The Misjudged Romantic

By Laura Joyce Moriarty

The Misjudged Romantic is a spinoff story from The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons. Throughout the trilogy, mystery surrounds the strikingly good looking, black-eyed Gabriel O'Malley. No one knows he was born to an unwed mother who died in childbirth in Dublin. At 17, he sees the gorgeous and rich Madeline O'Meaera McStanish standing at a train depot, and he falls madly in love. When rejected by her, he joins the seminary, but fate sends him to her home where she seduces him. He leaves the priesthood to work for her organization that seeks out evil men who torture women in the name of religion. As he travels the globe freeing enslaved women, he morphs into a fierce taskmaster. Together they have a son, Patrick.

When Maureen Agnes O’Brien meets Gabriel, she is determined to marry him. Despite his obsession with Madeline, she is hell-bent on winning him over. She spends all her resources reinventing herself, believing that by becoming as sensual as possible, he will forget his first love.

Ironically, the bastard son Patrick resembles Agnes in looks and temperament. He adores his new mother and she adores the boy. She convinces him that he must follow in his father’s footsteps and save the world from villains. Patrick immediately begins to imitate his father’s fierce scholarly habits, his physical discipline, and his cold distant demeanor. He dismisses everyone except his mother and father.

Agnes loves Patrick’s independence and nurtures his voracious courage with praise and total loyalty even over her own children. She also believes that her husband’s insatiable love for one woman kept him from true greatness. Consequently, she rears Patrick to rise above his heroic father, and be the love of any and all unloved women he finds on his road to greatness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Joyce Moriarty
• Release date: May 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310907593

Laura Joyce Moriarty

Laura Joyce studied Political Science at Emory University and went on to the University of Georgia to complete a Masters in Public Administration. She then worked at Emory University in Information Technology for seventeen years. During part of that tenure she wrote extensively on various technology topics and was the chief editor of a scholarly journal entitled, A Publication on Information Technology from Emory University [POINT]. Many of her papers on information technology can still be found on the Internet.She has completed a trilogy:The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons I – The BeginningThe Secrets of Nine Irish Sons II – The Rose OisínThe Secrets of Nine Irish Sons III – The Forces of StonesShe is now retired and living in Florida.Extended Bio at: http://www.fourrosesandbrownpublishing.com/aboutlaura.htm

Book preview

THE MISJUDGED ROMANTIC

Patrick

O’Malley

By

Laura Joyce Moriarty

Copyright 2014 by Laura Joyce Moriarty

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In memory of

Marilyn Strimaitis Joseph

April 1945 - July, 2013

Alas! They were so young, so beautiful,

So lonely, loving, helpless, and the hour

Was that in which the heart is always full

And, having o’er itself no further power

Prompts deeds eternity cannot annul.

[Byron: Don Juan II. cxcii]

The names, characters, and events portrayed in his book are fictitious.

Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

About the book . . .

Patrick O’Malley is the love-child of Gabriel O’Malley and Madeline O’Meara McStanish, and the step-son of Maureen Agnes O’Brien O’Malley.

He is assumed to be a cold-blooded spy, with an icy dull personality and somewhat average look. Compared to his princely half-cousins, The Nine Irish Sons, Patrick looks ordinary and has no exterior physical characteristics that would make him look powerful or steely.

No one imagines him as a hero who protects abused women. No one sees him as charismatic or capable of attracting women. To most he is bitter, hard-hearted, and boring.

Once Patrick starts work in the family spy agency, his physical skills become the object of incredulity and gossip. The Nine Irish Sons often wonder about his callous proficiencies and lack of friendliness behind his back.

They finally discover to their amazement the real truth---that Patrick is an extremely proficient fighter, has had numerous love affairs, and has fathered a copious number of children around the globe while supporting them and their mothers. He has also given each a way to his home and mother in Ireland.

Book Characters

Maureen Agnes O’Brien O’Malley

Born 1950

Proposes to Gabriel O’Malley when she is 18.

