The Seventh Sister Read online

  Maggie dismissed his concern. “I’m already pretty mud-splattered.”

  “Then watch your step, Maggie Gleason. The ground beneath the rhododendrons is slippery. Getting through the brambles beyond is even trickier." He reached to pull back an armful of dripping branches. “We’ll have to hurry if we want to get to the Sisters and back before the storm breaks. If we do get drenched, you can come with me to Flanagan’s and I’ll give you something to warm you.”

  “I’d like that." Maggie knew he meant food and likely whiskey.

  She wanted his kisses.

  But he only curled strong fingers around her wrist, helping her as she ducked beneath the branches. “My band, Two Jigs, is having a session tonight." His free hand touched her shoulder as she passed, guiding her. “I play fiddle and sing. We’ll be full to the rafters and there’ll be dancing.”

  “I love to dance. I-" Maggie straightend, her jaw slipping. She’d stepped through the bushes onto the edge of a large field of rolling green, boulder-studded and dotted with sheep. She could see the stone circle in the distance. Her breath caught, everything in her that was Irish, crying out in wonder and appreciation.

  Beautiful and eerie, the stones stood silent, rising out of a drift of rolling mist. They were taller than she’d expected and looked almost lifelike. Slender, graceful, and evenly spaced, they all seemed to be facing the sea and did resemble women.

  But something wasn’t right.

  There were only six stones.

  “Did I miss something?" She glanced at Conall. He was still holding her wrist. “I thought they were the Seven Sisters?”

  “And so they were. Once." He kept his eyes on the stones as he spoke. “I’ll tell you about the seventh sister on the way across the field. “But be warned” – he was already pulling her forward – “it’s a sad tale.”

  Maggie scarce heard him. She wasn’t worried about some long-ago tragedy spoiling her day. Conall’s warm fingers around her wrist were sending the sweetest shivers all through her. And she was sure that when they reached the stone circle, he would kiss her.

  She could feel those kisses coming.

  Too bad she didn’t sense the heartbreak that would follow them.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The Present

  The Cabbage Rose Gift Emporium & Tea Room

  Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

  “What’s happened?" Darcy Sullivan, owner of the Cabbage Rose, incurable romantic, and Maggie’s best friend since college, took a seat at Maggie’s window table. She leaned forward, her green eyes concerned. “Did another job interview go wrong? Is your landlord refusing to give you an extension on your rent? If so, I can-"

  “There’s nothing wrong." Maggie put down the forkful of colcannon she’d been about to pop into her mouth. “It’s Sunday and I just felt like-”

  “Your favorite comfort food." Darcy eyed the steaming mound mashed potatoes and cabbage on Maggie’s plate. “You’re forgetting I know you always order an Irish farmhouse breakfast on Sundays.”

  Maggie glared at her friend. “I like colcannon.”

  “And” – Darcy wasn’t backing off – “you only ever eat it when you’re upset.”

  “You’re wrong. I eat it all the time." Maggie took a bite, belligerent. “I can make it myself, you know. Even if” – she gave a defiant smile – “my own version is never quite as good as yours.”

  “You ordered a turf-cutter’s portion. You never do that unless-”

  “Everything is fine."

  Darcy snorted. “And I serve bratwurst and sauerkraut.”

  Maggie was about to dig in to her colcannon again. Instead, she ignored her friend’s jibe by glancing out the window. The Cabbage Rose had an idyllic setting and a light autumn mist was rising from the duck pond behind the tea room. Thick woods edged the meadow beyond the pond and some of the leaves were already turning. It was a chilly day and would surely rain before she started the drive back to Philly.

  It was the kind of weather that reminded her of Ireland.

  “You could move out here, you know." Darcy reached across the table and nudged her elbow, her words proving how perceptive she was. “You in the craziness of a crowded, fast-paced city is as impossible as trying to fit a square peg in a circular hole. You weren’t made for-”

  “Philly is home." The admission bit deep into Maggie’s substance.

  Ireland should have been her real home.

