Read Online Lucinda Sly by Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé - Free Book Online

dismantling her stand to store it in the shed at the back of Langstrom’s tavern, she caught sight of Walter Sly on horseback, a tall black hat on his head; he was dressed in an expensive suit from the tailors. ‘Oh! He is as well turned out as the Duke of Leinster,’ Lucinda was thinking excitedly. She looked then at the other women who were standing at their stalls down the street. Like Lucinda, they, too, had their eyes on the big man on horseback.Lucinda put a pack she had specially made on her horse’s head with a fist of oats in it. She was making sure that he would stay quiet while she and Walter were attending to their business in the attorney’s.
    Walter guided his horse into Langstrom’s stable and then walked cheerfully over in Lucinda’s direction.
    ‘Have you everything sold?’ he asked her.
    She looked at him with affection.
    ‘If you were ten minutes earlier, you would have to wait,’ she informed him.
    ‘Right so, we have urgent matters to attend to,’ Sly said with authority.
    They walked down the street towards the attorney’s office. The women who were selling at their stalls gathered in twos and threes whispering and peering inquisitively at the two who were walking close together quickly down the street.
    Just as they were turning in the attorney’s entrance, the woman who was in charge of the stand in front of the door spoke:
    ‘Whatever business you have, or bargain you have made with that tramp, it won’t be long before you regret it, my good woman,’ she spat.
    Sly turned violently.
    ‘When you go home this evening,’ he retorted, ‘take a shovel in your hand and give your husband a couple of belts of it across his back. Maybe he might get up off his arse and do some work.’
    ‘At least he isn’t running poor people off their land,’ she replied. ‘But, I promise you, the earth in the field between us will turn tolimestone before your name will be on it, Walter Sly.’ Lucinda stood inside the door and looked hard at him.
    ‘What was that woman out there talking about?’ she demanded.
    ‘Ah! Don’t worry about that old hag,’ he reassured her. ‘She is a neighbour of mine whose husband came to me in service when he had nothing to do on his own few acres. And what a lazy lout he was. If he wasn’t lying asleep in the cow’s stall, the layabout would be stretched in the middle of the bog, his two legs sticking out from the heather and turf to be footed all around him.’
    Walter Sly knocked gently on the door of the office.
    ‘Come in,’ said a soft voice from inside.
    Sly opened the door and beckoned Lucinda to enter before him. There were two chairs beside a table and a small, tidy man seated behind it.
    ‘Welcome,’ he greeted them. ‘Is this the young woman you were talking about, Walter?’
    When Lucinda heard this she had to laugh.
    ‘It’s a long time since I was called a young woman,’ she said shyly.
    ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself,’ the attorney replied. ‘You are still a fine woman. If you were not, the finest of men and the richest farmer in the area would not be looking for your hand in marriage. Yes, now, sit you both down and we will get matters underway. My name is John Burke. I expect that you will have matters arranged between yourselves. If you have we should have no delay.’
    ‘Yes, we have, but we have nothing put on paper,’ Sly informed him.
    ‘That is why you have come to me,’ Burke replied. ‘Now, I shall begin with you, Lucinda. Tell me what arrangement you have come to with Walter Sly. Take your time and think clearly about what you have to say because when you have signed this paper and the official seal is on it, it will have the force of law.’
    Lucinda spent a minute in deep thought before she began to speak. She looked at Walter and in those few seconds the thought struck her that she would be better not to proceed. But the life of a healthy person is eighty years and she was not far off her last two