Silent Time Read Online Free

married on Sunday! How did he expect anyone to be ready, least of all you?”
    She waved her hand at the tub. “Get in now an’ I’ll come back in a minute with some towels and I’ll do your back for ya.”
    Leona hesitated, wondering if she should wait until Katie left the room before disrobing.
    Katie noticed this and said, “I’ll probably be delivering your babies before this is all over, my love. So don’t be shy with me. We’re sisters now, remember.”
    Leona let her robe drop to the floor and Katie, in spite of herself, couldn’t resist an envious glance at the pale body with its defined curves, the slender, well-formed arms, the firm thighs and ample breasts that swung slightly as Leona stepped gingerly into the tub.
    As she walked away, Katie said teasingly over her shoulder, “Yes, sir, that Paddy Merrigan really got himself something there.”
    After her bath, Katie brushed Leona’s thick dark hair to a shine and pulled it into a tight bun so it neatly framed the girl’s cheerful boyish face. Leona was surprised to find she liked it that way. Katie also gave Leona a plain white cotton dress that, after a little fitting, flowed evenly down Leona’s frame and masked, for the most part, the shapeliness of her strong young body. Lastly, Leona went upstairs to get her mother’s silk shawl. The red needlework in the shimmering white surface would provide a small splash of colour for the occasion. Then Katie, after getting ready for church herself, helped Leona aboard a little gig she had waiting by the door and brought her to the mission school for the ceremony.
    Leona’s eyes met Father O’Connell as soon as she stepped into the room. She recognized his silver hair and bony, waxen face. She realized she’d never once spoken to him in the years she’d gone to Mass in Three Brooks. But he smiled gently and nodded reassuringly as she walked up the narrow aisle between the two rows of pews. She welcomed his silent approval and, despite her general lack of religious feeling, hoped it might bode well for the marriage.
    Paddy had a white shirt, a starched collar and a narrow black necktie on under his suit coat. His throat was flecked with fiery dots from a close shave. Leona noticed dried blood on his collar. She also caught the fresh smell of his shoes, so new they squeaked during the ceremony whenever he shifted his gaze from the ceiling to the floor. But he looked Father O’Connell in the eye when the time came to say “I do.” When the priest pronounced them man and wife, Paddy put a crooked forefinger under Leona’s chin and planted a firm but pleasant kiss on her mouth. The gesture raised smiles and little elbow digs among the friends and family that were jammed into the rough-hewn pews. They were generally delighted at this surprising turn of events in the shy bachelor’s life. What odds if the girl was young! Lots of men married women younger than themselves.
    Leona noticed, as she turned and smiled to the well-wishers during the brief volley of applause, that one thin, white-faced woman did indeed look on disapprovingly with her fingers knotted tightly as the others clapped. Surely, that was Maisie Tobin. Leona could see how such a sour disposition could be easily disliked. If the need ever arose, she decided, she would have no trouble winning people over to her side against Maisie.
    Then she saw her brother, Vincy, standing in the pew closest to the door.
    â€œMust have snuck in after I arrived,” she thought, “so he could be the first one out at the end.”
    She saw him turn and leave, but was surprised to find him standing at the corner of the building when she and Paddy stepped out at the head of the small congregation. As she approached, he rooted around for something in his pocket.
    â€œMe an’ the boys wanted to give you this,” he said, and handed her a crumpled five-dollar