"I hate to do it to you, me boy, you with two new bairns to feed and all, but I've had to cut down on me drinking, what with the changes in me life of...late."Ian shook his head, about to make a snappy comeback, when something about my expression caught his eye."I'll be damned if you don't have the look of a man in love," he said with a wry grin. "Do I know the lucky lady?"For all his Irish manner, Ian was a native-born Phoenix, so when he said 'lady' he meant 'human woman, ' not a member of the. Tracy had drifted off into a world of her own, her hands turning her phone over and over, eyes glazed and staring at the floorboards of the truck, trapped in some part of her mind he had no access to. He found a wide pull off on the road and stopped the truck, leaning over to pull Tracy in and ask what was wrong. Tracy leaned into Mel, put a hand on his leg and took a breath. “I’m OK Mel, I’m OK. Just tripping, going back in time.” Her eyes came back into focus and she looked at Mel, then out. A pretty rehaired lady stood on th doorstep as I approached,"Have you seen lost teenage boy wandering around?",she jokingly asked. Motioning her in, she spotted Brady sitting on the sofa. "Brady, it's about time to get in, dad will be home in a few minutes and dinner is about ready and I hope you weren't bothering our new neighbor," she said. I told her that he had actually helped me with my heaviest luggage and that I was paying him back with a soda. "Yeah, Brady makes friends very easily,. The Hollanders knew with that keen sense of business that the name of the game was right there on Manhattan Island. All of the power of the New World would be between the confluence of the two mighty rivers and they would rule the world from that seat of power sending Rome, London and Paris into the dustbins of history. Unfortunately, their national interest was buried in making myopic “deals” for paltry sums and they had no muscle to back up their greed-driven plans.It was England, France and.