Daughters of Castle Deverill by Santa Montefiore Read Free Book Online Page A

and lost him. Word has it she’s made a
healthy donation to the church. Father Quinn will be delighted.’
    ‘She’s come back for Little Jack,’ said Kitty, her stomach clenching again with fear. ‘She says she had to leave him once and she won’t do it again.’
    ‘And what did you tell her?’
    ‘That she left him in my safe keeping. But she said it was Michael who left him on my doorstep with the note. She said she’s his mother and that he belongs with her. But I’ve
told Little Jack that his mother is in Heaven and that I’ll love him and look after him in her stead. I can’t now tell him that she’s suddenly come back to life.’
    ‘She can’t have him, Kitty. She would have signed papers in the convent, giving up her right.’
    Kitty remembered the old Bridie, her dear friend, and her heart buckled for her. ‘She probably didn’t know what she was signing,’ she said softly.
    ‘Don’t feel sorry for her,’ he reproached. ‘She’s done well for herself, has she not?’ He took Kitty’s hand and began to walk back up the beach towards
his cottage.
    ‘I’m terrified she’s going to try and steal him,’ Kitty confessed with a shy smile. She knew how ridiculous that sounded.
    Jack looked down at her and grinned affectionately. ‘You’ve always had a fanciful imagination, Kitty Deverill. I don’t think Bridie would be foolish enough to attempt kidnap.
She’d get as far as Cork and the Garda would be all over her.’
    ‘You’re right, of course. I’m just being foolish.’
    He swung her round and kissed her. ‘What was that for?’ she laughed.
    ‘Because I love you.’ He smiled, revealing the gap where his tooth had been knocked out in prison. He curled a tendril of hair behind her ear and kissed her more ardently.
‘Forget about the castle and Bridie Doyle. Think about
us.
Concentrate on what’s to come, not what has passed. You said this wasn’t enough for you any more. You know
it’s not enough for me.’
    ‘It’s not enough, but I don’t know how to resolve it.’
    ‘Remember I once asked you to come with me to America?’
    Kitty’s eyes began to sting at the memory. ‘But they arrested you and you never even knew I had decided to come.’
    He slipped his fingers around her neck beneath her hair and ran rough thumbs over her jaw line. ‘We could try again. Take Little Jack and start afresh. Perhaps we wouldn’t have to go
as far as America. Perhaps we could go somewhere else. I understand that you don’t want to leave Ireland, but now Celia has bought the castle it’s going to be tough living next door, on
the estate that once belonged to your father.’
    Kitty gazed into his pale blue eyes and the sorry sequence of their love story seemed to pass across them like sad clouds. ‘Let’s go to America,’ she said suddenly, taking Jack
by surprise.
    ‘Really?’ he gasped.
    ‘Yes. If we go we must go far, far away. It will break Robert’s heart. Not only will he lose his wife but he will lose Little Jack, who is like a son to him. He will never forgive
me.’
    ‘And what about Ireland?’
    She put her hands on top of his cold ones and felt the warmth of his Irish vowels wrapping around her like fox’s tails. ‘I’ll feel close to Ireland with
you
, Jack.
Because every word you speak will bring me back here.’

Chapter 3
    Bridie heard Rosetta’s laughter coming from inside the barn. It was blithe and bubbling like a merry stream. As she approached she realized that in all the months they
had known each other, she had never heard Rosetta laugh with such abandon and she suffered a stab of jealousy, for that carefree sound excluded her as surely as the years in America had alienated
her from her home. For it came from somewhere warm and intimate; a place Bridie couldn’t reach for all her wealth and prestige. Her thoughts turned to Jack O’Leary and the girl in her
longed for that innocent time in her life when she had dreamed of laughing so blithely