‘Then where is he? He came highly recommended.’ Aidan demands in the same way as a man complaining his sheepdog has failed to fulfil its duties.
‘He’s dead, Aidan. Oh, he was determined to bring me back to you, but I was equally determined not to go, so one of us had to be removed from the equation.’
‘You?’ He looks at me as if he simply cannot believe it. ‘But you’ve always been so quiet. So obedient Aoife swore. Yet you’ve proved anything but.’
‘Nonetheless, cousin, I’m Aoife O’Malley’s granddaughter, a fact both of you seem to have forgotten – and there was very little Aoife did that she did not wish to.’ Ena has quietened in my arms and I’m glad, for these men who think children can be shut up with violence make me most uncomfortable. ‘And so I ask you again, Aidan: how did you find me?’
He sits back in his chair and crosses his fingers over a belly that’s a good deal smaller than it used to be. ‘When my man failed to return, I decided not to bother sending anyone else. He’d sent me a missive from Bellsholm, that he’d found your trail there so I took myself that way.’
The green-eyed man hadn’t told him who helped me, but he had told Aidan where I’d been. Easy enough to find the troupe. ‘It seems rather a lot of effort to go to for a runaway bride, Aidan, surely there are plenty willing in Breakwater.’
‘But none with Hob’s Hallow to their name. None with the old O’Malley blood, Miren. None like you.’ He leans forward, elbows on knees. ‘None with the power you’ve got.’
‘I’ve got no power, Aidan, I just want to be left alone.’
‘No power? Yet you gleefully murdered a man, didn’t you? There’s power in that, there’s will and determination, Miren. There’s your blood and your belly and the children I’ll plant there. We need offspring from you, we need to reconsecrate the covenant with the sea. Only you can do that, you and I.’
‘I will not see those old ways come again. There is no we, Aidan. I will not feed my babies to the waters because of your greed.’ He reaches for Ena and I pull away, thinking quickly, thinking that he might not hurt her if he thinks she’s one of us. ‘This is my sister. This is Isolde’s child.’
The surprise on his face is clear. He sits back. ‘Ha. Isolde, always doing what wasn’t expected of her. Well, the brat might prove useful, after all. Perhaps I can replace you with her.’
‘Do you have the time to wait for her to grow?’ I ask lightly, thinking of the assassin’s words, that Aidan had made a deal with someone who’s demands might outstrip what he could deliver. ‘Would Bethany Lawrence be pleased to wait another couple of decades?’
He slits his eyes. ‘Little gatherer of information, aren’t you? I shall have to watch you more carefully, Miren, you’re more than you appear.’
‘Really I’m not. I just want to be left alone.’
‘Alas, that is not to be, for others have needs to supersede yours.’
‘Again, how did you find me?’ ‘In Bellsholm. Imagine my surprise to learn of my friend Ellingham’s presence there. Imagine my greater surprise to go to the theatre one evening as they performed, and sit in the audience only to hear the automaton do something new. Its lovely songs, and then a tale, oh such a tale, a tale no one else but an O’Malley would know, and told in an O’Malley’s voice.’
‘I’m an Elliott,’ I say, but he ignores me.
‘And if that wasn’t enough, there was the small matter of the earring you left with that woman. Ellingham wouldn’t sell it so she’d turned it into a rather fetching pendant. It didn’t take long to extract the information I needed from him.’
‘What did you do to him?’ My voice rises higher.
He lifts an eyebrow. ‘Nothing. Not to him anyway – he cares more for others than himself – so I threatened that woman, the one with red hair. And he told me of this place, this Blackwater, drew me a tidy map.’
He doesn’t mention Brigid so I can only hope he doesn’t know about her and Ellingham. Aidan plucks at his clothing, and I ask, ‘Where are your men? Where is the carriage? Where are all the folk you pay to do your dirty work?’
He does not answer, so I poke a little more. ‘Where is your fine carriage, Aidan?’ I think of Jedadiah saying his father had said something had been trying to surmount the hedge. I look anew at the tears in Aidan’s trouser and jacket, the spots where blood has seeped through. ‘Where are your men, your clean clothes? You’ve been sleeping rough, travelling hard. What has happened, Aidan Fitzpatrick, to all your lordly things?’
He glares. ‘You must understand, Miren, that your departure has greatly affected my life. Our marriage was part of an agreement I made – without you, that deal is void, so I will have you back whether you want to or not.’ He leans forward again. ‘You cannot possibly imagine that you are worth all this trouble for the sake of yourself alone?’
I think again of the green-eyed man’s words about unwise bargains and deals that link to other deals, about bigger fish eating little fish. ‘I have enough value to you that you traipse across the country, all unsupported, to drag me back. What,’ I ask evenly, ‘does Bethany Lawrence think our union can bring her?’
‘I promised her silver,’ he says, slumping in his chair. ‘Silver like the O’Malleys used to produce in the old days, silver that used to come from the sea. An endless supply. And that required you, the last O’Malley, you with the most pure blood, you and your womb and the children you’d produce.’ He snorts with a sort of amusement. ‘But your little escapade made the Robber Queen think I couldn’t
