The Collar Read Online Free Page B

varied. The Deignans said it made no difference. They would make room for Ned. Cait laughed and looked away. Tom began to grow angry. And then Tomas appeared.
    He entered like a seawind, scattering all before him. He rushed to Tom and shook him heartily by the hand, asking him passionately if he were well. He did the same by Ned who only laughed. ‘In God’s name,’ he shouted, waving his arms, ‘let us be going now before the night comes.’
    The rain was still falling. The tide had dropped. Tomas grabbed an oar and pushed the boat on to a rock. Then he raised the sail, let it fall again and had to be extricated from its folds. They shouted their goodbyes to the little group of figures revealed upon the naked rock against a grey background of drifting rain. For a long time Ned continued to wave back at Cait Deignan. A strange feeling of exaltation and loss descended upon him. Huddled up in his overcoat he sat at the stern with Dempsey, not speaking.
    â€˜It was a great day,’ Tomas declared, swinging himself to and fro, tugging at his moustache, dragging the peak of his cap farther down over his ear. His gestures betrayed a certain lack of rhythmical cohesion, they began and finished abruptly. ‘Dempsey, my darling, wasn’t it a grand day?’
    â€˜It was a grand day for you,’ shrieked Dempsey as though his throat would burst.
    â€˜It was, my treasure, it was, a grand day for me. I got an honourable reception and my sons got an honourable reception.’ Flat on his belly, one leg on the edge of the boat he stretched a hot hand to Tom and then to Ned. ‘I got porter and I got whiskey and I got poteen. I did so, Tom, my calf. Ned, my brightness, I went to seven houses, and in every house I got seven drinks, and with every drink I got seven welcomes. And the O’Donnells are honourable people. It was no slight they put on me at all, even if I was nothing but a landless man. No slight, Tom, my treasure, no slight at all.’
    Darkness had fallen, the rain had calmed the sea, and nothing was to be heard in all the waste of water but the splush, splush of the boat’s sides, and Tomas’s voice raised in song.
    5
    Ned was the first to wake. He struck a match and lit the candle. It was time to rise. It was just after dawn and at half past nine he would be in his old place in the schoolroom. He lit a cigarette and closed his eyes. The lurch of the boat was still in his blood and the face of Cait Deignan refused to be put out of mind.
    He heard his brother mumble something and nudged him. Tom moaned and was still. He looked fat and big and helpless with his fair head rolled sideways and his open mouth dribbling onto his shirtsleeve. Ned slipped out of bed quietly, put on his trousers and went to the window. He drew aside the curtains and let the cold, thin daylight enter. The bay was just visible and seemed perfectly still. Tom began to mumble again, crying moodily and whining. Ned shook him. He started up with an exclamation of fright. He looked first at Ned, then at the candle and drowsily brushed his eyes.
    â€˜Is it time to be going?’ he asked in alarm.
    â€˜No hurry. It’s only that you were whining about something.’
    â€˜What the hell? Did you hear me say anything?’
    â€˜Not a word.’
    â€˜Are you sure?’ the priest asked suspiciously.
    â€˜Certain,’ said Ned with his soft laugh. ‘The secret is safe. Were you dreaming?’
    â€˜Oh, God!’ Tom shivered and stretched out his arm for a cigarette. He lit it at the candle flame, his drowsy face puckered and distraught. ‘I slept rotten.’
    â€˜Did you?’
    â€˜I didn’t sleep properly for months.’
    â€˜Why? What’s up?’
    â€˜Every bloody thing!’
    â€˜Tell me,’ stammered Ned, sitting on the bed with his powerful hands resting on his knees. The priest looked away.
    â€˜Do you remember that Scotch dame in