Tara Road

The next morning Jack Brennan got very drunk very early. He went first to Nora Johnson's house at Number 48A. 'Does my wife clear up after your daughter and all her friends?' he shouted.

'I have nothing to say to you drunk or sober,' Ria's mother said with some spirit. 'I have never met your wife without telling her that she should leave you. I'll bid you good-day.'

He moved on to Rosemary's house. 'Swear to me on a stack of bibles that Gertie never cleaned for you or anyone.'

'Oh get the hell out of here before I call the Guards,' Rosemary said, and pushed past him.

Next he stopped at the dentist's house. Jimmy Sullivan saw him from the window and answered the door himself.

'Tell me.'

'I'll tell you nothing, Jack Brennan, except that I fix your wife's teeth every time you hit her and I'm not in a mood to do so again.'

Then he went and knocked loudly on Marilyn's door. 'Did you give Gertie a whore's dress?'

'Did she say I did?'

'Stop being Mrs. Clever with me.'

'I think you should go, Jack.' She slammed the door and looked out the window to see where he went. She saw him run across the road to the bus stop.

Polly Callaghan had everything ready. Today she was moving to rented accommodation. An unfurnished flat so she could take her own things with her. Those at least had not been seized by that woman, Barney's mouse-like wife, who had been stacking away thousands upon thousands.

Last night Polly had gone to dinner with a pleasant man who had long been pestering her for a date. It had been a deadly dull evening. She dreaded to think of a lifetime without Barney. She wished she could hate him but she couldn't. She just hated herself for having taken the wrong decision so long ago.

The furniture vans had arrived. Polly sighed and began to give the directions that would dismantle a large part of her life. The phone was disconnected but her mobile was still in operation. It rang just at that moment.

'Poll, I love you.'

'No you don't, Barney, but it doesn't matter.'

'What do you mean it doesn't matter?'

'It doesn't,' she said, and clicked off.

She was going to drive ahead of the van to direct them to the new address. One final look and she was ready to close the door. Polly sighed. It was hard to say to Barney that it didn't matter, but she must be practical. She had always known Barney for what he was. He was like Danny Lynch, although as far as she knew Danny had never had any strong partner-figure like herself. Barney would always remain married to a safe-haven person like Mona. Danny had moved from his safe haven, the faithful, loving Ria, to safe, compliant Bernadette. There had been some little dramas in between like that wild Orla King and one or two others. But that's the way things were. Polly did not think she had been fooled or betrayed. She had always known the score. And there was plenty of life ahead.

She gave one last glance out the window at the removal van.

Everything was packed now, she only had her hand luggage to take. There were sounds of shouting, some drunk was yelling abusively. Polly couldn't quite see what was happening. Then there was a thump, an impact followed by a screech of brakes. There were screams from everywhere. The boy who was driving was being helped from his seat.

'I couldn't help it, he threw himself, I swear,' he was stammering.

It was Jack Brennan. And he was dead.

CHAPTER NINE

The launderette was busy when they arrived. The shirt-ironing service had been a big success, and Gertie had got orders from several business concerns as well. Colm had been high in his praise of her and personal recommendation was always very important. She looked up when she saw Polly Callaghan coming in and her hand flew to her throat when she saw that Polly was followed by two Guards.

'Jack?' she cried in a strangled voice. 'Has Jack done something? He was grand last night, very quiet, not a word out of him. What did he do?'

'Sit down, Gertie,' Polly said. One of the Guards had organised a glass of water from amongst the inquisitive staff and clientele. 'There's been an accident. It was very quick, he didn't feel a thing,' Polly said. 'The ambulancemen said it would have been over in a second.'

'What are you saying?' Gertie was white-faced.

'We would all be lucky to go so quickly and painlessly, Gertie, honestly, when you think of the length it takes some people to die.'

The young Guard handed her the glass of water. She had only been in uniform for a week. This was the first occasion when she had been sent to break bad news to someone about an accident. She was very glad that this Miss Callaghan had come with them. The poor woman who ran the launderette looked as if she were going to keel over and die herself.

'But Jack can't be dead,' Gertie kept saying. 'Jack's not even forty, he has years of good living ahead of him, ahead of both of us.'

'Mrs. Vine, Marilyn, we met briefly. I'm Polly Callaghan. I'm with Gertie Brennan now.'

'Yes?'

'There's been a most awful accident. Gertie's husband Jack was killed and of course she's devastated, I'm here with her now, and they're getting her mother and everything… but I do have to go to let people into a new apartment and I was wondering…'

'Would you like me to come to the launderette?' Marilyn asked.

'If you can, please.'

Marilyn heard the urgency, almost desperation, in the voice. 'I’ll come right away.' She called out to Colm in the garden, I'm going out to Gertie, Jack had an accident.'

'Nothing trivial, I hope?' Colm said.

'Fatal, I believe,' Marilyn said tersely.

To her surprise Colm threw down his fork and rushed into the house. 'Jesus, what a stupid remark to make, I'll come with you,' he said. 'But I'll run on ahead and tell Nora Johnson, she'd want to come too.'

Marilyn thought to herself, not for the first time, that these really were extraordinary people. The very time when you wanted to be left alone with your grief they started assembling half the country around you. She tried to take it in. Jack Brennan who had called at this door under two hours ago was dead? Her last words to him had been, 'I think you should go.' Suppose she had asked him in for coffee, suppose she had tried to reassure him, would he be alive now? But Marilyn had been down that road before: she wasn't going to travel it again. What had happened to Gertie's husband was not her fault. She would no longer take on the guilt and responsibility of the universe. She would go and see what could be done for the living.

Ria's mother was exactly the right person to have alerted. She knew precisely what to do. She encouraged the launderette staff to continue working. It's what Gertie would want if she were able to speak, Nora Johnson said. No, it wasn't at all heartless to keep the business going, in fact it was only fair to customers. But if the staff would all like to give her fifty pence each she would go out now and buy a big bunch of flowers and a card so that they could be seen to be the very first to sympathise. They rooted in their apron pockets and Nora came back with a bouquet, which had cost three times what she had collected.

'What exactly would you write in a case like this?' one of the girls asked.

'Suppose you say: "For Gertie with love and sympathy", would that cover it?' Nora Johnson knew that none of them, any more than herself, could bear to mention the name Jack on a card. Only a couple of hours ago she had shouted at him herself and said that she had always urged Gertie to leave him. Nora didn't regret it at all, it was what she had always felt. Not of course that there would be any need to say anything like that now to Gertie.

Marilyn watched in amazement as the little flat above the launderette filled with people. A buffet table was set up with cold ham and pate which came from Colm's restaurant. Jimmy and Frances Sullivan had sent a crate of wine, and bottles of soda. Hilary had sent a message saying she'd come over after work and bring a bag of black clothes which Gertie could borrow. The children John and Katy had arrived, stunned, confused and taken from the summer course where their grandmother had paid for them to have some kind of normal holiday. Gertie's mother was there, her mouth a thin hard line, but her words kind as she went along with the general fiction that Gertie had tragically lost a great man, a loving husband and devoted father.

