Stone of Destiny(51)

Maire pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and opened the door in the back of the kitchen, waiting as we walked out. The sun was hiding behind clouds, and a fine mist was falling. After she turned the key in the lock, Maire reached over and grabbed Liam’s hands. “It’s been good to see you, my boy. I do hope you’ll come by and visit me before you leave.”

“Ah, we’ll see what we can do. But, Maire?”

“Yes, love?” Maire asked while she pulled her silk scarf up over her hair.

Liam looked at the damp ground and ran his hands over his hair. “If you see her again, don’t mention you saw us, all right?”

Maire frowned, dropping Liam’s hands. “If that’s what you’d like, I won’t say a word about it.”

“It was so nice to meet you, Maire,” I told her, trying to keep things from getting too awkward.

“And you as well, dear.” She gave Liam one last look and hurried down the long path leading to a road at the bottom of the hill.

When she was out of hearing range, Liam cursed. “She told Maire to be expecting us, that doesn’t bode well.”

I sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about that. We have to just stick to our plan.”

“Let’s find a newspaper, we need to know for sure what the date is,” Liam said waving his hand toward the road below.

We didn’t talk as we walked down the little path. I took a minute to take in the breathtaking view. I could see mountains up beyond the castle and rolling hills below. Just like I’d always heard, everything was green and rocky.

The meandering tree-lined road led us past an old red school house and a thatch-roofed cottage, up over an old hump-backed railway bridge to a quaint village. The streets were lined with welcoming store fronts and quaint restaurants and pubs. Liam led us to a door with a ‘Kemp’s Pub’ sign hanging overhead.

Inside, the place was a perfect combination of antique and modern decor. By the polished mahogany bar sat a newspaper rack. Liam picked one up and his eyes scanned for the date.

“October 31,” he said, nodding.

“Geez, talk about cutting it close,” I said, looking around the pub for a clock. It was 12:35 p.m.

“At least we still have plenty of time to get up to Tara,” Ethan said.

The hostess approached us with a welcoming smile. “Good afternoon, and welcome to Kemp’s,” she said in a lilting Irish brogue. “Would you like to be seated or will you be eating at the bar?”

Liam looked at me and shrugged. “Ah, thank you. We’ll take a table.”

After we’d been seated, Liam stretched his legs out in front of him. “Twenty minutes until one,” he said quietly, like he was talking to himself. “We’ll want to be at Tara by half past four at the latest. The sun usually sets around five in October.”

“Fair enough,” I said, picking up a menu. There was a lot of seafood and I knew chips meant french fries here. The prices were all in euros. “How are we going to pay for anything?” I whispered.

Liam rubbed the back of his neck. “Leave that to me,” he said without meeting my eyes.

The waitress came and brought us a pitcher of water. “I’m Emma and I’ll be your server today. Can I start you off with an appetizer?”

“No, thank you,” I said. “We’re just going to order our meals.”

“I don’t know if I can trust the Irish with lasagna,” Ethan said, trying to get a rise out of us.

“Oh, no,” Liam said, beefing up his brogue. “Ye better order the only thing we Irish know how to prepare, a heapin’ plate o’ corned beef an’ cabbage.”

I had just taken a sip of the water in front of me and had to cover my mouth to keep from spitting it out. Ethan and Liam both broke out into boisterous laughter at the cliché.

“You can’t go wrong with fish and chips,” I said, still laughing and handed my menu to Emma.

“Right you are,” Liam said, closing his as well. “I’ll have the same.”

“Well, I’m going to be different and get the Striped Bass,” Ethan said, passing his menu to the waitress. “When we went fishing a few years ago off the Cape, the striper we caught made good eating.”

“All right, sounds good,” I said.

The waitress smiled, and flirted a little with Ethan and Liam. She probably thought we were a bunch of college grads on vacation. They made each other laugh as though they were. I smiled watching them tease each other after she left. It helped break up the tension over the activities waiting for us.

“Is there a hardware store close by where we can pick up the chains?” Ethan asked Liam once she walked away.