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The second day of the Puck Fair was just as jammed pack with things to see and do. After a hardy breakfast at Glencoe's B & B, Daniel, Carolyn and the kids set off to town once again. Martha had begged off the morning activities the night before, she wanted to sleep in and then perhaps do battle with the coin operated washer and dryer units housed in the basement of Glencoe's huge house, built during the 1950's to house visiting tourists to Ireland year-round but especially so during Puck Fair.

Daniel made a concerted effort to stay clear of the petting zoo and horse barn on this day. Candy and Jonathan seemed to have recovered from their sour moods and he wanted to keep things that way. First stops had them taking in a story-telling performance from an acting troupe from Dublin, followed by a puppet show based on the legend of Finn McCool and the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Daniel was amazed at how far puppet shows at come from when he was a lad in Ballyrossclare. This show featured sound effects and fog machines. Next, Candy chose to participate in a workshop to learn the basic dance steps of a jig while Jonathan was interested in discovering the tricks of juggling rubber balls at the circus skills tent. They were headed towards the carnival rides when Carolyn wandered away. Daniel hadn't noticed her absence immediately, but then spun around in confusion. "Where's your mum off to?"

Jonathan shrugged his shoulders, but Candy pointed to a shaded area of the fairgrounds where people were milling about, laughter in the air. "She went over there."

Daniel soon understood her interest when he read the sign. Bonny Baby Contest. "Let's join her, shall we?" They soon spotted her standing, watching and laughing with the rest of the crowd. Jonathan and Candy ducked and wedged themselves through the spectators to reach their mother's side. Her arms instinctively went around her children. The crowd was watching ten sets of parents trying to wrangle their crawling babes to a starting line. Then the "race" involved which little one would crawl to the other side of a huge padded mat to cross a "finish" line first and into the arms of either mammy or daddy waiting for them. The mat was really an obstacle course of sorts with various stuffed animals, pans of yummy gelatin or chocolate pudding- even a couple of puppies and kittens were added to the playpen to deliberately try to distract the crawlers. The prize for a 1st Place finisher was £50.

Carolyn looked around for Daniel. "Where's your dad?"

"He stayed back there," Jonathan gestured towards the rear of the crowd.

Carolyn craned her neck and spotted Daniel leaning against the trunk of one of the shade trees. She made eye contact with him. He smiled and gave her the thumbs-up signal. She returned his smile and went back to enjoying the baby event. Candy and Jonathan both giggled and laughed at the desperate parents who were trying to encourage, coax and cajole their wee ones to "go to daddy!" or "come to mummy!" As expected, the babies were fascinated by the squishy jello and the taste of gooey pudding smeared on their hands and faces. The puppies added to the chaos by yapping excitedly and chasing kittens as some of the babies either sat and cried or seemed to scoot around on their behinds in no particular direction—despite hearing their parents' calls to come to them. The crowd roared with laughter and called out encouragement to the frustrated parents. £50 was a humdinger of a prize, 2nd place would receive two big boxes of disposable nappies and a coupon for a free professional baby portrait. 3rd place would gain one box of the diapers.

After watching the spectacle for a while. Jonathan had a question for his mother. "Mom?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Are you going to have a baby?" His question was innocent enough.

Carolyn was startled just a bit, nevertheless. "What?"

Her eight-year-old son rephrased his question. "I mean, you and the Captain got married. Married people have babies, don't they? So…"

Jonathan had spoken loud enough to be heard by fellow baby race spectators. A man and woman next to them overheard Jonathan and they snickered in amusement. Carolyn blushed and shushed him. "Not so loud, young man."

"Sorry," Jonathan apologized. "But are you?"

By now Candy was also interested in knowing the answer to her brother's question. She echoed Jonathan's query. "Are you going to have another baby? 'Cuz if you do, I want a sister this time, Mom."

This time more people heard and began to chuckle at the American lady's embarrassment. An elderly grandfather-type man guffawed and then apologized, "Sorry love, them two have inquiring minds. You best come up 'wit answer to set their minds at ease, so you should. God bless 'em."

Carolyn looked chagrinned, corralled her offspring and steered them back through the crowd towards Daniel. "We need a family chat, Captain Gregg."

Daniel's eyebrows shot up. "We do?"

"Yes," Carolyn looked around and spotted a more isolated spot amongst the shade trees. "Over here, family." Daniel and the children did her bidding. The kids plopped down in the grass, leaning back on their hands. She got straight to the point. "Number one, save personal questions to be asked in private. Number two—you should always ask permission if you intend to ask a personal question. Understood?"

Jonathan scrunched his nose and then scratched his itch with his finger, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "What is a personal question, Mom?"

