No Country: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

would have stayed up till late celebrating his success and woken in a drunken daze the next day, letting his resolve float away. But he went to bed disgruntled.
    He woke early the next morning, and to keep his triumph intact, he roused his wife and daughter. When they resisted his plan, he hit his wife a hard blow across the mouth. Brigid, face turned to stone, gathered her scanty belongings and followed her father so that he would not beat her mother more.
    And so our Brigid left for Connemara with her da, before the sun rose and the mist lifted, long before the dew on the spangled grass disappeared.
    Before Padraig knew it, Brigid was gone.
    •  •  •
    P ADRAIG RAGED AND was for going after Mr. Shaughnessy, and perhaps getting into a bruising row with him over Brigid, but his ma reasoned with him, as did I. She was still a young lass whose father could scream for the bailiff, and besides, ’twas usual for Mr. Shaughnessy to show up every two months or so, and now with his daughter in tow, did we not expect him to return sooner? Padraig was spoiling for a row, but this once, Padraig listened to us.
    But this time, three months rolled by with no news of Shaughnessy, nor any small sum for his wife, which he sometimes sent with Mr. Rafferty, who traveled about on his business on his trusty cart through the neighbouring counties. Instead what he brought this time was disquieting news. He told Brigid’s waiting ma that her husband had left his job and gone off with his daughter. Some said they had headed for Galway, while others thought Shaughnessyhad spoken of Dublin itself. But the last bit of talk about that feckless man was his boast that no one would ever find them in America! Now no one rightly knew where they had gone, the obstreperous man and his pale daughter.
    Padraig would heed no one and hectored Mr. Rafferty to accompany him forthwith to Connemara. Seeing no way to dissuade him, Padraig’s ma provided the money for hiring his cart and Mr. Rafferty’s familiarity with roads. Within the month they were back, no wiser. Padraig refused to speak of his futile trip, even to his ma. Shaughnessy and Brigid had disappeared, and no one knew their whereabouts, muttered Mr. Rafferty.
    It was Mr. O’Flaherty who finally sat Padraig down and talked him to a measure of calm. Shaughnessy had no fixity of purpose and would never be able to stay away completely, reasoned our schoolmaster, and Brigid had the good sense to return as soon as she could get away, for Mullaghmore was the only home she had known, the place in this big world where she knew she was cherished.
    In September, five months after Brigid left, Mrs. Shaughnessy stood silently inside Padraig’s ma’s shop, fingering the yarn, touching the wool. Mrs. Aherne took care of her customers and came and stood beside her and let her take her time. Brigid’s ma found a friendly shoulder to weep on for she had need of that surely. She had got news that her only brother, Liam, was sinking, so she was going to Antrim to live at his cottage and take care of him in his last days. Mrs. Aherne knew that she had not really come for advice; ’twas only that she needed to hear, if Brigid came back, Padraig’s ma would send her on to Antrim. It was in Maire Aherne’s nature to offer this simple trust and support. Brigid would be safe.
    But Mr. Shaughnessy stayed away, month after month.
    While Padraig waited impatiently, his raging mind began to be taken over by his other passion—the news of growing turbulence in our land. I think Mrs. Aherne was relieved, for she believed Brigid’s return was just a matter of time and Padraig’s increasing interest in the unfolding political news kept him away from a bloody encounter should he find the whereabouts of Mr. Shaughnessy.
    As the news of Daniel O’Connell’s great meetings across the breadth of Ireland hit us, I could see the growling unrest in my mate. After the departures from our village—Brigid gone in April, then