Agrees to adopt Patrick O’Malley and

Raise him as her own.

Has ten other children by Gabriel.

Considered aloof by the rest of the

O’Malley family.

Patrick O’Malley

Born to Madeline McStanish in 1965

Father Gabriel O’Malley

Step-mother, Agnes O’Malley

Reared to become a heroic figure.

Spent life meeting mother and father’s

Expectations.

Lineage of the O’Malley family

Jones & Brigid O'Malley

Married 1940

Story of their courtship in:

Irish Luck

Had four sons & five daughters.

Gabriel O'Malley

Born 1942

Foundling of a poverty stricken unwed

mother who died in childbirth in Dublin.

Taken in by Jones & Brigid

Fell in love at 17 with

Madeline O’Meaera McStanish

Entered the seminary for four years.

With Madeline, fathered Patrick O’Malley in 1965

Married Maureen Agnes O’Brien in

1968 when Patrick was three.

Luke O'Malley

Born 1947

Kidnapped in 1987

Quarryman

Married at 25 to Mary Elizabeth Moran

Father of Nine Irish Sons

Mary Elizabeth Moran O'Malley

Born 1954

Married at 18 to Luke O'Malley

Able to see the truth through her visions

Kidnapped in 1987

Rescued in 2007

Mother of the Nine Irish Sons

Dr. Peter Fionn O'Malley

Second Son of Luke and Mary

Born 1974

General Medicine Practice

Married to Sharon, an epidemiologist

Three children

Kevin Dermot O'Malley

Sixth son of Luke and Mary

Born 1980

CEO and owner of a private espionage firm, P.R.S.

Killed before the beginning of this story.

Michael Quinn O'Malley

Third Son of Luke and Mary

Born 1975

Poet & Spy, A.K.A., The Rose Oisín

Quarryman

Worked undercover for Interpol

Edward Moran [Teddy] O'Malley

Fifth Son of Luke and Mary

Born 1978

Latin School Teacher

Took over Kevin’s job as CEO of

new headquarters in Killorglin.

Joseph Patrick O'Malley

Eighth son of Luke and Mary

Born 1983 - Twin brother of Brian [Bryce]

Contracted with AT&F and covers as an FBI agent.

Timothy [Tim] Shane O'Malley

Ninth Son of Luke and Mary

Born 1985

Works as a contract spy with

the CIA, Interpol, FBI, and British Secret Service

Secretly learned Spanish dancing

Madeline O'Meaera Fitzgerald McStanish

Had a miscarriage at fifteen from affair with a priest,

Robert Francis Fitzgerald - murdered in 1945

Married Jeremy McStanish

Had a son by Jeremy, Chris Martin

Born Dec. 31, 1945

Separated but did not divorce McStanish in 1948.

In 1953, began an affair with Tadhg Báetán---the Druid.

They had daughter, Mary Elizabeth — handed off to be raised by her half-sister, Bridgette Moran.

Tadhg Báetán

Also known as The Druid

Had affair with Madeline O'Meaera 30 years

Father to Mary Elizabeth Moran O'Malley

Grandfather of the Nine Irish Sons

Scholar Mystic & Paragon

Jeremy McStanish

Born 1928

Arch enemy of Luke O'Malley

Married Madeline O'Meaera

Son Chris Martin

Second marriage a sham to

Claudia Van Ecklignberg

Introduction

This story is a spin off story from The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons, a trilogy.

It begins in Lima, Peru when Michael meets up with his brother Tim in one of their family headquarters. It is a luxury hotel, previously run by their father before he dies in a skirmish with illegal loggers in the Amazon jungle. It is a technological astonishment of high-end spy equipment.

The hotel focuses on attracting the worst sort of criminals, by marketing its private services. Meanwhile, it is full of the latest in secret monitoring advancements.

