Christmas in the House of O'Byrne, Chapter 2+

     When she finally came out—the house was hers—or maybe she belonged to the house. The last Matron had died and the house hadn't chosen a replacement, though many had tried. It had locked down, and only admitted those of the O'Byrne family, strong enough to challenge for the matronship.

     The property consisted of 640 acres, the deeded amount from the mid 1840's, and was very valuable. 640 acres sounded like a lot, but some of the acreage included sheer cliffs that ran straight up and down.

     It was a fact, that the seven sisters had coaxed gold from within the caves in those cliffs. The gold was long gone, but the investments the money went into still flushed the family coffers. The property had a rather strange trust which was set up to go with the O'Byrne descendent who could acquire the house. Since the property trust was with an O'Byrne attorney, no questions were ever asked.

     Lidia remembered the hug Josh gave her when she'd stepped out of the house after the trials. He had just grabbed her and held her tight. She hugged him back, and knew she was loved. He knew that she was the same Lidia he fell in love with, the house had not changed her. She might belong to the house, but she also still belonged with him.

     She cleansed and opened the house.  It again, became the stronghold for the O'Byrne family. It was a place where discrepancies could be fixed, hearts could be mended, and sickness could be healed. The house became a home where everyone was free to laugh and to love.

     The family was not without its problems, the ability to use magic created its own complications. It could be used to make life easier and to make great things happen—but sometimes the magic went wrong, and created its own anxieties. This house had seen it all—weddings, births, and deaths.

     In the same year that Lidia became the Matron to the house, their daughter Andra died. She was Lidia and Josh's oldest child, and was very dear to their hearts. Lidia felt as if her heart had been ripped from her. The agony of loss was only lessened by the love of her family. Lidia and Josh's other daughters, Rose and Idra, came with their families to stay a short while. Lidia also invited Gerold, Andra's husband, and his two children to come stay at the house—Allisa was seven and Adam was six. They stayed for a year while Gerold tried to come to terms with Andra's death. The presence of the children was an added joy to Lidia during that time. Together they mourned the loss of Andra, and tried to make sense of her death.

     Lidia's mind wandered to the night her husband Josh had died. It was in the spring of 1957. He had died from complications due to Parkinson's disease. They had worked with the symptoms the disease had caused, for the last twenty years of his life.

     Intellectually, Josh's death wasn't a surprise—but the heart can't seem to understand that. The passing of a soul—even though expected—still shocks the heart. Lidia kept expecting to see him walk in a door, or lying on the bed. She would turn to tell him something funny, only to realize he wasn't there. She would see something beautiful and think to tell Josh when she got home, only to realize that Josh wouldn't be there waiting to hear her—would never be there. Her heart would seize. Her face would agonize with unshed tears. He had been her life mate. The sorrow of his passing ate up her soul, making her ache for him. To this day, she missed him terribly.

     The only other resident in the house at the time of Josh's death was Allisa's son Derrick Andrew O'Byrne, nicknamed Shade. He was twenty when Josh had passed. When he was a child, he had developed a sensitivity to the sun. When someone was looking for him, others would nod in a direction and say something like… "Over there in the shade". After a while, they would just nod and say shade. Pretty soon he was being called Shade. The nickname stuck.

     He had a special affinity with the earth and watched over the land. He was an earth healer. He accepted the binding of the house and the property, it was his true love. He accepted the O'Byrne name as his right. It wasn't his father's name—it was the name for those with magic. The lanky boy had grown into a tall lanky man. He had dark piercing eyes, dark brown hair, bushy eyebrows, and a thick raggedy mustache. Both hair and mustache were now liberally dusted with grey.

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