It was entirely surreal, but Marilyn told herself over and over that this is what Gertie ached to hear and it was being delivered to her.

Ria was having coffee with Sheila Maine when the call came from Sheila and Gertie's mother with the news of Jack's death. She said it was hard to speak because there were so many people there. Ria realised that it was also hard to speak since she too had been sworn to support the story of the fairy-tale marriage.

Sheila was appalled. 'What on earth will she do without him, she'll be devastated,' she cried. 'I mean, other people think they have happy marriages but this is one we all dreamed about and never knew.'

Polly left a message in Rosemary Ryan's office. They told her that Rosemary was on another line and couldn't be interrupted. 'Just tell her that Gertie Brennan's husband is dead.' 'Any more details, Ms Callaghan?' Rosemary Ryan's assistant was as cool as she was herself.

'No, she'll know what to do,' said Polly.

'Danny, I have to talk to you.' Rosemary had phoned Danny Lynch's mobile.

'It's not appropriate now, Rosemary.' He was sitting holding Bernadette's hand, as she drifted off to sleep.

'Go on, Danny, take the call if it's business,' Bernadette said.

He took his phone into the next room.

'What is it, Rosemary?'

'You haven't got in touch since you got back.'

'Well, quite a lot has been happening,' he said.

'I know, and didn't I alert you out there?'

'Not about work. We lost the baby.'

'Oh.'

'Is that all you can say?'

'I'm sorry.'

'Thank you.'

'But life goes on, Danny, and you and I have a lot of worries which you should know about. Can you meet me?'

'Absolutely not.'

'We have to talk.'

'No, we don't.'

'Is your business safe, your house?'

'The business has closed, the house will have to be sold, but at least not as part of Barney's estate. Now I have to go back to…'

'But you, Danny, what will you do? You must tell me. I have a right to know.'

'You have no right to know. You couldn't help me when I was in trouble. You made that clear, and I accepted it.'

'But there's more… wait… Marilyn knows.'

'Knows what?'

'She knows about us.'

'Really?'

'Don't go all distant on me, Danny Lynch.'

'Please, Rosemary, leave me alone, I have too much to about.'

'I don't believe this,' she said.

'Rosemary, stop the drama. It's over.'

She hung up, shaking.

Her assistant came in. 'Ms Ryan, I have a message here. Some bad news. It's to tell you that Gertie Brennan's husband is dead.'

'Good,' said Rosemary.

'We're going home two days early,' Ria said. 'I was able to get cancellations.'

'Oh no Mam, no. Not for awful Jack Brennan's funeral. You never liked him, it's so hypocritical.'

'Gertie's my friend though, I like her,' Ria said.

'You promised we could stay here until September.'

'Well, I'd have thought you would like to be going on the same plane as Sean Maine, but what do I know?' Ria said.

'What?'

'Sheila's taking the two children over to the funeral, we'll all travel together… but of course if you're violently opposed to that then I suppose…'

'Oh Mam, shut up, you'd never win a prize for acting,' Annie said, overjoyed.

Andy had a business meeting near by. Or so he said. 'Can I take your mother out to the Thai restaurant on her own?' he asked Annie and Brian when he came to the house.

'On a date like?' Brian asked.

'No, just for boring grown-up conversation.'

'Oh, sure, I'll go to Zach's house. Will it be overnight?' Brian asked.

'No, Brian, it will not be overnight,' Ria said.

'I can go to the movies with Hubie,' Annie said. 'And before you ask, Brian, that's not a date and neither is it overnight.'

'You have a delightful family,' Andy said.

Ria sighed. 'I must remind myself not to cling to them too much, not to be the mother from hell.'

'You couldn't be that,' he laughed.

'Oh easily. I don't know what we're going back to; it's real uncharted territory. I must not use them as my pair of crutches through it.'

'You don't need any crutches, Maria,' he said. 'Will you keep in touch with me, do you think?'

'I'd love to.'

'But just as a friend… that's all, isn't it?' He was disappointed but realistic.

'I need friends, Andy, I'd love to think you were one.'

'That's what it will be then. And I'll send you recipes, I'll actively seek them out for you to make you a legend in Irish cuisine.'

'You know, I really do think it might get off the ground. My friend Rosemary is putting herself right behind it and she's a real dynamo.'

'I don't doubt it for one minute,' said Andy Vine.

'I didn't have sex with Sean Maine and I'm not going to have sex with you either, Hubie. Are we clear on both these matters?' Annie said.

'You're making the point very forcibly, yes,' he said. 'But the thing that really bugs me is that one day soon you are going to have sex with somebody and it won't be me because you're going to be miles away.'

'I might not, you know.' Annie spoke very seriously. 'I don't mean become a nun or anything but I might just not do it, ever.'

'Unlikely.' Hubie dismissed the notion.

'I once saw two people doing it… years and years ago. I don't know how to describe it… it wasn't nice. It wasn't the way I thought it would be.'

'But you were very young then,' he said. She nodded. 'And you probably didn't understand it.'

'Do you understand it?' she asked him.

'A bit, I suppose, well better than when I was a kid. Then it seemed full of mystery and excitement and you had to have it and yet you were afraid of it.' He smiled at the recollection of how silly he had been when young.

'And now?'

'Well, now it seems more natural, do you know? Like the thing to do with someone you like.'

'Oh?' She wasn't convinced.

'I haven't done it all that often, Annie, believe me. I'm not bullshitting you.'

'But it was nice?'

'It was, and that's the truth,' said Hubie Green who knew they were having a conversation about abstracts and not about how the evening was going to end.

'Will you be living in a trailer park when you get back?' Zach asked.

'No, I don't think so, why?' Brian was interested.

'Well, if your house is gone?'

'I don't know where we'll live, maybe with Dad but I think his house is gone too.'

'It's a real adventure, isn't it?' Zach said. 'Will there be somewhere for me to stay when I come over there next year?'

'Oh, there'll have to be,' Brian said airily. *"

'And will I meet Myles and Dekko?'

'Certainly.'

'That's great,' Zach said. 'I never thought I'd be a person who would travel.'

'That's funny,' Brian said. 'I always knew I'd travel, I'll probably go to planets and all. I was going to be an auctioneer like my dad and work with him but now that he's lost his business I think I'll be an astronaut instead.'

'I’ll miss you,' Carlotta said. 'I wish I'd got to know you better. Earlier on I suppose I felt inhibited. Marilyn has kept us all at such arm's length, we thought that as her friend…'

'I think you'll find that she has changed a lot in a couple of months. She talks about Dale now, and Greg's coming back here to live. Things will be much more open now.'

'Does she know Hubie visits here?'

'Yes, I told her. She has no objection, though I don't think he'll be around so much when my Annie leaves!'