  And she wasn’t about to tell Darcy that although she loved visiting the Valley Forge area on Sundays, anything else would break her. Lovely and pastoral as the countryside was, it would always pale to her memories of Ireland. And if she couldn’t have the real thing….

  She didn’t want a substitute.

  But she did need peace.

  “Ahhh…" Darcy sat back and folded her arms. “You’re going to tell me now, aren’t you? I can see it coming. It’s about a man, isn’t it?”

  Maggie started, almost knocking over her water glass. “No, it isn’t about a man." She could feel the tops of her ears burning on the lie. “It’s about Ireland." She opted for a half-truth, knowing that for her, Conall Flanagan and Ireland were almost one and the same. “I’m going back to see the Seven Sisters.”

  “Maggie!" Darcy’s eyes widened, her face flushing with pleasure. “That’s splendid news. But how are you swinging it? Did you win the lottery?”

  “No, it’s better." This time Maggie did treat herself to more colcannon. “My sisters and cousins pitched in and are giving me the trip for my thirtieth birthday. They’re saying it’s payback for all the times I’ve babysat, painted murals on their walls, or stayed with their dogs when they went on vacation.”

  “Good on them." Darcy looked delighted. “Though, really, your mural work alone is worth a thousand trips to Ireland." She glanced across the tea room to where Maggie’s artful hand had turned a plain wall into a whimsical collage of the Emerald Isle. “I’ve had so many customers say they wished they could jump into your painting.”

  Maggie followed her friend’s gaze, secretly amazed the collage was hers.

  It was fine work.

  Everything that was the quintessence of Ireland was somewhere on the wall. Dapper city dwellers in their Sunday best strolled the streets of turn-of-the-century Dublin, three fiddlers entertained a foot-stomping crowd in a smoke-hazed pub, and rosy-cheeked children tumbled with a dog in daisy-studded meadow. Winding country roads disappeared across rolling green hills and, here and there, gleaming whitewashed cottages caught the eye, their thick walls and thatched roofs enchanting the Cabbage Rose’s American clientele with the charm of a long-ago, slower-paced world.

  Maggie’s heart squeezed, her gaze settling on a particular cottage. A farmhouse, really, it was long and low in the traditional style and she’d painted a faint curl of bluish smoke rising from the chimney. In the garden, laundry could be seen fluttering in the breeze and just beyond, a sparkling sea glinted, stretching into the distance.

  She lived in that distance and it’d been breaking her for twelve long years.

  “Too bad none of those customers loved the mural enough to commission their own." Maggie regretted the words as soon she spoke them. It wasn’t Darcy’s fault she was a starving artist. “I’m sorry, I meant….”

  She tore her gaze from the Flanagan farmhouse and let out a shaky breath, furious that a few strokes of paint on a wall held such power over her. “Sometimes I just wish-”

  “I know what you wish, dear heart." Darcy’s eyes filled with understanding. “But now, thanks to your wonderful family, you’re going back. So tell me” – she nodded and smiled at the server who brought them a pot of tea – “which sisters are you visiting? Are they Gleasons or maybe great aunts on your mother’s side?”

  “They’re neither." Maggie reached for the teapot and poured them both a cup. “The Seven Sisters are a stone circle. You can see them there” – she twisted around, indicating a section of the mural near the tea room’s gift shop �
� “just above the little harbor and its fishing boats.”

  Darcy peered across the room, her eyes narrowing on the silvery stones, rising eerily from a swirl of mist. “But there are only six of them. You said-”

  “The Seven Sisters, I know." Maggie sipped her tea, welcoming its soothing tang. “They’re called that because there once were seven sisters. Now-”

  “I feel a tall tale coming." Darcy reached for her own teacup, her lips twitching. “I just don’t understand why you never mentioned it before, seeing as you painted the stone circle on my wall.”

  “There is a legend, yes." The words caught in Maggie’s throat. Even now, it was so hard to speak of the place. “But it’s very sad and-”

  “All good Irish legends are sad.”

  “This one is different." Maggie felt the skin on her nape prickle, then a stab of deep longing inside her. “I think this story is real because I’ve been there and have felt the power of those stones. It shimmers in the air, I swear. And once you’ve stood there….”

