She took him for a walk around the village, or tried to. He spent most of the time trying to shake off the leash or tangling himself in it or chewing on it. She resolved to get her hands on a training manual as soon as possible.

She met Brenna as her friend was loading a toolbox into the back of her lorry outside the village bed-and-breakfast.

"Good day, Jude, and what have you there? Isn't that one of the Clooney pups?"

"Yes, isn't he wonderful? I'm calling him Finn after the great warrior."

"Great warrior, is it?" Brenna crouched down to give Finn a friendly scratch. "Aye, you're a fierce one I'll wager, mighty Finn." She laughed as he leaped up to lap at her face. "He's a lively one, isn't he? You made a nice choice. I'd say he'll be nice company for you, Jude."

"That's what Aidan thought. He gave him to me."

Lips pursed, Brenna glanced over. "Did he, now?"

"Yes, he brought him to the cottage this afternoon. It was so sweet of him to think of me. Do you think Betty will like him?"

"Sure and Betty loves company, too." After a last pat for Finn, Brenna straightened. "She'll be pleased to have the pup to play with. I was just about to stop in the pub for a pint. Do you want to join me? I'm buying."

"Thanks, but- No, I should get Finn home. He must be hungry by now."

The minute they parted, Brenna made a beeline for the pub. She caught Darcy's eye, gave a quick jerk of her head, then moved off to a corner table where she could have some privacy.

Darcy brought along a glass of Harp. "What are you bursting with?"

"Sit down a minute." She kept her voice low and her eye on Aidan over Darcy's shoulder when Darcy sat. "I just saw Jude walking her new puppy down the street."

"She's got a puppy, does she?"

"Shh. Keep your voice down or he'll hear we're talking of it."

"Who'll hear we're talking of what?" Darcy asked in a hissing whisper.

"Aidan'll hear we're talking of how he picked out one of the Clooney bitch's litter-handsome one, too-and took it up to Jude at her cottage for a present."

"He-" Darcy caught herself as Brenna shushed her again, then leaned forward conspiratorially. "Aidan gave her a puppy? He didn't say a word to me about it, or anyone else as far as I know."

Since it was news both fresh and surprising, Darcy pondered over it. "He's been known to give a lass a trinket from time to time, but that's usually for an occasion."

"That's what I'm thinking as well."

"And flowers," Darcy continued. "He's always been one for taking flowers to a woman who's caught his eye, but this is different altogether."

"Exactly different." Brenna slapped the table lightly for emphasis. "This is a live and permanent thing. A sweetheart sort of thing, it is, not just the I'm-enjoying-myself-in-your-bed sort of thing." To punctuate the opinion, she lifted her glass and drank.

"Well, she gave him that painting she bought in Dublin, and he's taken with it out of all proportion if you ask me. Maybe he was after giving her something back, and just happened on the pup."

"If it was to give her something back in kind for the painting-and I thought it a lovely painting-he'd have given her a trinket or a bauble or something of the sort. A token for a token," Brenna said firmly. "A puppy is several steps up from a token."

"You're right about that." Darcy drummed her fingers, narrowing her eyes at her brother as he worked the bar. "You think he's in love with her?"

"I'd risk a wager on it that he's heading in that direction." Brenna shifted. "We ought to be able to find out, and if not us, Shawn could. And we can wheedle it out of him easy enough, for he never thinks twice about what's coming out of his mouth."

"No, but he's fierce loyal to Aidan. I'd like her for a sister," Darcy considered. "And seems to me she suits Aidan down to the ground. I've never seen him look at a woman as he does our Jude. Still, Gallagher men are notorious slow to move to marriage once the heart's engaged. My mother said she had to all but pound my father over the head with orange blossoms before he came to ask her."

"She's planning to be here more than three months more."

"We'll need to move him along faster than that. They're both the marrying kind, so it shouldn't be that hard. We'll give this some thought."

Aidan was right. Finn was good company. He walked the hills with Jude, entertaining himself when she stopped to admire wildflowers or pluck the buttercups and cowslips that flourished as May coasted to June. Summer came to Ireland on a lovely stream of warmth, and to Jude the air was like poetry.

When the weather was soft, with the rain falling like silk, she kept her wandering short so she could tuck herself cozy in the cottage.

