Finishing Touches (41 page)

‘Congratulations,’ Cassie managed to say, giving her sister a hug. Nora gave a gasp of surprise. Barbara smirked.

‘We waited until you came home so you could be here as well to share the good news. I’m just so happy, I’m over the moon!’

‘That’s great, Barbara. I hope you’ll always be as happy,’ Cassie said warmly.

‘Well, congratulations, Barbara and Ian. I’m flabbergasted!’ laughed Nora, getting up to kiss her daughter. Ian stood, hands in his pockets, his face suffused with red.

‘Thanks, Mrs Jordan, I’ll look after her,’ he muttered in some embarrassment. Cassie caught John’s eye. Her brother threw his eyes up to heaven and grinned at Cassie. He
was as impressed with their new in-law-to-be as she was.

‘When are you getting married?’ Nora asked.

‘June,’ Barbara replied airily, handing Ian the plate of scones.

‘Merciful hour!’ exclaimed her mother. ‘That’s only six months away! I’ll have a lot to do between now and then! Get me a page and pen until I write down my list.
If I don’t write things down, I forget them.’

Cassie got her mother the page and pen. She could see Nora was in her element. Planning a wedding was just the sort of thing she liked to get her teeth into. She had been cheated out of planning
Cassie’s so she could only hope that nothing would go wrong between Barbara and Ian.

Nothing went wrong between the engaged couple but Nora was not getting her own way as regards the planning of ‘The Wedding,’ as Cassie privately called it. When she was back in
London, her mother often phoned her to moan about the way things were going.

‘Barbara wants to get married out of Ranelagh church and not in Port Mahon. Did you ever hear the like? What are the neighbours and relations going to say!’ Nora exclaimed in dismay
one Saturday she phoned Cassie to pour out all her troubles. Knowing her sister so well, Cassie had already realized that she’d never settle for a Port Mahon wedding. Barbara would have to
swank it in Dublin and besides, the aisle in Ranelagh church was much longer than in the church in Port Mahon.

‘Look, Mam, why don’t you just let her get on with it and don’t be worrying your head over it,’ Cassie advised.

‘But Cassie, it’s the first wedding out of the house and I wanted it to be just right. I wish your father were here to advise me,’ Nora said plaintively. Cassie’s heart
went out to her mother. Whatever chance she would have had arranging Cassie’s wedding – and Cassie would have let her mother have her own way in a lot of things – with Barbara,
Nora would have very little say.

‘I’ll tell you what, Mam,’ Cassie said reassuringly. ‘I’ll come home at Easter and you can tell me what you want done in the house and we can go shopping for your
outfit and we’ll make the cake. How about that?’ As soon as she got off the phone to her mother she was going to ring Barbara and point a few things out to her.

‘Thank you, dear, that would be lovely. Do you think we should invite Judy O’Shaughnessy?’

‘Why shouldn’t we?’ Cassie asked, mystified.

‘Well, she’s gone off living out of wedlock with that Lawson fellow she’s been dating. It’s simply scandalous,’ exclaimed Nora, who was utterly shocked at the ways
of the young girls now.

‘Now, Mam, that’s Judy’s business, and it’s not up to anyone to judge her. Of course you must invite her to the wedding. She’s Barbara’s best
friend.’

Nora was not to be mollified. ‘Some friend! Leaving Barbara to manage that flat on her own. I hope to God she won’t have the nerve to go to Communion and her in a state of sin.
Goodbye, Cassie. Take care of yourself.’

‘You too!’ Cassie sighed in exasperation as she hung up the receiver. If only Nora knew that Judy had more or less had to leave the flat because Ian had taken up residence. It
wasn’t only Judy who was living out of wedlock with a man. But, of course, Barbara was so cute Nora would never get wind of it.

She dialled her sister’s number and heard the familiar voice with its recently acquired genteel accent.

‘Yaw? Barbara Jordan on the line.’

Give me a break! thought Cassie. ‘Yaw’ indeed! No common or garden ‘yes’ for Barbara. No doubt Noreen Varling said ‘yaw’ as well. And why couldn’t she
just say hello? Barbara Jordan on the line!

‘Hi, Barbara, it’s me. I’ve just been speaking to Mam and she’s not very happy about a few things. Maybe we could have a chat about them and try and come up with
something that will suit everybody.’ Cassie was trying to be very diplomatic but wanted to get right to the point as well.

