Finishing Touches (62 page)

Feeling that her world was collapsing around her ears, Barbara turned to walk out of the building only to discover Kristi Killeen smiling sweetly at her from a corner of the large
waiting-hall!

It was such a relief to have the court case over. Cassie felt as though a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. It was as if she had been living in a limbo this past year,
ever since Barbara had filed a petition to declare that Nora’s will was null and void and that Cassie had coerced her into changing it.

Cassie had been
so
shocked at the charge. Barbara refused to speak to her, and when Martin and Jean supported Barbara, she was devastated. How
could
they think she would do
such a thing? She was their sister, she had loved her mother. It was incredible.

She had cried for weeks until, in desperation, David suggested that she go back to work. It was a move she had been putting off for ages, but she knew he was right, so she contacted her
personnel department to see what the position was.

The dilemma about whether to return to Liverpool or not did not materialize; there was no vacancy in her branch and she could either go back to London or to Head Office in Dublin. She chose the
latter.

Getting back into a routine helped a lot, although commuting from Port Mahon was a drag. She didn’t want to get a flat so she began to think about selling the house in Liverpool and buying
one in the city, but she decided not to make any decision on the matter until after the court case.

About six months before the court case was due to be heard, Cassie was offered a position in Allied Isles’ branch in Malahide and she jumped at the chance. It was less than half an
hour’s drive down the coast from Port Mahon and Cassie liked the bustling seaside town. David sometimes came in and met her for lunch.

It was strange in the empty house without her mother, especially at night, and Cassie found it hard to sleep. For the previous few years, she had been so used to sleeping practically with one
eye open that it was hard to remember that Nora was not there to require attention.

When the case was over and the will was settled, the business was sold for a very satisfactory price and Cassie knew it was time to make up her mind about the house. She decided to sell. Her
home held too many unhappy memories for her and she wanted to make a fresh start. In December 1989, just six months after the court case, she put the bungalow on the market. She wanted to start the
new decade afresh and she had already put a deposit on a house in Malahide.

On the first day of the new decade David cooked Cassie a superb brunch. She had spent Christmas with John and Karen and their two children. This New Year’s Day, she
didn’t want to go home at all. David and she decided to go for a walk along Broadmeadows Estuary in Malahide to work off their meal. It reminded her a little of the Marine Lake in Liverpool,
with its sailboats bobbing up and down and windsurfers and waterskiers in the summer. Across the river lay Portrane and, to the right of her, Lambay Island. It was a very picturesque part of north
County Dublin, she thought, as they walked the road to Lissenhall and fed the swans and watched the sun glinting between the bare trees on the opposite bank. On the way back to the car, a homemade
For Sale sign caught Cassie’s eye.

It was a little house overlooking the river and there was something about it that appealed to her at once. She had set her heart on living in Malahide, not far from the bank, and had been very
disappointed when the owners of the house on which she had paid a deposit had changed their minds.

‘David, look!’ She pointed the property out to him. ‘Isn’t it lovely? I wonder if I could have a look around? Maybe it’s an omen that I’ve seen it today. I
started a new life in London at the beginning of the Eighties; maybe this is a new start as well!’ she said excitedly.

‘No time like the present to find out,’ David, always a man of action, said briskly. He led the way up the winding little path and knocked on the door. A small woman with bright,
lively eyes answered.

‘I was wondering . . . I saw the For Sale sign and I was interested. Would I be able to have a look around? I’m hoping to buy a house,’ Cassie explained.

‘Certainly, dear, certainly.’ The woman stood back to let them enter. She led them through a small hall into the sitting-room. Or, as the old lady called it, the parlour. And a real
parlour it was with its Victorian flock wallpaper and faded green pelmet curtains with their swing tassels and the old chairs and sofa with lace antimacassars. A fire blazed in the hearth and the
place was very tidy with all the old mahogany furniture polished and shining.

David, seeing Cassie’s enraptured face, grinned to himself. He knew exactly what the love of his life was up to; she was mentally redecorating.

