The Unexpected

Realta's antics had become the talk of the town in Ballybunion. Everyone knew to lock the horse in a stall and wire the door shut when the doctor was paying a house call for a birth or an unexpected injury. A few times Rory had been glad of the horse's speed when he had been called for a farm accident or a difficult birth. It was now over two months since Rory had arrived and the doctor in Listowel was gone. There were so many people waiting to see Rory each day during his office hours he decided at last to go to Listowel one day a week to see patients there. It gave him a change of scenery and an opportunity to run his notorious horse there and back and wear him out at least a little.

On a day in late fall Rory had just returned from Listowel. He had stabled Realta and was getting him some hay when a young woman stepped around the side of the house.

"I'll be right there," he called as he locked the hay room and securely locked Realta's enclosure for the night.

"Rory?" an English accent called to him.

He stopped still in his tracks for a second before he dashed over and wrapped the young woman in a hug.

"Colleen, this is a shock. What are you doing here? How did you get here?" he said as he let her go slightly.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and burst into tears.

"I didn't know where else to go," she blubbered against him. "Mummy and Daddy are insisting I marry Robbie. I can't marry him. I told them and they won't listen. I took Mommy's egg money and came to find you."

"You're here now, everything will be fine," Rory crooned trying to comfort her.

When Colleen finally stopped crying long enough he got her inside and sat down at the kitchen table. She was clearly exhausted. Pieces of hair stuck out of the long blonde plait hanging down her back and dark circles shone out under her eyes in her pale complexion.

"Now tell me what happened," Rory said kneeling in front of her. Harry, Rory's puppy curled himself beside Colleen trying to comfort her.

"Oh Rory," Colleen said woefully. "It was too awful. I was to marry Robbie before Christmas. It was all set. He showed up one day while I was milking. He had been drinking. He, he …" Colleen burst into tears.

"Did he force himself on you?" Rory asked as gently as he could.

Colleen only nodded.

"I told Mommy and she said I had to marry him now that I was ruined. I could never marry him. Not after what he did."

"Did he injure you?" Rory's hands went to her and started checking her over quickly to make sure there weren't any broken bones or hidden cuts.

"No, he didn't hurt me except some bruises and …"

"Oh God, Colleen, I'm so sorry," Rory pulled her into his arms and held her close for a few minutes. "He didn't get you pregnant did he?"

"No, my time came two days later," Colleen said.

"At least that's something. How did you make the trip? It is a long ways."

"It wasn't hard. I walked to the station in Downton. Then I took the ferry and another train when I got here. People along the way were helpful. I got a ride on a farm cart from the last train. You know they have the most peculiar schedules out here."

"This is rural Ireland," Rory said. "They have peculiar lots of things, but you will love it here like I do." Rory pushed the hair back from her face. He realized what he had said. Now that she was here he didn't want her to leave. "I'll have to send word to your parents that you are here."

"No!" Colleen grabbed Rory's wrist.

"Don't worry, you won't be going back to marry Robbie, but we do have to let them know where you are and that you are safe. It will all work out."

Colleen nodded faintly.

"When is the last time you had something to eat?"

"When I got off the train in Liverpool."

Rory did the calculations in his head. That had to be more than twenty-four hours ago.

"First you have something to eat and then I'll make arrangements with a neighbor for somewhere for you to stay."

Colleen was going to protest.

"You can't sleep here. This is a small town, Colleen. I'm the local doctor and a favorite topic of gossip."

Colleen only nodded as she got up to help Rory prepare something to eat. Despite Colleen's ragged appearance and distressing situation, Rory couldn't help but be glad she was there. It was like old times to have her working at the counter beside him. She was looking a bit better after their short meal. She fixed her hair and washed her face before Rory took her down the way to Mrs. MacDiarmid's. Mrs. MacDiarmid took in tourists over the summer and was only too glad to have a lodger.

"Would I be able to pay you in chickens?" Rory inquired. Since the tourists were thinning out he was getting more and more chickens in his back run as payment for his services.

"That will be fine, doctor," Mrs. MacDiarmid said. "Three hens a week will cover it."

Before he left, he assured Colleen he would be over in the morning, as he didn't have office hours until after lunch the next day. Rory had been holding in his anger while he was dealing with Colleen. He wanted to go to England and throttle Robbie with his bare hands. He was kicking himself for keeping his own mouth shut for the last three years. He headed down the main street to the post office to send some telegrams.

Mrs. Lonogan was standing at the back door of the hotel late the next morning conferring with Mrs. Shay and Mrs. Donnelly.

