Five Years of Marriage to Mr. Bradford novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Dia Duit
He came on the first Sunday in May, at two o'clock, to the sea wall at Salthill.
I knew he would.
I had known since the letters, sixteen of them, one a week.
Each one was a little less wrong in its Irish, and none of them asked for a thing.
I stood at the far end of the promenade with my hands in my coat pockets and watched him walk toward me from the town.
He was thinner.
His hair had gone grey above the ears, and there were new lines at the corners of his eyes.
He carried the yellow duck umbrella, furled, in one hand, and he wore no watch and no ring.
He stopped six feet away.
"Dia duit," he said.
"Dia duit," I said. "That was nearly right."
"I had a good teacher in the library at Billerica. A man doing twelve years for fraud. He said I had the vowels of a tractor."
I laughed before I could stop it.
It was the first time I had laughed in front of him since October.
His face changed, and he looked down at the umbrella.
"I'm not here to ask for anything," he said. "I haven't any right. I came to see you, and I'd like to know whether I may."
"You've seen me."
"Yes."
"I have a test for you."
"All right."
"There's a café on the quay. You're going to walk in and ask for two teas, in Irish, in front of whoever is there. Then you're going to sit across from me and answer one question."
"Which?"
"I'll tell you when the tea comes."
He did it.
The café had the same steamed windows and the same woman behind the counter, who had seen his face in the newspapers.
Keep reading free with an account. Start Five Years of Marriage to Mr. Bradford from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend