Gallagher's Lady

by Brittany Young

IN THE HILLS OF BONNY EIRE...

Cavan Gallagher had returned to Ireland to satisfy his revenge. For seven years he'd suffered in jail for a crime he didn't commit--a crime Meghan O'Neill's grandfather had arranged.

Part of Cavan's revenge was to ruin Meghan's family financially. The other part was to demand Meghan's hand in marriage as repayment for all his sufferings.

But Meghan had loved Cavan since the day they'd met. And now she was determined to soothe his bitterness and show him how easy it would be to fill their marriage with love...

187 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1986

About the author

Pen name of Sandra Harrisson Young

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

Found this book on Open library. I see no reviews, so decided to do one as I quite enjoyed the book.

First time reading anything from this author. Have to say the book could have done away with some characters/storyline. At times there was too much going on in the book it could get exhausting. The main story would have done fine without them.

What I did like is the gradual romance development between the MCs, Cavan Gallagher and Meghan O’Neill, the deeper connection, emotions, the tender romantic scenes between them. For a revenge story, it was low-angst --there was no bitterness or uncomfortable scenes. No punishing kisses, no rough manhandling by hero either. I think the roughest it got was when the two fall on each other after Cavan rescues Meghan from a burning car, smooching and feeling up each other, relieved she’s alive 😜

The major part of the book was about Cavan’s constant battle with himself trying to staying focused on the revenge aspect of his marriage to Meghan and not succumb to his sweet wife’s charms and fall in love with her.

I liked Cavan a lot. Even though, he was angry and had only revenge in mind for the wrong done to him, he was not a cruel man. He only wanted the people responsible for taking away 5 years of his life to pay for it. He felt guilty for dragging Meghan into the mess, knowing she was the only one innocent in the whole thing, but she was essential to his revenge plan. But then, every time he snubbed her and hurt her with his harshness, he’d hate himself for it.

Loved Meghan. She’s such a sweet, loving, caring person - so full of life, always radiating positivity. She was quite independent too and has good instincts. Even knowing that Cavan married her only for revenge, she’s not afraid to let him know that she’s in love with him. She was a dreamer and an eternal optimist which was bound to get her hurt someday. Some would think she’s stupid to marry Cavan knowing he married her for revenge, but I liked that she was brave enough to take on the risk and explore the chance of making him fall in love with her than not having him at all in her life.

Now for the story. Contains spoilers
Cavan was around 21 working as a stable-hand for the Farrells, neighbors to Meghan’s grandfather, Padraic O’Neill. The O’Neills and Farrells are rich Irish families and age-old friends. Before his death Meghan’s father and his good friend, Hugh Farrell, had contracted that Meghan and her older sister, Caroline, would marry Hugh’s sons, Tom and Steve.

When Caroline turned eighteen, she was pressured by her parents into marrying Tom Farrell. She didn’t want to marry Tom and told them she was in love with Cavan. They were appalled for not only was he a stable-hand but also American Irish, not pure Irish. So, she and Cavan ran off to get married. Hugh, seeing his security running away, conspired with Padraic O’Neill and had Cavan framed for theft of Hugh’s mother’s jewels. Cavan was found guilty and spent 5 years in prison whereas Caroline married Tom. Where was Meghan when all this was happening? Away at boarding school. She was around 12 then. She hears about the incident later on, but never got to know about her sister and GF’s involvement in it.

The book opens 5 years since that incident. Meghan is on a school break and spending her holidays with her GF. He has raised her single-handedly since her parents’ death when she was 13 and they both dote on each other.

She has a small accident while out riding and Cavan, who was passing by, stops to help her. He eventually gives her a ride in his car to her house. An overtly friendly Meghan finds him cold and unfriendly further turning frosty when she introduces herself. Meghan too instantly connects the past when he tells her his name. Something about Cavan touches her deeply. She instinctively knows he didn’t commit the crime. When she asks him if he did it and when he confirms–with much reluctance—he didn’t do it, she believes him. That single encounter between them stays with Meghan over the years.

Cut to 5 years, Meghan is now 23 and a teacher at the local orphanage. The Farrell patriarch has passed away, leaving behind heavy debts due to Hugh’s compulsive gambling. Caroline is now a widow; Tom passed away a year ago. She’s away from Ireland for the moment. Hugh is desperate for his son, Steve, to marry Meghan for the money and prestige their marriage would bring to him.

Padraic O’Neill doesn’t like Hugh, but the contract his son and Hugh drew is legally binding. He thinks Meghan and Steve will be happy as they are very close to each other. He reminds Meghan about the contract. She tells him what she and Steve feel for each other is brotherly-sisterly affection and they don’t want to marry each other.

Moreover, she cannot stop thinking about Cavan. None of the attractive men she’d dated over the years could make her forget him. She knows now that she’s totally in love with him. Suddenly, while talking to her GF at Alistair Farrell’s burial, she senses he’s somewhere close. But where, she didn’t know.

Her sixth sense is right. Cavan is back in Ireland thirsting for revenge. Over the past five years, he gambled his way through life and invested his winnings into successful projects. He even set up a company in Ireland rivalling Padraic O’Neill’s, selling the same products for less and eating into O’Neill’s customer base.

He knows Meghan is Padraic’s weakness and the best revenge would be to alienate Meghan from the old man. He wanted the satisfaction of seeing that defeated look on the man’s face when the Priest proclaimed them man and wife.

He begins his revenge with a poker hand, winning from Hugh Farrell everything he owned --his house, land, horses and the marriage contract between Steve and Meghan—and coerces him to sign a declaration that Hugh and Padraic O’Neill had conspired to send Cavan to prison.

