Another Man’s Child

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Tom demanded of Norah.

Norah sighed. ‘Didn’t want to get her into trouble I suppose,’ she said and added, ‘I did try talking to her about it.’

‘But she didn’t listen?’

Norah shook her head. ‘She got worse,’ she said. ‘The next time she danced nearly every dance with Mr McCadden. The other men who might have wanted a dance with her never stood a chance. And it was at the first dance they arranged to meet on Sunday afternoon at Lough Eske.’

And then, because it hardly mattered now for she knew with dread certainty Celia’s goose was well and truly cooked, as she had expected, it all came out about meeting Andy every Sunday afternoon and meeting him in town most Saturday mornings as well as attending the dances and even about the times he met them on the road going home from Mass.

‘It’s a catalogue of deception that’s what it is,’ Dan said angrily. ‘Fine respect that is showing her parents. I bet everyone knows about this and I’ve been made a laughing stock and the only thing I am surprised about is that I wasn’t told of it sooner.’

Norah was too, though she said nothing. She thought it better to keep a low profile and anyway her father was saying, ‘The thing to decide now is what are we going to do about it and I will have to give that some thought. And meanwhile Celia will stay locked in the bedroom,’ he said and then he glared at Norah as he said, ‘And I want no one creeping up the stairs to talk to her and, Norah, you keep Ellie and Sammy away too.’

‘I will, Daddy,’ Norah promised. ‘And I’ll not go near Celia, never fear.’ She didn’t want to face Celia because she felt she had let her down, though she didn’t see what else she could have done when the news had leaked out anyway.

It was a few hours later in the byre as they were milking the cows that Dan said to Tom, ‘That hireling man has got to be dealt with for I had sort of semi-promised Celia to Johnnie Cassidy.’

And although it was Tom he had spoken to, it was the appalled voice of Dermot that answered, ‘You can’t have promised Celia to him. Christ, Daddy, he’s an old man.’

‘When I want advice from you I’ll ask for it,’ Dan snapped. ‘Till then hold your tongue. And what have I said to you about taking the Lord’s name in vain? You’re not too old for a good hiding and don’t you forget it.’

Dermot was silent and though his face was red with embarrassment at being reprimanded his eyes still smouldered defiantly and Tom, hoping to deflect his father’s anger, because he could understand how astounded his young brother had been, said, ‘Dermot’s right though, Daddy. Johnnie’s a nice enough fellow but a bit long in the tooth. He must be over twenty years older than Celia.’

Dan nodded. ‘Twenty-three,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s a young wife he’s after, one young enough to bear him plenty of sons that will help him when the farm work gets too much for him and one of his blood to take over after his day, otherwise he says it goes to some nephew in New York that he has never met that hasn’t been once to see the place he might well inherit.’

‘Even so,’ Tom said. ‘That young wife needn’t be Celia.’

‘I doubt it will be now,’ Dan said glumly. ‘Before this business Celia was easy-going and eager to please, little more than a child, and I’m sure I could have convinced her it was for the best. We’d not lose by it once she agreed to marry him for he was giving us two fields almost adjoining ours and a gift of two pregnant cows when they married. He had a great fancy for our Celia.’

I bet he had, Tom thought but kept that to himself and instead said, ‘You think she might still be persuaded if McCadden was off the scene?’

Dan shook his head. ‘She says not. Says she’ll only marry for love. Did you ever hear such foolishness?’

Tom lowered his head as he smiled for he was well aware of his father’s views on ‘love’ and yet he was pretty sure he loved Sinead and she certainly loved him, but he’d hate to be forced or coerced into marrying someone he couldn’t stand. No wonder Celia had said what she did. And yet it would never do for her to marry a hireling boy.

‘What do you intend to do?’ Tom asked his father.

‘Get rid of McCadden for starters.’

‘And how do you intend to do that?’

‘Bribe him.’

‘Bribe him?’ Tom repeated and Dermot’s mouth dropped open.

‘Every man has his price,’ Dan said. ‘Tonight I intend to waylay McCadden as he makes his way to the dance and ask him what is his price to go far away from here for good and make no effort to contact my daughter.’

‘D’you think he will agree?’

‘We’ll see,’ Dan said. ‘But it will be the worse for him if he refuses because if he won’t go by peaceful means, then he might have to be persuaded in other ways.’