‘Come along, dear, I’ll show you the dining-room and kitchen,’ the birdlike woman smiled. Her name was Matilda Cox and she was going out to New Zealand to live with her
daughter. ‘I can’t wait,’ she confided. ‘I’ve always wanted to travel and see the world but until last November I had to look after poor George.’ That was her
husband, who had suffered a stroke some years previously. Cassie could empathize with the bright-eyed, friendly woman and she found herself telling Matilda about her own mother. The little woman
took her hand. ‘She’s in heaven now, dear, and so is my George. But believe me, from now on you will be showered with blessings. I know. It’s happening to me already. One night I
just decided I wanted to do something different in my life. Rita suggested I come and live with her, and you know something, dear? I heard George telling me to say yes. And do you know something
else very strange?’ she remarked as she led them through a tiny kitchen and out to a jungle of a garden.

‘What’s that?’ Cassie smiled.

‘Would you believe that I put the sign up only five minutes ago? I waited purposely until today. I wanted to start the Nineties in a positive way.’

‘Me too!’ exclaimed Cassie, delighted with this kindred spirit. ‘That explains why I didn’t notice it when we set out. So does this mean that we’re your first
viewers?’

‘It does!’ Matilda nodded. ‘And maybe my last!’

‘How could that be?’ Cassie asked.

Matilda smiled. ‘Well, dear, I like you and your beau and if you want the house and you give me my price, you can have it. I don’t want any old Tom, Dick or Harry living in my house.
I’ve had a very happy life here and I want to leave it in good hands. I know you two are happy together. I watched you from the window and I felt it in my bones. I said, Matilda, look no
further, the answer to prayer has arrived. It’s George again, you see!’

Cassie was afraid to look at David in case she started to laugh. The poor dote. Imagine calling them an answer to prayer!

Matilda brought them up to the bedrooms, two cosy rooms with their windows in the eaves and a magnificent view of the estuary. Cassie was hooked! This was the house for her. Maybe Matilda was
right. Maybe Nora and George were organizing this between them in heaven.

If she bought it, there’d be a lot of re-vamping to do. The kitchen would have to be extended and a new bathroom suite plumbed in, but that would be half the fun. After all, she
was
an interior decorator! She knew the price would be well within her means. It was a small house that required a lot of work; she’d probably be able to buy it for cash.

Matilda named her price, which was far lower than Cassie had expected. ‘That’s much too low,’ Cassie said firmly, adding another five thousand pounds, to Matilda’s
delight. David just looked at Cassie as if she had gone crazy altogether. The two women exchanged the names of their solicitors and Matilda promised to set things in motion the next day.

‘I don’t know which of you was the crazier! Omens! Answers to prayer! Divine intervention! Adding five thousand pounds to the asking price! Women! I’ll never fathom
them!’ he grinned. ‘And she’s mad to let complete strangers into her house.’

‘
You
wouldn’t understand. Matilda and I understood each other perfectly!’ Cassie retorted. ‘Anyway, I wouldn’t have been happy to take the house at that
price. She was doing herself. Property here is very expensive.’

‘Cassie, you’re going to have to gut that place, you know that. You’re too soft-hearted,’ David responded.

‘David, you know as well as I do that if that house had been in the hands of an estate agent, he would have got the price I gave her and more, except that he would have pocketed a tidy sum
for himself,’ Cassie argued.

‘You’ve an answer for everything, woman!’ David laughed, giving her a hug. ‘Come on; we’ll go up to Howth and have a look around.’ They drove up to the summit
and sat overlooking the bay. They could see as far as Wicklow and it was magnificent. The sky was just beginning to redden as the fiery sun dipped behind the hills. Driving down the village to go
for a walk along the pier they stopped to let people cross the street to the DART station.

‘You know I’ve never been on the DART,’ Cassie mused. ‘I must, some time. It goes right out to Bray.’

‘
Never
been on the DART? Tut! Tut!’ David grinned. ‘Why don’t you start the decade doing something you’ve never done before.’

Cassie stared at him. ‘You mean, go on the DART right now?’

‘Yeah! Right this very minute! We could have a pot of hot chocolate in the Royal Marine in Dun Laoghaire. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted their hot chocolate.’ His
eyes twinkled.

