“You caught me off guard when you accused me of sounding like a barrister,” he admitted and she grinned, pleased with herself. “At one time, my family had been a great and wealthy one. But our fortunes fell with the passage of each oppressive law over the years. We still had our property and raised the finest race horses in Ireland, but make no mistake about the matter, Lyssa, we knew we lived on borrowed time.
“Then I heard Daniel O’Connell speak. That man can speak. I can recall his words even now. He was a lawyer and a Catholic and he knew how to stand up to the English. I wanted to beexactly like him. So, with my parents’ blessing, I left for London, where I did very well until I returned to Ireland.”
“What happened?”
“I became too full of myself. I involved myself with a students’ group. We were radical. We were angry.”
“Wasn’t that dangerous?”
“Yes,” he said baldly. “In the beginning all we did was write a few pamphlets and hold a rally. However, the English have always been nervous.”
“There have been uprisings in Ireland, Ian. The government has a reason to be nervous.”
“They’d have no reason at all if they let the people who pay the taxes have a voice in the making of the laws that govern them.”
He leaned back. There was no sense in being frustrated with Lyssa. She was merely parroting what she’d been taught and her attitude made him realize the differences between them.
“Anyway,” he continued, “one night one of my friends was beaten by English troops on his way to a meeting. I wasn’t there that night. My father had heard about my goings-on and had come to Dublin to see me. He lectured me for hours, but it was already too late. The others had one too many ales and decided to retaliate by beating an English guard. The next morning, my name was included with theirs as one of the culprits, and the hunt began.”
“They actually hunted for you? Couldn’t your father tell them you were not involved?”
“I suppose in an honest government.” He didn’t hide the bitterness from his voice. “There is no open voice in Ireland. All troublemakers are either hanged or transported, which is what happened to many of my friends. I wasn’t at my rooms when the English came for me, so a price was put on my head.”
A soft, distressed sound escaped her but she did not flinch. Instead, she asked, “What happened next?” as if dreading the answer.
“I would not turn myself in. I’m the only son and I felt my parents needed me. When one of my friends was found hanged in his prison cell, my father agreed.”
“He hanged himself?”
“Not Dónall. Someone had to have helped him.”
“I don’t see why you had to run from any of it,” she argued, her own strong sense of justice rising.
“You had nothing to do with the beating of the guard.”
“Oh, but I would have, Lyssa, if I’d been there. I was young, rash, and arrogant. I was as angry as the others. But my father knew better. He was a wise old bird who’d spent most of his life out-thinking the government. My future as a lawyer was gone. Even the Catholic lawyers in Ireland wouldn’t have been able to help me. And I knew if I was transported, I’d never see my family again.”
“So what did you do?”
“I join the British army. Father said the English would never find me there and he was right. Six years I served and the irony is I had a talent for it. I knew how to get things done and I know how to fight.”
For a moment he sat silent, remembering. “They took the land away from my parents as a way of punishing them for my sins. They claimed it was for taxes, but in truth we had Protestant neighbors with government friends who had coveted our pastures.”
“What became of your parents?”
“They moved to Dublin where my uncle lived. About two years later, they both came down with the pox and died within weeks of each other. Father always said he wasn’t meant to live in a city.”
“And all of this touched the lives of your sisters and their husbands, too, didn’t it? What of them?”
Ian nodded. “They had all lived off my family’s land, but it was no longer there. Cedric, Fiona’s husband, was always a daredevil, and he didn’t like to work. He thought the life of a soldier would be more interesting, and I was selfish enough to not want to go alone. Janet’s husband, Jamie, had no choice. He got caught lying to protect my whereabouts and my father’s solution was to ship him off to the army, too.”
“It’s not your fault they died,” she said softly.
“Yes, it is. I volunteered to be in the first attack at Talvera. There was a bounty paid to those who went in first and survived. I really didn’t care what happened to me back then. I told both of them to stay behind and we’d split the money. They didn’t listen. Each took a bullet.”
“And your view of life changed.”
He smiled at her. Wise Lyssa. “Yes, I suddenly had responsibilities beyond my imagination. But I survived.”
