An Irish Country Love Story Read Free Page A

hell’s name are you up to?” He glanced out to sea and saw Andy still clinging to the dinghy. Not waiting for an answer, he picked up the little boat and saw that the twin-ended double paddle was aboard. Sue was running to the water’s edge and Barry had to sprint to keep up, following her into the sea, feeling the freezing water fill his shoes. “Put the boat down.” She bent and Barry followed suit. “But you can’t,” Barry spluttered. “You can’t drag a man into a kayak. If he panics, he could capsize you. I’m not letting you go. It’s far too risky.”
    Sue grinned. “No, it’s not, and that man, and we know it’s Andy, is in real trouble.” She strode toward the little craft’s stern, grabbed the port gunnel, and dragged the kayak out until it was well afloat. Sue turned back. “I’ve done this before. They made us take turns in the kayak and in the water.” She smiled. “I preferred it in the boat. Now, if Andy can hang on to my stern or if I can get a rope round him, I can drag him into shallow water. Get him ashore.”
    Barry hesitated, glanced out to sea again. Thank God, Andy was still afloat, clinging to the dinghy’s keel. But hypothermia would sap his energy quickly. “All right. Do it,” Barry said, conceding defeat. “But for God’s sake be careful. Please.”
    â€œYou weren’t the day you dived in to fish me out. I’m off. Wish me luck.” She put a hand on either gunnel to steady the boat and with an obviously well-practised skill, hoisted herself into the cockpit, sat legs outstretched, grabbed the paddle, and with strong rhythmic strokes set off.
    Barry watched. She had to cover the hundred yards to the capsized dinghy before Andy’s strength gave out and he slipped into the sea. Silly bugger that he was. Sailing without a life jacket when you can’t swim. Barry scowled and dug the toe of his shoe into the soft sand. The human capacity for ignoring the obvious sometimes took his breath away. And here was his dear Sue risking life and limb to safe the daft bastard. He loved her for it. Barry took a deep breath. Please, please be careful, Sue. I couldn’t bear to lose you.

 
    2
    A Cold Coming They Had of It
    â€œBarry. Barry?” It was O’Reilly. “I couldn’t find that kayaker but it doesn’t matter now. Here. The tide’s rising. Take Sue’s things. Your brave girl will need dry clothes when she gets back.”
    â€œRight, Fingal.” For a moment the two men watched Sue in silence, paddling like a professional and making good time crossing the hundred yards of choppy sea. Then O’Reilly thrust Sue’s coat and scarf at him.
    â€œI’m going to nip home,” O’Reilly said. “Get blankets, hot water bottles, hot sweet tea. The sooner we can start getting him warmed the better, and I’ll send for the ambulance, but they’ll probably not be here for at least thirty minutes. I’ll drive the Rover onto the beach.”
    He took off in a lumbering and remarkably, for a man his size, fast run, Arthur Guinness close behind. Barry, ignoring the rest of the little crowd watching from the shore, turned back to see that Sue had still a ways to go to the capsized dinghy.
    He remembered the day two summers ago when he’d been sailing on Glendun, a heavy keelboat, and a fourteen-foot dinghy Sue was crewing had capsized nearby. He’d thought she could swim, but she’d sunk beneath the surface like a stone and he feared she’d been hit by the boom. Despite constantly being taught “never leave a boat for a man in the water,” Barry had dived over the side. He’d been able to grab Sue’s long hair and, damn it, it sounded so melodramatic, but he had saved her from drowning. He hadn’t started to shiver until he’d been back in Glendun ’s cockpit. Cold and delayed shock,