The two brothers are now worried about the whereabouts of their cousin, Patrick, a freewheeling character who travels the world for the sake of the family spy agency. As Gabriel’s and Madeline’s biological son, he is in their eyes the heir apparent to their mission to rid the world of evil pedophiles, evil men who use their religion as a way to abuse and kill women and children and other war lords. The story begins with Tim wondering about his cousin or half-brother Patrick.

Prologue

My Annual Letter

Timothy Shane O’Malley

In my last letter, I wrote about my name as I was thinking about changing it to the Irish Tadhg like my grandfather, the Druid. It’s pronounced Tig like the tig in tiger and I was hoping my father would encourage me. I thought he’d be impressed since I was told that being Irish was just about the luckiest thing in the world to him.

But I forgot to ask my father what he thought about my name. In fact, I didn’t ask him anything important, because I was too busy being a jerk and now that I’m an embarrassment to my family and myself, I suppose there is no point to changing it now.

Once I was a funny man---a comedian filled with the joy of anticipation---the day I would finally meet my imagined parents---two people who the family remembered with pride and enduring love. Every time someone at the dinner table would say, Remember when? and start a story from the past, the excitement of the images that conjured up in my mind would hold me so mesmerized that I thought I had to be the most fortunate human being God ever had infused with a soul---that is except for the rest of the family who actually knew my parents.

I have changed. Never once did the old me sit and think about nature, or my blessings, or the reason for my existence. I only thought about what I needed to do to reach the ultimate goal of finding two lost human beings that were mine. Never once did I absorb the beauty of the green valleys, the blue lakes, or the mystical Irish clouds that swept overhead. Never once did I see life through eyes of joy, except maybe when I was dancing. And now, when I think about dancing, I think about how cruel I was watching my father dance beautifully to mariachi music and then using it as an opportunity to outperform him when I had no idea he had endured torturous injuries to his legs. I now wonder what possessed me.

Until I was twenty-one years old everything I did, had done, or assumed I would be doing was not questioned. It was either a yes or a no, something good or bad, necessary or not, but would help me find my missing parents until they became a permanent part of my life exactly as I had imagined for my whole life. There weren’t going to be any disappointments. The great man and splendid woman were going to meet my expectations or they wouldn’t be my parents . . . not the ones I longed for and dreamt of for over twenty years.

So how did it happen? They weren’t what I expected. When finally reunited, the great father, who was thought to be a saint and heroic turned out to be a gigolo, who sought wealth, prestige, and comfort. It was a ruse, of course. It was something he felt necessary to flaunt, and I had no clue it wasn’t the real him.

I didn’t know the truth, but even if I had, I still wondered why he didn’t jump for joy when he had the chance to see his sons---to meet me, the one who was too young to remember him. It was beyond my understanding.

My glorious mother was glad to be home, but still suffered harsh memories from years of isolation and hopelessness long after her kidnapping. I understood her lingering pain. But why didn’t my face bring her uncontrollable delight as I had once imagined. I was a stranger to her. She almost looked like she felt pity for me. She was far more enchanted with her grandchildren than with me, the one son who had no memory of her. I had believed that after returning home, she too should have jumped for joy and included me in her every thought and decision.

She didn’t, but what did I know? Nothing! The journey from the old Tim to the current me is so unbelievably grueling that I cannot begin to describe the mental pain that I have endured and why reality changed me so drastically.

Had I ever looked at the ocean or meandered along the beach looking for seashells as my father did? I would have laughed. Could I ever have been happy living a simpler life of isolation and small luxuries? Not I. Not the international jet setter who absorbed the finest and grandest that the world of wealth and power offered. My world was one of casual love affairs, temporary friends, and the unbelievable consumption of luxuries. These were well-known details of my reputation.

And my grandmother? She was the worst of the culprits, because she knew all along how wonderful my father was and I thought he was nothing more than a callous deserter.

