Irish Eyes: a heartwarming, emotional historical fiction saga by Hope C. Tarr

Author:Hope C. Tarr [Tarr, Hope C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books Historical Romance & Saga, A Joffe Books Company
Published: 2023-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tammany Hall, 14th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue

Tuesday, November 7, 1905 — Election Day

We spent that first election day at Tammany headquarters, the main auditorium decked out in red, white, and blue bunting, Bayne’s 69th Regiment Band keeping boredom at bay. Well before the polls closed at midnight, Joe’s landslide victory was declared. Jaws stiff from all the smiling, I joined him onstage with Joey and Moira, cheers of “Killer Kavanaugh” ringing through the room.

Pat and Kathleen and their kids came out to help us celebrate. I turned the twins over to Norah, then eleven, and joined the adults at the punch bowl. Eventually, Joe and Pat drifted off to the balcony for a smoke, leaving Kathleen and me to ourselves.

She turned her face up to mine, thinner and paler than before but beaming. “This is a proud day, isn’t it Rose? I only wish Joe’s and my dear parents were alive to see it.”

I bit my lip, for I rather thought the course of Joe’s political career remained to be writ. From what I’d so far seen, his Tammany handlers were the ones wielding the pen.

“And the headquarters, it’s all so elegant, don’t you think?” she added, shooting an awed glance to the gilt-coffered ceiling.

Thinking of the money working people such as ourselves poured into the place to make such pomp possible, I sipped my punch in silence.

“Rose, what is it? What’s the matter?”

“A bit knackered is all. It’s been a long day. How’s Norah getting on in school?” I asked, hoping to turn the topic.

But Joe’s sister was nothing if not stubborn, a Kavanaugh trait, or so I’d come to see it. “Something’s off with you,” she insisted, raking me with sharp eyes until I finally relented.

“I worry this position might not be the best thing for Joe. For any of us,” I admitted.

Her gaze narrowed. “How’s that?”

“Since the campaign started, it’s been one boozer after another. We see him less now than we did when he was at the station house.”

If I’d thought to pour my troubles into a sympathetic ear, I was to be swiftly and sorely disappointed.

“So he takes a nip more than he ought. Show me the Irishman who doesn’t. Honestly, Rose, are things that bad? From where some of us sit, they look pretty prime.”

Stunned by her waspishness, I could do naught but stare.

But Kathleen wasn’t done yet. “He’s done all this for you. To make you proud.”

“But I am proud.”

She looked at me askance. “Are you? I wonder. All these years, he’s never left off trying to prove himself to you. You must see it, or are you that blind?”

Joe and Pat walked up with Moira, sparing me from answering. Judging from their cherry cheeks and whiskey breaths, smoking wasn’t all they’d got up to.

“Look who we found playing hide-and-seek in the committee room,” Joe said with a chuckle, the twirled and waxed handlebars of his recently regrown mustache putting me in mind of a villain in a movie-house melodrama.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.