  She bit her lip, pausing. Heat was swelling in her chest, clamping around her ribs like a vise. It was the yearning, she knew. And just now, it was sweeping her so fiercely she could hardly breathe.

  “I have to go back, Darcy." She curled her fingers around her teacup, feeling the cold grit of ancient stone instead of the delicacy of tea-warmed porcelain. “We both know I’m obsessed with Ireland. But my life is here, whether I like that or not. I need to undo whatever spell those Sisters cast on me. I’m turning thirty. It’s time to move on.”

  “So who were the Sisters?" Darcy was watching her over the rim of her teacup.

  “They were the seven daughters of a lesser Irish king who lived in the days when the Vikings first began raiding Ireland." Maggie closed her eyes, returning in her mind to that distant, windswept cliff. “Though some legends claim the Sisters are even older than that, going back to a hoary time perhaps even before the coming of the fabled Tuatha de Danaan.

  “The king loved all his daughters, but there was one he favored above the others. She was the youngest and also the sweetest. Men in all the land vied for her hand, but her father would see her wed to none but a great champion he loved like a son for the young warrior had once saved the king’s life in battle."

  Maggie peered at her friend, not surprised to see Darcy scoot her chair closer. “Many of the other kings and their sons were disappointed by the king’s choice, but everyone understood for the valiant warrior had a good and noble heart. He was also said to have been so handsome that even the stars in heaven envied his beauty.”

  “You’re making this up." Darcy refreshed Maggie’s tea. “But it’s a lovely tale.”

  “It is. And I’m telling you the legend exactly as it was told to me.”

  “And who would it be who told you. H’mmm?”

  “Someone who lives near the stones." The truth slipped out before Maggie could catch herself. “Someone I met on my college trip to Ireland.”

  “Would that someone be a man?" Darcy twinkled at her.

  Maggie stirred milk into her tea, ignoring the grin spreading across her friend’s face. “It was a man, yes. Ireland is full of them, you know. And they’re all born storytellers. They enjoy sharing their tales with visitors.

  “They-” Maggie glanced at the window, sure she’d caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. But nothing stirred except the mist curling above the smooth surface of the duck pond.

  “You’ve sidetracked me." She turned back to Darcy. “Do you want to hear the rest of the legend or not?”

  “Of course, I do."

  Maggie took a deep breath, fighting against the urge to look out the window again. “Well,” she began, remembering, “the wedding day approached and the king ordered preparations made for a grand feasting the likes of which had never been seen in his small but mighty kingdom.

  “The bride thought her heart would burst with happiness. She’d always feared she’d be made to wed a king or prince whose land would be far from her father’s and she loved her home dearly and dreaded having to leave. She’d also fallen deeply in love with the young champion who was to be her husband. But as often happens when life seems so good, the young girl’s happiness was about shatter.”

  “Her champion dies." Darcy made the words a statement. “And she pines away until she’s an embittered old woman, mourning her lost love forever.”

  “That’s close, but not quite how it was.”

  “Then what did happen?”

  Maggie slid a glance at the window again, unable to help herself. Nothing sinister or fey-like lurked in the drifting mist. But there was an elderly woman down by the pond. She moved slowly along the water’s edge, feeding the ducks from a brown paper bag.

  She didn’t look Maggie’s way, but something about her sent a chill down Maggie’s spine.

  “Hey!" Darcy poked her arm. “I’m waiting. How does the story end?"

  Maggie reached for her teacup, needing a bracing sip. “According to the legend, sea raiders landed on the eve of the wedding. The king and his men and all their guests were taken by surprise, the raiders storming into the hall in the middle of the celebrations. Many of the king’s men and his friends were slain, including the valiant young warrior. But the bards claim he fought ferociously, once again saving the king’s life, this time through the giving of his own.

  “Of the girl’s fate, nothing can be told. She was seized by the attackers and carried away from Ireland in one of their war galleys. No one ever saw her again.”

  “Damn, that’s sad." A frown creased Darcy’s brow. “Now I know why I read so many romance novels. You’re always guaranteed a happy ending.

