The tall young man in the hall smirked. "I probably should have waited until later to come by," he said with a distinct Southern drawl. "but Mrs. B said something about a busted window, broken door and mice..."
Yawning, Pie nodded. "But my wife isn't awake yet..."
"Yes I am," came a muttered reply from the bedroom. A moment later Ice came into the main room rubbing her eyes. She still had the cloak Rae had given her the night before wrapped around her shoulders.
The man laughed. "I see that my petite amie didn't waste much time in giving away the cloak that I gave her. Là où sont mes façons? I'm Beau Wayne."
Pie shook hands with him. "I'm Dolan and this is my wife Hattie." Ice couldn't help but blush slightly when Beau took her hand and kissed the back of it.
"My family lives two floors below you. And if the little demons I call my brothers and sisters cause you any trouble, feel free to come to me."
"I'm sure they won't be a problem," Pie said.
Beau laughed again. "You haven't met them yet." He turned and surveyed the room. "Ma'am...if you want to get started on cleaning your little kitchen, I believe my sister will be bringing some food by in about an hour. Your husband and I can start with taking that old sofa down to the alley."
Pie started to protest. "You don't have to help us, I'm sure we can manage."
"Nonsense. We don't mind the work at all...and Mrs B asked me to come by and make sure the place was habitable."
Pie looked over at Ice. "We can't pay you..."
Beau shook his head. "I'm not asking for payment. When my family first arrived in New York, we had a few people help us out even though we couldn't pay them back. Now we try to do the same thing for others."
----
Hours later the small flat had been scrubbed from top to bottom thanks to the help of the Wayne clan. Once they had all left Ice stretched out on the new couch, exhausted. "Nice family..."
"Yeah." Pie said, dropping into one of the chairs. "He was right about the two youngest ones...they are demons."
"But all it took to straighten them up was a look from Beau. It was like that with me and my daid."
He sighed. "I know nothing about my parents...I was raised in an orphanage until they kicked me out when I was thirteen."
"I'm sorry, Dolan," she whispered.
He looked over at her.
"What?" she asked.
"That's the first time you've actually said my name..."
She shrugged and changed the subject. "I guess we have to find jobs tomorrow."
"Yeah. Beau told me to come down to the docks tomorrow and he'll see about getting me a job. What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know. I'm not really trained to do anything...nothing legal anyway."
He chuckled. "What about one of the factories?"
She sat up quickly. "No! I won't work in a factory."
He looked at her concerned. "Settle down cailin. It was just a question."
She sighed deeply and looked away.
"Look...Ice...we're married. We may as well try to be friends."
"Fine." She stood. "I'm going to bed, it's been a long day."
"I'll give you a few minutes."
"But...the couch..."
"No. The bed Mrs. B gave us is bigger than the one we had last night. I'm not sleeping on the couch."
She turned to look at him. "Then I will."
"We're married, Hattie. It's alright for us to share a bed." When she started to protest more, he continued. "If you want to change, I'll give you five minutes. I'm exhausted and I want to go to bed."
Growling, she turned and ran into the bedroom, slamming the door.
He stared after her. When he sat down in front of her a few days before he had just wanted to talk to her. Their sharing a flat and marriage had just happened. But now that it had happened, he wasn't so sure that he minded all that much. Up until a few days ago neither one of them really had anyone, now they had each other.
-----
French translations:
petite amie - Girlfriend
Là où sont mes façons? - Where are my manners?
Gaelic translations:
daid - father
cailin - girl