‘Listen, Cassie, don’t you start interfering,’ Barbara retorted angrily. ‘It’s
my
wedding and I’m going to organize it exactly the way I want it. If
Mam doesn’t like it, that’s just too bad.’

‘I’m not interfering; I’m just trying to help,’ Cassie said, controlling her temper with some difficulty.

‘Cassie, I’m not getting married in Port Mahon. I don’t live there any longer and I want a hotel in the city centre so all my colleagues and friends will be able to come
without having to go to the trouble of travelling.’

‘And what about putting Mam to the trouble of travelling, not to talk about the relations?’ Cassie said tightly.

‘Well, that’s just tough!’ Barbara replied sulkily.

Diplomacy flew out the window! ‘Now you listen to me, lady!’ Cassie exploded. ‘If you were paying for this wedding yourself, I couldn’t care less if you had it on the
moon, but you’re not! Mam’s paying for it and that means, whether you like it or not, she has some say in where it’s going to be held and you’d better remember that. For
once in your life don’t be so bloody selfish!’

Barbara was sizzling at the other end of the phone. ‘Fuck off, Cassie Jordan. It’s just sour grapes because I’m getting married and you’re not. I suppose you’d have
paid for your own wedding, you’re such a great one. Well, Mam
insisted
on paying for the wedding, so don’t expect me to feel guilty.’

‘I bet you put up
such
an argument against it too,’ Cassie snapped. ‘You’re dead right, Barbara. I
would
have paid for my own wedding and I’d have
listened to what Mam wants. She deserves
that
much at least—’

‘Oh, miss Goody bloody Two-Shoes. You’re such a pain, Cassie, always doing the right thing. Well, I’m me and I’m going to do things
my
way!’ Barbara
declared. ‘And if that doesn’t suit you, go sit on a nettle!’ The click at the other end of the line told Cassie that her sister had hung up.

Cassie was still furious when she met Aileen for lunch a few hours later. ‘God Almighty, but that one would put years on you! It’s easy for her to call me Goody Two-Shoes. Does she
have any idea how hard it is doing, as she calls it, “the right thing?” Someone’s got to do it! Mam did her best for us and I know she has her faults but she’s still our
mother and she deserves a bit of consideration,’ Cassie fumed. ‘God, it’s such a pain being the eldest sometimes, I get all the moans. Irene is over there sitting on her arse, out
sick from work again. Some help to Mam she is! Oh I could scream!’

‘Wait until we get to the park, dear. It might not go down too well right here in the restaurant,’ advised Aileen soothingly.

Cassie laughed in spite of herself. ‘Families!’ she exclaimed.

‘Don’t talk!’ Aileen said wryly. ‘Mother’s convinced she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown after she read an article in
Woman’s Way
that
described perfectly what she imagines her symptoms to be. She’s gone into hospital for a rest.’

‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,’ Cassie said sympathetically.

Aileen laughed. ‘Don’t be a bit sorry. She’s having a ball in there, being waited on hand and foot, doctors and nurses dancing attendance and the VHI paying for it. Mother is
enjoying herself immensely, according to Judy, who
will
have a genuine nervous breakdown from traipsing halfway across the city every night to go and visit her!
And
she’s
coming over to me to recuperate. Oh don’t talk to me about families – I know all about them. Did you hear about Laura’s brother?’

Cassie shook her head. ‘I haven’t got a letter from her for a while.’

‘No wonder. Judy told me about him when she phoned last night to warn me about Mother coming for a visit. Seemingly he owes a moneylender a large sum of money. You know he was always a
gambler as well as a drinker?’

Cassie nodded.

Aileen nibbled an asparagus tip. ‘Some heavy gang beat him up and broke his arm because he hadn’t paid what he owes. He asked Laura at the weekend if she could give him the money.
She’s going mad about it all!’

‘I wouldn’t blame her!’ sighed Cassie. ‘We all have our troubles, don’t we?’

‘Yeah, well, let’s forget ours for a while. Pierre is over and he wants to go to the racing at Cheltenham. Are you on?’

‘You bet,’ laughed Cassie, banishing the thought of Barbara and ‘The Wedding’ to the deepest recesses of her mind.

