House of Memories (8 page)

“Peter is gone over now to dance with Rosie,” Kate reported.

“Kate, you’re like a match commentator,” Fr Tim, who was
busy counting the money, told her.

“This is the most entertaining night that I’ve had with a long time, and to think that I nearly passed up on it,” Kate smiled. “Danny is now dancing with that blonde girl from the bank in Ross. This is the first time that we ever got a crowd in here from Ross. The Vikings must have pulling power. I can’t see Nora at all at the moment. Oh, there she is, coming out of the ladies. Oh my God, Rory Conway is watching her come out. I bet that he saw her going in and he lay in wait.”

“Kate, you make him sound like a fox watching a rabbit,” Fr Tim protested.

“That’s what it feels like,” she told him grimly. “I’m not sure that Nora is going to be able to handle dancing with Rory Conway if he asks her. And that’s just what’s going to happen because he is coming up behind her, and he is going to take her by surprise so she’ll have no excuse.”

Kate watched with a feeling of apprehension as Rory Conway asked Nora to dance, and even from a distance Kate could sense her reluctance. The vibrant laughing Nora who had earlier danced around with Danny and Shiner was gone, and a wooden figure moved across the floor. The band were playing what Rosie termed a slow smoochy number, and as Kate watched she could see Rory Conway draw Nora closer. She tried to push him away and Kate saw him stagger. He was quite unsteady on his feet and he tried to hang on to Nora. Then he wrapped his arms around her and what Kate had dreaded happened: Nora thumped her fists off his chest and started to scream. Then she slapped his face and bolted, ashen-faced, for the door.

Quick thinking Fr Tim was there to put his arms around her, calling to Kate, “I’ll take her down home to David. You stay
here in case there’s trouble.” And they were gone out the door.

When Kate’s horrified gaze swung back to the dance floor, Peter was running across the hall towards Rory. Kate knew that Nora’s scream had brought back that terrible night in the wood and that Peter was out for vengeance. He came at Rory like an avalanche and Rory crashed to the floor. But Rory Conway was big and strong and used to fighting his way through the pubs and dance halls of Camden, and despite being drunk he was up like a shot and going for Peter with deadly intent. Shiner rushed over to help Peter take him on, but Rory had come prepared for a fight. Kate froze when she saw the glint of a knife in his hand. Jesus, she prayed, don’t let anyone get hurt. She was too far away to move, but someone else was not. Kitty, quick as lightning, stood in front of her brother and confronted Peter and Davey.

“Get your dirty hands off my brother,” she yelled, and Kate from her vantage point saw her reach behind her back and cover the knife with her hand. “Come on, Rory, let’s get out of this one-horse dive of a place.” She walked a surprised and unprotesting Rory out the door. As she passed the ticket office, she threw the knife on the table in front of Kate, and looking up Kate saw tears in her eyes. When she looked down there was blood on the blade of the knife. Kitty must have nicked her hand when she grasped the knife!

There was mayhem in the hall, and Kate was angry that the band had stopped playing and were letting the chaos continue. The faster that they all got back dancing now the better. Rosie had the same idea, and suddenly she was up on the stage and had taken the microphone from a surprised Viking.

“No extra charge for the sideshow,” she announced
smilingly, and after a few nervous laughs she got a round of applause.

“Now we are going to try a new dance. Some of you may have tried it before and you’ll know what fun it is. So come on now and we’ll do Simple Simon. Put your hands in the air.” She beckoned to the bemused band to start up, and soon the entire crowd were back in action and the disruption forgotten. Now that Rosie had got the crowd going, she was loath to give up on them. She led them on from one action-packed dance to another and they loved it. She was totally at ease on the stage and with the microphone. The Vikings, with their white suits and red shirts, were the perfect backdrop to Rosie’s red dress, and she had whipped off her bolero top and caught her hair up in a pony tail. There is no doubt, Kate thought, but she has got stage presence. Until then Kate had never been quite sure what that was, but she recognised it when she saw it. The crowd loved Rosie and did not want to let her go, so she stayed singing with the Vikings until the last dance. After the national anthem, the crowd thinned out slowly as everybody stood around discussing the band, but most of all Rosie.

During the last few dances, Kate had noticed a suave-looking man watching Rosie from the side of the hall, and when the last dance was being played he came back to Kate and inquired, “Who’s that girl?”

Kate told him and asked why he wanted to know.

