Longing for Home Read Online Free PDF Page A

them. His property sat on neither branch but exactly at the meeting of the two. “That rather puts you in the middle, I’d say.”
    “Which is exactly where I do not wish to be. The people of each side of the town have been ready to strangle each other for years, and all they need is an excuse to do it.” He gave her a pointed look that clearly meant he saw her as that excuse. “They argued enough about my loyalties when I hired Finbarr. If I take on another Irish employee, they’ll all come down on me. The Irish will want me joining their side of the argument. The others will insist I publicly declare my agreement with them.” He stepped back and shook his head. “I have no intention of becoming part of their feud.”
    His words sobered her a great deal. She’d encountered Irish hatred in Baltimore. Heavens, she’d encountered it in Ireland—the English hated the Irish and the Irish hated the English, the wealthy hated the poor and the poor hated the wealthy—but never had she lived in a town as sharply divided as this seemed to be.
    “And that, Miss Macauley, is the reason you cannot stay.” Mr. Archer spoke with finality. He left her standing there and made his way back to the barn.
    She sympathized with him, could fully understand his wish to be left alone. Heavens, she herself craved peace and quiet and knew well the frustration of not finding it. But she couldn’t allow him to send her off. Years of saving every penny possible had left her but one hundred dollars from her goal. After earning enough for train fare back, she’d have that last one hundred in only a half-year at this job. Then she could go home, back to Ireland, back to her tiny home in Cornagillah. She could be with her family again.
    “You promised me a job, Mr. Archer,” she called after him. “I have your written word on that.” She hoped he wouldn’t demand she produce the telegram in which he’d made the offer. She had all three of the wires he sent but, not knowing how to read, could not have pinpointed the right one. “I may be small and poor and Irish and female and a thousand other things that count against me in this world, but those aren’t reason enough for you to lie to me.”
    Mr. Archer stopped, though he didn’t turn back. The sound of the wind rustling the leaves on the nearby tree filled the silence between them. He didn’t move and neither did she.
    Katie hardly dared breathe. Suppose she couldn’t talk him around? Without a job and the salary he’d promised her, she was in deep water indeed.
    She stepped closer to him so she could lower her voice. She took a moment to calm her nerves.
    “You’re needing a housekeeper, sir, and I’m needing a job. Makes no sense for us both not to get what we need.”
    He yet stood with his back to her, his hat in his hand. If his rigid shoulders were any indication, he hadn’t softened.
    “What I need more than anything,” he finally said, “is to be left in peace.”
    “Believe me, Mr. Archer, I appreciate that, likely more than you realize. I’m not the sort to pry into others’ concerns. You’ve assumed since I’m Irish-born that I must be inclined to fight on the Irish side of this town’s disagreement. I assure you that isn’t the case.”
    He looked at her, though he barely turned in her direction. “You plan to side against your own people?” Clearly he didn’t believe her.
    “You say their feud isn’t yours—it’s even less mine. I know not a single person here. I’ve no family, no friends, no associates. Indeed, I consider myself only passing through. I’ve come for no other reason than to work. Once I’ve enough to return to Ireland, I mean to go back. I’m no threat to anyone.”
    Mr. Archer shook his head. “They won’t accept that.”
    “They will soon enough. I keep to myself as a rule, one I’ve not broken from the time I was a little thing. You’ll find me quiet and more likely to blend in with the walls than to stir up a