By
CHAPTER 1
“Caroline!”
The well-bred voice shrilled and died,
frail as a seagull's cry on the salty air. Among the lingering watchers on the
rough quay hardly a head turned. The girl made no sign of hearing. Uncloaked
and unhooded, she stood apart. Except for the lift
and fall of her wind-blown auburn hair, she might have been a figure-head on a
petrified ship. Her blue-green eyes followed the cutter as it tacked delicately
out of the narrow estuary into the wide waters of
The peasants and fishermen who
occupied the huddle of low, thatched cottages above the quay were not totally
unfamiliar with such incursions. They asked no questions. What their native
aristocracy did was not for them to query. They commemorated the Wild Geese in
song and story. They knew that, in past times, their departed chieftains had
often made secret, flying visits to their homes, disappearing like ghosts at
cockcrow. It was hard to be sure if they came in fact or in phantom, so many
had died in the wars of Europe; their sons and grandsons dispersed and forgot
their roots; the ties between Ireland and Europe had grown extremely tenuous.
But
The young man who boarded the cutter
seemed real enough. But again, he could have been the ghost of Turlough O'Shaughnessy, the Chevalier d'France;
or of Phelim who fought with the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, or of Conor, whom James
II made earl and who had fled to France after the fall of Limerick in 1691 with
the defeated Wild Geese. More likely, some said, he would be Turlough's son, the French-woman's child for he had a foreign
cast of countenance. For certain the horse he had ridden was real. They
recognised Drynan's black stallion, unbeaten at the
point-to-points. The French ship was real too, and a dandy of a ship at that.
It was a long time since a French ship had put in at Carraigeel
and none of the appraising fishermen's eyes had seen a vessel so swift and
manoeuvrable. On its own, it was good for a night's talking by the peat fires,
or a month of nights. The women could pick their eyes out spinning and
sprigging by flickering rushlight; men needed a horse
or a ship or a rumour of war to pass the nights away.
At the mouth of the estuary the
cutter's sails caught the wind of the open bay. Like a seagull, it spread its
wings, rounded the headland and sped west to the open
“Caroline!”
Millicent Picton's
voice grew shriller with impatience. She did not want to be here, or seen here.
As far as Caroline was concerned her call might have been just another gull
cry. The cutter was out of sight, but her mind's eye followed, tracing the
indelible line of her family's voyages. Those men of action
who had, perhaps, been only dreamers. Had their purpose in life been
simply to voyage hopefully? Her heart followed the slim, erect figure on deck.
From the sea he came and into the mists on the sea he vanished. The sea was her
own environment, for she had drawn first breath on a French ship speeding to
just such a secret anchorage. The pulse and movement of the sea were as natural
to her as the stolid security of Dunalla's grim keep.
Her ancestors had tracked a fateful, restless line in the rough seas of Irish
history.
Millicent Picton
fidgeted, rocking the round car and unsettling the pony. Owen busied himself
with the reins, glad to have something to do other than converse with the lady.
She was in a great state, wasn't she, to get back to Dunalla
before night fell. Didn't she see the wraith of a harvest moon that would soon
shine full? Or was she haunted by other wraiths? Owen knew of a few, and the
fact that he knew disturbed Millicent. This menial bore the clan name
O'Shaughnessy. Amadhan! She would not say the Irish
word for fool in Owen's hearing, nor
any word in the Irish. The Irish language was dead, or should be, after the
Penal Laws.
“Caroline!” she called desperately.
The last gapers on the quay glanced
momentarily at the strange woman in the little round car, and went on with
their murmured conversation as though she were of no consequence. The peasants
around her own home in the King's County would have touched their forelocks to
her, daughter of a magistrate and colonel of yeomanry. In this wilderness
nobody recognized her; none knew her except the few round Dunalla.
Strange their ways were to her, and stranger still the ways of their chieftains
and their descendants. She could not understand why Fergal came. He had not
come for his father's burial. There was nothing left of what might have been
his heritage, unless Dunalla keep counted. He showed
no inclination to take the king's writ or lay claim to his great-grandfather's
earldom. If it had ever been registered. Half French
aristocrat, he had chosen to serve in the army of the
The girl needed a firm hand to guide
her. She, Millicent Picton, must take that hand:
groom and tutor and steer her into a secure, sensible marriage. She smiled
thinking how well she had done for Lucinda; but Lucinda had been an amenable
girl. It could be that Gwendaline was heading for an
even more brilliant marriage; there were snatches of gossip about her
relationship with Lord Moreton, a most eligible
bachelor; and about other relationships, too many, for Gwen thrived in the
bright light of viceregal Dublin. She had done her
best for Gwen, but the girl was too flighty to be tamed. Millicent sighed
deeply. Caroline was going to be a handful.
