The Christmas Secret by Julia London Page B

only sound in Eireanne’s suite was the ticking of her mantel clock, she decided to go and see Mr. Bristol.
    Molly and Mabe thought him very handsome, and had said so, although Mabe had qualified it by calling him handsome in an “American manner.”
    “What do you mean, an American manner?” Eireanne had asked curiously one afternoon after they’d gone down to the paddock to have a look at the American.
    “Quite rugged, I suppose. Very fresh-looking, aye?” Mabe had said. At Eireanne’s puzzled look, she’d added, “He has that look about him of having spent a life out of doors. I rather imagine Americans spend their days out of doors. Building things and whatnot.”
    “Why ever would you think so?” Eireanne had asked with a laugh. “I have never thought of Americans being in or out of doors any more than any other nationality.”
    “But of course they are!” Molly had agreed with her sister. “If you think of it, there was really nothing there but little houses made of logs and a lot of Indians milling about. The Americans have spent all this time building things.”
    Eireanne had blinked. She’d looked at the twins, who had calmly returned her gaze, and had laughed. “On my word, where did your father find your tutors?”
    “Don’t you think him handsome?” Mabe had asked, neatly skipping past her rather pitiful interpretation of American history.
    “Of course,” Eireanne had said. “He is male, is he not?” The twins had laughed with her, but privately, Eireanne found Mr. Bristol quite handsome. He was handsome in a way she’d never found another man handsome. In an American manner, she supposed.
    She had a desire to see that American man.
    The afternoon was cold but clear, so she bundled up in her wool cloak and walked down to the paddock where Declan and Mr. Bristol were working. The men didn’t notice her when she approached the fence, but then again, she did not sound like a gaggle of old geese as she did when Molly and Mabe were with her and they were laughing and talking.
    Eireanne leaned up against the post to watch them. Declan had turned the hoof of a horse up and was showing something to Mr. Bristol, who was squatting down beside her brother, studying the hoof. After a few moments, Declan dropped the horse’s hoof and the two of them stood up and stepped back, watching the horse prance around the paddock. That was when Declan noticed her; he waved across the paddock, and Eireanne lifted her chin.
    The horse flung its head and pranced around the paddock once more, then loped to the gate that led to the stables. Declan clapped Mr. Bristol on the shoulder, said something to him, and followed the horse into the stables.
    Only then did Mr. Bristol look across the paddock to Eireanne. He smiled instantly and the force of it slid through her, out to her fingers and down to her toes. She could feel her own smile; it was impossibly wide. She climbed up onto the bottom rail and leaned over the top as he strode across the paddock to her with his cloak billowing out around his boot tops.
    “A welcome surprise, Miss O’Conner,” he said. “I did not see you here without your retinue.”
    “They’ve all gone to Galway.”
    “Without you?” he asked, seeming surprised.
    “Thanks be, yes, without me,” she said dramatically, and laughed. “I am dearly fond of Molly and Mabe, but they can be exhausting.”
    He grinned. “So I have noticed.” He put his hand on the railing beside hers, his fingers touching hers. “Mabe has informed me that she and her sister would like to visit America,” he said lightly.
    Eireanne laughed. “I would never presume to offer advice, Mr. Bristol, but in this case, I shall make an exception. Do not allow it.”
    “Thank you, but I had determined quite on my own that America is ill prepared for the invasion of comely Irish twins. I told Mabe that we are not as accustomed to the lively gatherings she seems to enjoy.”
    Eireanne grinned. “That should have