He takes the contract to Padraic O’Neill and tells him to have Meghan marry him. He also tells Padraic to sign the declaration. When Padraic refuses, he tells him he intends marrying Meghan whether Padraic signs it or not, but if he does sign it then Meghan need not know what her beloved Grandfather had done to an innocent man, at least not from Cavan. Knowing how much the truth would hurt Meghan, Padraic gives into Cavan’s blackmail and signs the declaration.

Meghan is delighted to see Cavan again. Older and making her heart flutter even more, but cold and angry as ever. He shows her the marriage contract and, on threat of taking her GF to court if she refuses to marry him, gets her consent to marry him. He doesn’t know Meghan is actually marrying him because she loves him and wants a chance with him and doesn’t want to lose him.

Once they are married and Cavan has got his revenge having taken Hugh’s security and Padraic displeasure over the marriage, he doesn’t know what to do with Meghan. He has never met anyone like her. He fights hard against the attraction he feels for her, but she keeps foiling his attempts. Like refusing to sleep in the guest bedroom on her wedding night and slips into his bed. There was no sex but it was a sweet romantic scene with Meghan exploring her sleeping husband’s face. Cavan snubs her with “Next time ask your husband first,” but then feels like a heel for it, even worse when he sees a tear trickle down her face.

He takes off to America the next day but even there he can’t stop thinking about her and wondering what she’s doing. Liked the scene where he’s sitting in the restaurant with his attorney, Jessica, who is also his ex-mistress, and she’s chiding him for not calling her even though he had been 4 weeks in the US and he replies he’s on personal work, if he needed her, he would have called her. Jessica knows the truth about his marriage because he had her draw up the pre-nup and got Meghan to sign it. It was then that Meghan saw the look in Jessica’s eyes and knew the attorney was in love with Cavan and that they had history together.

Jessica tells Cavan that they are in NY and his wife is in Ireland, she needn’t know about them. He replies, “She already does. She has good instincts.” He declines her offer and goes back to his hotel and calls his wife to tell her “I’m coming home”

Some may not like Jessica hanging around him and also his past relationship with Meghan’s sister. I usually don’t like two siblings having relationship with the same man/woman myself but through conversations between Cavan and Caroline one can see neither had/have any romantic feelings for each other. With Caroline’s strict Catholic upbringing, I don’t think they were physically intimate. What they’d thought was love ten years ago wasn’t love and both are in agreement had they married then it would have been sure disaster.

As for Cavan’s relationship with Jessica, she herself tells Meghan later on in the book the two of them sleeping together hadn’t mean anything to either of them until she started to fall in love with him. He then shut her out completely on the personal level –that was much before he married Meghan-- but she talked him into retaining her as his attorney. Of course, she was hoping she’d eventually wear him down and he’d reciprocate her feelings, but Cavan’s interaction with her throughout the book was cold and impersonal. He only treated her as an attorney. Even Meghan trusted Cavan with Jessica. She knew he had integrity and would never have an affair with Jessica as long as he was married to her.

Jessica had Meghan’s and my sympathy for a while until she went and revealed the truth about Padraic’s involvement in Cavan’s imprisonment to Meghan. I guess it eventually dawned in her that Cavan was in love with his wife and she had no chance of her ever getting him back and wanted to hurt him by hurting Meghan.

Back to Cavan’s dilemma. He knows it wouldn’t take him long to fall for Meghan if he lets himself, but then he also cannot forget the betrayals he’s faced especially by her sister and grandfather. He tries to distance himself from Meghan, tells her they should lead separate lives, but, he, himself, can’t stop thinking about her when he’s away from her. He wants to give in physically and consummate the marriage but knows that once they cross the line there cannot be an annulment and Meghan, being a Catholic, won’t be able to marry Steve when their marriage ends. Meghan tells him she has been in love with him for 5 years and if he wants annulment to do it for himself not for her. Next, he’s planning a romantic dinner and making out with her. There’s only one sex scene and it’s at the end of the book after the I-LOVE-YOUs. As days go by, he realizes he cannot bear to see her hurt and didn’t want her to ever know about her GF’s involvement in his imprisonment.

The romance is interspersed with Meghan’s bond with the orphans and her growing maternal feelings for 3yr old orphan girl Sarah –she’s keen that Cavan and she adopt Sarah-- the orphans arranging a charity ball, Meghan’s sweet friendship with Steve, Cavan seeing that Steve is a nice person gives him a job and their coach house to stay, Steve suddenly discovering he’s in love with Meghan and isn’t feel brotherly toward her anymore, but also understands Meghan is totally he love with Cavan and continues to be her best friend. There’s also a nice housekeeper. We also get to know why Padraic framed Cavan.

Following Jessica’s revelation, Meghan is shot by a revengeful Hugh and as she lies unconscious for few days we see Cavan and Padraic bond as they worry about her. Cavan’s fears of losing her and pleads with her to come back to him. Once she recovers Meghan takes off to her own cottage four hours away to reflect on her relationship with Cavan. Until then she was sure he was falling in love with her, but now she feels he’ll never be able to forget his past as long as he’s married to her and must be hating her for it.

Cavan gives her four days to be alone then goes to the cottage and tells her he loves her. He even takes her wedding dress to her and have them renew their marriage vows and consummate their marriage.

I would have loved a little more angst in the book. It would have definitely shot up had the author shown Meghan upset and bothered by Cavan-Caroline’s past relationship or about Cavan is seeing Jessica when away on business. But, then I guess the author was going for Meghan totally trusting Cavan and understanding him more than he understood himelf.


Overall, a nice, emotional read. As I said, I loved Cavan and Meghan and the bond between them. Also, liked the secondary characters