Free Leon Uris by Redemption

and forth. Jack’s trying to hide it failed, and it began to grow and search for her. Atty, sitting on him, loosened the buttons of her blouse. Jack held her off and crawled away.
    “Jaysus,” he said, “I think you’ve grown a bit too much for us to go on with our kid games.”
    Atty grabbed his hand as he came to his feet. “Or maybe I’ve blossomed enough to start a real game.”
    Jack knew that Atty would always be direct and he had learned never to be at a loss. This was different. He held out a hand for her to halt, then sat beside her. “If we rolled around in past summers it was all for the sport. I never meant to lure you into temptation.”
    “To hell with that, Jack. Let’s let our feelings do what they may,” she said.
    “We can’t, luv.”
    “I can do anything I want,” she responded.
    “You’re a young woman now and all kinds of new sensations are churning up inside you. We’re very good pals, the best ever, and I’m familiar to you. That makes you comfortable with me. However, I’m just not the lad you should be experimenting with. You’ll easily find the young man you’re meant to do these things with.”
    “I don’t like any of them, Jack. You know that. I hate almost all of them and what their fathers and my father have done to this place.”
    “Well, now, just because you hate someone doesn’t mean he isn’t the right fellow. Besides, Atty, some of those young suitors are rather decent sorts. Only problem is, you don’t give them half a chance. When you look at them in that blood-curdling manner you can put on, I can see them shrink down to midgets before my very eyes.”
    Atty pouted.
    “You can have any of those fellows you want when the time comes.”
    She opened her blouse. Jack reddened and closed it. “I’m not your man, only a little girl’s fantasy gone amok. Let us not go into all the reasons this isn’t right. I’ve only got one suit, Atty, and that was passed to me by my da and I’ll probably pass it to my son.”
    “That’s not true,” she snapped. “We are exactly suited. It is in every line of poetry you write and every song you sing. Jack, you and I together can do something about all this wretchedness here.”
    “But I see you as my sister and always will.”
    “I’m not leaving this barn as a virgin,” she all but commanded.
    “The only way you’re going to lose your virginity here now is by a good spanking.”
    As the summer wore on, Atty measured the situation. To flirt? To set up an accidental injury from a fall off a horse far out in the hillsides with him? To pout and rant?
    She concluded Jack meant his words and decided it was better to go on as loving friends than not go on at all.
    At the summer’s end, she returned to London and he caught a ship out of Galway, another son of Ireland who had to seek a life away from his country.

10
    Ballyutogue, County Donegal, Ireland, 1885
    “The dray is all loaded, Mr. Lambe,” Conor said.
    Josiah Lambe, the blacksmith of Ballyutogue, both upper village of the Catholics and lower village of the Protestants, checked the donkey cart his apprentice boy had loaded. “Is that charcoal box secure?”
    “Aye. Why are we bringing our own coal?”
    “The coal they use at Hubble Manor couldn’t build up enough fire to light my pipe.”
    The cart sagged, a wheel going down in the mud. “Jaysus,” Conor said, “looks like we got the entire forge on the dray.”
    “Aye, we’ll be working at the manor for ten days.”
    “Hope we don’t bust an axle.”
    Mr. Lambe surveyed, grunted, and took a few extra pieces off to lighten the load. That apprentice of his was a gift. And what a touch he had twisting iron at the anvil.
    “Hitch up the team, Conor lad. Did you tell your ma you wouldn’t be home till after dark?”
    “Aye, I did.”
    Mr. Lambe pinned a note to the front door:
    WORKING AT THE MANOR. LEAVE YOUR WORK OR A NOTE FOR ME INSIDE. WE’LL OPEN AT FIVETOMORROW MORNING IF ANY OF YOUR NAGS NEED