"A personal question, dear son, is one having to do with the private life of a person."

"Oh, okay. Sorry, Mom."

"Sorry, Mommy," Candy added for good measure. "But are you going to have a baby?" she persisted.

Daniel Gregg was now sufficiently clued in as to why the family chat was necessary. "A-ha!" he smiled and tugged his earlobe. He thought best to let Carolyn lead the discussion. He gave her a "carry on" hand gesture and made himself comfortable alongside the kids as they sat in the cool, green grass under the shade tree.

Carolyn shot Daniel a "thanks-a-lot" look and then took Candy and Jonathan's hands in both of hers. "No, to answer your question—I am not having a baby." Candy and Jonathan's faces showed immediate disappointment. "But," she went on. "Captain and I have talked about the possibility of having a child together someday. Just not right now at this moment, okay?"

'Kay, Mom," Candy understood and plucked some grass with her free hand.

"Jonathan?" Carolyn prodded, "Do you have any more questions on the subject of adding to our family? Now's the time to ask—here in private without strangers eavesdropping."

Jonathan Muir titled the brim of his new tweed cap up and off his forehead a little. The expression on his innocent face caused Carolyn's heart to melt with the powerful love she felt for her youngest. "Well…" he began, not exactly sure how and if he should say what he wanted to say.

"Yes?"

"If you do have another baby," he began carefully, "that'd be great. Maybe even better than getting a baby goat ora Shetland pony—even if the baby was another sister, I'd be okay with that." He nodded his head once for emphasis and pulled the brim of his cap back down.

Carolyn and Daniel burst into laughter. "Oh! Okay, good to know!" his mother laughed as Daniel pounced on his son, wrapping powerful arms around him in a playful hug and then started tickling the boy's tummy to Jonathan's surprised squeals. Carolyn took advantage of Candy's distraction to hug her tightly as well and then planted kisses all over her daughter's face.

"Ugh! Mom, lipstick smudges!" she shrieked in protest between bouts of giggles.

The elderly man who had gotten amusement out of the children's questions stood watching the family at play with one another for a long moment. He smiled to himself and then ambled away leaning on his blackthorn cane for support. He muttered to himself, "Good man-ma-da. Thon yonder is how it should be with families. Bless 'em, all."

Late the next afternoon Aiden and Cara Kiely re-joined the Gregg-Muir family's tour of the Republic of Ireland. "The Scattering Parade" was the main event with the release of the mountain goat dubbed King Puck. Unfortunately, the temperamental Irish weather finally caught up to them and the rest of the fair goers. Light showers began shortly after noon and the skies became heavy and dark with more serious rain clouds with bursts of downpours and whipping winds just to add to the unpleasantness. The vendors were packing up their wares ahead of schedule as they battened down their hatches and began heading off to the next festival several counties away following the summer circuit. Horses and other livestock were hastily loaded into stock trailers and headed back to family farms or breeding facilities scattered across the Emerald Isle. The Kiely Gaelic Tours van pulled back into their parking spot at Glencoe Bed & Breakfast and the brother and sister hastened into the building with overnight satchels in hand. They were shaking off the dampness from themselves when Captain and Mrs. Gregg came down the stairs to greet them in the home's grand foyer. "Hello there!" Carolyn greeted them cheerfully. "We were hoping you'd get back in time with the van to drive us to dinner. Good timing! Did you have a nice visit with your folks?"

"Och, it was grand, so it was," confirmed Aiden as he ran his hand through his tawny brown hair damp from the dash from the van to the door. He impulsively offered his hand to shake both Daniel's and Carolyn's hand in gratitude.

His sister was equally grateful. "Aye, we can't thank you enough. We don't always get to this part of Ireland on our tours, and if we do, we seldom have more than an hour or two to spend with mum and da, so we both thank you very much indeed."

"Oh, it was our pleasure. We've really enjoyed ourselves and tonight's the only time when a motor coach will come in handy." Carolyn assured the pair.

Daniel's arm draped over Carolyn's shoulders. "Sometimes it's worth being apart just to savor the reunion, eh?" He exchanged a knowing look with his wife as he gave her a little squeeze. "…I'm referring to your family, naturally," he added.

"Right you are, Captain," Aiden responded. "Now, have you made plans for where you'd like to have your supper? The both of us will just nip up and drop our bags off, take a moment to dry off and we'll be ready to be your chauffeur. Tis coming down in buckets out there—not fit for man nor beasts to be walkin' about the town tonight!"

Very, very late that night Carolyn was doing some pre-packing to be ready to leave the next morning. She had changed into a sleeveless nightgown and was ready for bed. Daniel came back into their room after checking on their sleeping children in the room next door. "Kids asleep?" she asked as he closed the door quietly.

