Maggie woke to sunlight on her face, its beams coaxing her eyes open from a heavy, rolling slumber. She squinted, putting her hand across her eyes as she stretched, twisting her half-forgotten dreams away. It was morning somehow, and that meant—
“Hello, Mrs Kelly,” said a voice from across the room, and she peered over to see Rían sitting in his chair, shirt undone, face played up in a curious smile.
She twisted about to face him, still not ready to get up. “Were you watching me sleep?” she asked, amused.
“Maybe just a little,” he replied. “You’re hard to ignore. Too beautiful to ignore.”
“No I’m not,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him. “You’re blind.”
“Hmm, no,” he said, stretching out. “Just in love. In love with you, Mrs Kelly.” His smile was irrepressible. “Mrs Kelly,” he said. “I still can’t get used to that.”
“It’s been a month,” she said, sleepily. “Maybe you need to say it more.”
He leapt off the chair, planted himself at the base of the bed, tugging gently at the covers. It was so blazing hot out, this August, having covers at all seemed absurd, especially with her too-thick nightgown on. But Maggie held onto them anyway, just for the sake of playing with Rían a little more.
“Mrs Kelly,” he said, pulling the covers off her a little.
“Mhmm?” she replied, and pulled them back up.
“Mrs Kelly,” he said, tugging them down a little bit at a time. “How do I deserve you?”
She pulled the covers back up. “You don’t,” she joked.
“No, I don’t,” he said, and this time pulled the covers down, nice and slow, until she was half-exposed. “I still feel like I’m dreaming, every morning, waking up next to you. Like someone will call my name, off in the distance, and I’ll wake up and discover none of this is real. None of any of this is real.”
“I’m a figment of your imagination?” she asked with a smile, searching for the covers without success.
“How else can I explain you?” he sighed, and let his hand travel up her thigh.
“A grave miscalculation?” she said, shivering at his touch.
“Hey now,” he said, leaning over her until their noses met. “That’s my wife you’re talking about.”
“Who? Mrs Kelly?” she asked, and he kissed her like it was their wedding night again, again, again… She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up and him down until they met somewhere in the middle and the heat from the newborn day was an afterthought, fast receding into the distance as—
There was a knock at the door.
Rían turned his head to see, but Maggie refused to let the outside world intrude so soon. She bit his earlobe, kissed his jaw, his neck, and—
Knocking. Again.
Rían was distracted, but not hopelessly so. She could see it in his face: he wanted them to go away. He wanted to know they’d gone away. But until that happened…
“Rían!” came a voice from outside.
It was Liam. Urgent. There was no stopping it now.
With a look of genuine regret, Rían gave her a quick kiss and fell out of bed, scrambling across the floor until he made it to the door and swung it open. Maggie barely had time to cover herself as the full morning light crashed in, revealing a red-faced Liam at the threshold, slick with sweat and fighting to catch his breath. He didn’t seem to notice what he’d interrupted. His mind was somewhere else entirely.
“They said no,” he wheezed. “Wright’s men said no.”
Rían shook his head, body slumping like he’d been stabbed through the gut. He stepped aside to let his brother in, closing the door in a daze. “No to some, or no to—”
“To everyone. All of us. No Irishmen will be considered, let alone hired.”
“Did they say—”
“Shiners,” said Liam. “He said it was our own fault. Said we had no one to blame for this but ourselves.”
Rían laughed, bitterly “Well that’ll only make things worse, won’t it.”
“It did,” said Liam, gravely. “A dozen men followed Wright’s man ‘cross Sapper’s Bridge, saying they wanted a word.”
“Oh God…”
“I don’t know if he’s dead, but if he’s not…”
Liam lowered his head out of respect, finally catching sight of Maggie trying to make herself small in the bed. That was the curse of the one-room shacks of Corkstown: the line between private and public was marked at the front door only. Let a stranger in, and a stranger he’d no longer be.
Liam blushed, instantly, and averted his eyes.. “Oh, uh, hello, M…” he said.
Rían was oblivious. “This’ll only get worse,” he said. “Much, much worse.”
“Aye,” nodded Liam, trying to shift his focus. “They’re saying the war’s only going to get hotter from here on out, with winter coming up. The chutes’ll bear the brunt of it, but all of Bytown’s in for a right mess.”
“So we leave,” said Maggie, and both men turned to face her, confused for different reasons. She noticed their expressions and frowned. “There’s nothing holding us here anymore,” she said. “The canal’s done, By’s abandoned ship…why would you stay?”
Rían fought to find the words. “It’s not that simple, Maggie.”
She sat up, face hardened with concern. Liam looked away. Mostly. “It is that simple,” she said. “If the lumber war gets any bigger, there won’t be neutral parties anymore, Rían. Bytown’ll be black or white.” She was getting more and more panicked at his uncertainty. “Green and blue. Irish and Canadien. If you stay, you’ll be forced to—”
“I won’t—”
“You won’t have a choice,” she said. “Believe me. I know. You can’t expect to stay here and not be in it.”
He spread his arms. “So where do you propose we go?” he asked.
“West,” she said, and he rolled his eyes. “Oh no no no,” she said, up on her knees, scowling. “You said—”
“Maggie, darling, some things are—”
“You promised me we would move west—”
Liam was confused. He looked from Maggie to Rían, and back again. “You what?”