'And did you find what you came here for, Ria?' Carlotta asked.

'No, but I was looking for the moon,' she said.

'I kinda thought you had found the moon that weekend when your husband was here,' Carlotta said.

'Yes, so did I for a little while, but it wasn't the moon after all,' Ria said.

'Greg has told us how wonderful your home in Ireland is, I'm so sorry you won't be able to go on living there,' Heidi said.

'It's only a house, Heidi, only bricks and mortar,' Ria said.

'That's such a very wise thing to be able to say.' Heidi was admiring.

'I'm just practising, rehearsing my lines,' Ria admitted. 'I think that if I say it often enough then I might believe it when I walk around it and have to say goodbye to it.'

'And do you know where you'll go?'

'House property is very expensive in Dublin at the moment, so we'll get a good price for it but then we won't be able to buy anything in the area. I imagine that we'll have to move out a long way.'

'It does seem such a waste. He and you got along so well when he was here… but then I'm only saying things you must have thought a thousand times in your head.'

'A million times, Heidi.'

John and Gerry said they really would miss her in their shop. Ria was to go home, set up a food export business, get written up in Bon Appetit, and they would be amongst her first clients.

'That's what I love about America. You really do believe dreams come true here,' Ria said to them.

She telephoned Gertie just before they left.

'I can't believe you're coming home early for Jack's funeral, you changed your tickets and all to be here.'

'Well of course I would, Gertie. You'd do it for me if things were different.'

'Thank you, Ria, and you do know that Jack was always very admiring of you. Remember the party in your house that he came to where he drank lemonade and helped serve the food?'

'I do indeed, Gertie.' Ria bit her lip.

'They're taking him to the church tonight,' Gertie said. 'You wouldn't believe all the lovely flowers. Jack was very popular and well-liked in his own way.'

'Of course he was, and we'll see you tomorrow morning,' said Ria, who would be hard put to it to find one person who could say one good word about the late Jack Brennan.

Sheila Maine slept in the plane. Kelly and Brian played cards and watched the movie. Annie and Sean whispered plans for the future to each other.

Ria could not sleep. Her mind was full of pictures. The funeral, and the sustained pretence that Jack Brennan had been very different. The meeting with Danny to discuss their future. Arranging to sell Number 16 Tara Road. Finding a new place to live. The whole business of starting to cook for a living. Meeting Marilyn face to face after all this time.

Ria hoped she would like her. She knew so much about her now, more than Marilyn even dreamed she knew. There was a time when Ria had thought she would hate her, when she heard of Marilyn taking over her garden, her house, her friends and her daughter. That was when she had thought Marilyn cold and unfeeling, wearing a prickly armour about her son's death and shutting out so much goodwill everywhere.

But the summer had changed that. Now she was touched by little secrets she knew about this woman. How she had a bottle of hair colourant labelled in her own writing 'Special Shampoo'. How she had inexpensive discount toilet tissue in her storeroom, and instant cake mixes in her larder. Ria knew that Marilyn's friends had been hurt and repelled by her, and that her love of the garden was not considered admirable but obsessive.

And Ria also knew a far bigger secret. Something that would never be told. She knew what had happened on the day of Dale Vine's accident. To know that would never make Marilyn stronger, it would ruin everything. She had reassured Hubie that it would never be mentioned and he believed her.

Ria hadn't told everyone else that she was coming home. She would meet them all at the funeral anyway.

Marilyn had promised to have breakfast ready for them when they arrived at Tara Road. They would have time for that, to get changed, and then they would all go to the church together. Ria smiled as she remembered their conversation. 'The one good thing about this dreadful accident is that you and I get a chance to meet. Otherwise we would have passed in mid-air again,' she had said to Marilyn.

'I think there's a lot more than one good thing about this dreadful accident,' Marilyn had said. 'Not of course that any of us will ever admit it.' Marilyn had been in Ireland for two months. She was learning.

Just then the captain announced that due to weather conditions they were being diverted to Shannon Airport. He apologised for the delay which would not be more than a couple of hours. They would certainly be in Dublin by 11.00 a.m. 'My God,' said Ria. 'We'll miss the funeral.'

'I'm going to that eejit Jack Brennan's funeral,' Danny Lynch said.

Bernadette looked up. 'Who was he?'

'A drunken bully. His wife Gertie was always in and out of Tara Road. If Ria and the children were here they'd have gone; I suppose in a way I'm going to represent them.'

'That's very good of you,' said Bernadette. 'You're always thinking of other people.'

'I met Lady Ryan on the road,' Nora Johnson told Hilary. 'She said she was going to Jack's funeral.'

'Well, I suppose like the rest of us she's only going as a bit of solidarity for poor Gertie.'

'She never had the civility to throw the time of day to poor Gertie,' Nora sniffed.

'Ah, be fair, Mam, didn't we all say that Gertie should have thrown him out years ago?'

'We did and we were right, but we didn't say it with the scorn that Lady Ryan did. She treated Gertie like dirt, like something she found stuck to her shoe.'

'You never liked her, Mam.'

'Do you?'

'She's all right, she's funny I suppose and she jazzes us all up,' Hilary admitted grudgingly.

'No she doesn't, she pats you all on the head, and you're all worth ten of her.' Some of Nora's opinions would never change.

The delay at Shannon Airport seemed interminable. Sheila Maine telephoned her sister. 'If we're not in time for the church, we'll go straight to the graveyard,' she said.

Gertie wept her gratitude on the phone. 'Oh Sheila, if you knew how kind everyone's being. And if only poor Jack knew how much it turned out that people loved him.'

'Well, of course he did. Didn't everyone know you had a great marriage?' Sheila said.

Ria rang Marilyn. 'It seems we won't have that breakfast after all,' she said.

'Then you'll never know what a bad cook I am,' Marilyn said.

'I wish you didn't have to leave tomorrow, that you could spend a couple more days.'

'I might easily do that. We'll talk later… Oh and another thing… Welcome home!'

'Jimmy, would you sing "Panis Angelicus" at the funeral?' Gertie had asked on the phone.

'Now you wouldn't want me croaking away …’ he began.

'Oh Jimmy, please. Jack just loved that hymn, he really did. It would make it lovely for me if you sang it.'

'I think it's more a wedding hymn really, Gertie, rather than a funeral one.'

'No, it's about Holy Communion so it would be equally suitable at both.'

'Well, if you'd like me to then certainly I will,' said Jimmy Sullivan. He put the phone down and raised his eyes to heaven. 'If there is a God, which I gravely doubt, then he should smite us all to the pit of hell for our hypocrisy.'

'What else can we do?' Frances shrugged.

'We could have the balls to say that Jack was a mad bollocks and that the world is better off without him,' Jimmy suggested.

'That would be great consolation to the widow and children,' Frances said.

There was a black-edged notice on the door of the launderette saying that Jack Brennan, proprietor, had died and giving the time of the funeral Mass, so quite a few of the customers came out of respect to Gertie.

