Allegiance: A Dublin Novella by Heather Domin

Author:Heather Domin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, dublin, forbidden love, 1920s, action romance, male male, bisexual fiction, undercover agent, irish civil war, espionage romance

Twelve St. Stephen Street was a tenement house. It stood in a row of identical buildings, all propped against each other on the crowded street. William checked the sign on the post again, though he knew he had made no wrong turns. The neighborhood seemed decent enough, and children played jacks on the steps in front of him, but most of the windows were covered with blankets and some with bars. William looked up at the paint peeling over the entryway. He knew exactly what the rent on a room like this would be. He thought of Adam’s taste for fancy clothes – clothes that Mary was mending two and three times over. He really was sending all his money to America. William frowned and walked up the steps, stepping around the game of jacks to make his way up three flights of stairs.

Flat 4E was at the end of a long narrow hall; in front of the door lay a braided rug fraying at the edges and two empty milk bottles. William stared at the brass plate on the door.

God’s sake, Young. You’ve never hesitated before a doorway in all your life. You can head the raid on Robbie Fraser but you can’t face a boy of two-and-twenty? Get on with it, you wee girl.

He raised his fist to knock but the door opened before he could. Adam blinked at him, holding the door with one hand and pulling his braces up with the other; he had no shirt on over his vest, barefooted and bareheaded, wet hair still dripping onto his freckled shoulders.

“Glasgow.”

“Adam.”

A dog began barking outside in the street; a woman’s voice yelled something and the barking ceased. To replace it, a baby began to wail somewhere downstairs.

“Mary asked me to bring you this,” William said, holding out the package. “Your mending.”

“Oh, aye.” Adam took the bundle and looked down at it with a little grin. “Reckon she’d give her right eye to know how I damaged it.”

“Well, she did say you ought to be more careful with your shirts.”

Adam looked up from beneath his brow. “Wasn’t me who was uncareful, as I recall.”

“Aye, well.” William scratched his nose. “Right, I’ll not keep you then. I’ve got my errands to run and such, I just stopped off to pass that along for Mary.”

Adam nodded. “Right.” And then, “Will you be working this evening?”

“Aye. It’s my night off, but I haven’t much else to do these days.”

“Sure I know that feeling.”

“Haven’t seen you down pub in a bit.”

“No. Been busy and all.”

“Aye. Well, I’ll be off then.”

“See ya.”

“Aye, see ya.”

William’s footsteps fell too heavily on the floorboards as he listened for the sound of the closing door. Halfway to the steps he heard Adam’s voice instead.

“I’m sorry, William.”

He had stepped out into the hall, holding the package to his chest. His hair curled in damp corkscrews on his neck.

“I’d no right to embarrass you like that. I don’t know why I carried on so. If you’d been a lass I’d have expected a smack in the face.

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