Rían started to answer, but Maggie cut him off: “Before we were married, your brother swore to me that as soon as he was able, we’d leave Bytown for somewhere west.”
“Where west?” asked Liam.
“Doesn’t matter!” she said, and pointed a warning finger at Rían. “You promised me, Rían.”
“When we’re able,” he said. “When we have savings, a chance to buy our own land, a shot at—”
She gestured angrily to Liam. “You heard him! There’s no work! There’s no work, and worse than that, there’s a decent chance we’ll lose what little we have if we don’t get out now!”
Rían started pacing in a tight circle. He was tormented, she could tell. And that worried her more than anything.
She rose from the bed, crossed over to him and looked up into his eyes. Full of worry. Full of conflict. And something else.
“There’s no shame in protecting your family,” she said, so sincerely he couldn’t avoid her gaze any longer. “Would you want your son to grow up in a place like this?”
He twitched, confused. “My…are you—?”
She smiled “Answer the question.”
“The—”
“Would you,” she said, and kissed him lightly, “want your son,” another kiss, “to grow up—”
“But are you pregnant?” he asked, holding her by the shoulders.
She beamed. “Only just, but yes, I think I am.”
Rían looked past her, at Liam, his smile shattering all the tension that had been there before. “She’s pregnant!” he laughed. “Did you hear?”
“Yes, I—”
Rían pulled his brother in close, held the three of them in a buoyant hug. “We’re having a baby!” he cried out. He kissed Maggie, long and hard, as Liam squirmed to get free.
“And so,” she said, extricating herself from the jumble. “The question remains: where will we raise this child of ours? Here, in the middle of a war? Or somewhere west, where life is as simple as we want it to be?”
His smile faded, his hand dropping out of hers, as some dark mood took over. It was different, somehow. Different than before. Not like he was torn, but like he was struggling to tell her something he knew she’d despise.
“What?” she asked, taking a step back. “Oh God, Rían, what?”
He swallowed, avoided both of their gazes as he said: “I’ve a new job.”
Maggie looked to Liam, who seemed as genuinely confused as she was. He scratched the back of his head, mulling the options. “Here in town? On the river? Who’d hire you, if they—”
“Not lumber,” said Rían, trying to find the words that would hurt the least. “The magistrate’s office.”
Maggie’s eyes went wide in horror. “Desk job. Please say it’s a—”
“Junior constable,” he said, and tried not to react to Maggie’s sharp breath. “Patrolling the market, keeping the peace—”
Maggie waved Liam onward. “Tell your brother how foolish he’s being.”
Liam winced, shrugged. “I mean…she’s got a point, Rían. Only thing the Shiners and Gens agree on is deckin’ constables for sport. You’d be taking blows from all sides, every day.”
Rían looked at them, the two of them, like they were speaking a foreign language. “You know who else is in the middle, along with me? Every shopkeeper who’s forced to pay for protection. Every woman who’s afraid to shop alone—in broad daylight! Every man who did his time for By and now just wants to find an honest day’s work without fearing for his life! You know what’s not right? Leaving those people to suffer when I can make a difference.” He took Maggie’s hands in his, kissing them. “I know you want a quiet life, love. And I know this place, above all others, is the last place you’d ever want to stay. But these people need me…”
“I need you,” she said, pleading. “Those people? They don’t need you. Peace, yes. Not you. Please, Rían—”
“Listen, listen,” he said, catching her as she tried to move away. “It’s just for a little while. A year, maybe two. We’ll get the Shiners under control, make Bytown a little less unruly, and then—” Maggie tried to move again, and again he stopped her. “And then we’ll buy a little cottage up river. Raise our boys far from here and never speak of it again. But we’ll know. We’ll know we made a difference, Maggie. You and me, we’re going to make a difference.”
He waited for her reply, watching her expression. The tense bundle of worry in her brow. Finally, she grumbled and said: “Boys, hmm? Plural?”
He grinned. “Girls, too,” he said. “A few of each, I figure.”
She laughed. “Well that makes it better.”
Rían took her chin in his hand, tipped her head up to his. “I’ll give you the life you always wanted, Maggie. I swear it. But I need to do this first. And I know you understand that, even if you don’t like it.”
She let out a shaky breath. “I do,” she whispered. “But I’m scared.”
“I know,” he said, and kissed her again. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
They stood there together for a moment, each one holding back whatever thoughts would ruin the truce and make things complicated all over again.
Maggie laughed to herself. “Can you even build a cottage?”
Rían feigned hurt. “I built the canal! Of course I can build a cottage!”
“You moved dirt around, love,” she teased. “I hope you’re not intending for us to live in a ditch by the river.”
He slapped his hand to his heart like he’d been mortally wounded, then grinned. “It’s true, I’ve no idea how to build a cottage.” He wrapped his arm around Liam. “Luckily, my brother can build anything.”
“Uh…” countered Liam, and Rían shushed him silent.
“We’ll figure it out together. The three of us. A pair of cottages, side by side, overlooking the river, our children playing together…” He gave Liam a wink. “My son’s going to need cousins, brother. Best hurry up and find yourself a woman to adore.”
Rían was so busy doting on his future family, kissing his glowing wife, that he didn’t see the look of quiet anguish on Liam’s face. He never did. He never would.