"Aye," Daniel chuckled. "Did you know Jonathan wears his duncher to bed?"

"Again?" she smiled. "He went to bed with it on last night and I took it off his head." She shook her head and laughed lightly.

Daniel came up behind her, slipped his arms about her waist and across her chest to pull her up against him. He nuzzled his bearded cheek against her hair. "He's taking after his mother."

"Excuse me?" she asked in faked indignation.

"He knows how to dress to impress, just like his mother."

Carolyn turned in his arms, "Oh…well…as long as you put it that way, dear Captain." She tilted her head to meet his kiss as her arms slid around his shoulders and neck. Her fingers played with the soft copper curls at the base of his neck as he left a trail of kisses along her jaw until she turned her head slightly to seal her lips to his. The kiss was soft and sensual. "Time for bed, love." She sighed when they broke apart. She dropped her hands to help him unbuckle his belt and untuck his Oxford dress shirt.

"Tis," he agreed simply. They slept snuggled together later that night, Carolyn's head pillowed on Daniel's chest. She was lulled to sleep listening to the ceaseless raindrops against the windowpanes and her sea captain's steady heartbeat under her ear.

The grey clouds still hung low in the sky the following morning and a light drizzle continued to fall as Aiden and Daniel loaded the back of the van with the family's belongings. The planned touring route for the day would take them around the beautiful Dingle Peninsula, stop for lunch at Anchor Caravan Park and then head onward to Limerick for the night. Their wonderful adventure was ending, for in a few days' time the Gregg-Muir clan would be boarding their plane at Galway and jetting back across the Atlantic. Once back in the States, though, the family would separate for a time. If Ed Peavey's construction crews were even remotely on schedule, Gull Cottage wouldn't be habitable. The water would have been shut off to the house to install the new plumbing. Electricity would only be provided by diesel generators to power all the drills and table saws on site. The hammering and banging would go on none stop during the day and dust and construction debris would cover every surface. The decision had been made even before they left Schooner Bay to vacate the premises through the end of July. Martha would re-join her sister and mother in Florida and then go out to stay with her niece in California for an extended visit. Carolyn would go on with the kids to Philadelphia to be reunited with Scruffy and stay with her parents—and by the same token give her former in-laws access to Candy and Jonathan for long weekend visits. Daniel would stubbornly remain in Schooner Bay to oversee the remodeling of his beloved "ship" and lend a hand with a hammer when needed. Afterall, he reminded Carolyn when she objected to his decision to stay behind in Maine—he had personally designed and built the original home—much of it with his own hands without access to modern power tools. This conversation happened in the privacy of their personal quarters. She then reminded him—also in the privacy of their bedroom—he was now fully human and in need of running water, electricity, heat and/or a cooling fan in the middle of a Maine summer. He then dismissed her concerns as he strutted around their cabin, his hands behind his back, his shoulders erect and proud as he reminded her, he had already lived one lifetime without need of electricity—he could make do. End of discussion, as far as he was concerned. He only conceded defeat when she pointed out—by way of poking his chest with her index finger-he had now grown accustomed to indoor plumbing and flush toilets—the outside privy being filled in on the property a half century or more ago. She suggested he stay at one of Claymore's summer rental properties or take a room at the Schooner Bay Inn. Daniel had a better idea—buy a 25 ft. sailboat and live on it. At that point, Carolyn threw her hands up in defeat knowing her sea captain and knowing when to pick and choose her battles.

Captain Gregg mustered his crew and inspected their attire. Everyone seemed dressed for a brisk, wet day by the ocean. One by one they trouped to the van dressed in classic Irish rag wool sweaters, jeans and rain slickers at the ready. Martha's lovely white hair was covered in a babushka of gold, while Candy had her Cork scarf at the ready but wearing it around her waist as a tartan sash. Jonathan, duncher on head, was the first to get in and crawled to his customary seat in the back. He waited and watched as the rest of the family arranged themselves in the van. Daniel assisted Martha and then smiled at Carolyn's choice of head covering. She was wearing a simple black fisherman's watch cap beanie. He chuckled at the sight of her. "Remind you of someone you know?" she smiled up at him as she accepted his hand to climb into the van.

"No, should it?"

"Only my favorite lobster fisherman—Danny." She pulled the cap down tighter around her ears.

"Ah yes! Now I remember the ould hand. Very good-looking chap as I recall," he winked at her, slid into the seat next to her and closed the coach's door with a solid pull on the handle. Cara Kiely climbed into the front passenger seat as Aiden turned the ignition key. The Dingle Peninsula beckoned.