The Kilternan Legacy Read Free

I’m not buying a car.”
    “Who suggested?” Simon was honestly surprised. “Just compared prices, that’s all, but you will want something to get around in. This,” and he tapped the bus schedule, “is supposedly an old Irish legend.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Simon snorted, and Snow giggled. “You should have heard them at the bus stop! ‘Sure now, an’ I’ve been waiting the half-hour or more!’ I mean, Mom, and there’s no route that takes us to our part of Kilternan.”
    “How do you know?” I waved at the Kilternanless map.
    “Big area map in the Hertz place. Swann’s Lane is”—and Simon walked his fingers down a road marked TO CABIN TEELY—“approximately here,” and his fingers hovered over a large rose in the carpet, five inches from the map edge.
    “Hmmm.”
    “So, we’d need a car,” Simon said.
    “And you know the one I should have?”
    “Well, you always liked Gammy’s little Renault. They have the same model … Of course, it’s right-hand drive, but you’d cope, Mother.”
    Simon has a most satisfactory way of assuming all kinds of abilities that I’m not so sure I possess until he indicates that I do, and then I do.
    “And they’ve a Renault all ready and waiting for me tomorrow?”
    Simon grinned. “Well, I didn’t see any harm in asking. And they do.”
    “Garnet red,” said Snow approvingly.
    “Well, that’s one thing settled. However …” and I told them about Mr. Kelley’s call.
    “I wouldn’t see the man,” said Snow autocratically.
    “That’s a bit quick, isn’t it, Mother? Sounds fishy.” Simon was giving me that too-intent look, which meant that he and Snow had been conspiring.
    “Okay, what’s with you two?”
    “Well, we’ve all summer to do nothing in, why not do it in Ireland?” she asked guilelessly. “If that cottage is habitable at all, it’ll do as a base for any touring we want to do.”
    “You don’t like the Westfield routine any more anyhow, Mom,” Simon said. “Swimming club and that nonsense.”
    He didn’t add “and running into your ex-husband and his new wife.”
    “You haven’t been in Ireland more than …” I glanced at my watch, but Simon covered it, his expression very earnest.
    “It’s the feeling about it,” Snow said, raising her hands in an unconscious effort to enfold the new experience, “and the people have time to talk to you, and answer questions, and
listen
.”
    “And give advice.” Simon’s grin was suddenly a faint echo of Teddie’s I’ve-got-this-account-sewed-up smile. “I mean, they’re
nice
, Mom.”
    “They know we’re tourists,” I said, to cushion their eventual disillusionment.
    “Even if that’s the case, it’s a very welcome change!” Snow’s eyes flashed, and her lips compressed against the increasingly frequent and distressing incidents that her young beauty provoked. If she felt less threatened in Ireland …
    “Look, let’s not go leaping without looking.”
    “Aw, Mom, Ireland’s nice,” Simon said, as if that were the definitive reason.
    “I’m not saying no, I’m just—”
    “Temporizing as usual,” Snow finished for me.
    “Really, Sara!”
    She subsided, making a face, because usually she is not pert with me.
    “Getting back to Mr. Kelley,” Simon said adroitly, “you’re not going to talk with him?”
    “How can I avoid it? He was very insistent.”
    “Nine o’clock, you said? Well, you can be a number of places at nine. I think his insistence is a bit suspicious.”
    “So do I, but it doesn’t hurt to listen.”
    The twins were dubious; they know how soft I am.
    “Got an idea,” said Snow. “You said he’d ring your room? Okay, nineishly, Sim sits in the lobby where he can hear. You sit in here, where you can see. Kelley announces himself at the desk, asks for you. Simon opens the map … wide. You see if you like Kelley’s looks, and if you don’t, when you get paged you don’t answer. The girl at the desk can’t find you if