Jan Karon - In the Company of Others

Table of Contents

MITFORD BOOKS BY JAN KARON

At Home in Mitford
A Light in the Window
These High, Green Hills
Out to Canaan
A New Song
A Common Life: The Wedding Story
In this Mountain
Shepherds Abiding
Light from Heaven
The Mitford Bedside Companion
Jan Karons Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader
Patches of Godlight
A Continual Feast
The Mitford Snowmen
Esthers Gift

THE FATHER TIM NOVELS

Home to Holly Springs

CHILDRENS BOOKS

Miss Fannies Hat
Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny

ALL AGES

The Trellis and the Seed

JAN KARON PRESENTS

Violet Comes to Stay
Story by Melanie Cecka Pictures by Emily Arnold McCully
Violet Goes to the Country
Story by Melanie Cecka Pictures by Emily Arnold McCully

VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,
Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre,
Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632,
New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2010 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Jan Karon, 2010

All rights reserved

Excerpt from My Butterfly from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1934, 1969 by Henry Holt and Company. Copyright 1962 by Robert Frost.

Publishers Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Karon, Jan.
In the company of others : a Father Tim novel / Jan Karon.
p. cm.(The Father Tim series)

eISBN : 978-1-101-46598-1

1. ClergyFiction. 2. AmericansIrelandFiction. I. Title.
PS3561.A678I44 2010
813.54dc22
2010024268

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

To readers of this work,
I dedicate these words
from the Kavanagh family crest:

SOCHIN AGUS FARISINGE

Peace and plenty

One

The beams of their hired car scarcely penetrated a summer twilight grown dark as pitch in the downpour.

His wifes fear of being hemmed in was only slightly greater than his own. As the road narrowed to a lane the width of a sheep track, he took Cynthias hand and peered out to sullen hedges pressing on either side. He was peevish at being crammed into a rain-hammered Volvo with a testy driver and a box of books, which for some bizarre reason they had thought they couldnt live without.

He closed his eyes, then thought it best to keep them open. He was a lousy traveler. Indeed, the aggravation of getting from Atlanta to Dublin had exceeded his worst expectations. Following a delay of seven hours due to storms in the Atlanta area, the trip across the Pond had been an unnerving piece of business which shortened his temper and swelled his feet to ridiculous proportions. Then, onto a commuter flight to Sligo Airport at Strandhill, whereand this was the final straw, or so he hopedthey met the antiquated vehicle that would take them to the lodge on Lough Arrow. When he located an online Sligo car service a month back and figured how to dial the country code, hadnt he plainly said this trip would celebrate his wifes birthday as well as her first time in Ireland? Hadnt he specified a nice car?

In any case, theyd be getting no consolation from the driver, a small, wiry fellow so hunkered over the wheel that little more was visible than his headgeara mashed and hapless affair of uncertain purpose, possibly a hat.

He had visited County Sligo as a bachelor ten years ago, with his attorney cousin, Walter, and Walters wife, Katherine; they had driven to and from the fishing lodge on this same road. In any weather, it was no place to meet oncoming vehicles.

He unbuckled the seat belt and leaned forward.

Aengus, I think we should pull off.

Whats that?

I think we should pull off, he shouted above the din of rain and wipers.

No place to pull off.

Ask him how he can possibly see anything, said Cynthia.

How can you possibly... ?

I see th wall on m right an keep to it.

Doesnt appear to be any cars coming, why dont we stop and wait it out? Torrential. Second only to the hurricane hed driven through in Whitecap.

Ill get round th bend there an see whats ahead. Aengus muttered, shook his head. Bleedin rain, an fog t bleedin boot.

Its what keeps you green, shouted his wife, opting for the upbeat.

Thats what they all say. Mself, Im after goin on holiday to Ibiza.

He sat back and tried to stuff his right foot into the shoe hed removed on entering the car.

Timothy, said his wife, if theres no place to pull off, what happens when people meet another vehicle?

Someone has to back up. I never quite understood how that gets decided. Anyway, therell be a pull-off along here somewhere; they seem to appear at very providential places.

When he said he keeps to the wall, I realized those arent hedges. Theres stone under all those vines.

He thought she looked mildly accusing, as if hed neglected to pass along this wisdom.

Walls! reiterated Aengus. Landlord walls.

He had promised her this trip for years, and for one reason or another, it had been often deferred, twice rescheduled, and even now there was a glitch. Last week, Walter and Katherine had been forced to postpone tomorrows planned arrival in Sligo until four days hence. Walters apologies were profuse; after months of red tape and head scratching, he said, the date for meeting with a big client had come out of the blue. His cousin hated the inconvenience it would cause; after all, Katherine was the only one among them with guts to drive the Irish roadways. She was a regular Stirling Mossfearless, focused, fast. Too fast, the cousins had long agreed, but what could they do? They were both cowards, unfit for the job.

Until Walter and Katherine arrived at the lodge with wheels, he and Cynthia would be stuck like moss on a log. How will you manage? Walter had asked.