The waterfront was deserted now and
gulls drifted down in the foolish hope of finding a few crumbs dropped by the
poor watchers. Even the spalpeen
who had come to take Drynan's stallion back to Athenry, had moved from his vantage point on the road
beyond the village. Mounting his own shaggy beast, he looped the stallion's
leading rein about his wrist and urged the two horses to a canter. Millicent
did not notice him halt on the brow of the hill and scan the bay for a last
glimpse of sail.
She did not see him lower his gaze to
the solitary figure on the quay. The very thought that an itinerant labourer
should stare at an earl's daughter unabashed would have been preposterous. Poet
they said, but what did they know of poetry? Hedge schoolmaster, they said;
well maybe he could count to ten. Some ruffian picked up by Drynan
to help with the horses. Drynan's home at Moybranach near Athenry was the
harbourage of wanderers and wayfarers of varying repute. With Drynan so easy-going and Rose O'Shaughnessy lacking
self-respect, all itinerants made themselves at home in Moybranach.
“Fool!” she snapped as Owen let the
reins slip, but Owen was not minding what she called him.
Owen O'Shaughnessy's thoughts were as
restless as the pony, and harder to rein. Poor and proud as he was, they were
virtually his only private possessions. On this darkling September evening of
1796 they were sombre. He thought of the deserted keep of Dunalla,
of Turlough O'Shaughnessy, chieftain and outlaw, who
had escaped death in war and captivity in peace. What madness had been in him
to gamble his life away in foreign battles, his lands in devil's card games,
his cunning in wine and wool smuggling ..... leaguing with his enemy, Joe Ferriter,
devil take all. Losing his wife and his wits, drinking and riding wild in the
night to that terrible fall ..... horse,
neck broken, chieftain broken and dying. Fergal, who should
have been the young chieftain, but with the French blood in him. And
betraying even his French blood: listing in the army of the
Was it for his Irish heritage? Why had
Fergal come at such risk? There was something astir in
Cold she had been,
and getting colder, ever since the night Turlough had
taken his life and freedom in his hands and held a ball at Dunalla.
That was the night he had announced his betrothal to HERSELF'S young sister.
And the next day they were gone, speeding to
“It's lonesome for the brother she
is,” he said in a soft, soothing voice.
Thus startled, Millicent leapt to her
high horse. Her reply was like a whiplash.
“She might have tried harder to keep
him at home, then. There was no call for him to go back to
“Maybe he thought it his duty.”
“Duty indeed! To the
“Take the king's shilling in the heel
of the hunt, eh?”
“Fergal could have got a commission in
His Majesty's army, even yet. Officers are needed for war with
“I wouldn't know anything about these
things ma'am; but I'm sure there's something in what you say.”
“She wouldn't know either, the poor,
ignorant little girl?” Millicent sniffed.
Caroline was coming at last, her feet
skimming the rough path, her head held high. Three pairs of eyes watched, each
seeing as the mind saw.
“A beauty,” Millicent Picton agreed grudgingly. “She has an air about her in
spite of her wild up-bringing. A lady, if she had her due
..... if her great-grandfather's earldom had
been registered. Surely there must be some record. I must do my best. Now that
my father is dead, I'm less than welcome in the old home at Philipstown.
That wife of my brother's! Still, I have a right to space in my own home ..... and room for any guest I
bring. Horace should be ready to welcome his own niece. Maybe she'd take the
place of the daughter they lost ..... win over that begrudging woman ..... find
a place in polite society ..... find a good husband.”
“The chieftain's daughter,” Owen
thought. “The best of the brood. Reared among us the
way she should be. With half a chance she'd be queen of the west. But where's
there a king to match her? Where among the fox-hunters and farmers, the chancers and cheaters is there a bit of dignity left? All on the up-run or the down-run. But she's Turlough's daughter; she has a mind of her own. God take
care of her in these uneasy times.”
Above on the hill road, Hugh Ro O'Moran let the horses graze as he watched.
“Aphrodite rising from the foam. Fionnuala,
daughter of Lir, riding the waves of the sea ..... the waves ..... the three great waves of Ireland ..... the
terrible waves of destiny.”
Caroline eased herself into the round
car beside Millicent. There was more room next Owen, but she had no wish to sit
facing her aunt's critical eyes. Owen sat well back on his own side, avoiding
knee-to-knee contact with the lady. Millicent rummaged on the floor for another
wrap.
“You're shivering, child. Put that
round you.”
Caroline shook her head.
“Pride feels no pain, eh? Who's to see you on this God-and-man-forsaken
road?”
