House of Memories (17 page)

Rodney Jackson swept into the yard in a car that caused Danny to gasp in amazement. It was like an enormous blue bird with sleek silver wings, and out of it came the long-legged, tanned American whom up to now Danny had only seen in the distance.

“I’m Rodney Jackson,” he smiled, striding across the yard and showing a row of the most perfect white teeth that Danny had ever seen. “You must be Danny, and I’m so glad to meet you.” Long smooth fingers grasped his hand and, looking around in delight, the American enthused, “What a place you’ve got here; this is the real Old World.”

“Would you like to see inside?” Danny heard himself stammer, swept away by this wave of exuberance.

“Would I what?” Rodney asked, and he led him up the steps and around the house. I’m a bit like a tour guide, Danny thought as the enthralled American followed him around. When they reached the room with the picture of Nana Molly, he stood in front of it and for the first time was silent.

“So this is the famous Molly Barry,” he said thoughtfully
after a few minutes.

“You’ve heard of her?” Danny asked in surprise.

“My aunts often talked of her. They said that she was quite a beauty, and they were right.” Turning to Danny he told him to his embarrassment, “I can see the family resemblance,” and then he swept on, “so I’m glad to be doing business with one of the descendants of a woman of whom my aunts had such a high opinion. Now we had best get ourselves sorted out before we go to the bank and Mr Hobbs. How much are we talking about for those two fields?” He turned around and stood with Molly Barry looking over his shoulder.

Danny was stunned that things were moving so fast. He was glad that last night he had worked things out in his head and knew exactly what he wanted, but Rodney was not waiting for an answer, and looking him straight in the eye, told him, “I looked at those two fields this morning, and I was thinking that six hundred pounds would be a fair price, three hundred each.”

“Eight hundred,” Danny told him firmly, and when Rodney looked a bit taken back he added, “They are good fields and in a great location, and as well as that I need five hundred to buy out my brother Rory and three to buy a tractor.”

“That’s what I call a fair deal,” Rodney declared to his amazement and put out his hand to shake Danny’s warmly.

He could hardly believe that the deal about which he had done such deliberating was brought to such a fast conclusion, and without further ado Rodney Jackson announced, “Straight to the bank now and I’ll transfer that money into your account.”

Things were moving faster than Danny had ever thought possible. Rodney Jackson whipped the car around the yard and out the gate, and Danny arrived in Ross in less time than it
would have taken him to walk to the village. Rodney strode into the bank where a surprised Mr Harvey found himself opening an account and depositing money for the young man who had come in months earlier in a torn jumper and smelling of farmyard. The blonde girl raised a quizzical eyebrow at Danny as he passed her cubicle and smiled.

“Will there be a return of the Vikings?” she asked, and he was glad that she seemed so pleased to see him.

Their next visit was to Mr Hobbs, whose firm had handled the family affairs since Nana Molly’s time and who seemed well versed in all that needed to be done. He assured Rodney that he would get things sorted out as fast as possible. For the first time in his life, Danny wrote a cheque. It was a strange feeling to know that this piece of paper was the first step on his way to owning Furze Hill. He began to see that when you had money and the assurance of authority, people moved faster. He remembered Nana Molly’s words about the arsehole of the world, but now he was discovering that the opposite was also true. Nana had come from the world that he was only now discovering. Mr Hobbs went to great pains to explain all the details of what was involved in the signing over, causing Danny to worry about the time span and the return of Rory.

“Will all this take long?” he asked.

“Not if you brother needs the money,” Mr Hobbs told him. “He’s the only one who can hold things up, because all the others have already signed.”

“Oh, he needs the money,” Danny assured him, but then because he had an uneasy feeling that this old man did not understand what he was up against in Rory, he added, “but he will try to get the money and still keep his claim.”

Mr Hobbs, who up to then had looked quite harmless, suddenly straightened up behind his cluttered desk and fixed piercing blue eyes on Danny and told him in acid tones, “Young man, I have handled your family business since your grandmother’s time, so I know all that there is to be known about the two sides of that family. Rest assured that there will be no loophole. Is there anything else?”

“When the farm is being transferred over,” he began tentatively, hoping that he was not going to draw further disapproval, “I’d like my mother’s name to go on the deeds with mine.”

Whereupon Mr Hobbs suddenly smiled benignly on him.

“Very well, but I will put in a rider that her claim reverts to you on her death. Things change, you know, and it is always better to have things in writing for long-term protection of rights. We don’t want any loopholes. Is there anything else now?”