Well my life is here now, in this surreptitious front of a hotel owned by my father and grandmother. I have his rooms. The ones he loved that sat facing the ocean. The small ones that were perfectly organized, plain, and clean---the ones I thought ridiculous.

Everything is exactly the same except for the suits he wore. I cannot make myself wear the fluffy white shirts and long black pants or a traditional ponytail. I suppose he wanted to appeal to the drug lords. I also want to look empathetic, but I wear a black t-shirt every day all day. I let my hair grow a little long, but part it in the middle, and grease down the sides. I suppose I look like a goomba wanna-be---like all the rats from the elite underworlds of graft and deception. And I have at least done a good job of deceiving them, as all of them see me as a runner---a man of little or no importance except for the people I might report to and that is just fine with me.

Chapter One

Michael, the Understanding Brother

2013

Hey stupid, still moping about your family?

Michael! I’m in shock. What beautiful pair of legs dragged you out of your private dungeon over to our personal paradise?

I don’t have to fly all the way to Lima to see a beautiful pair of legs and it’s not a dungeon. It’s a wonderful and highly, technically advanced lab.

It’s filled with rocks!

Look. I asked you a question first.

I guess I’m still sulking, but it’s only because I have to write my annual letter for mother---and trying to forgive myself for my mistakes. You don’t have to lecture me. Everyone else has. I know that both our parents were better than my wildest dreams could conjure up. But dreams were all I had and they were products of exaggerated childhood inventions. I suppose I feel guilty.

I’m not going to lecture you. I feel bad enough myself. Believe it or not, that’s your job as a child. Someday, when you have kids you can make them feel guilty for not being perfect.

Do you really believe I’ll ever have kids?

Now you’re the one being unrealistic

Well, let’s be honest. How can a man who lives in a hotel and spends his life managing the human trash of the world have a wife and kids? I feel like I’m stuck for good, said Tim as if he were really feeling sorry for himself.

You haven’t taken out any bad guys since da died. It’s been almost three years. And you don’t have to live here full time. Even da had a house here in Lima. Besides, maybe someday you’ll come back to headquarters and enjoy the family you have. Surely you must miss Ireland some.

Rarely. Sometimes when I think about our cottage, I find myself wondering if I didn’t feel like I was a prisoner there. You know a prisoner of circumstances, not . . .

I understand how you felt in the past. I’m just saying that you may feel differently in the future. It’s just something to think about.

Right you are bro. Now tell me what’s really brought you half way around the world?

Teddy thinks you should be on high alert. He thinks they’ll be a convention of sorts soon. According to our intel, half of the worms will be staying here. We believe they are bringing wives and girlfriends who pressured them into hotel lodgings. Most of the rest of them will stay in a motel near the Jorge Chavez airport. They’ll be holding their meetings in the airport lounges. One of the major players we have tracked for years has rented a villa up in the mountains. We expect that many of his cohorts will be in and out of the villa and hire limos to travel back and forth to their meetings.

What do you think is going on?

We have no clue. The last time they raised their ugly heads, they had more cash than they could spend in ten lifetimes and plenty of drugs stashed on each compound. So we expect it will be something different, and also something big. It could be anything---weapons, drugs, human trafficking---we just don’t know. We only suspect it will be important, and involve several crime families.

It could be just a summit. Even the bums have to meet every once in a while to sort out territory. I’ll take a closer look at my reports and go over all the names.

Here’s a report on the flight manifests in and out of the area. You might want to cross check any names that look familiar.

He handed Tim a thumb drive.

OK. What else? Surely you didn’t fly over here to drop off data I could have picked up off the server.

We want to know about Patrick. We heard that he was going to attempt to infiltrate the Nindearo complex last year. What do you know?

As far as I know, that is what he said he was going to do. There’s no proof except that he said he was planning to work undercover as a gardener. I thought he said he had reported his plans and would stay in touch with headquarters.

But he didn’t, said Michael. Joe said he was a maverick of sorts, and never to expect too much in the way of communication.