“I manage the Vikings,” he told her, “and I’m looking for a lead singer. She is just the chick to fit the bill.”

Kate was not too sure that she liked his way of putting things. Rosie would be delighted, but the last thing that Betty and Con Nolan would want for their only daughter was to go off singing
with a showband before she had even done her leaving cert. Then Rosie rushed in and Kate did the introductions. When he told Rosie about his plans, she took Kate by surprise by cooly telling him, “We’ll settle the charge for tonight first.”

“But that was agreed in advance,” he told her.

“That was before I sang for half the night with them,” Rosie asserted, and she argued and bargained with him until she got a good knock-down price. Kate was impressed.

When the band had finally got all their gear packed into the van and departed, Kate helped Rosie, Peter, Shiner and Danny to tidy up the hall. Then she told them all, “Let’s go down to my place for tea.”

She saw Danny look at her uncertainly and she smiled reassuringly at him.

“You, too, Danny,” she told him.

Back at the house Nora, David and Fr Tim were having tea, and before anyone could ask Nora said, “I’m fine, and maybe Rory meant no harm, only he was drunk and I was scared.”

“Well, that’s understandable,” Fr Tim told her, and to lead the conversation away from what was a touchy subject in the present company, he continued, “That was one enjoyable night.”

“A great time was had by all,” Shiner declared.

“Tell them your news, Rosie,” Kate told her.

“Well, now,” Rosie began dramatically, “tonight something happened that might change my life.”

“Did you propose, Phelan?” Shiner asked Peter.

“Davey Shine, you are one thick eejit,” Rosie told him in exasperation, knowing that Shiner always aimed to take the wind out of her sails when she wanted to hold centre stage.

“Don’t mind Shiner,” Peter told her, “he’s only setting you up.”

“You’ve no sense of occasion, Shiner, that’s your problem,” Rosie informed Davey, who was about to retort but he got a kick in the shin from Peter under the table.

“Well,” Rosie began again, looking daggers at Shiner, “now that all the fools have had their say, I am delighted to inform you that the manager of the Vikings wants me to become their lead singer.”

There was a combined gasp of astonishment from around the table which brought a look of intense satisfaction to Rosie’s face, and even Shiner had the grace to be impressed. He slapped her on the back saying, “Well, fair play to you,” but then had to spoil it by adding, “my roundy girl.”

But she decided to ignore the last remark because, as she told Nora later, she had always considered Shiner to lack a certain sense of finesse. Peter’s reaction, however, was all that she could have hoped for as he looked at her with eyes full of admiration. But Nora was staunch in her rejection of the idea.

“Rosie, you must do your leaving cert, otherwise you’ll have five years of study gone down the drain.”

“But if I pass this up now, I may never get the chance again,” Rosie protested.

“It’s a bit late in the night to be making life-changing decisions,” Fr Tim told them, “so maybe tomorrow might be a better time to discuss all of this.”

“You’re right,” Kate agreed as she poured out more tea.

“Kate,” Fr Tim began tentatively, “your car is gone until morning.”

“What do you mean my car is gone until morning?” Kate
demanded, putting down the teapot with a bang and looking in amazement at Fr Tim.

“Rory wanted to get to the railway station,” her husband put in quietly, “and it was the only way we had to get him there.”

Now everybody was staring at David and Fr Tim.

“What the hell happened?” Peter demanded.

“Kitty insisted that Rory leave and go back to England tonight,” Fr Tim began.

“But how come he agreed?” Danny asked in amazement.

“She threatened that we would report him to the guards, that he pulled a knife on you, Peter, and that Kate had the knife as evidence and that he would finish up in jail.”

“Good God,” Peter breathed, “how did he fall for that?”

“He was pretty mixed up, so it worked,” David said quietly.

“But why did he take my car?” Kate demanded. “Why didn’t one of you drive him?”

“Because that was the way he wanted it, and we were afraid to push him too far in case things would backfire on us,” Fr Tim told her. “He’s going to leave it at the station in Ross, and David will drive you in early in the morning to collect it.”

“I hope ’twill be there and fit to drive,” Kate said grimly.

“I feel that it will be,” David assured her. “Kitty seemed to have him on the run.”

“And where is Kitty?” Peter asked.

“Gone with him to get the late train back to Dublin. So that’s why I’m so sure that the car will be at the station,” Fr Tim told them.

“Was her hand all right?” Kate asked.