“There is,” Danny told him, gathering confidence. “Would it be possible to have my name on the deeds as Daniel Barry Conway?”

“Anything is possible, young man. It will mean getting your name changed by deed poll, but that is no big problem. Then the Barry name will be on the way back to Furze Hill,” a pleased Mr Hobbs told him. Looking keenly at Danny over his rimless spectacles, he added thoughtfully, “‘Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.’”

When he got home, Danny joined Bill sitting on the front steps to discuss the happenings of the morning.

“It’s a great feeling, Bill,” he confided with delight, “to be breaking free of the fetters of Rory.”

“That was a nice thing to do to put your mother’s name on
the deeds,” Bill told him.

“She worked like a slave here for years,” Danny said, “and she had a terrible life. My father humiliated her in every way he could. Now I want to give her a sense of dignity and ownership.”

“Does she know anything about the opening up of all this place?” Bill asked, looking around.

“Nothing, because I want it to be a big surprise for herself and the girls,” he smiled.

“It’s going to be some surprise,” Bill asserted.

A
S SHE PASSED
Jack’s cottage on her way to school, Nora felt the raw pain reawaken. For her the cottage had died with Jack. Even though Sarah lit the fire every day and fed Toby and the fowl, it was now a dead place. She had not gone in there since the funeral, because the pain of even seeing it was almost unbearable. Kate went in every day. How could Kate bear to do that? She was very disappointed that Kate had not helped her more over the loss of Jack instead of becoming totally wrapped up in her own misery. She had pretended not to mind, but for the first time she began to think that Kate was self-centred. The invitation to Rodney Jackson’s dinner had been the first time that Kate had reached out a helping hand, and, of course, the good news that night had made them all feel better. She was so delighted for Uncle David, who was much more understanding of how she was feeling than Kate.

Rosie was waiting out at the gate, which meant that she had news or wanted to know something and, as usual, went straight
to the point.

“Nora Phelan, what were Fr Brady and your Uncle David doing waltzing around the Conway fields with sheets of paper hanging off them?” she demanded.

“No idea,” Nora lied.

“That’s a lie, Nora Phelan,” Rosie declared.

“But you can’t keep a secret,” Nora protested.

“I can,” Rosie boasted, “because I’ve a secret that I never told you.”

“Like what?” Nora demanded.

Rosie looked at her steadily for a few seconds, determining whether to tell her or hold back, but her urge to share got the better of her and she burst out, “Peter and I meet in Jack’s cottage at night.”

“What!” Nora gasped in horror.

“Well, it’s the ideal place,” Rosie asserted.

“But Jack’s cottage!” she protested angrily.

“You think that Jack’s cottage is holy ground?” Rosie demanded.

“Well, no, but I think that Jack wouldn’t like it,” she protested, feeling that Peter had let her down.

“But how do you know?” Rosie demanded. “Peter loved Jack as well as you, and I think that meeting me in there is helping him. We don’t get up to anything very much.”

“That doesn’t matter. I just do not like the idea of you two sneaking into Jack’s cottage,” Nora declared angrily.

“We’re not sneaking,” Rosie protested.

“I should have known that Peter was up to something,” Nora continued angrily. “He warned me after the dance not to be nosey, which meant that he had something up his sleeve. But
I thought that you’d tell me if there was anything because we never have secrets.”

“But Peter told me not to, and you know where he is concerned I’m not rational,” Rosie said unhappily, “and as well as that I’m half worried that if Kitty comes back and shakes her red mane at him he’ll bolt.”

“In school she was always horrid to me,” Nora declared, beginning to feel less annoyed.

“That’s past history now,” Rosie decided, “but Kitty is fairly tough competition for me.”

“What makes you think that she fancies Peter?” she asked.

“The night of the dance she had eyes for no one else,” Rosie declared, “only Rory upset the apple cart for her that night.”

Nora felt that Kitty might well create another opportunity. The Kitty that she knew in school did not give up easily, and she was not a hundred per cent sure that you could depend on Peter to play fair. A bit like Mom, he went after what he wanted irrespective of the consequence. But at least he must be the cause of Rosie forgetting her singing ambitions for the time being, because she had settled down to study for her exam.

“Aren’t you lucky that Danny fancies you alone?” Rosie broke into her thoughts.

“I’m not so sure of that,” she answered, “and anyway, having anything to do with a Conway is too complicated for our family.”

“Wouldn’t it be great if that applied all round?”

“Well, Kitty is out of the running at the moment anyway,” Nora told her.

