Saving Christmas in the Little Irish Village (The Little Irish Village #5)

Chapter 39

39

Hannah exited quietly, having no wish to rain on her nan’s Christmas cake parade with the news of the land sale. At least she’d left as quietly as was possible when you had a yapping chihuahua clad in the Christmas doggy sweater Eileen had whipped up for their temporary charge trotting by your side. She called out her plans to wander up to the abandoned farm as Nan had suggested. Kitty, however, hadn’t taken her eyes off the marzipan. She was draping a big sheet of white icing over the cake like you would a child pretending to be a ghost, the hint of a smile on her face.

The smoky smell of the fires keeping Emerald Bay’s residents toasty caught at the back of Hannah’s throat, making her cough. Overhead, the sky was grey and pregnant with the promise of the snow Dad had announced at breakfast was forecasted any time now. She paused to sniff the air, then, feeling foolish, began to walk. She was conscious Princess Leia only had little legs as she tried to keep pace alongside her, so she slowed a little.

At least Jeremy Jones’s smug call had given her perspective where Tom was concerned. And when he next dared show his face in Emerald Bay in his role of architectural arse once the project got underway, she’d be sure to tell him what she thought of him. He’d better not think about staying at the Shamrock. As for Judy, she’d demand the truth as to whether she was involved in the Greenhouse and Christmas tree farm project.

In the park today, a handful of children in colourful puffer coats were making the most of being out and about because the word on the street was that the snow would last, and the residents of Emerald Bay were in for another white Christmas. Every now and again, there was a tug on the lead, and Hannah would stumble to a stop while Princess Leia investigated various bushes.

As she cut through the park, she gave the play area a wide berth. If you didn’t know better, you’d think there was an Icelandic thermal spring over there in the far corner instead of a handful of vaping teens, she thought, seeing the clouds of steam billowing over by the holly bush.

That spot had been a place for Emerald Bay’s youth to congregate for as long as Hannah could remember, although in her day, it was an illicit ciggy, not vapes, they’d passed around by the prickly bush.

‘How’re you, Hannah?’ a voice from that direction called, and through the mist of berry-and-grape-infused steam emerged Maire of the chin piercing from their evening knitting class.

‘Hi.’ She waved back with more enthusiasm than she felt, and if she hadn’t been feeling so low, hearing the young woman say to her pals, ‘Hannah’s cool,’ might have put a spring in her step. It was high praise from a teenager, let alone an attitude-filled one like Maire, but Hannah kept putting one foot in front of the other toward the abandoned farm. She didn’t even know why she was going there. She just knew she had to.

Princess Leia was tucked under Hannah’s arm as she carefully picked her way over the rutted earth to the famine cottage. The sky was so low she thought she might be able to touch it, and out the corner of her eye, she saw the bounding movement of a rabbit. The fury festering inside her was beginning to dissipate with each puff of white frigid air from her mouth to be replaced by sadness that this land and the cottage would soon be gone. In its place would be a modern glass garden centre with rows and rows of baby fir trees that didn’t belong in this landscape, all likely thanks to their long-lost American relation who might well split her time between Dublin, but that didn’t mean she belonged here.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears blurring her vision, trying and failing to envisage it – perhaps because she didn’t want to.

Her foot caught on a rock, and she stumbled. Princess Leia whimpered.

She whispered a ragged apology as the pent-up emotions surged and her throat squeezed tight. The idea of a bulldozer rumbling over the land and razing the cottage, once a home, now a reminder of the past filled with its spirits and its memories, some heart-breaking, some heart-warming, was appalling. She was almost oblivious to the tears tracking down her cheeks as she stepped into the shadowy interior of the cottage.

Hannah’s scream pierced the silence, reverberating across the field as a figure emerged from the shadows in the far corner of the room. The chilling sound echoed, but there was no one else around to hear it.