"I've seen the post master cycle past with telegrams for him twice this morning," Mrs. Shay related. "I had to go out into the street to see where he was going. He went straight to the doctor's door he did."

"I saw the doctor leading that horse of his to Mrs. MacDiarmid's. He got some girl from there, put her on the horse's back and was leading it towards the beach. She was wearing a cotton dress and riding astride."

"No!" Mrs. Lonogan gasped. "I'll have to go to Mrs. MacDiarmid's and find out what I can. It might be hard. She is rather tight lipped."

Mr. Lonogan came rambling up the lane from the beach carrying his fishing rod and carrying a fish on a cord.

"Did you see the doctor and the girl?" Mrs. Lonogan demanded before he even had a chance to get to the door.

"Aye, that I did," Mr. Lonogan replied.

"Well, who was she?" Mrs. Shay and Mrs. Donnelly's ears were practically flapping.

"Can't rightly say. I was up on the rocks fishing for cod. They were on the beach going the other way. I couldn't run after them to find out, now could I?"

"Why not?" his wife demanded. "We want to know."

"From the looks of them, they were lost in conversation. We'll find out soon enough."

"What makes you say that?"

"They're walking up the street together as we speak."

"Positions ladies," Mrs. Lonogan instructed. "I'll go speak to him right now."

Mrs. Lonogan flew out front to see Rory coming up the street with a fair-haired girl on his arm. She was wearing a cotton dress topped with a coat and small hat. She looked to be around nineteen years old or perhaps a little younger. She was pretty but from her dress looked like a girl who lived on a farm.

"Hello, Mrs. Lonogan. I'm glad I've run into you," Rory said. "May I present Miss Colleen Drake from Yorkshire."

"Why how nice to meet you," Mrs. Lonogan said. "Are you enjoying your stay in these parts?" She was dying to ask more questions.

"Yes, very much thank you," Colleen flushed and held a little tighter to Rory's arm.

"I was wondering if Mr. Lonogan would have the time to pick up a passenger from the train this afternoon?" Rory inquired before Mrs. Lonogan had a chance to ask another question.

"Why yes I'm sure he could."

"It's a Mrs. Branson from Dublin. Somewhere around your age, short with strawberry hair."

"I'll tell him. How…?"

Rory was too quick for her.

"We must be off. I need to open the surgery at one. Thank you, Mrs. Lonogan."

You're quite welcome, Dr. Lester," she replied.

Rory and Colleen headed down the street and turned the corner. This was just too good. Mrs. Lonogan was just bursting to find her cronies and compare notes.

That morning Rory had been awoken with a knocking at the door. It was the post master with two telegrams for him. One was from the Drakes saying that Colleen's mother would be coming to Ireland and the other was a reply from Mrs. Branson saying she would be up on the afternoon train. He had thought it best to ask Mrs. Branson to come as having someone he could identify to the village as his aunt at the house would stop any tongues from wagging when Colleen was there. He had been too old when he broke with his mother for Tom and Sybil to legally adopt him. Their association was by mutual agreement and he identified Tom as his cousin when asked. The nature of their relationship was somewhere between older/younger brother or father/son although Tom was only eleven years older than Rory and Sybil three.

He had received a letter shortly after his arrival at Ballybunion from Tom to say they had decided to stay in England after all. Tom's first love was politics and he couldn't see himself in business. He had decided to take a job with the labor party and had made the move from reporter to press secretary. Sybil was busy working at one of the hospitals. Lauren their first hired girl had married a man from Brighton and was working in a sweet shop. Their current hired girl was also from Ireland and was thinking of returning home as she was suffering from homesickness.

Rory took his two telegrams, got dressed and headed down the street to collect Colleen. He took Realta with him on a lead and allowed the puppy to come along for some fresh air. Colleen had looked much better that morning after a decent night of sleep and breakfast.

"I thought we'd go for a walk on the beach," Rory told her.

"I'll just get my coat," Colleen replied. She was a true farm girl and usually managed to forget her hat from what Rory remembered. He'd boosted her up onto Realta and led the horse down the path to the sand beach.

"I've never been to the beach before," Colleen said. "It's so …pretty."

"Aye, 'tis. I got a telegram from your parents. Your mother is on the way."

"Oh Rory," Colleen tensed.

"They'd have been worried sick, so don't you oh Rory me," he replied with the ease of someone who'd spent part of their childhood together. "Tom's mother, Mrs. Branson is on the way as well. You've never met her. Your parents sent you away the day I broke with my mother."

