Read Online Tears of Gold by Laurie McBain - Free Book Online

o’ this. Or has Brendan already got a scheme?” Jamie sent Mara a hard look. Her eyes were still as sharp as an eagle’s and seldom misread an expression.
    “Aye, Jamie,” Mara confessed. “Brendan’s not wasted any time in getting us paying jobs—acting parts too,” Mara added with a half-smile curving her mouth in derision.
    “Well, that sounds more like what we was meant to be doin’ instead of huntin’ for this fool gold mine of Brendan’s. What play will we be doin’, and what’s the pay?” Jamie asked practically.
    Mara hesitated, unsure as to how much she should tell Jamie. “It isn’t exactly a play, nor will we be acting on a stage in a theater, but we’ll be getting room and board, Jamie,” Mara admitted as she resolutely continued despite the sour look she was receiving from Jamie. “I’m going to pretend to be the niece of this Spaniard, Don Luís, and Brendan will act the part of my cousin, and—”
    “May the Lord forgive me, but I’m not wantin’ to be hearin’ another word about it. To be sure, I’m not of a mind to be knowin’ anything about it, Mara O’Flynn, so don’t ye be tellin’ me more. The less I know the better I’ll be sleepin’ nights,” Jamie told her emphatically as she shook her gray head in resignation.
    “As long as you remember to call me Amaya, and there won’t be much else you’ll have to say…” Mara paused thoughtfully, a teasing light entering her eyes. “If you’d rather, I can tell them you’re a mute, and then you won’t have to say anything at all.”
    “Hrrmph!” Jamie snorted contemptuously. “The day I can’t be rememberin’ me lines I’ll be past breathin’. I may not have acted before an audience in near over a quarter of a century, but I can still be playin’ me part. Mute, indeed,” she sniffed.
    “I have complete faith in you, Jamie,” Mara declared innocently, hiding her satisfied grin behind a casually raised hand.
    “And don’t be thinkin’ ye bird-limed me, missie,” Jamie snapped. “I knew what ye was up to all along.”
    “Of course, Jamie,” Mara answered.
    Later that evening, after Paddy was warmly tucked up and asleep in his berth, Mara left her cabin, Jamie nursing her favorite cup of tea laced with brandy, and met with Brendan and Don Luís in Brendan’s cabin. Brendan was staring into his whiskey glass and Don Luís was taking a sip of richly colored red wine when Mara entered. Don Luís rose quickly to his feet and offered her a chair at the table where Brendan still sat, a morose expression on his lean face. Mara eyed him curiously, wondering what had happened to send him into one of his famous black moods.
    “Please, señora, will you not partake of some of this excellent wine? I brought it from France.” Don Luís poured the dark red liquid into a crystal goblet and solemnly presented it to her. “I am always comforted to have my own possessions around me when I am traveling. Being accustomed to a certain standard of living, I prefer to maintain it no matter how uncivilized the conditions I find myself in.”
    The incongruity of the crystal next to Brendan’s bottle of brown whiskey and plain glass caused Mara to smile. She accepted the wine from the Spaniard, nodding graciously.
    “I am reassured, señora, to see your change of spirit,” Don Luís commented, misinterpreting the reason for her smile. “But I must get accustomed to calling you by your new name, Doña Amaya.”
    “ Doña? ” Mara frowned at his words.
    Don Luís’s thin lips widened in a grin, but the smile did not reach the black depths of his eyes. He explained, “It is merely a form of address, like miss or madam, and shows respect. You will become used to it. Please, Señor O’Flynn, some wine,” Don Luís invited as Brendan was about to pour himself another whiskey.
    Brendan shook his head as he filled his glass with the brown liquid. “No, thank you, I can’t abide that sweet stuff. It’s uisge beatha , the