"Shoulda known. You look just like mam did," she smiled as her blue eyes so similar to mine looked me up and down. "Name?"
"Charlotte, or Charlie," I said holding out a hand for her to shake. "And this is my, uh, husband, Sherlcok."
"The one I spoke to?"
"Yes," Sherlock nodded stepping forward to greet her. "Pleasure."
"You're a bit thin for my tastes. Don't you feed him?" she said looking back at me.
"You can lead a horse to water," I started chuckling. "He eats, just not enough to do anything. Doesn't help he runs around London most of the day sometimes."
"Humph," she grunted. "Well I guess I be your grandda Seamus' sister, Siobhan."
"It's a great honor to meet you," I said. "I wish I would have gotten to hear about you from him."
"Yes. Well after he moved out of the country, he and I lost touch," Siobhan said waving for us to follow her out to a sitting room. We sat across from her in a quaint yellow love seat. "Course Seamus was always sort of the black sheep of the family. I heard he opened a pub?"
"Yes, Brennan's Pub," I nodded. "I own it now."
"Do you?" I nodded again. "What about your parents? I think I may have met your da when he was younger."
"They both died a car crash a bit over ten years ago."
"Shame….any siblings?"
"Camille, but she passed last year," I grimaced, that wound still slightly fresh. The memorial the previous weekend had been rougher than I anticipated. Especially when everyone had started on the fact how happy Cam would be with where I was in life and how much she'd adore Bryna.
"Cancer?"
I shook my head, but Sherlock answered before me, "Murder."
"Murder," Siobhan gasped. I turned and looked at Sherlock. He brought it up, he could explain it."
"She was killed to cash in on an insurance policy. I worked the case, it was almost immediately after Charlotte and I met."
"Case? What, are you police?"
"Consulting detective," he huffed.
"What's that then? I'm not up to the new fancy lingo floating around these days."
"Careful, you'll get him going on a tangent," I muttered giving him an innocent smile when his eyes narrowed at me.
"When the police are out of their element, which is always, they contact me," he explained.
Aunt Siobhan nodded her head not seeming all that impressed, "Patrick works as an officer in Limerick. I thought he'd be the one interested in taken over the Inn, if not for Louise, I don't know what woulda happened to it after I'm gone. Patrick was lucky when he found her."
"Oh Gran, you ain't telling that story again are ye?" Patrick chuckled walking into the room and sitting down in one of the other chairs. "Mum and Da help plenty with the Inn plus have jobs of their own. They'll be back next week."
"They been gone a month!"
"I'd want to holiday for a month too if I had to put up with you on a daily basis," Patrick retorted, "ya crazy ole bat."
"Just remember that gene's passed down."
There were footsteps coming down the steps and a skinny figure hurried by the door.
"Hold it!" Patrick bellowed.
"DA! I'm gonna be late!" Patrick didn't answer, but gave the doorway a patient look. A few seconds later an annoyed looking teenage girl appeared in the doorway. She was thin, her dark hair hung in tight curls around freckled face. She had on a tight lace top and a mini skirt. "Seriously, I'm gonna be late."
"Don't be rude," Siobhan snapped. "That's your da and we have guests."
"Gran," she whined.
"Lucille," Patrick said, all the force in the world behind those two syllables. She huffed in acknowledgement giving him and us her sweetest smile.
"Hi," she said to us.
"This is Charlie and Sherlock. Charlie is your Gran's great niece from the Brennan clan," Patrick introduced. "This is my sixteen year old Lucille. She's really a lovely girl when she's not about to break her grounding."
"Mum said I could!"
"Did you remind mum you're grounded?" She rolled her eyes. "exactly. Go change, dinner will be done soon."
"But Danny's waiting outside and it took him months to score tickets."
"You should have thought about that before you failed your test last week. He can take Marylou."
"Da! That's not fair!"
"No, what isn't fair is for you acting like this in front of guests. Now up to your room and when you come back down, your clothes better not be the only thing changed," Patrick said. She growled at him and stomped up the steps, typing furiously on her phone. "Sorry about that. The joys of having teenagers."
