The Boatman's Wife(63)

‘Not tonight,’ Deirdre said. ‘We’ve to go get a wee something first.’ She lowered her voice. ‘We’ll drive over tomorrow. Bring it to South Armagh. You can leave me there.’

‘South Armagh!’ Niamh cried out in dismay. The round trip was at least four hours. How would she be able to do that and make the meeting with Jesse at the travel agency in the afternoon?

Deirdre put her head on one side, giving Niamh a hard judgemental stare. ‘Don’t start me,’ she snarled. ‘It’s the deal now you’ve the wee car.’

‘But I’ve plans tomorrow…’ Niamh began.

‘Well, cancel them,’ Deirdre interrupted. ‘Nothing is more important than this.’ She stepped forward, gripped Niamh’s hands, and shoved the cold hard metal of the car keys into Niamh’s clenched fists. Her hold was strong, surprising for such a slight girl.

‘Watch yourself, Niamh; I told Brendan you’d be ascared, but he insisted you were up to it,’ Deirdre hissed at Niamh. ‘Are you going to let your cousin down? Do you want to make them raging with you?’

Niamh shook her head. The mention of the anonymous them sent a shiver down her spine.

‘Come on,’ Deirdre said, opening the back door and blasting Niamh with cool air. Pixie came scampering over, but Niamh instructed her back to her cushion. Grabbing her leather jacket off the chair, she followed Deirdre out of the door. Her heart was heavy with dread, and her legs shaky.



Deirdre made her drive for miles. Niamh was amazed the girl knew the backroads so well. Even Niamh was confused after about thirty minutes, and it was her own county.

‘Take a left here,’ Deirdre instructed, as they turned down a tiny boreen. ‘Turn the lights off.’

‘But I can’t see,’ Niamh complained.

‘Keep going, slow,’ Deirdre said. ‘I’ll tell you when to stop.’

The car bumped down the boggy track until Deirdre put a cold hand on Niamh’s knee. ‘Now,’ she said.

Niamh came to a halt and turned off the engine, as the car ticked over. Her hips were stiff from sitting in the car so long, and her eyes were sore from tiredness, but fear kept her alert.

Deirdre opened the door of the car and got out, before leaning back in. ‘Wait here,’ she said to Niamh. She pulled a torch from her pocket and turned it on.

Niamh watched Deirdre walking away from the car. The small beam of light from her torch illuminated her figure as she strode down the boreen, until the dark shadows swallowed her up. Niamh waited. She had no idea where she was, or how she’d get home. Who was Deirdre meeting and why? She didn’t want to think about it.

Her hands were still clutching the steering wheel. She took them off and unclenched her fingers. Her palms were sweaty with nerves. What should she do?

A voice inside her head told her to go. Drive away, and never come back. But if Niamh deserted Deirdre now, there could be repercussions for her mam. Could she persuade her mam to run away with her to America? They didn’t have the money for the ticket, though, and her mam would never leave Pixie behind.

Her only choice was to wait for Deirdre to come back. To bring her to South Armagh tomorrow, after talking to her Mam, then race back to Sligo to meet Jesse at the travel agency. Niamh closed her eyes, wishing she were anywhere else but here on the bog, in the middle of nowhere. An owl hooted, and she heard a cow lowing in the distance. She shivered in her jacket, biting the nail of her thumb down to the skin.

She must have dozed off, because all of a sudden her face was blasted with light.

‘Wake up, you eejit,’ Deirdre said, getting into the passenger side. ‘Move it.’

Niamh turned the car on and reversed down the narrow lane until she found a place to turn.

‘We’ll go to yours until daybreak,’ Deirdre told her.

They headed back the way they’d come. As Niamh drove, she wondered what Deirdre had collected and put in the boot. Whom had she met, out on the dark bog in the middle of the night? She looked so harmless with her blond hair, dimpled cheeks and soft hourglass figure, and yet she was clearly as tough as old boots.

Back home, Niamh gave Deirdre a blanket and showed her the mattress in the shed. ‘Probably better if you sleep here,’ she said, not caring much how comfortable her unwelcome guest was.

‘We’ll head at first light,’ Deirdre warned her.



They slept in. Niamh hadn’t even heard her mam get up. It felt like she’d only just dropped off to sleep, and Deirdre was shaking her awake. She was so surprised to see her kneeling on her bed, she couldn’t even tell her to get out of her bedroom.

‘Come on,’ Deirdre said, and Niamh detected panic in the girl’s eyes. ‘We’ve need to get on.’

Niamh hated being bossed around by Brendan’s girlfriend, but she didn’t know what else to do. One last job, she told herself. Then she’d be gone with Jesse.

‘Do you want something to eat?’ Niamh asked Deirdre, as she pulled on her jeans.

‘No time,’ the other girl said, legging it down the stairs.



‘So which way should I go?’ Niamh asked as they headed off down the road. It was nine-thirty in the morning. Still early, and enough time for her to get back to talk to her Mam before heading into Sligo to meet Jesse at the travel agency. The morning was glorious. Bright and golden, the leaves glistening with dew, and the land fragrant with late summer.