Chapter 7

We appeared on the road some distance from Glenquin Castle in County Limerick, Ireland. We were far enough away from it to get a good view of the Castle (Towerhouse), the castle village, and the fine new manor house that Cousin Ken had built near the castle.

Glenquin Castle looked the same as it had on my previous visits, and probably as it had for the last hundred years or more. The castle village was larger with more houses, barns, and animal pens than on my last visit however. On that visit while in college, Sunshine had assured me that the village then was much larger than it had been in her youth. It appeared to have expanded even more now.

The manor house was also a surprise. It had been large on my previous visit, but appeared to have been added to since that visit, making it even larger. It was built of stone, and three stories high with a steep pitched roof which surely housed at least one floor for the servants. It was now easily over a hundred and fifty feet long, but still only a bit over forty feet deep. There were also visible stables, barns, and storage buildings scattered behind it.

A guard appeared from the castle bawn, as we approached it and the other buildings.

"A good day, Master," he said in greeting. "Whom do you seek here?"

"I am Thomas Patrick O'Connell, and this is my Apprentice, Leila. I am here to see my Cousin, Kennard Curran O'Connell, on a matter of business," I informed the guard who appeared to be quite startled by my announcement.

"It will be a minute, Master. I must summon the Sergeant of the Guard," he told us as he backed up to the gate in the bawn wall and called inside. A second man appeared shortly, and I presumed that he was the Sergeant of the Guard, as he had on a fancier uniform. The first man spoke to him before returning inside.

"Good day, Master O'Connell," the second man said. "I will guide you to the manor house where the Master is presently." At the manor house, he rapped on the front door, and a male servant answered it.

"Follow me please, Master," the servant told us after the Sergeant explained who we were.

"Master O'Connell will join you shortly," he told us after showing us to the very large and fancy receiving room of the manor house. Several minutes later Sunshine and Rose appeared. We were still standing waiting form my Cousin in the parlor.

"Hello, Thomas!" both women said on seeing me. "Ken will be here shortly. Both of you have a seat. It won't be long. He has been busy lately," they finished.

"Would you like some refreshments or something to eat?" Sunshine asked.

"No, we just had breakfast before coming here," I told them.

"We still often forget about the time difference, even after all of these years," Rose told us before the Sisters took seats after we had.

"Welcome, Thomas!" Ken said a few minutes later, as he entered the room. He stopped about four feet into the room and stared at Leila for several seconds.

"And who is this young lady whom you have brought with you?" he asked with a large smile.

"This is Leila, she will be my Wife shortly," I told him and his Wives, all of whom smiled.

"Welcome, Leila, you will make a fine addition to the O'Connell Clan. You have a fine powerful Talent, and are a lovely young woman," Ken told her. Leila blushed heavily at the complement.

"Surely you didn't come all of this way just to introduce you fiancee," he continued perceptively.

"Actually no! I came to speak to you about any openings at UGA in the Magic Department," I told him.

"Ah... !" he said. "I heard that you were teaching somewhere in New England."

"Yes, I'm currently running the PhD program at Boston University, and also teaching many of the Master Level classes," I told him.

"And... ?" he prompted.

"A problem has developed, and I am not sure how it will work out. I therefore decided to check on the availability of other positions for the next school year," I told him.

"And this problem was caused by?" he asked.

"The Head of the Magic Department," I told him.

"You are running the PhD program, and you are not the Head of the Magic Department?" he asked in a shocked voice.

"No, I'm not," I told him and went on to explain about meeting Lelia and how things had developed.

"Yes, there always seems to be problems when those of limited abilities are in charge. There were problems at UGA in my Father's time, but we haven't had any since then," he remarked before pausing.

"I'll get Ken Jr. and we'll go to see Kell and his family. His children will also be part of those taking over for us – a large part actually. One of his Sons and two of his Daughters will be working with Ken Jr.," he told us.

"Did you name your Son Kennard also?" Leila asked in puzzlement.

"Actually, Sunshine named him Kennith, and we all call him Ken. The junior was added to differentiate who was being refereed to. He is much too tall to be called 'little Ken' anymore," he told us with a laugh before disappearing.

"Rose's Daughters will be taking over our position in the Agriculture Department next year also," Sunshine told Leila.

"And both of you are married to Kennard – at the same time?" she asked. Last evening I had explained to Leila about twins in our clan often having just one Husband, but she still found it hard to believe.

"Oh yes, and we have been for nearly twenty-eight years now," Rose told her with a smile.

"And you always ... always... ?" Leila stopped there in embarrassment.

"Yes, all of the time," Sunshine answered. "We both love him, and have never really understood the problem with having more than one Wife in your Reality," she continued.

"There has been a lessening or diminishing of the prohibition to multiple partner marriages for some time in certain areas, but a single Husband or Wife is still the norm," Leila told them and was about to ask me something when Ken returned with a tall young man.

"This is my Son, Kennith," he told us. Kennith was now about 5'-11'' inches tall and maybe 155 pounds or so. From prior visits I knew that he was currently twenty-four years old. He had the red hair and green eyes of the O'Connells, along with a few freckles.

"Hello, Cousin Thomas!" he said brightly, but he was looking at Leila.

"Hello, I'm Kennith O'Connell," he said to her in greeting.

"This is my fiancee, Leila," I told him. Ken Jr. looked a little embarrassed for a second.

"I'm pleased to meet you Leila," he said with a smile.

"If everyone is ready, let's be on our way to Fantstown Castle to see Kell and his family," Ken told us, before we all stood and exited the house. Ken gave each of his Wives a kiss before we all joined hands, and Ken Jr. cast the transfer spell drawing on all of our Talents for the Magic.

We instantly reappeared in front of another manor house similar to Ken's. There was a towerhouse with a similar bawn around it off to the right of it, and I knew that there was a large castle village on the other side of the bawn, but it wasn't visible from here. This manor house was at least as large as Ken's and appeared to be built on the same pattern. The front door opened after about a minute, and Kell, his Wives, and children all came out to greet us.

"This is my Cousin Kell, his Wives Airmid and Almha and their children," Ken informed Leisa before turning to Kell.

"Thomas has come to visit with his fiancee, Leila," Ken told him.

"Hello, Thomas, it's been a while. Welcome, Leila!" Kell said in a bright voice as he noticed Leila's Talent.

"Yes, welcome Leila!" Airmid and Almha said immediately following their Husband, smiling excitedly.

"It's always nice to meet another young woman with such a fine Talent," Airmid added.

"I'm afraid that I had an ulterior motive for coming here," I told Cousin Kell.

"And that would be?" he asked in not quite so bright a voice.

"Let's all go inside where we can be comfortable to discuss this," Ken suggested. Kell's manor house was laid out similar to Ken's, but there were a number of minor differences. Once we were all seated in the receiving room, Kell turned to me.

"Just what is this ulterior motive?" he asked, and again, I explained about meeting Leila, what had happened, and why I was there. Airmid and Almha didn't look happy at all as soon as I revealed what Harry Harrington had done to Leila.