The church was crowded when Gertie, her mother and her children arrived. Some of Jack's family, long-estranged, had turned up, with dark suits and white shirts and awkward handshakes. Gertie, pale and wearing the black dress she had borrowed from Hilary, walked up the aisle looking proudly from side to side at all the people who had come to say goodbye to Jack. At least now he might know that he had worth in people's eyes. Surely he was somewhere where he could see all this.

The Mass had only just begun when Sheila Maine and her two children came up and joined the family. A little ripple of approval went through the church. The relatives had flown in from America, a further sign that Gertie was being honoured and made much of.

Ria, Annie and Brian slipped into a bench a little further back. 'My God,' Nora Johnson said to Hilary. 'Ria came back. Isn't she a great girl.' Danny Lynch saw his wife and children. He bit his lip. It must have been hard to organise, Ria was certainly a loyal friend. Colm Barry saw them too. Ria looked magnificent, he thought, tanned, slimmer, holding herself taller somehow. He had known she would try to be here even though she wasn't meant to be back today. She and Gertie went back a long way.

Polly Callaghan sat by herself. She averted her eyes from the pew where Barney McCarthy sat with his wife. If Mona saw Polly in the church she gave no sign or acknowledgement, any more than she ever had.

Rosemary had dressed carefully for the occasion as always. A grey silk dress and jacket, very high heels and dark stockings. She was most surprised to see Ria and the children, nobody had told her they were coming back. But then she realised with a start there were few people to tell her anything. Apart from Ria herself, she didn't seem to have any friends any more.

Frances Sullivan stared ahead of her as her husband's deep rich voice sang 'Panis Angelicus'. She knew how much it cost him to do this. He had despised Jack Brennan and felt that singing this hymn was in some way letting him win.

Ria looked around the church to see could she identify Marilyn. She wasn't beside Rosemary, or Colm, or near Ria's mother. But surely one of them would have taken her under a wing. Ria couldn't concentrate on the prayers, she looked at the bouquets and wreaths all sent by people who had nothing but scorn for the deceased.

Where was Marilyn Vine?

It was when the congregation was singing 'The Lord's My Shepherd' that Ria saw her. Taller than she would have thought, auburn-haired from the Special Shampoo bottle, and wearing a simple navy dress. She was holding up the hymn sheet and singing along with the rest. Just at that moment she looked up and saw Ria looking at her. They gave each other a great smile across the crowded church. Two old friends meeting each other at last.

The sun was shining, the unexpected gales and rainstorms of the night before had blown away. The people stood and talked outside the church, a Dublin funeral where there weren't enough minutes in the hour for people to say what they wanted to say.

Ria was being embraced and welcomed home by everyone. She broke free to hug Gertie.

'You're such a true friend to come back early,' Gertie said.

'We travelled with Sheila and the children, we didn't notice the journey. And they'll be staying with you?'

'Yes, yes, we have the rooms ready. It's such a pity that they had to come for this reason, isn't it? I mean Jack would love to have welcomed them here again.'

Ria looked at Gertie with shock. She realised that history was being rewritten here. There was no longer any need to pretend to Sheila that everything had been wonderful with Jack. Gertie had bought the story herself, she really thought it had been a great marriage.

Danny looked curiously like someone on the outside. Not the man who used to dart from group to group, shaking this hand, slapping that shoulder. Ria told herself that she must not think about him and care what became of him. He was not part of her life, the notion that they could go back to the old life was only in her head. She stood looking at him across the crowds. Soon the children would spot him and run over. But she would make no move. This is the way it was always going to be.

Annie had gone to talk to Marilyn, to introduce her new friend Sean Maine, to talk about Westville. Brian had gone to his grandmother to tell her about Zach's visit next summer. Ria could hear him. 'We might be living on a halting site then but he's coming anyway,' Brian's clear, carrying tones were explaining.

Hilary was trying to tell Ria all about the move. They would leave in the autumn and settle in. Martin's post would begin in January. Ria couldn't quite understand where they were going.

'You'll come and stay, Ria… lots… won't you? It's full of trees. Like the fortune-teller said.'

'Yes, yes of course.' She was bewildered. There were too many people around, too much was going on.

'I’ll give you twenty-four hours to get over your jet lag and then you start working for me,' Colm said. 'You look absolutely beautiful by the way.'

'Thank you, Colm.' She thought she saw something of the admiring look that had been in Andy Vine's eye, but she shook off the notion. She must not lose her marbles now and think everyone was fancying her.

Rosemary didn't come over, which was odd. She stood, a little like Danny stood, on the outside of a crowd where she knew many people. Ria went up to her, arms open wide. She saw Rosemary looking a little uneasily over her shoulder. Ria turned to follow her glance. Marilyn Vine had paused in her conversation with Annie and was watching them. Very carefully.

'Are you going to the graveyard?' Ria asked Rosemary.

'God no, here's bad enough.'

'Gertie's so pleased to see everyone,' Ria said.

'I know, and she's been on the phone to the Vatican to organise his canonisation too. Believe me, Ria, that is not beyond the bounds of possibility.'

Ria laughed. 'God, it's good to be back,' she said, putting her arm into Rosemary's. 'Tell me, was it a good summer?'

'No, it was a bloody awful summer one way and another.'

'You're so good to put so much effort into getting me started up,' Ria said. 'I really do appreciate it.'

'Least I could do,' Rosemary said gruffly, looking over at Marilyn Vine again.

'It's a really beautiful house, Marilyn,' Annie said. 'You never told us how great it was.'

I'm so pleased you had a good time.'

'You have no idea, it was like a house in the movies, honestly. And we swam before breakfast and even at night.'

'Great.'

'And we went on roller-blades in Memorial Park and we ate huge pizzas, and we went to New York City twice and up to Sean's house on the bus all on our own. There was never a holiday like it.'

I'm so very happy it went well,' Marilyn said.

She knew that she and Ria were almost putting off the moment when they would speak to each other. And yet every time they took a step in each other's direction someone came to claim one of them.

This time it was Colm. 'I didn't know Ria was coming back today. I'll leave you something over in the house, something from the restaurant. To save you cooking,' he said.

'To save them being poisoned, you mean.' Marilyn laughed at herself.

'You said it, not I.'

Barney McCarthy had sympathised briefly with the widow.

'You're very good to come, Mr McCarthy, Jack would have been very impressed at the quality of all the people who are here,' Gertie said.

'Yes, well. Very sad,' Barney mumbled.

'Polly Callaghan is devastated that it happened on her premises,' Mona McCarthy said unexpectedly.

Gertie nearly fell down on the ground. Mona didn't talk about Polly, she pretended that she didn't exist.

Barney looked startled too. 'Well, it wasn't exactly her premises…' he began.

'No, that's right, she was moving house and poor Jack, poor, poor Jack had called on her… He wanted reassurance about something, you see.' Gertie's lower lip began to tremble.

