hurt between Emma and Finbarr, and it weighs on both of them.”
“I can’t imagine either of them being anything but kind to the other.”
“Neither can I. But watch them. You’ll see pain there.”
