Seahill, Northern Ireland; 1997
Tabitha was the new girl in town, just around to help her sick grandmother with her bookshop. She was quiet, trying to keep out of the way of others, particularly the attention of men. She never meant to get his atten...
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17, end of August
Adjusting to living with her grandmother was hard, permanently, and with new priorities. Like Brennan had promised, she worked hard every day. At first, Tabitha thought she was just going to watch the shop for a few hours as he had insinuated at their first meaning, but that was not the case.
Her duties were to keep inventory, clean the shop, assist customers, sometimes even helping to account for the balance books for him as he was pretty busy with the pharmacy part of the business.
It seemed as though the people of Seahill was happy. They were glad to see Tabitha becoming a part of their community and helping out Brennan. Before, Phillip would always seem to be a mess, having a confused, stern stare wanting to make everything all right. Of course, the positives come to the criticisms. Many folks wondered why the young girl chose to spend more time at the shop than with her grandmother, who was stuck alone with young Issac. There were also talks about being alone with Brennan, mostly from older women.
If they had only known how alone she was with the priest.
Tabitha supposed that it was her favorite part of the job. She was able to avoid seeing Father Foley. Well, she manages to do that for the majority of the summer.
When she first told her grandmother that she was going to work with Brennan, they argued. It took Tabitha by surprise, only having ever seen the kinder side of her grandmother. She screamed and nearly cussed, Tabitha almost physically pushing herself into a corner. She had heard about her grandmother's anger from her parents several times, as to warn her to be on her best behavior, but she never expected to face it, not for doing something good like getting a job.
But it wasn't the job that brought on the fight, only the person she was working for.
The only thing that made things worse was that Foley was right there, witness to it all. He probably relished every moment of Tabitha being humiliated in that fashion.
Stephen did not enjoy seeing Tabitha being yelled at by Sonya, despite an odd fulfillment of her finally called out for doing something wrong. Disappointment surfaced hearing that she had gotten a job, perhaps her way of showing that she was moving into her new role as a caretaker.
He thought that Tabitha should not have to take up a job to support her family. She should be taken care of, not the other way around.
None the less, it was the fear in her eyes that changed things for him. That look reminded him of that night, guilt flowing over him. He did look back at the young child who ended up crying as the result of Sonya screaming. He was surprised she had spoken the way she did. It reminded him that even his beloved friend was not a perfect being.
Although Stephen did not voice it, he had his doubts in the beginning about the baby, about whether Tabitha was lying or not. There was an odd familiarity about Issac, but he could not place his finger on it. The baby had a strong resemblance to Tabitha in many ways, which would be plausible if they are indeed siblings.