Mona rescued her. 'I know, I heard the story. He wanted to be sure that you loved him. Aren't men like children in so many ways? They always like everything to be there in black and white.' Gertie looked from Barney to Mona, bewildered. But Mona sailed on. 'And Polly told him that of course you loved him, those were the last words he heard.'

'Polly told me, but I wasn't sure if she was just being kind you know, telling me what I wanted to hear.'

'No, no, whatever else you could call Polly, she isn't kind,' Mona said. And moved away.

'That wasn't necessary, Mona,' Barney hissed at her.

'Yes it was. Poor Gertie had no life while that savage was alive, she's going to have one after he's dead, believe me.'

'But how did you hear what Polly said or didn't say…?'

'I heard,' Mona said. 'And don't think I have anything against Polly, I think she did this city a huge service by allowing her furniture van to kill Jack Brennan. She should be decorated by the Lord Mayor.'

Then they finally met. They put their arms around each other. And said each other's names.

T'll drive us to the graveyard,' Marilyn said.

'No, no.'

'I have your car, all shiny and clean from a car wash. I want to show it off to you.'

'We cleaned your car too, Marilyn,' Brian said. 'And we got all the pizza off the seat at the back.'

There was a pause and then Annie, Ria and Marilyn broke into near hysterical laughter.

Brian was startled. 'What on earth did I say now?' he asked, looking from one to the other and getting no answer.

When they did get back to Tara Road there wasn't nearly enough time for all they had to say to each other. The children eventually went to bed. Marilyn and Ria sat on at the table. It was unexpectedly easy to talk. They apologised for nothing. Not for encouraging Clement to sleep upstairs or for cutting back the garden, nor for inviting neighbours to become part of Tudor Drive and taking up again with Hubie Green. They asked each other about the visits of their husbands. And each spoke thoughtfully and honestly.

'I thought Greg looked tired and old, and that I had taken away a year of his life because I couldn't help him over the bits that were just as bad for him as for me.'

'And will it be all right from now on?' Ria asked.

'I guess he'll be cautious, even a little mistrustful of me from time to time. If I closed myself off so terribly before I could do it again. It will all take time to get back to where we were.'

'But at least you will.' Ria sounded wistful.

'And nothing happened when Danny was over there to make you think that you might get back together again?' Marilyn asked.

'Something happened that made me certain that we were back together already. But I wasn't right. He told me all about the financial disaster, and losing the house and everything, in Memorial Park under a big tree. Then we went back to Tudor Drive and… I suppose if I were being realistic I would say he consoled me in the way he knows best. But I took more from it than there was.'

'That's only reasonable, and he probably meant it all at the time,' Marilyn said.

'Timing is everything, isn't it?' Ria was rueful. 'Just after that came the news that Bernadette was losing the baby and he was off like a flash. Even if we had had another twenty-four hours…'

'Do you think that would have made a difference?'

'No, to be honest,' Ria admitted. 'It might only have made me feel worse. Maybe it was for the best. The stupid bit was I kept thinking that it was all tied up with the baby. Once that no longer existed, perhaps the whole infatuation would go. But again I was wrong.'

'Did you talk to him today at the funeral?' Marilyn asked.

'No. He looked as if he were going to speak but I didn't trust myself so I turned away. I couldn't think what he was doing there anyway, but he told Annie that he was there representing the family.'

'That was a good gesture anyway.' Marilyn's voice was soft and conciliatory.

'Danny's full of good gestures,' Ria said with a smile.

Marilyn had been able to change her ticket. Now she was going to stay for an extra three days. This way she could arrive back at Tudor Drive at the same time as Greg. It was to be symbolic of their starting a new life together. And Marilyn said that by staying on a few days she could help Ria settle in and start to face the whole business of selling the house.

They talked about Hilary's plans to move to the country, the pregnancy of young Kitty Sullivan. They spoke of Carlotta wanting a fourth husband and how John and Gerry's gourmet shop had really taken off this summer. They didn't shy away from personal questions. When they spoke of Colm Barry Ria asked whether Marilyn had been having a thing with him. 'That was what I heard from a probably ill-informed source,' Ria apologised.

'Totally wrong. I think he was much more interested in waiting until you came home,' Marilyn said. 'And on the subject, can I ask whether you had anything going with my brother-in-law?'

'No, your husband is quite wrong about that too,' Ria giggled.

'But he might have liked to, we think?' Marilyn wondered.

'We don't know at all because we didn't allow such a situation to develop,' Ria said.

And into the night they spoke of Gertie and how she was going to build a legend based on the dead Jack. They were both much more tolerant than they would have been a few weeks back. It wasn't just because Jack was dead. They sat in the beautiful front room of Number 16 Tara Road as the moonlight came in at the window, and they each thought about the need to have some kind of legend in your life. Ria knew that for good or evil Marilyn must go on for ever without knowing it was her drunken son who had killed Johnny and himself that day. And Marilyn thought that for better or worse Ria should not learn how the husband she still loved and the friend she still trusted had conspired to betray her for so long.

'Aunt Gertie's not as well off as I thought she was,' Sean Maine said to Annie.

'Does it matter?' Annie shrugged.

'No, of course it doesn't, except I was just thinking it might work to our advantage.'

'How's that?'

'Well… suppose I were to stay with her… you know, pay board and lodging and go to school here?'

'It won't work, Sean.' Annie was practical.

'Not next week when school starts, okay I know it won't, but after Christmas I can find out what courses I'd get credits for… organise a transfer…'

Annie looked troubled. 'Yes, well…'

'What is it? Would you not want me here? I thought you liked me.'

'I do like you, Sean, I like you a lot. It's just… it's just I don't want to sort of lure you on with promises of things we might do, I might do, once you got here. It wouldn't be fair to let you think that…'

He patted her hand. 'In time,' he said.

'But probably not in a short enough time for you,' she said.

'I've never done it either,' Sean said. 'I'm just as confused.'

'Really?'

'It mightn't be as good as they say. But we could see what we thought,' he said, and then, looking at her face, 'Not now, of course, but when the time seems right.'

'I bet Gertie'd just love having you to stay,' Annie said.

'I'm taking on more private pupils this year, Mum, can I do it in your house?' Bernadette asked.

'Of course, Ber. If you're well enough.'

'I'm fine. It's just that I don't want to start them off in one place and then have to transfer them when we move from here.'

'Does he know when he's going to sell?'

'No, Mum, and I don't ask him, he has enough pressures.'

'Does he have great pressures about Tara Road? Is she on at him all the time?' Finola Dunne was always protective of her daughter against the ex-wife.

Bernadette thought about it. 'I don't think so, I don't think she's even been in touch since she came back.'

'I wouldn't mind seeing those children again,' Finola said.

'Yes, I'd like to see them too, but Danny says they're all tied up with this Marilyn until she leaves. They're mad about her apparently,' Bernadette reported gloomily.

