Paddy Colman - Sometime after Paddy and Tereza first met meet

Excerpts from Chapter 2. One note - Orientales are Uruguayans, Portenos are Argentines, and Peninsulares are Spaniards.

...Paddy looked up and saw that, today, Tereza would remain in the cathedral up to the time the priests arrived to offer mass. He was impatient and wondered what had prompted her reticence to leave - whether it was additional prayers to be offered up or her need to partake of the sacraments. Could it be she was struggling with some of the same emotions that now tormented him?

Whatever it was, in the end he came to realize he was actually happy that he would enjoy a little more time with her that day because of it.

After communion he accompanied Tereza once again down the now familiar street toward her home. This time, however, he decided to put forth a new question that had been bothering him for some time.

“Tereza,” he asked. “Does your family know about me yet?”

Tereza smiled and looked straight ahead. “Oh yes,” she replied. “All of Montevideo knows about you now.”

Paddy was somewhat stunned. After a few seconds he continued. “And how do they feel about me?” he asked.

“It is me they are not happy with,” she responded honestly. “It has nothing to do with you, except, of course, that you are an English sailor.”

Paddy reached for the right words but they were not there. Finally he said the only thing he could think to say, “I’m sorry.”

Tereza stopped. She turned and put her hand on Paddy’s cheek. “It could be worse,” she said. “For an Englishman I think they actually do like you – a little.”

“What can I do to improve my situation?” Paddy asked.

“Nothing. For now you must stay in the background and let me continue to overwhelm them with all your good qualities,” Tereza said.

“My good qualities?”

“Oh you have a few – the rest I have to invent,” Tereza laughed.

“Invent? Well, you know I actually do have more than a few. You just have to know me better to discover what they might be,” Paddy insisted.

“Well, maybe I can begin today,” Tereza smiled.

“Today?”

“My brother has gone to Minas to help my friend’s sweetheart with his cattle. My mother also went with him so she could visit some of her friends. Today we will have some time alone” she said.

Now Paddy began to wonder. Maybe this woman was not quite so saintly as he had imagined. Well, he would not have any part in proving it otherwise. He would not destroy his world as he had now created it.

“Are you asking me to spend some time with you?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied.

Paddy swallowed. “Tereza, when we get to your house, I cannot go in with you.”

“You see,” Tereza giggled. “I’m learning more about you already. And had you acted differently, you surely would not have gone inside. I would not have permitted it. Now I believe maybe I can trust you.”

Paddy looked up. He had been so absorbed in the conversation that he had taken no notice where they were. They had already arrived at Tereza’s house.

“I only want to share some yerba mate with you, Tereza said. “That is all. Won’t you please come in?”...

... “The English high command had it on good authority that a report of an American captain stated that the South Americans had come to despise decades of Spanish rule. If that were true, we believed they would welcome the English as their liberators.”

“But that was foolish! Why would anyone believe we would welcome the English?" Tereza finally asked.

“Looking back, it all seems pretty silly. But that is what we believed. Of course, the joyous reception did not materialize. On the contrary, the battle for Buenos Aires lasted a week before the city was subdued.”

“And here in Montevideo, the fighting was unlike anything I had previously imagined. Sailors and marines in the streets were attacked by men, women, and servants alike fighting from the roofs of their houses.”

“I was one of those,” Tereza confessed. “Of course, most of the women did not go to the edge of the roof to fight, but we helped reload muskets and then, when our ammunition was gone, we carried things up to the roof to be thrown down. That is when my friend was killed, shot in the head. I cradled him in my lap and his blood flowed from his head into my skirt as I wept over him.”

“Tereza, I’m so sorry!”....

....“Take no mind of me,” Tereza said. “We live now in an uncertain world. When I was a little girl things were always the same and I thought it would always be that way. Then when father died, everything changed. Because of Napoleon, the Spanish have become more militant, and yet they are less capable of managing affairs or even protecting us. Then it seemed like the end of the world when the English came.”

“But we can provide a stability to things, Tereza, and make life much more secure,” Paddy contended.