“And I’m making hay while the sun shines,” Rosie smiled. “When this bloody exam is over, I am going to bring back
the Vikings and have another youth club dance, and we’ll all celebrate a return to normal life with no damn studying hanging over our heads.”

Nora was not very happy about Peter and Rosie in the cottage but decided to say no more about it. At least it was keeping Rosie in Kilmeen, and she knew that in the days ahead they would talk the whole thing to death anyway. That was the great thing about Rosie: you could discuss everything with her, and she was very honest and open. Maybe too much so at times! But now, as they walked along the road, she told her all about the new school and Rosie decided that it might not be such a bad thing to come back to Kilmeen after the exams and be part of all this exciting development.

“You could do music in college,” Nora suggested.

“And come home and teach it to the natives. Are you trying to bring me into your arty-farty world?” Rosie teased, and then gave her a jolt by by adding, “But I don’t have your fascination with a handsome uncle enticing me back.”

“I do not,” she protested in confusion, but knew that she could not bluff Rosie.

“For God’s sake, Nora, we were in baby infants together!” Rosie asserted. “I know how you tick. The difference is that while I spit everything out you bury it inside.”

“But, Rosie, in all fairness I couldn’t tell anyone about that,” she protested.

“I’m not just anyone, and anyway I’ve known for yonks. It’s no big deal and you’ll grow out of it because it’s only puppy love. Not like me with Peter,” Rosie assured her. “How is your Aunty Kate? My mother is real worried about her, she looks so bad. Jack’s death knocked her sideways.”

“To be honest,” Nora admitted, “I have felt that since he died that she has kind of withdrawn from me.”

“That’s because she can’t cope,” Rosie told her. “Do you call often?”

“Not really,” Nora said.

“Well, this evening while I’m having a maths grind with the love of your life,” Rosie teased, “you should call to Kate.”

“All right,” Nora agreed reluctantly.

When Nora opened the door into the kitchen that evening, Kate was sitting alone inside the window reading a book. She closed the book hurriedly and her face lit up in welcome.

“Nora, I’m so happy to see you,” she cried in delight, coming across the kitchen to give her a hug. “Let’s go out in the garden for a chat.”

Nora felt slightly uneasy. She was not sure if it was the result of the conversation with Rosie this morning or the fact that she had resented Kate for not being more supportive. Kate, however, was obviously totally unaware of any undercurrent and led the way out into the garden. As they walked along the path, with the evidence of Jack’s work all around her, everything else receded from her mind but the pain of his loss.

“He loved it here, didn’t he?” she said quietly, tears filling her eyes. Kate put her arms around her and the two of them wept together.

“Aren’t we two sad cases?” Kate smiled through her tears. “I know that you are going through a hard time, and I feel that I should be a bigger help to you, but to be honest I can only just handle myself at the moment.”

Nora was tempted to say, “I’d noticed,” but she remembered Rosie.

“It’s not easy,” she said, biting her lip, and then to change the subject, “but it’s great news about the school anyway.”

“And Danny,” Kate added.

“Was he delighted?” Nora asked in a strained voice.

“Thrilled,” Kate told her. “Have you seen Furze Hill since it was opened up?”

“How would I have seen it?” she demanded.

“Will we run back there now?” Kate offered, and Nora felt a rush of affection for her aunt.

“Oh, I’d love that,” she declared, all her annoyance evaporating. “Shiner is for ever talking about it, and it would be great to see it for myself.”

She was delighted that Kate had made the suggestion, because she was dying to see Furze Hill, and she could not go across the river from home because Mom would be mad. Sometimes Mom could be a bit of a pain.

They walked along beside a high stone wall and turned in an elegant gate that she had never even known was there, and the sight inside made her gasp in amazement. An ivy-clad house peeped out at them through the tendrils of two beautiful weeping willows.

“Mother of God! Where did all this come from?”

“It was buried for years,” Kate told her as they walked past the weeping willows and the house came into full view.

“But it’s magnificent,” Nora breathed, taking in the limestone pillars and the stained glass fanlight above the door. “It was criminal to have a place like this locked up and buried. All that we could see from across the river for years was a thick grove of trees. I never knew that there was a house in there until Jack told me, but even when they began to slate it I had
no idea that it was anything like this.”

She was looking in wonder at the house. This was the place that Jack had wanted so much to have restored. It was easy to understand why!

“Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it?” Kate agreed. “I think that Danny has never closed the windows since Bill got them to open, and any time I call the door is always open.”

“I suppose he wants the house to breathe again after years of being stifled,” Nora smiled.

“I wonder is Danny around or out the fields?” Just then Bill Brady came through the arch.