And when days were dry, she indulged herself and Finn with those long walks in the morning so he could run wild circles around an indulgent Betty.

Whenever she did, rain or shine, she thought of the man she'd seen on the road from Dublin, walking with his dog. And how she had dreamed of doing the same whenever and wherever she wanted.

Like the dog she'd imagined, Finn slept by the hearth when she made her first attempt at soda bread. And he whimpered when he woke lonely at three in the morning.

When he dug at her flowers, they had to have a serious talk, but he made it through two full weeks without chewing on her shoes.

Except that one time they'd agreed to forget.

She let him walk and race until he was tuckered out, then when weather allowed, she set out her table and worked outdoors in the afternoons while he napped under her chair.

Her book. It was so secret, she'd yet to fully acknowledge to herself just how much she wanted to sell it, to see it with a beautiful cover, one with her name on it, on the shelf of a bookstore.

She kept that almost painful hope buried and threw herself into the work she'd discovered she loved. To add to it, she often took an hour or two in the evening to sketch out illustrations to go with the stories.

Her sketches were primitive at best, in her opinion, and awkward at worst. She'd never considered the art lessons her parents had insisted on to be particularly fruitful. But the drawing entertained her.

She made certain they were all tucked away whenever anyone came by to visit. Now and then, it took some scrambling.

She was in the kitchen going over the latest sketch of the cottage, the one she considered the best of a mediocre lot, when she heard the quick knock on her door, then the sound of it slamming.

She jumped up, sending Finn into a fit of barking, and hastily shoved the sketches into the folder she used to file them.

She barely got it closed and stuffed into a drawer before Darcy and Brenna strolled in.

"There's the fierce warrior dog." Brenna dropped down on the floor to engage in her usual wrestling match with Finn.

"Do you have something cold for a weary friend, Jude?" Darcy slid into a chair at the table.

"I have some soft drinks."

"Were you working?" Darcy asked as Jude opened the refrigerator.

"No, not really. I've finished most of what I'd planned to do this morning."

"Good, for Brenna and I have plans for you."

"Do you?" Amused, Jude set out the drinks. "You can't possibly want another shopping spree so soon."

"I'm always wanting another shopping spree, but no, that's not it. You've been with us for three months now."

"More or less," Jude agreed and tried not to think that her time was half over.

"And Brenna and I've decided it's time for a ceili."

Interested, Jude sat as well. She'd always enjoyed hearing her grandmother talk of the ceilis she'd been to as a girl. Food and music and dancing all spilling out of the house. People crowded into the kitchen, flooding out into the dooryard. "You're going to have a ceili?"

"No." Darcy grinned. "You're having it."

"Me." With something akin to terror, Jude gaped. "I couldn't. I don't know how."

"There's nothing to it," Brenna assured her. "Old Maude used to have one every year at this time, before she took poorly. The Gallaghers will give you the music, and there are plenty more who'll be more than happy to play. Everyone brings food and drink."

"All you have to do is open the door and enjoy," Darcy assured her. "We'll all help you put things together and make sure the word gets out. We thought a week from Saturday, as that's the solstice. Midsummer's Eve's a fine night for a ceili."

"A week?" Jude croaked it out. "But that's not enough time. It can't be enough time."

"More than enough." Darcy winked at her. "We'll help you with everything, so don't worry a bit. Do you think I can borrow that blue dress of yours? The one with the little straps and the jacket."

"Yes, of course, but I really can't-"

"You're not to fret." Brenna climbed into a chair. "My mother's all set to lend a hand as well. She's been looking for distractions since Maureen's making her crazy about the wedding. Now my advice would be to have the music in the parlor, the main of it anyway, and the kegs and that outside the back door. That gives you a nice flow from one to the other."

"We'll need to move some of the furniture for dancing," Darcy put in. "And if it's a fine night, we could set some chairs outside as well."

"The moon will just be coming full. My mother had the thought of setting candles about outdoors, to make it festive and to keep people from tripping over things."

"But I-"

"Can you get Shawn to make colcannon, Darcy?" Brenna interrupted before Jude could get the protest out.

"Sure he'll make plenty, and the pub will donate a keg and some bottles. Maybe your mother would make some of her stew pies. No one has a finer hand at it."