Barbara Jordan Murray (how she loved her just hours-old newly acquired double-barrel surname) sat at the top table, a faint frown furrowing her made-up brow. There were gales
of laughter emanating from Cassie, Aileen and Laura, who were seated at a table in the centre of the plush room where her wedding reception was being held, and these were causing her annoyance.

It was a bit much, really.
She
should have been the centre of attention, not that lot. She hadn’t particularly wanted to invite Laura and Aileen but Nora had expected her to, and
besides, she couldn’t resist having them present to show off to them her exquisite Pronuptia gown and glamorous friends. Noreen Varling was looking a million dollars in a creation by Marc
Bohan of the House of Dior that she had
actually
bought in Paris. Barbara was deeply impressed! She watched in annoyance as Cassie laughed heartily at something that Aileen was telling
her. Her sister looked really stunning and she had seen Ian’s detective friends eyeing her appreciatively. Honestly, she would have thought that Cassie would have kept a fairly low profile
considering her broken engagement and the fact that she had no prospects. But no, her sister had arrived at the wedding in a royal-blue silk dress that made her look unmistakably sexy. Andrew
Lawson, Judy’s boyfriend, couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Aileen was wearing an exotic sarong-type dress with a little black jacket. Trust her to wear something outrageous – although Barbara had to admit the oranges and yellows really suited her
colouring.

Laura, as usual looking like a model, wore a stylish pink-and-navy suit and a navy hat with matching pink trim. She was always the same, of course, the height of elegance, and Barbara was sorry
she had invited her. Ian’s friends were paying more attention to the three of them than they were to her. Another shriek of laughter erupted at the table. Just what the hell were they
laughing at? They were always the same when they got together! And Laura the only one among them who had a man by her side! Neither Cassie nor Aileen had bothered to bring a companion. Despite her
view of herself as a liberated woman of the Eighties, Barbara wouldn’t
dream
of attending a wedding without a man at her side. What was more, you would think that Cassie would at
least have had the decency to be annoyed at not being asked to be bridesmaid. Barbara had been so furious with her older sister for poking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted and trying to
tell her how to organize her wedding, that she had decided there and then to have Irene as bridesmaid. Irene was thoroughly enjoying herself in her full-skirted aquamarine dress. And Cassie? She
hadn’t been one bit annoyed that she wasn’t given the honour of being bridesmaid. In fact, Barbara felt she was quite relieved!

Well, at least Barbara had got her way about the church and the hotel. She had got around the problem of the family travelling back to Port Mahon from the Dublin hotel after the reception by
hiring a minibus. Barbara knew that if her newspaper and society friends had had to travel out to Port Mahon for the wedding, they probably wouldn’t have come.

The hotel she had booked was as posh as they come and the Anna Livia Suite with its views over the city was perfect for the reception. No hick country wedding for her. Barbara Jordan Murray had
an image to maintain. She and Ian had bought an apartment in Mount Merrion. Ian hadn’t been too happy about it (he had wanted somewhere on the northside near his work), but Barbara had
insisted on living on the southside. If one wanted to be taken seriously and maintain an upwardly mobile image it would be disastrous to live north of the Liffey Anyone who was anybody in Dublin
lived on the southside, at least in Barbara’s book. Northside was ‘non-U,’ according to ‘Barbara’s Brief,’ so how would it look if she ended up living there? It
was unthinkable and she had put her foot down, ignoring Ian’s moans. Fortunately her husband was on a good salary and with his practically permanent overtime and the rent from his flats he
was well able to afford the mortgage. She needed most of her salary to buy clothes and the like. After all, a certain standard was expected from such a highly respected columnist. She was trying to
wangle a bigger allowance from her editor, but so far to no avail. He told her she was lucky to have the expense-account she had for her modest entertaining. And modest was the word, compared to
some of the gossip columnists she knew. Well, she’d keep after him. After all, since ‘Barbara’s Brief’ had started being a talking-point, the newspaper’s circulation
had increased dramatically. By the time she was finished,
The Irish Mail
would be the biggest-selling paper in the country.

She saw two of Ian’s friends make a move towards the girls’ table. Honest to God, she might as well be a ghost at her own wedding for all the notice anyone was taking of her. Barbara
turned to her husband.

‘Ian, I think we should get on the floor because no-one else can dance until we start.’

‘Oh, Bar, do we have to? You know I hate dancing and this get-up is too tight on me,’ Ian said glumly. He was quite happy to sit there sipping his pint and watching everyone else get
on with it.