Hot Whispers of an Irishman by Dorien Kelly

brushing away the centuries like so much dust. “It would be mine to do with as I see fit.”
    “Really, now? Have you done ’way with your da?”
    “Of course not. I asked for the treasure as my twenty-first birthday gift. Da agreed, of course, for it was cost-free.”
    “Optimistic of you,” she said. “And there’s no one else who would have a claim, you’re thinking?”
    “No,” he replied with blunt certainty.
    Perhaps it was that she felt the weight of history more than most, which was possible given the years of Nan’s teachings. Or perhaps it was that Liam had decided in advance to be an eejit about this. Having witnessed his stroll with the radar-thing, Vi was leaning in favor of his eejit status.
    “Not, say, the eldest daughter next in line after Nan? The descendant of one who had been gifted the treasure?” she asked helpfully.
    “Now, Vi—” he began in a long-suffering tone.
    She drew a breath between clenched teeth. “A word of advice to you. A sentence begun with ‘now’ and immediately followed by a female’s name is one that’ll leave you with bloody stumps below your knees.”
    He laughed, which did nothing to aid his cause. “Much as I like my legs, I’ll have to risk them. Vi, should it be found, it’s Rafferty treasure and always has been. An act that was wrong isn’t made right by time.”
    Finally he’d said something that made sense, though they sat on opposite sides of the issue. “Exactly so. Which is why your hunt won’t be taking place beneath my nose.”
    Liam’s dark brows drew together, making him look nearly fierce. “What have you to fear if I’m on your grandmother’s land?”
    Fury pushed hard against her chest. “My grandmother’s? It’s my land. My land and my house and you’ve stolen enough from me already.”
    With that, Vi fell into a confused silence. That odd word— stolen —had come from some ill-aired corner of her brain. She prayed that Liam wouldn’t note it, for she had no explanation. But Vi knew he would pick it up because for all his faults he’d never been a poor listener.
    “Stolen?” he repeated.
    She turned her back to him, looking out the window above the sink at the ivory-stuccoed carriage house beyond. Meghan’s tower, he’d called it. Vi fancied a tower of her own, just then. Liam walked round so she couldn’t lose him from her vision.
    “Stolen?” he asked again.
    She forced herself to draw a deep breath. She had drifted so near the fringes of her personal universe, but now she was centered again.
    “My heart,” she said. “I once felt as though you stole my heart.” Yes, that had to be what had nudged the word loose. Of course it was.
    “And you think you didn’t steal mine?” he fired back, then shook his head as the anger eased from his features. “I’d forgotten how you can set me off, and with Meghan listening, too, I’m sure,” he said in a lower voice.
    She didn’t want to think of Meghan just now. “All I’m asking is that you admit nothing’s exactly so. The treasure’s neither exactly yours nor mine.”
    He gave a humorless laugh. “So long as you bar me from your land, the treasure’s exactly lost.”
    “What would you have me do?” she asked.
    He walked three long strides to the kitchen table, then swung round to face her again. “Let me look, at least. I need this, Vi. I need to move forward, to feel as though I’m making progress. I can’t be idle much longer without losing my mind.”
    There was a note of desperation in his voice that she’d never heard before. Vi smoothed her hands over the loose-fitting bronze top she wore, trying to lose a few wrinkles from that, at least. Aye, this treasure discussion was about nothing and everything, with the unspoken crying out loudest of all.
    “I’ll need to think about it,” she answered, buying time, which was all she could afford.
    In truth, until today she’d never considered the treasure as other than long-squandered. If it did