“Who can say,” Tereza went on. “Princess Carlotta is now married to the Portuguese heir to his throne and we wonder will it be the Brazilians who will rule over us next?”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the Portuguese, or the Spanish, not right now anyway. The French have overrun both their countries,” Paddy said.

“You do not know what you are saying,” Tereza argued. “Because of this war, the Portuguese Royal Family and Princess Carlotta are living in Rio de Janeiro. They have taken control there and appear to like it.”

“They are here in the Americas?” Paddy asked stunned.

“Right up the road,” Tereza replied sarcastically.

Paddy rose and handed the mate to Tereza. “Miss Ferrando,” he said. “I must take my leave. Please forgive the English for whatever pain we may have brought. I truly had hoped we all might have been able to realize a bright future together.” He took her hand and bent over to kiss it.

Tereza deftly clasped the back of his neck and placed her mouth on his. It surprised Paddy completely but he did not recoil. No - he meekly succumbed. A feeling of joy, contentment, and peace overwhelmed him. If it were possible and within his reach he would have remained there for a very long time.

But Paddy knew it was not possible. Many events were quickly coming to pass that could easily destroy everything for everyone. He pulled away.

“Tereza,” he said. “I believe I am in love with you.”

“Tereza smiled but said nothing. Then Paddy turned and ran off down the street...

Excerpt from "Paddy Colman"

An excerpt from my novel "Paddy Colman". It is a story of an Irishman misplaced in South America and caught up in its revolutions for independence -

...The Colman house was different now than it had been when Tereza placed her hand on the back of Paddy’s neck and pulled him toward her for that first kiss some fifteen years earlier. Paddy had thrived as a printer and the home was now full of new furnishings and the finer things of life.

The Colmans had changed too. Like most marriages, as the children grew older there was a lot less of Tereza sitting in Paddy’s lap in the parlor with her arms around his neck. They were parents well into their thirties now and the inappropriateness of it with growing children made it almost a thing of the past. Paddy missed it. It was a ritual that confirmed to him that this most precious of women loved him above all others and not participating in that ritual now deprived him of her sweet tenderness – the one thing he prized above all. He was buoyed by the understanding that Tereza missed it too but sometimes he questioned her reasons.

“Reasons!” Paddy thought. “That is a strange word for emotions that have no reason to them at all.” The fading practice of the ritual also had Tereza beginning to believe she was becoming less attractive to him and his denials did nothing to ease her concerns. Paddy tried to use an example and thought he had come up with a very good one. He rehearsed it in his mind until he had perfected it.

“A man goes to his wardrobe where underneath the clothes his shoes and boots are kept. Among these is the pair of boots, that given the choice of keeping the rest and discarding these, or keeping these and discarding the rest, he would keep these. They are strong and durable and have much life left in them. They are also soft and supple where they need to be and they feel good when he wears them. He is comfortable in them all day. They may not be as classy or as outwardly beautiful as many of the others, but he values them most of all. They serve him best and it is his hope they last longer than he does.”

The parable did not have the immediate effect he had hoped.

“So I am like an old pair of boots!” she fumed. She stewed for some time and Paddy wondered if he had inadvertently unleashed a beast he would never be able to subdue.

Her resentment of this parable was so intense that she thought on it for days until - suddenly she understood its meaning. There are men, like the Beau Brummels, so famous in that era, who would choose the newest prettier footwear always and cast the older footwear aside.

Then there were men like Paddy. These men loved their old boots and would wear them forever given the chance. It was overwhelmingly comforting to her, but it did not ease the fact she was getting older.

Another change occurred, gradually over time, so slowly as to almost not be noticeable. But an occasional event would suddenly and briefly reveal it.

Katy and Luisito were growing and it was gratifying to see how they developed.

Katy had all the grace and charm of her mother and was beginning to catch the eye of many of the local ne’er do wells (at least, that is how Paddy saw it).

Luisito was like – Paddy had hoped there was some of him that rubbed off - but it was obvious he had many of the characteristics of his late uncle and namesake. He could do a lot worse, Paddy thought...