'It's just because they stayed in her house which had a swimming pool, that's the only reason,' Finola tried to reassure her daughter.

'I know, Mum.'

'Do you mind if we have Gertie and Sheila around for lunch?' Ria asked Marilyn. 'Sheila's not staying long in Dublin and it would be nice for her to meet you… she's been in your house, remember?'

'Of course,' Marilyn said. She would have preferred to talk to Ria on her own. There were still so many things to discuss, about Westville and about Tara Road. About the future and the past. But this was Ria's life and lunch with these ladies came first. Marilyn had learned this. And Ria had learned something too.

'I'm not going to spend the whole morning getting something ready. They want to talk not do a gourmet tasting, let's you and I walk down to the deli and get something simple.'

They walked up the road past Number 26 and waved at the swinging seat where Kitty Sullivan sat in the garden with her mother. Sixteen, anxious and pregnant, she had suddenly found a way of communicating with Frances which they never had before.

'Let's hope Annie doesn't find a similar one,' Ria said wryly.

'Do you think she might be sexually active, as they say at home?'

'And as they increasingly say here,’ Ria confirmed. 'No I don't, but mothers know nothing, you'd know more about Annie than I would.'

'I know a bit about her hopes and dreams, but I truly don't know anything about that side of things,' Marilyn hastened to say.

'And if you did it would be sacred, you wouldn't have to tell me,' Ria said, anxious not to appear curious and trying to beat down the slight jealousy that was always there. Why could Annie Lynch tell Marilyn her hopes and dreams? It was beyond understanding.

They looked into the grounds of Number 32.

'Does Barney own any of that still?'

'No, they sold it all at huge prices, it was the talk of the place at the time. Rosemary really knew what she was doing going in there.' Ria was pleased for her friend.

Then they were at Number 48A. No sign of Nora Johnson and Pliers; they must have gone on one of their many adventures. 'Your mother will miss you if you move from here. Hilary going to the west, now you going too.'

'It's not if we move away from here, it's when. This is Millionaires' Row nowadays. Weren't we so clever to move in here when we did?'

'You weren't being clever, you went after a dream, didn't you?'

'I suppose Danny did. He wanted a grand house with high ceilings and deep colours. Often nowadays when I think about it I don't quite know why, but that's what he seemed to want when he was young.'

They walked on, an easy companionable silence between them. They passed the gates of St Rita's.

'Future home of nice soft cakes,' Ria said, laughing.

'Nothing too difficult to chew,' Marilyn giggled. 'Not like those ginger biscuits I bought Brian and Annie first time, they were horrific.'

They turned the corner and saw that Gertie's launderette was busy.

'I dare not mention the deceased but would he have left any insurance?' Marilyn asked

'Gertie's mother paid some kind of a policy,' Ria said. 'I think it was just a burial one.'

'And will she be all right?'

'She'll be fine. She has the little flat upstairs there and of course she can have her children at home now that they won't be assaulted or have their poor nerves shot to pieces by that lunatic.'

Gertie was so used to cleaning in Number 16 Tara Road that it was hard to get her to sit down.

'Will I do a bit of ironing for you to have your clothes nice for packing, Marilyn?' she said.

'Lord, Sheila, don't you have the kindest sister. I simply hate ironing and Gertie often helped me out.'

'Yes… she was born caring about clothes, I never was,' said Sheila and the moment passed. Once or twice Gertie rose as if to clear the table but Ria's hand gently pressed her back. 'Sean is so anxious to come back and study in Ireland after Christmas and find his roots,' Sheila said. The other three women hid their smiles. 'He has been around to all the various schools and colleges and of course I'd just love him to come back here,' Sheila said.

'And Max?' Ria wondered.

'There's not much looking for roots in the Ukraine, they all came to the States from that village. Max will be okay about it.'

Gertie was excited about the proposition. 'There will be a small room in our flat, it's not very elegant but it's convenient for schools and libraries and everything.'

'Stop saying it's not elegant,' Sheila cried. 'Your property is in such a good area. It's a wonderful place for him to stay, it's a happy home. I'm only sorry his Uncle Jack won't be there to see him grow up.'

'Jack would have made him very welcome, that's one sure thing,' Gertie said, without any tinge of irony. 'But we'll paint up his room for him to have it ready when he comes back. He can tell us what colour he'd like. And maybe he'd get a bicycle. You know,' Gertie confided, 'a lot of people have asked me would I be financially able to manage without Jack?'

Ria wondered who had asked that and why. Surely they must have known that poor Gertie's finances would take an upturn now that she didn't have to find him an extra thirty or forty pounds' drinking money a week by cleaning houses. And now that she could concentrate on her business. But then perhaps other people didn't know the circumstances.

'And of course I am fine,' Gertie continued. 'My mother's looked through all the papers and there was a grand insurance policy there, and the business is going from strength to strength. There will be fine times ahead, that's what I have to think.'

Suddenly Ria remembered something. 'Talking of what lies ahead, I wonder what happened to Mrs. Connor!'

'She told me she couldn't talk to the dead when I wanted to, and that one day I wouldn't want to any more,' Marilyn said. 'I'd like to tell her that day has come.'

'She told me I'd have a big business, I'd like to know how big,' Ria said, 'and travel the world. I've already done that.'

Sheila said that Mrs. Connor had said the future was in her own hands, and look at the way it had all worked out. With her boy wanting to come back to Ireland to his own people!

Gertie tried to remember what Mrs. Connor had told her. She had told her that there would be some sorrow but a happy life, she thought. 'Well, that was true enough,' Sheila said, patting her sister on the hand.

'Will I make myself scarce while you meet Danny?' Marilyn asked as they cleared the dishes after lunch.

'No need, there'll be plenty of time after you've gone home. Let's not waste what we have.'

'You should talk to him as soon as possible, listen to what he has to say and add what you have to say. The more you put it off the harder it is to do.'

'You're right,' sighed Ria. 'Yes, but it's a question of don't do as I do, just do as I say!'

'I'm only telling you what I didn't do myself.'

'I suppose I should ask him to come over.'

'I have to go and buy some gifts for people back home. I'll go down to that place I saw in Wicklow and leave you the morning.'

'That's an idea.'

'And you know what we'll do as a treat tomorrow afternoon?'

'I can't guess.'

'We'll go see Mrs. Connor,' said Marilyn Vine, who wanted to pay her debt to the woman who had told her the truth. That the dead like to be left asleep. They want to be left in peace.

'I have to meet Ria this morning,' Danny said.

'Well, it's better that you get it over with,' Bernadette said. 'Are you very sad?'

'Not so much sad as anxious. I used to laugh at middle-aged men who had ulcers and said their stomachs were in a knot. I don't know why I laughed, that's the way I am all the time now.'

She was full of concern. 'But you can't be, Danny. None of this is your fault, and you are going to be able to give her half the proceeds of that house which is very big nowadays.'

