i f6c06dd9cf3fe221 by Unknown (100 books to read in a lifetime .txt) 📗

a rising fear told her that Connie, at this moment, had everything to do with them.

"Oh, me darling. Oh, me Kate." Pat's long frame doubled up and he was on his knees in front of her, with his head in her lap and his arms around her once more.

Kate looked helplessly over his bowed head at her mother. Sarah, pink with embarrassment, for she had never witnessed anything like this, murmured, "Oh dear! Oh dear!"

"Look, Pat," Kate said, taking his head between her hands and raising it.

"You must tell me what has happened What has Connie done that you should go on like this? I must know," she said firmly.

His eyes roamed over her face, and he moaned aloud.

"Yes, you must know." He lumbered to his feet.

"And I've got to tell you! I've been telling me self that for hours as I walked the streets. I've been saying ... I've got to tell her! ...

Holy Mary, I've got to tell her.... Well, I'll tell you; but I can't look at you and say what's got to be said.... Don't go, ma," he added, as Sarah got up; 'it's best you should hear this, too. " He turned and looked into the fire, and began to talk.

Kate and Sarah stared at his broad back and at his out stretched hands, clasping and unclasping the brass rod under the mantelpiece, and listened as he went back to i i the night of Peter Fawcett's wedding.

The pain in Kate's chest was like a tight band, constricting her breathing; her eyes and throat burned. She saw the cupboard under the stairs and the straw mattress. She saw Pat, roused from a drunken sleep, open his arms to a woman whom in his stupor he imagined to be her. It was over and done with, there was no going back . and the probable consequences, that had only too truly come about, had sobered him. and he had threatened to strangle her. The weeks had passed, and he had tried to forget it and what she might do. And then, last night, her father had come to him, together with Father O'Malley, and Father O'Malley had made him swear to marry Connie. He had made him give his word for the sake of the child.

"Do you hear, Kate?" Pat said, turning to her, tears streaming down his cheeks. T had to swear that I would marry her. But, as Jesus is my judge, I hate the very name of her. This also I swore, and on the altar, unknown to Father O'Malley, that shed have me name but nothing else. I made sure of that this morning, for I joined up. "

If you ever live to regret this day, Kate, may my death soon follow. "

His words of a year ago came back to her, and she had a horrifying glimpse into the future.... As on a screen flung up before her mind's eye she saw his mangled body half buried in mud, unrecognisable but for the crucifix he always wore round his neck. She felt hot and sick; the kitchen receded. Her mother was standing close to Pat, begging him to do something.... " Forget your promise," she was saying ... as if he could; Father O'Malley knew how to seal an Irishman's oath.... They floated away from her, and she felt herself falling gently into thankful blackness.

She came to herself breathing air that stung and pricked and made her gasp; and she realised she was sniffing smelling-salts, and wondered vaguely from where they had come . she hadn't any, there wasn't any need, for she rarely had a headache and she had never fainted before.

This feeling of lying in between two worlds was pleasant, you didn't think here, not about new fathers or lost husbands, or anything. If one could just go on and on like this. She felt her head lifted and a glass put to her lips. She was comfortable and at rest in the crook of an arm, until a burning liquid ran down her throat. As she coughed, her mind flashed back once more into the throes of pain. Her eyes opened and she looked up into the doctor's face. She felt the tweed of his greatcoat against her neck and cheek, and his gay, woollen scarf dangled like a ladder on to her chest. His black eyes looked down into hers, and he smiled at her as he laid her lie ad back on the saddle.

"That's what is meant by a doctor being on the spot, Kate," he said.

You faint, and I knock at the door. "

She neither answered nor smiled, but dosed her eyes again. Her mother said, "Is she all right, doctor?" And Rodney answered, "Yes, she'll be all right; just let her rest."

There was quiet in the kitchen. Kate felt the three of them looking down on her. Then a sob from Pat rent the silence, and she heard a thud as he turned away and flung himself into a chair, and the beat of his fist on the table.

She listened to Rodney's voice, low and questioning, and she listened to Pat's muffled replies. Then, from soothing tones to one of utter incredulity, Rodney's voice changed to low, bitter cadences: "He can't do it. Pat! ... Why, man, don't be a fool! ... Come on, pull yourself together!"

There was a movement of the chair as Pat writhed in agony.

"See here. Pat! You don't mean to tell me you are going to let that damn priest wreck your life, and, what is much more important to you, Kate's? ... You can't let him do it! He hasn't the power to make you marry anyone you don't want to;