"Do you have other children?" I asked as Siobhan excused herself to go check dinner.
"Louise and I also have a son, he's just turned 12 so he's not nearly so angsty. He'll be here after dinner. He's currently out with my brother and his partner. I have a younger sister as well, but she's in Dublin teaching."
Patrick continued going through the family tree a bit as we waited for dinner. Louise came and got us when it was done and sat us at the table. No one else was staying at the inn at the moment. Aunt Siobhan sat and told me more about the Brenna clan. It wasn't until much later Sherlock and I said goodnight and headed up to our room. I waited until Sherlock closed the door to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him deeply.
"Thank you," I said when we broke apart.
"For what? Giving you a family or taking you away on a romantic outing?" he smirked.
"Both, though I'd have to say your extending my family. I had a family before, now I have a bigger one than I thought," I said smiling at him. "And for getting me away. This is nice."
"You're welcome," he said kissing me again.
"Plans for tomorrow?" I asked, walking away and over to my suitcase to grab pjs.
"Patrick said he'd drop us of in town when he goes in to work," Sherlock replied as I changed. "And I believe he gave permission for Lucille to be our guide, we just have to keep an eye on her."
"I think we can manage that," I chuckled.
"Unless she gets caught sneaking back in," Sherlock said as he looked out the window.
"I hope Bryna's not that much trouble when she's that age," I sighed.
"Nonsense. She'll be perfectly behaved if I have any say in the matter," Sherlock grumbled walking over and wrapping his arms around my waist, preventing me from pulling my night shirt on.
"As I'm sure Patrick and Louise can attest, you can't always control how your teenager acts."
"We'll see," he said before he pressed lips against my neck.
Lucille must have managed to sneak back in because she did in fact get to accompany us. She was sour grapes up until Patrick walked in to the police station after handing Sherlock the keys to his car. After he pulled away, she leaned forward and batted her eyelids at him
"Would you be a doll and drop me off at the café a few blocks from here?"
"No," Sherlock answered simply.
"What?" she snapped, surprised at the response. "Why not?"
"Because the only reason your father let you come today was to be our tour guide," Sherlock replied. "If you plan differently then I will drop you back off at the Inn with your mother."
"I could always sneak away," she grumbled.
"It doesn't fool your father and really don't expect it to fool me."
"Trust me," I added, "You don't want Sherlock on your trail. He's a nightmare in a long coat."
"I thought you liked my coat."
"I do," I chuckled. "You look smoldering in it."
"Ugh," Lucille grunted leaning back in the seat. "I though you guys would be cool."
"Body temperature has nothing to do with proper behavior," Sherlock replied.
"Sherlock sweetheart, she's not talking about temperature," I smiled. I turned and looked at Lucille who was now sulking rather impressively in the back seat. "Any ideas what we should see first?"
"Whatever," she shrugged. "This place is boring. You guys are from London, why would you vacation here?"
"It's our first getaway just the two of us since we've been together. Sherlock did some research and figured why not show me where I came from."
"And you consider that to be romantic?"
"Coming from Sherlock, yes." He threw a look at me.
"How old are you?" Lucille asked continuing with her interrogation.
"Twenty-seven."
"Ok, so you're not old enough to forget what it's like to be my age."
"Lucy, when I was your age, I lost my parents. My teenage years are completely different than yours," I said.
"Ok. But I'm sure you had a bit of the rebellious bug in you."
"Surely, no. I had to grow up pretty quick which when you have no real parental figure can happen quicker than you think. My sister and I both had to learn how to run the pub and fast. If it wasn't for George, my dad's best friend, it would've went under immediately. Trust me, I know it's not easy being a sixteen year old girl, but cut your parents some slack. You never know what the next day will bring."
"Besides," Sherlock cut in, "You should count yourself lucky. Your father knows you're sneaking out and hasn't done a thing about it."
"No he doesn't," Lucy disagreed.
"Yes. He does. We discussed it this morning before you came downstairs."
"Ugh."