The alarmed eyes of Dermot met those of his older brother, who had heard of the wild man his father had been in his youth, though that had been years ago. Now his father was known as an easy-going, even-tempered man and, though he was quite a strict disciplinarian, before this business Tom would have said that he was seldom unjust, never mind violent. And yet maybe any father might be moved to violence when his daughter’s future was at stake. But it might never come to that, Tom told himself, for surely the man would take the money and run and that would be the last they would hear of him.

‘And you,’ Dan said to Dermot as he prepared to take the cows back to the field. ‘You heard none of this, you hear?’

Dermot nodded. ‘I won’t say a word.’

‘See that you don’t,’ Dan growled.

Dan began leading the cows across the yard. Tom smiled reassuringly at Dermot and heard him give an almost imperceptible sigh of relief as they started to clean out the byre.

That evening Dan allowed Celia to come out of her room to eat the meal with them and an extremely uncomfortable meal it was, for she was well aware that her father and mother were still greatly displeased and disappointed with her. That did upset her because they had never even been cross with her before and the little conversation they had was stilted and unnatural and even the younger children picked up on the atmosphere and were quieter than usual.

Norah knew there would be no dance for her or Celia that night, in fact Dan had told Celia he had an errand out that evening, which shouldn’t take long, and she was not to leave the house for any reason in his absence. Celia had just nodded and so Dan barked out, ‘You hear what I said?’

‘Yes, Daddy.’

‘And I have your word on that?’

This time there was slight hesitation and then Celia nodded again. ‘Yes, you have my word.’

Dan knew Celia wouldn’t break her word. In that way she had always been trustworthy and so he nodded, satisfied, as Peggy asked, ‘What errand have you to make?’

‘Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies,’ Dan replied and Celia knew exactly who he was going to see and she regretted giving her word to him for she knew he was going to see Andy McCadden and she had no way of warning him. Dermot knew where he was going as well, but he’d been charged with secrecy so when Celia asked in an urgent whisper, ‘Has Daddy gone to see Andy tonight? Is that his errand?’ he shrugged and said, ‘Don’t know.’

Later Tom went upstairs to change for he had to see the McCluskys, and Sinead in particular, and explain things and Dan went to him in the bedroom. ‘Don’t discuss this with Sinead and her family.’

‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Tom promised, knowing how much his father hated family business being told outside of the family. ‘I’ll think up some excuse to satisfy her and her parents, but I must tell her something. We’ll more than likely go for a walk then, for the evening’s a fine one. I couldn’t trust myself at the dance tonight anyway for if I saw McCadden I’d want to push my fist down his throat.’

‘I know,’ Dan said. ‘But there’ll be no need for any of that if he takes the money as I’m sure he will.’

After his father had left to waylay McCadden, Dermot sidled into the scullery where the girls were washing up. He knew it was his only chance to talk to them, with Tom and his father out of the way and his mother washing Sammy and Ellie in the big tin bath in the kitchen, where they were making a lot of noise about it. He said to Celia, ‘I know why Daddy was so mad at you making eyes at McCadden.’

‘I was not making eyes at McCadden,’ Celia protested.

‘Ssh,’ Norah cautioned as Dermot said airily, ‘Oh you know what I mean and it was because he had someone already lined up for you.’

‘What did I tell you?’ Norah said, but Celia ignored her and said to Dermot, ‘Do you know who it was?’

‘You bet I do,’ Dermot said. ‘It was Johnnie Cassidy, old Johnnie Cassidy, and I tried telling Daddy he was too old for you and got my head bitten off.’

Celia seemed too shocked to speak. She seemed unaware that her mouth was open and her lips pulled back in distaste as Norah cried, ‘I’ll say he’s too old. It’s almost obscene.’

‘I heard Daddy say that he’s twenty-three years older than you, Celia,’ Dermot said. ‘And he’s after a young wife that will bear him plenty of strong sons that will help him on the farm as he gets older.’

‘Yes,’ Norah said in clipped tones. ‘You’d have the body pulled out of you with a baby born every year and when your child-bearing years were gone you’d have an old, maybe senile man to care for as well as a houseful of children to cook for and clean after and you would be expected to help on the farm as well. If you married him, your life would effectively be over and you would be an old woman before you had a chance to be a young one.’

Celia gave a shiver at the thought, but answered firmly enough. ‘That isn’t going to happen because I am not marrying that man. I barely know him, for heaven’s sake, and I have no wish to know a man old enough to be my father. I told Daddy I will only marry for love and I stick by that.’