"I remember you were dressed in your posh cloths. I was only little. I thought you looked like you belonged in the manor house."

"Hardly," Rory replied.

"What am I going to do?" Colleen said not looking at Rory.

They had reached the beach and Rory started walking away from the people he saw at one end. The puppy was running around chasing the gulls and having a happy time.

"You can stay here and marry me."

"Rory, I can't!" Colleen replied in surprise.

"Why can't you? I know I'm not good enough, but I'll treat you better than Robbie."

"Rory! You lived with Lady Sybil and her husband for the last two years in London. You visit with Earls and Countesses. You're a doctor. I'm just a farm girl."

"I wanted to ask you three years ago, but I held my tongue. I thought your family wouldn't approve of me. Do you remember when I first came from Ireland?"

"I remember you played with us in the yard and sang funny songs."

"I told your father I was in trouble with the police before I left for England, but there was more," Rory stopped walking and looked at Colleen directly. "My father was rebel and I was in the Irish Volunteers for a little under a year. The group I was in was more a faction that was into robbing and looting. Lady Sybil saved my life when I was shot. She sent me to England. When they moved back they became my family. I associate with her family and I stay with them because Tom Branson was raised four doors down from my family home. I'm not one of them. I'm someone they took in and finished raising. The Bransons are the only family I've got. Her parents just help me out from time to time."

"You never mentioned a thing."

"The boy you remember didn't exist before I arrived at your parents' farm. I've been crazy about you since the last summer I spent there."

"I thought you didn't like me like that. You kept avoiding me. All summer you barely spoke to me."

"I was trying to do the honorable thing. Your parents gave me a home and a job when I had none. I don't belong to the same church. How could I ask their daughter to be my girl and wait for me until I was finished school? I'm a country doctor. I get paid in chickens and eggs and the odd ham. The people around here leave me care packages on the doorstop. I'm not rich nor will I ever be. Marry me Colleen. Stay with me here in Ireland in Ballybunion and be a country doctor's wife with chickens and a vegetable garden in the yard and someone who loves you at your side."

Colleen looked down at Rory from Realta's back. "His eyes are so blue," she thought. "Our children will have eyes like his."

"You've always been my hero. I'll marry you. I don't care about church. I'll go to whatever church you want. I'm a farm girl, chickens and vegetables in the yard suit me perfectly well."

Rory reached up for her. Colleen slid off the horse into his arms.

"I'm no hero, just a messed up boy from Dublin who loves you."

"You'll always be a hero to me," Colleen said shyly before Rory placed his lips against hers.

His kiss was feather light as though he was afraid she would disappear like a puff of smoke.

"I'm not going to break, Rory," she said against his lips.

"I don't want you to ever feel anything like that boy put you through ever again."

Colleen curled against him.

"You aren't like him. I only accepted him because I thought I had no other choice. I didn't want to burden my parents."

"You're no burden," Rory whispered. He kissed her again, this time with a little more passion.

Realta had enough of waiting for them to move. He flicked his head and tried to pull the lead free of Rory's hand. When that didn't work he got a hold of Colleen's braid and gave it a good yank.

"Ouch," she said as she was jerked back. "You naughty pony!" She turned and whacked Realta on the withers with her hand. Realta put his ears forward and gave her his best "I wasn't doing anything" look.

"He's a bit of a devil," Rory said with a laugh. "Come we'll both ride back and I'll tell you about some of the tricks he's pulled."

He boosted Colleen back up onto Realta's back and jumped on behind her. The puppy came flying across the beach as they turned and headed back. Realta suddenly decided it was time to play in the surf and they both had to pull their legs up to avoid getting soaked. By the time they got back to the cottage and turned Realta into his paddock it was mid morning.

"We have just enough time to go and talk to the priest before I need to open the surgery."

"You're serious about this aren't you," Colleen said, still not quite believing the boy she had admired for so long was now a man and wanted her for his wife.

"Dead serious," Rory said.

By the time they had stopped to talk to the priest and were on their way back to Mrs. MacDiarmid's Rory had spotted at least half a dozen of the local busy bodies peering at them around their lace curtains.

"How am I going to plan for a wedding in six weeks time in a place where I don't know anyone," Colleen said when they were leaving the church.

"You don't have to worry about it," Rory replied. "The local's have already started. We'll ask Mrs. Lonogan to be in charge. She'll be in her glory."

"But I don't know any of these people."

"You will," Rory replied with a huge smile. He stopped and kissed her in the middle of the village. "Sooner than you think."