THE INHERITANCE - part twenty-five

THE INHERITANCE – part twenty-five ………

Welcome home

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“Mo abhaile, please unlock the door.” And the lock clicked open.

As Kate and Mo entered the cottage, Kate couldn’t help but say, “Mo, I really need to stop doing that. If my arms are full of groceries or packages, it’s fine, but if I keep asking my home to unlock the door, I’m going to become very lazy.” She felt the cross around her next vibrate. She knew even her great-grandmother agreed.

She looked around the cottage and smiled. “You know, Mo, it’s difficult to put to words how I feel but I’ve never felt more at home or at peace as I do each time I walk over that threshold. I’m really, for the first time, home. Does that make sense?”

Maureen smiled as she walked to the stove and added some fresh wood.

“Yes, it does, Kate. Your grandmother knew this would be your destiny. I think I hear a truck coming up the drive. Might be Kieran with your hutch.”

Mo set a lighted match to the wood while Kate walked to the door and laughed. “Mo, I’m grateful that you have your witchy senses going. Yes, it’s Kiernan and a man I think I’ll assume is his son.”

“Oh,” Mo said, “That would be Neal. He wanted to help Kieran craft the hutch but his da wouldn’t hear of it. Kept saying that it’s for someone special but wouldn’t know who until she came into the shop.”

“Wow, talk about instincts! Is Kieran also a witch?”

Mo added water to the kettle and set it on the stove. “No, mo chara but he seems to have a very keen sense of sight.”

There was a shout from the front yard, “Katie, mo stor! ‘Tis Kieran and Neal with your hutch.”

Kate turned and gave Mo a look with humor in her eyes, “Mo, does everyone here in Aughacasla call everyone here in Aughacasla “my dear”?”

Mo leaned against the wall and folded her arms across her chest and chuckled. “Oh, without a doubt, mo chara, especially the folks that are old enough to be your parents. It’s just the way of it.”

Kate watched as Kieran and Neal carefully unloaded the furniture from the truck, carried it inside and placed it near the wall opposite where the table sat. It was at that moment Kate realized that her grandmother’s boxes were still where Shaun placed them.

“Oh dear, I forgot all about them. Mo, can you help me move the boxes? I’d like the hutch to go on that wall.”

Kieran placed a hand on Kate’s shoulder, “Not to worry, mo stor, me and Neal will move them. Just show us where.”

Kate walked to the far wall and gave a gentle push. The wall jutted out about an inch and slid to the side – just like it did that morning. Kiernan nodded as if that was a perfectly normal thing to happen. Within minutes, the trunks and boxes were put away and the hutch moved to where Kate indicated. Neal took a rag from his back pocket and wiped the dust the road spit up from the entire hutch.

“There, you go, Miss Kate,” Neal said enthusiastically, “all clean and ready for your dishes! Is there anything else we can do while we’re here?”

Kate heard the kettle whistle. “Yes, as a matter of fact, there is. I’d be pleased if you’d both share some tea and teacakes with Mo and me.”

Kate almost burst out laughing when she saw the smile on Kieran’s face and delight in his eyes.” Neal rolled his eyes and said, “Da never turns down tea and teacakes. He’ll be a fan of yours til the day he dies and probably long after.”

“I just had a fantastic thought,” Kate said as Mo placed the cups on the table. “I can use my great-grandmother’s dishes! Oh my, that is such an honor.”

Kieran bowed his head almost as if he were praying, “Kate, my stor, ‘tis an honor for us that you’d use Kathleen’s dishes. We are most humbled.”

For the next hour, they sat and listened while Kate talked about her plans for her house and commented when she asked for suggestions.

Now, finally alone, the dishes washed, dried, and neatly stacked in her new hutch, Kate decided to begin the task of going through her great-grandmother's items.

“Grandmother, I’m not sure where to begin. Can you guide me, please?”

Kate opened the hidden door where Kieran placed the boxes. As she knelt, she pulled the keys from the front pocket of her jeans. She immediately felt one begin to heat. “Okay, then, I have the key, now to find which trunk.” There were only two and she was thankful it wasn’t more. She tried the key in one lock, and it opened without a problem.

She lugged the trunk out of the room and watched as the door in the wall automatically closed.

As she began unpacking, she found pots, pans, tableware, tablecloths, napkins, and just about everything else she’d need in the kitchen. She placed all the items on the table and was thrilled at the treasure she now owned. “Wow! This is amazing. I won’t need to buy anything! Oh wow! Look at the embroidery work on the linens. It’s beyond words!”

She reached in a bit further and her nails scraped against something harder than linens but softer than cookware.

“Oh, my god! With all the excitement and drama about Bridget, I’d forgotten about grandmother’s books.” She stuffed the journal and spells & potions book as far down in the trunk as possible, just in case her cousin found the trunks and decided to help herself to what didn’t belong to her.

Once the trunk was empty, she pulled it with ease up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Then, she placed for the time being, the items from that trunk in the panty.

Satisfied, she took her books upstairs, and began to read.