“Hello, girls,” he called. “I thought that I heard a car but never knew that we were going to have two lovely lassies calling to see us.” He called over his shoulder, “Danny boy, we have visitors.” Nora liked Bill Brady; he was easygoing and always had time to listen. She was surprised one day when she had met him in Kate’s to find herself telling him all about her plans for the future. He had been understanding and encouraging.

Danny came though the arch, and his thin, sensitive face filled with delighted amazement when he saw them. Nora felt slightly embarrassed that he made a beeline in her direction and ignored Kate.

“Nora, I can’t believe you’re here. Come in, come in, and I’ll show you Furze Hill,” he invited with pride in his voice. He led her up the steps and through the splendid door. She had not been prepared for the graciousness of the house. Despite all the cobwebs and dust, this was a far more splendid house than Mossgrove.

“I can only imagine what this will be like when it’s done up,” she told him in an awed voice as they walked up the wide
staircase.

“That will have to wait, I’m afraid,” he told her.

“But what about the field money?” she asked.

“Most of that will go to pay off Rory.”

“But at least get it cleaned up,” she insisted.

“Can’t afford it.”

“But, sure, the women around here would do that for nothing. Aren’t they always doing it for each other for the stations?”

“We were never part of all that,” he said grimly.

“Well, it’s time you were,” she decided firmly. “We’ll ask Kate. She knows everyone who can do anything around here.”

When they went into one bedroom which had an old picture hanging in the corner, Nora went over and stood in front it. At first she thought that she was looking at Kitty but then realised that this was a still more beautiful girl. It was a faded black and white photograph, but knowing Kitty she could visualise the colour of that wonderful hair.

“Uncle Mark would paint a super picture of her,” she declared thoughtfully.

“Mark charges big prices,” he told her ruefully.

“Uncle Mark would do it for nothing for a neighbour,” she said.

“I suppose we were reared with a very low opinion of the neighbours,” he confessed.

“Time to change.”

When they came downstairs, Bill had gone back to work and Kate was sitting on the doorstep. Nora went straight to the point.

“Aunty Kate, wouldn’t Ellen and Sarah and the other women clean up this house for Danny?”

“Well, I suppose they would,” Kate answered in surprise. “I could get a few of the village women to help as well.”

“That’s settled then,” Nora said decisively.

Kate surprised her by saying, “On Saturday evening I’m thinking of going into Ross to a old furniture place. Danny, would you like to come along?” When he looked dubious, she added quickly, “Just to have a look.”

“Kate, I can’t afford furniture,” Danny told her firmly, and Nora felt that it was not the first time that they had had this conversation. “It will take most of the field money to pay off Rory.”

“What about a bank loan now that you will have the deeds?” she suggested.

“No way,” he told her forcefully. “I went down that road when I had no choice. It wasn’t very fruitful, and I swore that I’d never put myself through that again.”

“Now it would be different,” she suggested.

“Different or not,” he declared, “bank loans bring bad luck to this place.”

“I can understand how you feel,” she agreed sympathetically, “but it costs nothing to look at furniture. Nora, will you come too?”

It amused her that she was being thrown in as bait, but she could stay at Kate’s on Friday night to avoid conflict with Mom, who was allergic to the Conways. It was agreed that they would pick up Danny and travel to Ross on Saturday evening.

On Saturday they set out for a place in Ross that Nora had never heard of but that Kate obviously knew well. She looked around, askance at what she considered to be a load of old rubbish, but Kate went determinedly into the shadowed depths of the long cavern of a room and started to look around with
what Nora recognised as a well-practised eye.

“She’s like a cattle jobber looking for a good animal at the fair,” Danny grinned at Nora.

Kate called them to drag culled items out of her way, and when Nora was beginning to think that it was all a complete waste of time, Kate breathed, “Aha,” and got Danny to lift a heavy chair and make a passage for her to something that she had spotted inside a bed and partly hidden behind a wardrobe. To Nora it looked beyond recovery, but Kate shouted, “Tom, where are you? We need help.”

A man in a greasy brown shop coat appeared, whom Nora decided could not lift a chair, but he burrowed in, and after a lot of grunting and cursing and Kate’s directing, he finally arrived at the spied object. Incredibly he got under it and piggybacked it carefully over the intervening articles, and Kate instructed him to carry it out into the light. It was a long narrow table, and even Nora’s inexperienced eye could see its possibilities. Kate had Tom turn it upside down, and she pulled open the long drawer as she searched every inch of it for woodworm and finally demanded, “How much?”