  “Wait” – she looked at Maggie sharply, the furrow on her forehead deepening – “you still haven’t told me why the stone circle is called the Seven Sisters.”

  “Ah, but I have." Maggie glanced across the room to her painted likeness of the stones. “The king’s daughter is the seventh sister. The stones are named in her honor and in memory of the six sisters who never forgot her. In fact, it’s said that they spent so much time standing on the cliff, looking out to the western sea and grieving for her, that their sorrow turned them to stone.”

  “So that’s why there are only six stones?"

  “That’s how I heard the tale.”

  “Well, I’ll never walk into the gift shop now without glancing at those stones on the wall and feeling a shiver." Darcy stood, smoothing her frilled white apron. “Now, dear heart, I’d better get back into my kitchen. I’ll have someone bring you more colcannon” – she snatched Maggie’s unfinished portion off the table – “you’ve left this turn cold.”

  Maggie watched her stride away, expertly maneuvering a path through the crowded, linen-draped tables to the back of the tea room. Any other time, Maggie would have smiled. She loved her friend and was proud of her success. The Cabbage Rose was one of those irresistibly cozy places, bursting with character and charm. There wasn’t a corner that didn’t delight the eye of those who appreciated the appeal of quaintness. It was a rare day that Maggie visited without the tea room’s magic banishing her cares.

  Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those times.

  It’d been a mistake to tell Darcy about the Seven Sisters. Doing so had only set loose a cascade of painful memories. And even Darcy’s delicious colcannon and her perfectly brewed Irish breakfast tea wasn’t enough to get Maggie’s mind off the part of the tale she’d kept to herself.

  Like how she’d lost her heart to a black-haired, blue-eyed Irishman on her long-ago trip to Ireland and how they’d spent her last night on Irish soil making love on the cold, damp grass in the center of the Seven Sisters.

  Then, as now, it was raining, she remembered, as she stepped out of the Cabbage Rose. She paused beneath the tea room’s covered back porch, debating whether she should make a run for her car or wait until the deluge lessened. Not that rain ever really bothered her.

  Actually, she loved
it.

  But something was niggling at her.

  And whatever it was, lifted the fine hairs on her nape and filled her with an odd reluctance to move or even think about anything else until she could pinpoint what was making her all shivery.

  Frustrated, she stared out into the rain. The mist was thicker now and drifted across the meadow in great, billowing curtains so that she could barely see the trees on the far side of duck pond.

  She focused on the dark, rain-pitted water, trying to concentrate.

  Her heart gave a lurch. “Oh, God!" She raised trembling hands to her face, pressing them hard against her cheeks. It can’t be. The words froze on her tongue, denial holding them there.

  But she’d seen what she’d seen, even if it’d taken her till now to remember.

  There was something odd about the old woman feeding ducks by the pond.

  She’d worn small black boots with red plaid laces.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Other Side of the Atlantic

  Flanagan’s on the Waterfront

  Howth, Ireland

  Conall Flanagan was in trouble.

  His Celtic blood smelled it as soon as he’d spotted the wizened old woman sitting in a darkened corner, sipping a glass of whiskey. The woman wasn’t local, yet she also wasn’t a tourist. From the looks of her, she could have been every Irishman’s grandmother. Or, judging by the old-fashioned black clothes she wore, perhaps even every Irishman’s g-g-g-grandmother.

  Although her red plaid boot laces did lend a dash of the modern.

  But it wasn’t her outlandish appearance that bothered Conall. It was his certainty that he hadn’t noticed her enter the pub. He was also sure he hadn’t poured her whiskey.

  Something wasn’t right.

  He could feel it in his bones, with or without a strange old lady sipping a drink he hadn’t served her and who apparently favored red plaid boot laces.

  He really knew it when the door of the pub flew open and his life-long friend Morgan Mahoney burst in on a blast of chill, damp air. Conall set down the pint glass he’d been polishing and waited. Morgan yanked off his waterproofs and hung the dripping jacket on a peg by the door. His face was as dark as the cold, rainy night he’d just escaped.