it’s like when your mum and I used to go on adventures before she settled down. You’re so much like her, you know. Sometimes I see you out on that bow and think it’s her, just for a moment…” He suddenly stopped talking, and Ailish looked up to see tears in her uncle’s eyes. His brow furrowed and he put a fist over his mouth. “Mairead,” he murmured. He shook his head and lifted his head. “Oh, Ailish, you’re right, the sea is safe. I can’t bear to know you’re hearing guns and bombs day after day, and I’d kill myself if I got a call one day that you’d been hurt when I could’ve kept you and let you grow up safe and happy.” Ailish sat up in the bed, her eyes wide. “I’ll have to figure some stuff out, like what I’d need to do about teaching you myself, and I can see if Kate will let us stay with her when the weather’s bad, if you liked her, and she could be like an aunt to you. It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least you’d be safe and we’d be together.” Ailish threw her arms around him, and Eoin hugged back with a content chuckle. “Then we’ll make a go of it, eh, love?” He stayed a couple minutes longer, then ruffled her hair and said goodnight, turning the light off on his way out. Ailish smiled and closed her eyes, the sounds from downstairs lulling her away. For the first time in three weeks, no bomb wreckage or burnt streets crept into her thoughts as she tried to fall asleep. There was only sea spray, putting out the fires in her heart.
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