Public Secrets Read Free Page B

his lap and patted her head.
    “Come on now, cutie, give over. Johnno won’t let anything bad happen to you.” He jiggled her, trying to think what his mother might have done. “Want a biscuit?”
    Damp-eyed, hiccuping, she nodded.
    He jiggled some more. Under the tears and dirt, he decided she was a taking little thing. And a McAvoy, he admitted with a sigh. A McAvoy through and through. “Got any we can pinch?”
    She smiled then, and pointed to a high cupboard.
    Thirty minutes later, they were finishing up the plate ofbiscuits and the sweet tea he’d brewed. Brian watched them from the kitchen doorway as Johnno made faces so that Emma giggled. When the chips were down, Brian thought, you could always depend on Johnno.
    Going in, Brian ran a hand down his daughter’s hair. “Emma, would you like to ride in my car?”
    She licked crumbs from her lips. “With Johnno?”
    “Yeah, with Johnno.”
    “I’m a hit.” Johnno popped the last biscuit into his mouth.
    “I’d like you to stay with me, Emma, in my new house.”
    “Bri—”
    He cut Johnno off, lifting a hand palm up. “It’s a nice house, and you could have your own room.”
    “I have to?”
    “I’m your da, Emma, and I’d like you to live with me. You could try it, and if you’re not happy, we’ll think of something else.”
    Emma studied him, her full bottom lip pushed out in a pout. She was used to his race, but it was different somehow from the pictures. She didn’t know or care why. His voice made her feel good, safe.
    “Is my mam coming?”
    “No.”
    Her eyes filled, but she picked up her battered black dog and hugged it close. “Is Charlie?”
    “Sure.” Brian held out his arms, and lifted her.
    “Hope you know what you’re doing, son.”
    Brian sent him a look over Emma’s head. “So do I.”

Chapter Two

    E MMA HAD HER first look at the big stone house from the front seat of the silver Jag. She was sorry that Johnno, with his funny beard, was gone, but the man from the pictures let her push buttons on the dash. He wasn’t smiling anymore, but he didn’t scold. He smelled nice. The car smelled nice. She pushed Charlie’s nose into the seat and babbled to herself.
    The house looked enormous to her with its arching windows and curvy turrets. It was stone, weathered gray, and all the windows were made up of diamond shapes. The lawn around it was thick and green, and there was a scent of flowers. She grinned, bouncing with excitement.
    “Castle.”
    He smiled now. “Yeah, I thought so, too. When I was little I wanted to live in a house like this. My da—your grandda—used to work in the garden here.” When he wasn’t passed out drunk, Brian added to himself.
    “Is he here?”
    “No, he’s in Ireland.” In a little cottage Brian had bought with money Pete had advanced him a year before. He stopped the car at the front entrance, realizing he would have to make some calls before the story hit the papers. “You’ll meet him someday, and your aunts and uncles, your cousins.” He gathered her up, amazed and baffled at how easily she cuddled against him. “You have a family now, Emma.”
    When he walked inside, still carrying her, he heard Bev’s light, quick voice.
    “I think the blue, the plain blue. I can’t live with all these flowers growing on the walls. And those beastly hangings have to go. It’s like a cave in here. I want white, white and blue.”
    He turned into the parlor doorway and saw her sitting on the floor, dozens of sample books and swatches around her. Part of the wallpaper had already been stripped, part of the replastering was finished. Bev preferred tackling a single job from a dozen angles.
    She looked so small and sweet sitting amid the rubble. Her dark cap of hair was cut short and straight to angle down toward her chin. Big gold hoops glinted at her ears. Her eyes were exotic, both in shape and color. They were long-lidded with gold lights flecked in pale sea-green. She was still tanned from