About the time Rory turned 14, things started to get even more eventful
for the Murphys. Connor and Danny finished the car, and Connor proudly
took it with him to Wellington. Then Danny's health took a turn for the
worst and Connor took to coming home often to be with his family. His
attention was divided when he did. Between Bria, who helped him work on
the cars in the garage under Danny's feeble supervision, and Sive, who
seemed to rely more and more on her oldest son's cheerful endurance, and
Rory, who had started to learn how to work the guns Connor snuck back
with from Salaise and learning to vent his frustrations through the new
hobby his brother was teaching him.
And then there was the news of the arrival of another family member. The
girl was a casual acquaintance, not one the family had ever met, and
Connor put off telling anyone until finally he let it slip to Rory one
day when they were out practicing.
"Elodie is pregnant," he said after a long silence.
"Elodie?" Rory asked, trying to keep his concentration.
Connor put his gun down and sat on the old stone fence next to them.
"One of the girls from school."
Rory hesitated and lowered his fun. "You mean you got her
pregnant?"
Connor shot him a condescending look. "And what else would I mean?"
Rory gaped, unfazed by his brother's annoyance. "Does ma know?"
"No. And ye'll not be tellin' her," Connor said with uncharacteristic
vehemence.
Rory shook his head and looked away. "I wouldn't be the one to tell
her, or da. What are you going to do then? You'll have to tell them
before the wedding, won't you?"
"There won't be a wedding though, will there?" Rory stared at him,
dumbstruck. "And I'll tell them when the time is right. And will you
stop lookin' at me like that?:
Rory shook his head and picked up the gun again. "I'll put in a good
word for ye with Saint Brigid."
Connor finally managed to tell Sive and Danny in October. He timed it
perfectly, he though. When everyone in the family, including Corrigan
(who may as well have been a member of the family), was there. Rory
sunk down in his seat, Bria looked on in awe, and Corrigan glanced
uneasily around as Connor broke the news and Sive started to cry.
Danny sat calmly for a while, then asked, "Well, Connor, when will you
be invitin' her to come visit so we can meet her?"
Connor balked. "Well, I wasn't . . "
"We'll be wantin' tae meet our own grandchild and daughter-in-law,"
Danny said firmly.
Connor sent a nervous glance his mother's way, afraid to argue. "I'll
talk to her then, see when she can come," he mumbled.
Elodie agreed to visit, and then again when the baby was born. The
christening was in Shanagolden, and they named him Seamus Connor.
Whenever anyone asked about the wedding, Connor simply put them off
with, "Oh, we'll have it soon enough, won't we?"
"That's a terrible, gobshite thing to say," Rory told him once.
"Watch your mouth."
"Well," Rory replied, annoyed. "Most of them think it's too late
already, including ma, with the baby born and you supposed to be a good
Catholic."
"And if Elodie won't have me?" Connor asked innocently.
Rory sent him a suspicious glance, but said no more.
Danny was put in the hospital in Limerick a few months later. Sive
stayed beside him, buoyed by the occasional visit from her grandson.
Connor helped keep things running from home once he was out of school
for the summer, and with Rory's help and a few trusted friends, they
kept the business going until Danny died in July.