Pioneer Devotion: The O’Rourke Family Montana Saga, Book Six by Flightner Ramona

Author:Flightner, Ramona
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945609572
Publisher: Grizzly Damsel Publishing
Published: 2021-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Seamus poked his head out of the back door, sighing when he saw Mary sitting on the steps. After a quick foray into the house, he emerged with a blanket, draping it over her shoulders. “Come, love,” he breathed, as he sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. With a groan of relief, she rested against him, her head on his shoulder.

“I have this sense that if I sit here, long enough, she’ll return. She’ll appear, and I’ll hold her in my arms and ease her of any of the”—her voice broke—“atrocities done to her.”

“Love,” Seamus choked, as he pressed his face into her neck.

“Promise me,” Mary whispered in a tear-choked voice, tinged with rage and the deepest sorrow. “Promise me you’ll not turn against her for things done against her will.”

Seamus froze at her words. “A ghrá.” He took deep gulping breaths, his hand digging into her side. “How can you ask me that?” He spun, so he gazed deeply into her devastated gaze, blanching at the terror he saw. Cupping her face, he held her cheeks, as though they were more delicate than eggshells.

A profound silence enveloped them, as he stared at her. A neighbor slammed a door; another yelled profanities, and men on a nearby street laughed like idiots. Through it all, Seamus remained focused on Mary. “What must I do for you to fully trust me?”

She shivered and closed her eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she said in a barely audible voice. “To have no say.”

A tear coursed down Seamus’s cheek, as a soul-deep sorrow filled his gaze. “I failed you, my love. I’m so sorry.” He nodded, as she stared at him in confusion. “If I were more capable, a trapper or a tracker, I would have found a way to find him and to make him pay. To prevent our precious Maggie from having to spend more than a few hours with him.” Another tear tracked down his cheek. “I don’t have that ability. I couldn’t find her.”

He paused, his voice raspy, as he battled rage and tears. “There was no one in town to pay to lead me out into the wild. I would have given such a man everything I had. But no such man was in town.” His hands shook.

“Cormac was willin’ to search, but he didn’t need to worry about me as he did. And Ardan was right that I needed to remain here with you and our lads.” He closed his eyes as a sense of impotent sorrow filled him. More tears fell. “I had no way to find her. To save her from him. I’ve never felt so useless. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, Shay,” she cried, her hands rising to grip his arms. She tilted her face to kiss one of his palms. “That’s not your fault. I know you. I know the man you are. You did everything you could to find our Maggie.”

His gaze shone with pain. “If you know me, Mary, then you’d never have asked me that.

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