“None that I'd mind seeing me. I'm not cold.”
“In that dress! You must be. This is no place or time
of year for wearing silk. The peasants are wise enough to wear the warm bainin. You should get old Bridget to give you some lessons
on the loom; then you could weave a cloth more suitable to this climate.”
“And my station in life, Aunt Millicent?”
“Perhaps. The O'Shaughnessys
have little prospect of improving it. It was their own choosing to be as they
are. Poor or no, an O'Shaughnessy shouldn't be above wearing a bit of
traditional Irish plaincloth.”
Owen slapped the pony's rump with the
reins. The trap swayed and rattled as they took the rough road. The last red of
sunset was dying; the chill of night hung damply in the air; the hills crouched
under the wide sky; a harvest moon rode plump and golden. The rattling trap and
the clip-clop of pony hooves were disembodied sounds breaking the hush of the
tide, the whisper of wind in wayside furze.
The tear-stains had dried from
Caroline's dress. She smoothed the warm silk along her thighs, tip-touching the
slim band of gold that reminded her of Fergal. She thought of him standing,
erect and proud on the deck of the fleeing ship, going his own way. She would
too.
“I shall always wear silk, Aunt
Millicent,” she said suddenly. Fergal wears fine uniforms. Gwen and Lucy wear
velvet and satin and laces. Why should I be different?”
The remark both pleased and irritated
Millicent. She pursed her lips, uncertain how to answer. Owen cracked the whip
in the air. It sounded suspiciously like a hand-clap.
“Be careful, Owney!”
Millicent gasped as the pony leapt forward. “We have a precious cargo of pride
on board this bone-shaker. Caroline, for a girl of your age, you have a lot to
say and a great deal to learn.”
“And you see it as your task to teach
me, don't you?”
“My duty, Caroline ..... my obvious duty.”
“I'm everyone's duty ..... Aunt Rose
taught me a great many things.”
“Indeed ..... a
great many things you'd be better never to learn. And she let you have too much
time and freedom to do your own learning. Running wild about
the countryside. Picking up foolish notions from old
Bridget and the rest of the peasantry. What did you learn that would fit
you for civilized society? Do you know how to behave like a lady? Have you
learnt to use the embroidery needle or the water-colour brush? Could you stand
up in a quadrille? Can you play a musical instrument?”
“My father said I had a fine touch on
the harp.”
Millicent shrugged and drew her wraps
closer about her.
“The harp indeed ..... the Irish harp! In what handsome drawing-room, or what
elegant company will you find a young lady plucking those crude strings? What
acceptable airs do you know?”
Caroline averted her head. She seemed
to be listening to the staccato of the pony's hooves, the furtive whisper of
wind in dying grass, the long, far sigh of the lonely sea. Millicent Picton hated the lonesome sounds. She must fill the
emptiness.
“Your mother was so accomplished. She
did the daintiest embroidery. She could sing like an angel. And she learnt to
play the pianoforte at Miss Dinkleford's school for
young ladies. We were lucky to have the opportunity of attending such an
academy. Right in the heart of County Kildare, too .....
a very civilized county. The people we met ..... ah Caroline, I cannot
tell you what an advantage it was in later years! Sadly, the school closed when
Miss Dinkleford died. A real lady she was, with the
most splendid connections. What an influence!”
“It must have helped mother at the
French court.”
“I'm sure it did. But the French court
was the wrong court. She could have shone at any court. But after she met your
father, she cared about nothing but following the French flag. Nothing in her head, not even you children, but the fripperies of
the French court and its loose ways of living. Style, she called it. Hmph!”
“Wasn't it style, then? Surely it was
more elegant than the Viceregal Lodge in
Millicent felt the sharp flick of Owen's glance. The old scar of her own rejection burned
like a cancer in her heart. But she must hold her tongue. Her life's one love
had been the wild, handsome Turlough O'Shaughnessy.
It was at Miss Dinkleford's school for young ladies
that she had met the plain, backward daughter of old Lord Clanburren ..... a rare catch for this academy of manners. Millicent Picton had made a point of cultivating her acquaintance.
That was how she came to spend so many holidays in
“Grudge?” she said gently. “I hold no
grudge, child. I'm tired and the night air is cold. It's been an upsetting
day.”
“But it meant nothing to you, aunt
..... Fergal's going, I mean.”
“He could have stayed and taken the
King's commission.”
“Like John Ferriter?”
“Like John Ferriter,
as you say. I'm sure Mr. Ferriter would have advised
him.”
Owen whistled softly to himself. The
melancholy sound of some strange Irish air riled Millicent.
“Stop weeping, Owney,”
she snapped. “You know I can't bear your dreary music. Out of
tune too.”