“Cac capaill! They should have arrested you instead of my daughter!”

“No, they shouldn’t have arrested either of us.”

“Damnu ort! What did you do to her?!

The Gaelic curse wishing damnation upon me wasn’t unfamiliar. Felicity was prone to slipping into the old language whenever she was angry, just like her father was doing now. In fact, her personal list of favorite vulgarities mirrored his, so I’d heard most of them before. Of course, the imprecations usually weren’t directed at me as they were in this case.

“I didn’t do anything to her, Shamus. You know that.”

“Aye, I don’t believe it. You and your godless cult did something to my colleen. You brainwashed her and forced her to do some Satanic sacrifice or something, didn’t you!?”

He didn’t even give me a chance to respond to the ludicrous accusation before starting in again.

“ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD! THAT’S WHAT YOU DID, ISN’T IT?!”

“Listen to me, Shamus,” I interjected sharply. “Number one, she didn’t kill anyone, much less get forced to do anything against her will. Number two, you sure as hell aren’t going to help her situation if you go around telling everyone that she did do it but only because I forced her to.”

There was a brief pause, and I hoped that I had managed to get my point across to him. When he finally spoke again, he was somewhat more reserved, though you could tell the anger was still seething behind his words, just waiting for a chance to escape.

“Why didn’t you call me? Why did I have to hear about this from the television, then?”

“I’ve been just a little busy, believe it not.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my tone. “As you noted, my wife just got arrested.”

“Well, what are you doing about this?” he demanded without actually acknowledging what I had just said.