'Yes, true.'

'And she knows all this; she doesn't have any expectations of anything else.'

'No,' said Danny Lynch. 'No, I don't suppose that she can have any expectations of anything else.'

'Brian, will you go and play with Dekko and Myles this morning? Your dad is coming here and we need to talk on our own.'

'Is it just me that you don't want to be here?' Brian wanted it clarified.

'No, Brian, it's not just you. Marilyn's going down to that craft shop, Annie's showing Sean the rest of Dublin. It's everyone.'

'You won't fight, will you?'

'We don't now, remember? So will you go to Dekko and Myles for a bit?'

'Would you think it was okay if I went to see Finola Dunne? I bought her a present when I was in America.'

'Yes, of course, that's a great idea.' She laughed at his anxiety.

'That's not just me being awful and doing the wrong thing, is it?'

'You're wonderful, Brian,' his mother said.

'But a bit different?' This was too much praise, he wanted it tempered.

'Very different, that's for sure,' said Ria.

He came at ten o'clock, and rang on the front door.

'Haven't you got your keys?' she asked.

'I turned them in to Mrs. Jackboot,' he said.

'Don't call her that, Danny. What would she have done with them, do you think?'

'Search me, Ria. Cemented them to a stone maybe?'

'No, here they are, on the key-holder at the back of the hall. Shall I give them back to you?'

'What for?'

'For you to show people around, Danny. Please let's not make it more difficult than it is.'

He saw the sense in that. 'Sure,' he said and held his hands up as a sign of peace.

'Right, I have some coffee in a percolator up here in the front room, will we sit in there and if you'll forgive the expression… make a list?'

She had two lined pads ready on the round table and two pens. She brought the coffee over to them and waited expectantly.

'Look, I don't think that this is going to work,' he began.

'But it has to work. I mean, you said we'd have to be well out of here by Christmas. I made sure that the children and Marilyn were out so that we could get started.'

'She hasn't gone home yet?'

'Tomorrow.'

'Oh.'

'So who will we sell it through?'

'What?'

'The house, Danny? We can't use McCarthy and Lynch because they don't exist any more. Which agency will we ask?'

'There will be a line of them waiting to dance on my grave,' Danny said glumly.

'No, that's not the situation. Stop being so dramatic, there will be a line of people waiting to sell it so that they can get two per cent of the price. That's all. Which one will we choose?'

'You've been out of the business for a long time. It's not two per cent any more, it's cutthroat nowadays, all of them trying to shave off a bit here and there.'

'How do you mean?'

'It will be what they call the Beauty Parade, they all come in one by one, each one hoping to be chosen. This one says he'll take one point seven per cent, this one will do it for one point two five. Then there's going to be some so desperate for the commission they'll say a flat fee.'

'That's the way it is?'

'That's the way it is. Believe me I've been in it, may even be in it again one day, who knows?'

'So who, then?'

'Ria, I'm going to suggest something to you. These guys hate me, a lot of them. I've cut right across their deals, stolen their clients. You must sell it on your own, and give me half.'

'I can't do that.'

'I've thought about it, it's the only way, and we must pretend to be fighting as if I'm giving you nothing, and your only hope is to screw as much out of this as possible.'

'No, Danny.'

'It's for us, for the children. Do it, Ria.'

'I can't possibly hold a Beauty Parade, as you call it, of auctioneers here on my own.'

'Get someone to help you.'

'Well, I suppose Rosemary could come in and sit with me, she's a businesswoman.' Ria thought about it.

'Not Rosemary.' He was firm.

'Why not, Danny? You like her, she really does have a head for figures; look at her own company.'

'No, they'd walk over two women.'

'Come on. What do you think it is? People don't walk over women in business any more.'

'Get a man to help you, Ria, it's good advice.'

'Who, what man? I don't know any man.'

'You've got friends.'

'Colm?' she suggested.

He thought about it. 'Yes, why not? He's got valuable property himself, more or less by accident but he's sitting on it. They'd respect him.'

'All right.'

'So when should I start?'

'I suppose as soon as possible. And tell these guys that you'll be in the market to buy a house too. They'll be even more helpful if they think there are going to be two bites of the cherry.'

'The furniture and everything?' He shrugged. 'Well, what will we do with it?'

'If you buy somewhere that suits it then of course you must take it,' he said.

'But suppose you find somewhere that suits it?' she asked.

'I don't think we will, it will be small, and anyway… you know?'

'I know,' Ria said. 'Bernadette would prefer to start life with you having her own furniture.'

'I don't think she'd even notice what furniture was in the room,' he said. He sounded very sad.

She touched one of the balloon-backed chairs that they had found in the old presbytery, covered then with a rough and torn horsehair. Everything here had been searched for and found with such love. And now, less than two decades later, two people were shrugging about what would happen to it.

She didn't really trust herself to speak.

'So, it's not easy but we'll do it.'

'I’ll do it apparently.' She hoped it didn't sound too bitter.

'You understand why?'

'Yes I do. And will you say I could have got more, or I shouldn't have chosen this or that one?'

'No, believe me I won't say anything like that.'

She believed him. 'Well, I'll ask Colm today. I'm anxious to get it done and start trying to work for a living.'

'You always worked hard,' he said appreciatively and annoyingly.

Ria found that this made her eyes water a little. 'And will you be able to get work?' she asked.

'Not as easily as I thought. In fact I was sort of advised to look into some other sector. Not too many estate agencies opening their doors, arms or books to me, I'm afraid. Still there's always something.'

'Like what?'

'Like PR for the building industry or property companies. Like buying furniture from dealers—there are still houses throwing out beautiful stuff and filling themselves up with pine and chrome.'

He was talking more cheerfully than he felt. Only someone who knew Danny Lynch would realise that. Ria gave no sign that she saw anything at all.

It was late in the afternoon when they went out to the halting site. Horses were tethered to fences, children played on the steps of caravans. Young boys hung around hopefully as cars drew up.

'Mrs. Connor?' Ria asked.

'She went away,' said a red-haired boy with paper-white skin.

'Do you know where she went?' Marilyn asked.

'No, she just went overnight.'

'But you might have some idea where she went.' Ria made a move as if to open her handbag and look for a wallet.

'No, really, Missus, if we knew we'd tell you. There's people coming here all the time looking for her, but we can't say what we don't know.'

'And does she have any relations here?' Ria looked around the caravans that housed this particular travelling community.

'No, not to speak of.'

'But surely a lot of you are family cousins, we really do want to find her.'

'To thank her too,' Marilyn said.

'I know you do, aren't there droves of them coming at night. And even now there's two cars coming in asking after her, my brother's telling them we haven't a God clue where she is.'

'Was she sick, do you think?' Ria asked.

'She never said a word, Missus.'

'And no one else took over her… um… work or anything?' Marilyn wondered.

'No. Wouldn't they have had to have the gift?' said the boy with the nearly transparent face.