“It wasn’t cut very deep, and I did a bit of first aid on it,” Fr Tim said.

“What a strange finish to the night,” Shiner decided.

“A simply great finish,” Danny declared in a relieved voice, “and now I had better head for home.”

“Will I drive you all home?” Fr Tim offered.

“No, no,” Peter put in quickly. “Norry is staying here, and Rosie, Shiner and myself will be with Danny as far as the bridge. The fresh air will do us all good.”

“Peter is a great believer in fresh air all of a sudden,” Shiner observed to no one in particular.

Kate looked around at these young people and felt immensely proud of them. They had done a great job tonight, and with the exception of Nora’s upset, it had all gone without a hitch. But even Nora’s little episode had a bright side to it in that it had sent Rory back to England, at least for the time being. Kate knew that when he had sobered up he would figure out that Kitty had pulled a fast one on him and that it would not be that easy to get rid of him the next time. But at least it gave Danny breathing space for another while. She was delighted that Peter had included Danny in his group walking home together, even though she realised that Peter’s real reason for the walk was to have time alone with Rosie at the end of it. But at least Danny was part of the little circle, and she knew that this was very important for him as the Conways had always been outsiders in Kilmeen, or rather Matt Conway had made sure that they were kept apart.

When everybody was gone home and Nora gone to bed, herself and David sat discussing the night. But after a while she realised that David’s mind had wandered to what had been worrying him since they had got Rodney Jackon’s letter.

“The future of the school is taking the good out of everything
for you, isn’t it?” she asked, taking his hand and laying it against her face.

“It’s like a shadow hanging over me,” he sighed.

“Well, he’ll be here soon, and then we’ll know exactly what is going to happen. Everything might be fine,” Kate assured him.

She felt confident that Rodney would act honourably, but the thought of Martha controlling things in the background worried her.

N
ORA WAS STRUGGLING
to get to sleep. Every time she dozed off, Matt Conway’s face leered up in front of her, and then he was Rory Conway. When she finally drifted off, she was back in the wood, and a naked Matt Conway, who kept turning into Rory, was laughing and dancing beneath the trees, and she was climbing up a thorny tree trying to get away. The thorns were digging into her hands, and he stood below laughing up at her. Then he started to climb. She woke up sobbing, with her legs drawn up as close as she could get them to her chin. Her heart pounded and she was stiff with fright.

The house was so quiet that she thought that Aunty Kate and Uncle David must hear her heart pounding. Her body was rigid. She made herself breathe deeply and stretch out her cramped legs. Slowly the terror eased and she could breathe easily again. It was a long time since she’d had this nightmare, but every so often something would happen to trigger it off.
Tonight, of course, it was Rory Conway at the dance. He was so like Matt Conway. She had seen him early in the night and had kept him at a safe distance. It was easy to do this because he had sat in a corner and not moved, but she had felt his eyes following her around the hall. She had decided that he was probably too drunk to dance, but when she came out of the cloakroom and he had taken her by surprise, she knew that he had been lying in wait for her.

She was glad that the whole thing had ended in him leaving Kilmeen. It was good to be rid of him, and it would give Danny a chance. She had enjoyed dancing with Danny. It had been a surprise that he was such a lovely dancer, and he had told her that Mary and Kitty had spent hours teaching him when he was younger. Dancing with him had been exciting. It was hard to think that he and Rory were brothers, but it was hard to forget it too. She knew that Mom would be very annoyed if she heard that they had danced together so often, and would have been even more annoyed if she had seen Kitty and Peter. ’Twas luck Kitty had had to go. She had never liked Kitty since their days together in the Glen school, but it was very good of Kitty to have managed things the way she had and surprising that Rory had done as she had told him. Danny had said that she was the one who could best handle Rory.

If Kitty had stayed on at the dance, Nora wondered how things would have worked out between Peter and herself. The chances were that Rosie would have come up with some strategy to torpedo what had looked like a promising situation. It was probably Rosie who had got Shiner to intervene by asking Kitty to dance. Rosie was a firm believer in giving fate a push in the right direction. A romance between Rosie and Peter
would certainly be a lot less complicated than between Kitty and Peter. It might also stop Rosie from going off singing with the Vikings. That would be just great! As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered how Danny had enjoyed the dance.

