To Love A Wild Irishman

Chapter Sixteen

Cassandra sat up a bit straighter and looked down her nose at the man, "And who's to say I am not the one taking advantage of Finnegan. If you are going to make such wild assumptions then what keeps you from warning your brother that I am merely using him to have an adventure of my own and will leave him in the end for my pampered life back in the city?"

"You need to go back to that life now," Seamus warned. "He's going to get you killed. Has he told you how many people want his blood because he has stolen from them or bedded their wives and daughters? Finnegan has more people that want him dead than want him breathing and it's only a matter of time before they catch him and you end up caught in the crossfire."

"Why do you have so much hatred for your brother?" Cassandra questioned sadly.

Seamus let out a growl of exasperation, "It is not hatred but an observance of the facts. Finnegan is the same man our father was with the same vices, the same weaknesses and he will hurt you just the same as our father hurt our mother if you continue with this foolish infatuation you have with him. I will go with you to talk to your father and I will insist that he doesn't punish you or make you marry Thomas Shelton. That should take away your reason for acting as if you are a child this last week or two. On top of that I'll get five thousand dollars and I'll forget all about Finnegan's debt so you won't have to worry that he'll meet his end from me."

Cassandra shook her head as she stood up. Her clenched fists were held down to her sides as she stared down at the man she could not believe she had once fancied herself in love with. Finnegan had been right. Seamus cared only about money and he was willing to sacrifice her happiness to get it. She had been such a foolish girl to not realize which of the Callahan brothers truly cared about her.

"I am not going home, Seamus Callahan, and you would do well to realize that so that we can avoid being forced to leave you tied up on this train for the entire week. I only came in here to ask you what you said to Finnegan when he came in here earlier."

"I told him to leave you be and not use you the way our papa used our mama. Since he's not with you now I suppose my talk with him worked better than my talk with you."

"You are going to stop saying such things to your brother!" Cassandra snapped angrily. "Finnegan is not the man your father was and if you knew him at all then you would know that to be the truth. Any similarities between the two of them were created and fueled by the judgments of you and others like you."

"How do you have that figured?" Seamus questioned with irritation.

"If every time you did good there was someone whispering in your ear that you were a bad person would you not eventually stop attempting to be good and simply be what the world seemed to expect you to become? Finnegan hears nothing from those around him other than he is a bad person and is going to fail. Finnegan is going to succeed at this. He is going to get his treasure and he is going to get me."

Seamus shook his head. "He is going to hurt you, Cassandra."

"He is not the one who abandoned me by choice all those years ago and never came back. He is not the one who would see me back under my father's thumb simply so he can have quick easy money. I was going to leave your gag out but I don't believe you've learned your lesson quite yet."

Seamus opened his mouth to speak but Cassandra filled it with the cloth as she tied it back around his mouth, "I'm sure you are in need of relieving yourself however it simply would not be proper for a lady such as myself, as tender and helpless as you seem to find me, to help you do such a thing and your brother is far too irresponsible and uncaring to help, so I daresay you will be slightly smelly come morning."