They went to a last dinner in Colm's. Sean and Annie held hands and ate an aubergine and red bean casserole. 'Sean doesn't eat dead animals now,' Annie said proudly.

'Sound man, Sean,' Colm said admiringly.

'Finola Dunne said she saw your sister in a hospital. Her friend is there,' Brian said.

Ria closed her eyes. Marilyn had told her the story. Brian was the last person in Ireland who should have learned it.

'Yes, that's right, she's been quite sick but getting a lot better now. Is Mrs. Dunne's friend getting better too?' Colm was ice-calm.

Ria flashed him a glance of huge gratitude.

'I think her friend's a drug addict, to be absolutely honest. But I suppose she could get better. They do, don't they?'

'Oh they do, Brian,' Colm said. 'They do all the time.'

Barney and Mona McCarthy came up to the table. 'I just wanted to welcome you home, Ria, and to wish you bon voyage, Marilyn.' Mona spoke with confidence these days.

'Mam's going to be cooking things for money now if you still know any rich people who'd buy them,' Brian said helpfully.

'We know a few,' Mona said. 'And we'll certainly be able to put the word around.'

Barney McCarthy was anxious to end the conversation. Colm ushered them to their table. You would never think from his manner that Barney had ever been at this restaurant with another woman. Or that his bills had remained unpaid until a solicitor had asked for any outstanding invoices to be presented.

The solicitor had been engaged by Mrs. and not Mr McCarthy.

'Do you want us to call so that you can say goodbye to Rosemary tonight?' Ria asked Marilyn.

Annie looked up.

'I think I'll just leave her a note,' Marilyn said.

'Sure, why not?' Ria was easy.

At that moment Colm asked Ria would she come into the kitchen. He wanted her to see the desserts that he had prepared for tonight so that they could discuss what she might dream up.

'Can I come into the kitchen?' Brian's eyes were excited.

'Only if you don't talk, Brian,' his mother said.

'Sean, would you ever go with them and clap your hand over his mouth if he says anything at all?' Annie begged.

Sean Maine was pleased to be seen as a hero and went willingly.

Annie and Marilyn looked at each other across the table. 'You don't like Rosemary,' Annie said.

'No I don't.'

'Why don't you like her?' Annie asked.

'I'm not sure. But it's not something I need to say to your mother, they're friends over many years. And you, Annie? Obviously you don't like her either. Why is that?'

'I couldn't explain.'

'I know. These things happen.'

The taxi was coming at ten thirty but Ria said Marilyn would not think she was getting away with leaving quietly. Colm was there with a gardening book for her, a very old one they had talked about; he had tracked it down in an antiquarian bookseller's. Nora had come to say goodbye too. Hilary came to show a photograph of Martin's old homestead. A bleak-looking place with great tall trees. 'There's a lovely sound in the evening when the rooks all come home,' Hilary said.

'We went to see Mrs. Connor. I was going to tell her about you and the trees but it turns out that she's gone away,' Ria told her sister.

'Well, her work is done,' said Hilary as if it was obvious.

Gertie came to say goodbye. 'You were a great pal while you were here, and honestly, Marilyn, I wouldn't expect you to understand our ways, being a foreigner and everything, but you understood as well as anyone that Jack loved me and did the best for me. His problem was that he thought nobody really appreciated him.'

'But they did,' Marilyn said. 'You only had to look at the crowds at his funeral to know that.' Then it was time to go. 'I could get a taxi, Ria,' she began to protest.

'I'm driving you to the airport. Don't argue.' The telephone rang. 'Who now?' Ria groaned.

But it wasn't for her. It was Greg Vine from California. He was changing planes and about to check in for New York. He would wait for Marilyn in Kennedy Airport. They would go back to Tudor Drive together.

'Yes, you too.' Marilyn ended the conversation.

'Did he say I love you?' Ria asked.

'Yes, as it happens,' Marilyn said.

'Lucky Marilyn.'

'You have the children,' Marilyn said.

And they held each other tight in a way they wouldn't be able to do at the airport.

Annie was coming to say goodbye, accompanied by Sean Maine and Brian. As they got into the car Clement came out to say goodbye. It took the form of a huge yawn and stretch but they all knew what it was.

'I'm sorry about letting him into your bedroom,' Marilyn said.

'No you're not, but it doesn't matter, we'll be somewhere new soon and he'll have to relearn all his good habits.'

Colm was in the back garden, he came out to wave them off.

'You are still working in that garden even though other people will get the benefit?'

'No, they won't get the benefit, I'm moving it all up to Jimmy and Frances Sullivan's garden, that's what I'm at.'

'Why don't you dig up that awful concrete behind your restaurant? You could plant there.'

'I'm hoping to build there,' he said. 'Build?'

'Yes, proper accommodation at last, not just a bachelor flat.' 'Great idea.' 'Well, you never know.' 'I hate to go,' Marilyn said.

'When you come back we'll welcome you somewhere new.'

'I don't suppose you could take anything live on the plane, could you, Marilyn?' Brian asked.

'Not really, except myself,' she said.

'Then it's no use giving you a guinea pig for Zach, is it?'

'We can't go beyond here,' Ria said at the passenger check-in.

'Aren't we magnificent?' Marilyn said.

'Yes, we really took a chance, didn't we,' Ria said.

'And how very well it worked out,' said Marilyn.

They were still unable to say the goodbye.

Annie flung herself into Marilyn's arms. 'I hate you going, I just hate it, you're quite different to anyone else, you know that. Will you come back so that I'll have someone to talk to?'

'You live in a place where there are plenty of people to talk to.'

Ria Lynch wondered were people speaking about her over her head, but she must be imagining it.

'And you'll keep an eye on things from over there,' Annie said.

'Yes, and you from here?' Marilyn begged.

'Sure.'

Sean Maine shook her hand gravely and Brian gave her an embarrassed hug. Marilyn Vine looked at Annie Lynch. The blonde, beautiful, nearly fifteen-year-old Annie walked up to her mother and put an arm around Ria's waist. 'We'll keep the world ticking over until you get back,' she said. 'Won't we, Mam?'

'Of course we will,' said Ria, realising that it might be possible after all.

Other Books by Maeve Binchy:

Light a Penny Candle

Echoes

London

Transports

Dublin

The Lilac Bus

Firefly Summer

Silver Wedding

Circle of Friends

The Copper Beech

The Glass Lake

Evening Class

Cross Lines (short stories)

Copyright © Maeve Binchy 1998 All rights reserved

The right of Maeve Binchy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Orion.

An imprint of Orion Books Ltd Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin's Lane, London WCIH 9EA

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by Deltatype Ltd, Birkenhead, Merseyside

Printed in Great Britain by Butler 8c Tanner Ltd, Frome and London

Scan Notes:

[15 oct 2002—scanned by swampie]

[16 may 2003—proofed by Zarabeth]

[19 may 2003—a little HTML formatting by Wiz3]