‘Come on, then!’ she said eagerly. ‘There must be one due soon.’

David parked the car and hand in hand they walked into the station and bought their tickets. Cassie enjoyed every minute of their train ride, especially after Killester when they passed Clontarf
and Fairview and she watched the setting sun turn the waters to flame along the seafront to her left. They crossed Butt Bridge and she saw birds circling the cream-and-black Guinness boats. She
loved their names, the
Lady Patricia
and the
Miranda Guinness.
Imagine having a ship named after you!

‘Oh look! Look, David, it’s Trinity College. We’re passing at the back of Trinity,’ she exclaimed a few minutes later. Cassie was fascinated by the way the city changed
character in the space of minutes. After Amiens Street station they passed through the affluent suburb of Ballsbridge and then they were speeding through the Merrion Gates and the sea came into
view with Dun Laoghaire in the distance. Booterstown, Blackrock, it was like a guided tour of the city.

‘Oh David, I really enjoyed that,’ Cassie said as they walked up through the grounds of the Royal Marine Hotel. ‘It’s a great way of seeing the . . . the living
city.’

‘I know what you mean. You catch glimpses of people’s lives through their windows as you speed past. You share an intimacy with them for a second or two and then you’re gone! I
love train journeys myself!’ David agreed. ‘Maybe we’ll go on the Patagonia Express or the Orient Express or even cross America some time!’

‘I’d love that,’ Cassie smiled, snuggling against him. It had turned cold and they drank their hot chocolate appreciatively, sitting beside a big fire, gazing out at the
darkening night. It was so delicious that David ordered another pot and they relaxed completely.

‘We could have dinner here,’ David suggested, a little later. ‘I’m starving.’

‘Me too!’ agreed Cassie happily. They had walked several miles earlier on and dinner would be nice.

The waiter seated them by the window and lit a candle on their table. Behind them the lights of the pier twinkled and in the distance they could see Howth, far across the bay. Their meal was
superb and afterwards they went to the bar and had brandies.

‘I don’t know about you but I’m so comfortable I don’t feel like getting the train to Howth and driving all the way back to Port Mahon.’ David smiled at Cassie, his
eyes warm in the lamplight. ‘How would you like to begin the new decade by making wild passionate love in a hotel room?’ he invited.

Cassie burst out laughing. ‘You devil, David Williams! You had this all planned!’

David laughed. ‘No, I didn’t, honestly; it was you who mentioned the DART. But now that we
are
here, do you want to go back home? If you want to, of course we’ll
go.’

‘And miss a night of wild passionate love . . . not on your nellie!’ Cassie teased.

They made love like it was the first time for them both and it was beautiful. Cassie lay with her head resting on David’s chest, listening to the slow beating of his heart, and realized
that, for the first time since Nora died, she actually felt happy. Yes, today had been a very happy day for her and David. She fell asleep in his arms.

She awoke before dawn. Gently easing herself from David’s embrace, she slipped his jumper on and sat in one of the chairs beside the big windows that faced out on to Dublin Bay. They were
on the fourth floor and beneath her the lights of the pier shone like stars. Across the bay, the city shimmered and twinkled in the black velvet night. It was a very beautiful sight and she sat
quietly enjoying the view.

She felt so serene just now, so different from the agitated, restless woman she had been this past year. Deciding impulsively to buy the house had helped. For the first time since she could
remember she had felt in control. It had been so good picturing how she could redesign the house. All the old creative juices had started to flow. She felt excited at the thought of it. God, she
had missed her decorating and interior design.

Something David had said to her soon after her mother’s death came back to her. ‘Reclaim your life!’ he’d said. ‘Do something you’ve always wanted to
do!’

Cassie’s eyes widened. Why hadn’t she thought of that before! It was perfect! And to think that she had been staring straight at it and not seen it until now!

Hugging her excitement to herself, Cassie slipped off the jumper and slid back into bed, putting her arms around David’s broad back and curving against him.

Reclaim her life! Do something she had always wanted! That was exactly what she was going to do. Too excited to sleep, Cassie began to make her plans.