Scandal in Skibbereen Read Online Free PDF Page B

wants to drink?”
    Ann gave Althea a hard look, and Maura guessed she wasn’t used to being ordered around under her own roof. “Billy, what’s your pleasure?” Ann asked.
    “A drop of whiskey, with the hot water, if you don’t mind.”
    “No problem. Maura, you want anything else?” Ann pointedly ignored Althea, not that the woman seemed to notice.
    “No, I’m set. I need to be getting back to Sullivan’s anyway.”
    “So it’s a whiskey for you, Billy. Won’t be a moment.”
    “Are there still Townsends at Mycroft House that I could talk to?” Althea asked eagerly.
    “There are, in a way. The family lived there the year round until the Great War, and only on holidays after that. But the one—William, it was—he came back to stay. He was a good landlord and a fair man. His daughter lives there still. Eveline, that is. She must be near ninety now, rattling around in that big old house.”
    “Is she the owner now?”
    “And how would I be knowing that?” Billy asked. “She has a nephew, great-nephew, something like that, who looks after her affairs, but I can’t say who holds the deed.”
    “Does he live there too?”
    “Nah, he’s a Dublin man now, comes down from time to time to see to things.”
    “Do you know how I can reach him?”
    Ann set the glass of hot whiskey in front of Billy—and set the bill for dinner in front of Althea.
    Billy took a long sip of his drink. “How would I come to have his number? I’m only a poor man from the village.”
    “Did this Eveline marry?” Althea pushed on relentlessly. “Or have children?”
    “She never did. She used to drive around the lanes—I remember she had a sure hand with a pony cart—but she never wanted to leave the place, and she never found a match that suited her.”
    “Is she still, uh”—Althea fumbled for words—“in full possession of her faculties?”
    “You mean, is she past remembering what it is you want to know?” Billy said sharply.
    “I guess that’s what I mean.”
    “Then you’d best find out for yourself.”
    Billy seemed annoyed now, and Maura thought it might be a good time to beat a retreat back to Sullivan’s. “Althea, I’ll see Billy back across the street while you settle up.”
    “What? Oh, right. I’ll follow you over in a few—I’d like to talk to you some more.”
    “Billy, you ready to go?” Maura asked.
    Billy drained his glass. “As soon as I find my way out of this seat, I am.” He accepted Maura’s offer of a hand to steady him.
    Outside the sky was still light—it was near the summer solstice, and it didn’t turn full dark until after ten. Maura accompanied Billy back to the door of Sullivan’s.
    “Are you coming in, Billy?”
    “I think not. I seldom have such a meal of an evening, and it’s made me ready for my chair at home. That young woman, she’s a piece of work, isn’t she?”
    “She is. Did you tell her the truth?”
    “About Eveline Townsend? Sure and I did. I used to share the odd word or two with Eveline, when we met on the road. She was never so full of herself that she wouldn’t talk to the likes of me. But she doesn’t go out now, and I’m told her mind’s more in the past than in the present. I doubt Althea will have any luck with her, even if she gets past the gatekeepers.”
    “The what?”
    “There’s a housekeeper and her husband, the O’Briens—they live in to see to Eveline’s needs. They’ve been there for years, but they don’t take any nonsense from stray visitors. I was going to warn her, but I think it’s best she find that out on her own, if she goes calling at the house.”
    “Do you think it’s possible the painting exists? Could it be there?”
    Billy shrugged. “That’s not for me to say. I never set foot in the place, not even by way of the back door. Yer gran might have known. I’ll see you tomorrow, Maura Donovan.”
    “Of course, Billy. Good night.”
    Maura watched as he made his careful way to the far end of the