Why do you suppose he’s like that?

What do you expect? Madeline was his mother, but never acknowledged him in front of us in any way---not with money, time, or affection. She made no plans for him or saw him as part of our family---not that we know of anyway, said Michael.

It may be because she never saw Gabriel as anything more than a lover---or at least that’s what I think since she wouldn’t marry him.

And then Gabriel’s wife Agnes never acknowledged Patrick either, at least not around us or his step-brothers. They treated him like an outsider. It set an expectation among them that he was not an equal.

I only know what Maureen intimated and that was that Patrick was a step-sibling and older than the rest of the boys. Apparently, they bullied him when they were young, but he eventually learned to hold his own —and then some. Gabriel protected him some and doted on him, but not at home.

Gabriel was hardly ever home anyway---not until Patrick was in elementary school. I think that affected him a lot, said Michael.

I suppose a kid expects his da to be his knight.

I’m sure you never noticed da sticking up for Kevin when he didn’t measure up physically?

You’re right.

Gabriel took him on his missions and taught him how to use weapons and find the bad guys, so that is all Patrick really absorbed as an example, and so has followed in his footsteps.

I wonder if Gabriel was more brutal than we suspect. I mean we know he shot a few of the bad guys, but mostly, just dropped them into Madeline’s island, said Michael. "But they were both so passionate about finding religious pedophiles. Their anger was hardly containable.

You’ve brought up another mystery. We heard about this private island, but for a long time I thought it was a joke. I am now beginning to believe it actually existed. What do you think?"

"I asked da about it before he died. You know we really didn’t share much, but he was here in the hotel for many years. He told me that he was able to find the family after searching the Internet on Gabriel’s religious activities after leaving the priesthood. He was involved in some scholarly work, but da didn’t explain it. What he told me was that there were certain efforts to uncover the worst of the worst abusers in the Church and he had lots of help from others in his organization.

I don’t remember any specifics, except that he confessed that the constant killing was something they were all against. So Madeline bought a deserted island. She had various packages of seeds and a few animals dropped on the island as care packages. They all agreed that there would be no way any of them could survive trying to escape. They would have to work at survival, but were given the means to live peaceably. Apparently, there were very few who did survive. Most were too arrogant to do any manual labor. Not surprising considering their lifestyles before being found out. I know Gabriel often complained that it was too good a judgment for what he called, ‘the most evil of human scum.’"

I think Gabriel was the coldest of the cold. And I think what he taught Patrick was what we missed---how to manage your emotions. He was here with me in this hotel for six months, and yet, I don’t think we spoke more than a few words here and there. He didn’t want to swim, share a dinner, or anything, said Tim.

But Gabriel started out as a priest---he was said to have been the kindest and gentlest of men before going into the seminary. And we know he sorely loved his own parents even though he was adopted. I wonder what happened.

Do you think he entered the seminary because of his parents?

No. My understanding of Brigid and Jones O’Malley is that they were not interested in the Church, or in any religious activities, and there is a note somewhere that they were involved in the revolution back in the day. They mostly housed runaways as far as we know and I think they were all pregnant girls. Maybe some of the terror and fear during the rebellion rubbed off on Gabriel.

I wish we understood what went on.

I would like to know too, said Michael. It would explain a lot. We don’t even know who our da’s real mother was or where she was from. I wonder if Liam would know.

So you heard that our father was born out of a relationship between Jones and some other woman?

I’ve heard, and supposedly it was another O’Malley from another county, but know nothing else about it. What’s interesting is that Madeline, Gabriel, and our father were the leaders of such a heartless organization---I don’t mean that the way it . . .

I understand what you mean, said Tim. They had no mercy for their enemies. It was as if somehow each one of them received some private communication from God to take out the bad guys and not to worry about consequences. I think part of their anger was due to the frustration they felt about trying to get justice from local authorities.

"Meaning what? I’ve never had that kind of trouble. We always get cooperation when we go after slave