Allegiance: A Dublin Novella by Heather Domin Read Free Book Online Page A

look in place to prevent the wave of exultation from showing. Surely he was jumping to conclusions. It couldn’t possibly be this easy. Could it?
    Adam reached past him to pluck a nozzle off the pile and began turning it over in his hand, examining it in the electric light.
    “You’ve no love for the English,.” It was a statement, not a question.
    Primary rule of the cover story: tell the truth whenever possible. “I’m not particularly fond of them, no.”
    Adam chuckled. “Well neither are we around this place, as you may have noticed at times.” At that exact moment, Mary’s song ended in the next room with a roar of applause, and Andy’s slurred bellow of fucking wankers! came clear and unmuffled through the wall.
    “Aye, I’ve noticed.”
    Adam tossed the tap nozzle from one hand to the other, watching it arc through the air between his palms. “Well there are those as bluster in the pub of an evening, when their drink is in them… ” The tap flipped from right hand to left. “And then there are those as are willing to discuss things in the light of day.” The tap hit his right palm with a little pat. “And those as are tired of talk altogether.”
    His face had gone queer, his eyes a little too sharp, his grin a little too tight, stretched over something less jovial and more controlled. William’s hands went still in the cooling water.
    Abruptly Adam straightened, snatching the tap out of mid-air, face crinkling back into breezy amiability. He leaned forward and dropped the tap onto the stack, and William caught a swift breath of sweat and beer.
    “There’s some of us who meet here on occasion, to do what we can, away from prying eyes and listening ears. We’d like you to join us tomorrow morning, if you would. There are things we would want you to hear.”
    William wondered who the “we” in that sentence included. Adam himself, obviously, and certainly Gerald as well – likely not many more than that, with the possible exception of Andrew. Who had made the final decision to include him?
    At his pause, Adam’s voice grew a little softer. “This isn’t a strong-arm, Glasgow. You’ve but to say the word and this conversation never happened. I ask only that you mention what I’ve said to no one. You understand, I’m certain.” He met William’s eyes and held them. “We want you, William. We want you with us.”
    William swallowed. He was caught off guard by the quickness of it all, and William was not a man who was accustomed to being caught off guard. He felt a sudden impulse to drop his eyes from Adam’s gaze. This was something else he was not accustomed to, and it was a feeling he found he did not enjoy at all. In defiance of it, he lifted his chin and nodded.
    “Aye,” he said. “You can count on me there. And you can count on my silence as well.”
    Adam’s face broke into a beaming smile. “Excellent. Knew it, I did.” He gave William a slap on the shoulder. “Tis all I ask. That, and that you not hold it against Mary for betraying your confidence. We’ve told each other all things since childhood. She’s seen me through many a tough time, so she has.”
    “She’s a fine lass.”
    “That she is, that she is indeed. She likes you quite a bit, you know. Fancies you a little, I think.”
    William’s eyes went wide. “Adam, I would never think of
—
”
    Adam laughed out loud until the sound that echoed off the hanging pans. “I know that, Glasgow, I know that. I meant only the positive. You’re an honorable man, that’s as clear as day. Which is more than I can say for myself.” He patted William’s cheek, still chuckling, then gave the strings of William’s apron a tug.
    “You need to relax, boyo. You’re far too high-strung. Come out and have a drink with us, yeah? It’s Saturday, and the work can wait.”
    William eyed him for a moment, and then tilted his head and cocked an eyebrow. “Help me carry these taps out and we’ll call it a deal,” he said.