Shane turned from his phone call to find Cait gone. He raced across the square to see that her car no longer sat in its spot.

"Damn it," Shane said.

Frustrated, he stood on the sidewalk, unsure what to do next. Fear and misery raced through him. He couldn’t believe it when Ellen had insisted that Cait could read minds. But, it made sense especially as he had overheard the last part of what Cait had said to Ellen in the penthouse. He felt like he'd been hit with a frying pan in the face. Everything that he thought he knew about Cait had shifted. A bitter taste of betrayal filled his mouth.

How could she think that she wasn't good enough? Shane had always been kind to her and everyone else in the village. Just because he liked nice things didn't mean that he felt he was better than anyone. Shane enjoyed spending the money he made from his hard work. Was that a bad thing?

Shane sighed as he eyed the door to the Baron. He needed to talk to Seamus and had to go back and finish pressing charges against Ellen. His heart heavy, he walked up the steps and knocked on the old man's door.

"Aye, Shane, good to see you," Seamus said as he opened the door and smiled widely at Shane. Shane felt a twinge of remorse at knowing what the old man had gone through.

"I wanted to stop by and tell you that you are welcome to stay here and that I'd like to offer you the rest of the year for free," Shane said quietly.

Seamus' eyes lit up, but then he examined Shane's face more closely.

"Why don't you come in for a moment?"

Shane nodded and stepped into the apartment, noting the piles of boxes that ranged the long wall of windows that looked out over the square. Regret filled him.

"I'm so sorry about this. I wish that you had contacted me," Shane said bitterly.

Seamus gestured him to a loveseat and offered him a bottle of Harp. Shane took it gratefully and Seamus pulled up a chair across from him.

"Ah, well, no harm done. If anything, it got me to do a nice deep clean," Seamus said cheerfully.

Shane winced at the ease with which the old man forgave him.

"Just like that? You aren't mad at me?" Shane asked.

"Now why would I be mad at you? It's that Ellen that's a witch after all," Seamus said, taking a long pull from his bottle of beer.

"Thank you," Shane said softly, staring at the floor.

"Ah, if you don't mind me saying, you look pretty upset," Seamus said. "Did Ellen do more harm than you realized?"

"I'm still finding out just how much she took. I need to get back to the guards and see what else she has confessed to. I have my assistant calling every tenant we've had in order to make sure that everyone gets their money back," Shane said wearily.

"You'll figure it out," Seamus said.

"Yeah," Shane said quietly.

Seamus cleared his throat and allowed Shane to sit in silence for a moment. Finally, the old man gestured with his bottle.

"That Cait, she's a fine woman, isn't she?"

Shane nodded.

"Risked a lot for her to come up here like she did," Seamus continued.

Shane nodded again.

"She must really care about you," Seamus said.

Shane glared at the old man and Seamus laughed.

"Got it bad, do you?"

"She lied to me!" Shane burst out.

Seamus raised an eyebrow at Shane and gestured with his beer bottle for him to go on.

"I feel like I don't even know her. What else is she lying about?" Shane said.

"Well, now, it seems to me like a woman honorable enough to come up to Galway and try to save your business probably isn't hiding much."

"Yeah, that you know of," Shane said bitterly.

"Have you thought about it from her perspective? It isn't the easiest thing to reveal to someone," Seamus said.

"She should have told me," Shane insisted.

"Maybe. Maybe not. It's not something she can change. And, she would have been shunned by many if she had opened up about it," Seamus said.

Shane stopped and thought about it for a moment. He supposed that having to tell the world that you are different was probably pretty scary.

"Still…I'm not everyone. Things are different with me," Shane insisted.

"How so?"

"Well, I want more from her. I want to be with her! You are supposed to tell that to the person who wants to be with you," Shane said.

"Be with her? In what way?"

"Well…I," Shane said and stopped.

"Ah. I see. Have you told her that you love her?" Seamus said and took another sip of his beer.

"I haven't, actually," Shane whispered.

"So, you expect her to lay it all on the line for you but you haven't done the same for her?"

Annoyance sprang through Shane at the old man's words. It wasn't like that…was it?

"It's not like that," Shane said.

"Seems to me that you expect a lot of her but aren't doing the same yourself," Seamus said snippily.

"She said that she isn't good enough for my rich lifestyle," Shane said. "How does that even make sense?'

Seamus smiled and gestured to his apartment. "Well, there will always be class differences. Owners and employees, landlords and tenants. It's a power struggle. The one with less power will always feel more insecure."

Shane felt like someone had pulled the curtains back in his mind and sunshine flooded in.

"So, it's my job to make her feel secure," Shane said.

"Bravo, my boy. You haven't even told her you love her. How is she supposed to believe in you?"

"God, you're right. A hundred times, right. I've been so stupid."

"So? Fix it." Seamus smiled at him.

"I will. Hey, want a job? I'm looking for a new apartment manager," Shane said and Seamus' eyes lit up.

"Looks to me like this is the beginning of a new partnership, my friend," Seamus said and leaned over to tap his bottle against Shane's.