Chapter 9

CIARA

When Eimear knocks on my door, I'm dressed, my hair caught up in a messy bun to try and keep it out of the way.

It takes a minute to undo the bolt and the locks, and by the time I'm done, I'm feeling a little embarrassed.

To anyone else, I must seem out of my mind. Paranoid.

But that's not the vibe I get from Eimear. She comes in smiling, with some fresh bread from the bakery, and her toolkit. "Shall we hit the garage first? You can talk as I work."

I'm grateful for her casual demeanor, it means I've a moment or two to try and work up to what feels like a Conversation with a capital c.

Stepping outside takes almost more courage than I have. I keep on thinking back to Robert's shadowy figure the night before, and when I look at the splintered boards of Red's ruined kennel, a shiver runs down my spine. He's just as destructive as he ever was, and I hurry around the corner to the entrance to the garage.

There's a very simple lock on the door at the moment, and Eimear looks at it before suggesting adding a deadbolt and a strike plate.

"I think that's your best option," she says. "Will that work?"

I nod. There's not a huge amount that I can say otherwise, and Robert was always very lazy. If he's going to put serious effort into breaking in, it'll be my cottage and not my garage. I just don't want him to have easy access to slashing my tires.

She grabs a stool from inside the garage and props herself on it. "So. Talk to me."

Where to start.

Eimear doesn't push, she just starts tinkering with the current lock on the door, and waits for me to speak. The silence is strangely comforting, and I'm loathe to break it.

"I guess" —I say, my voice timid— "I guess it's about my ex."

She doesn't turn around to look at me, her bobbed blonde head fully turned towards the lock. "Bit of a dick, were they?"

The laugh I make is bitter. "Something like that."

"Why is it a problem now, if they're an ex?"

"He's in Dingle." The words are flat, no inflection, no indication of the terror I feel at speaking them aloud.

An imperceptible pause, and then she continues with her work. "That sounds challenging."

"He turned up here last night. Stood outside my cottage, called and told me to let him in."

Eimear does stop this time. "Fuck. Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Ciara, that's not okay. You need to call the Garda."

I shake my head and step back. "No. Nope. Not happening."

"But—"

"Last time I called them, he charmed his way out of it and then I ended up with a broken nose." I touch it gently, running my fingers over the ridge that I still can't quite get used to. "So I just need my home to be secure. And the garage too, because I don't want him slashing my tires."

"Will you be okay, out here on your own?" Eimear looks around. "It's not exactly buzzing with people; you're very isolated. I could always stay, if you wanted."

I almost take her up on it, but then she starts backing away from me with a look of alarm on her face.

"Eimear? Are you okay?"

She points wordlessly behind me, and I turn and see Red trotting towards us.

"Oh, that's just Red."

Red looks at me as if to say ‘Just'? There's no ‘just' about me.

Eimear looks as if she agrees. "You had a wolf. In your home. Are you mad?"

"She's the one who chased off Robert last night."

Red pads over and sniffs at Eimear before turning away, a little contemptuously, and goes to sit in her patch of sunlight, lick her paws and bask in the glow.

"Is she tame?"

I swear that Red pauses licking her paws for just a moment. "No, I just started feeding her, and she seems to have adopted me."

Eimear raises her eyebrows and laughs awkwardly. "Well, if she's adopted you as part of her pack, that probably will help keep shitty ex-husbands away."

"I hope so," I say. Talking about it actually has helped lift some of the weight off my shoulders, and as Eimear puts the new lock in place, I feel a little more confident about my ability to take him on.

But when she leaves, after extracting a promise from me to ring her if he turns up again, I can't help but shiver. The sun may be glinting through the leaves, but there's a shadow that approaches as Eimear's car turns the corner, out of eyesight.

I don't know how long that confidence is going to last, especially if I have to face him in person again.