When she woke, the late morning sun was streaming in the window. She stretched out in the luxury of Aunty Kate’s comfortable bed. Sleeping late was something that Mom did not allow. No matter how tired you felt, she insisted that you get out of bed early in the morning. Now it was just great to lie here in comfort and not have anybody calling from the foot of the stairs. The white dress was thrown across a chair beside the bed. She had had such doubts about that dress for the dance, but Kate was reassuring, and it must have looked good because she had such a great night in it. That was, until the episode with Rory. Thank God he was gone!

Now she decided that it was time to get up and have a slow, leisurely bath. She slipped out of the soft, bouncy bed and eased Kate’s white lace nightdress over her head. On the dressing table over by the window, Nana Nellie’s silver-backed hairbrush glinted in the sun. She waltzed across the bedroom and stood in front of the long mirror. There was no mirror like this in Mossgrove, so there were few opportunities for critical appraisal. She liked her long legs and slim body, but she wished that she had bigger breasts. Maybe she was not as beautiful as Mom, but on the whole she liked what she saw. She let down her curly blonde hair from the knot on top of her head and brushed it streaming down her back. She had often wished that her hair was straight like Rosie’s, but looking at it now, maybe it suited her better this way. When she was a little girl, she had brushed her hair with this brush, and after Nana Nellie
had died and left it to Aunty Kate, she always used it when she came here. Aunty Kate put it on the dressing table whenever she stayed overnight.

She danced around the room humming one of the tunes that the band had played last night. Looking back now, she thought that dancing with Danny had been the best part of the night. Was it because she knew that he had always fancied her? But could it be more than that? Whatever it was, she was feeling good this morning. She waltzed across the corridor to the bathroom, and having splashed some of Aunty Kate’s gorgeous smelling oil into the bath, she turned on the two taps to full flow. Aunty Kate had always told her to feel free to help herself. She was going to have a foaming bath and stay in for as long as she liked. At home Mom was always hurrying you out of the bath, and the bathroom was so clean and functional, a bit like Mom’s dairy. Aunty Kate had a gorgeous blue bathroom with big jars of bath oil and soft fluffy towels. As she soaked in the soft, scented water, she hummed a Viking tune.

It was as if the scene with Rory last night and the following nightmare had washed away the trauma in the wood. She would put it all behind her now, study hard for the next two months and hopefully get into university, then come home to Kilmeen and teach with Uncle David. When her thoughts turned to Uncle David, she felt a slight sense of unease. She wondered if everything was all right with him. He was not himself with the last few weeks. But she was not going to think about anything like that now; she was going to have a lovely hour all to herself. After she had soaked for an hour, she stepped out of the bath feeling that she could take on the world and wrapped herself dry in Aunty Kate’s big soft towels.

As she came down the stairs, the front door opened, and Kate came in looking crisp and fresh in her white coat.

“Did you get your car,” she asked worriedly, “and was it all right?”

“Fine,” Kate told her. “David dropped me over to the station on his way to a meeting, and I got some of my calls done on the way back.”

“You look and smell like a nurse,” Nora said, hugging her.

“Which is exactly what I am,” Kate smiled, returning her hug, “and you smell and look like a lovely princess, but to what do I owe this big hug?”

“Just for being the most wonderful aunt in the whole world,” Nora declared.

“Well, that’s a good start to my week,” Kate smiled. “How did you sleep last night?”

“The nightmare came back, which I suppose was to be expected after the episode in the hall, but then I went to sleep again and slept like a log, and do you know something, Aunty Kate? I feel this morning that I have put it all behind me at last.”

“Good for you,” Kate said thoughtfully. She was never one to probe. She had often told Nora not to ask too many questions because if people wanted you to know something they told you in their own good time. Anyway, Nora could not explain to Kate why she was feeling so good because she was not quite sure of the explanation herself.

“Put on the kettle,” Kate told her, “and we’ll have something to eat before you head back to Mossgrove.”

“Will we have it out in the garden? I love the way you and Uncle David eat out there so much.”

“Of course,” Kate told her. “Put whatever you feel like having
on a tray and carry it out there while I go upstairs and have a bit of a tidy-up.”

Nora put on the kettle and went to Kate’s fridge to collect anything that looked inviting and headed out to the table under the tree at the bottom of the garden. She came back into the kitchen and collected a tablecloth from Kate’s supply in the dresser drawer, and when she had covered the old table in the garden, she laid out the tea things and stood back to appraise her work. She knew that Kate liked her table nicely set. When she came back in, the kettle was boiling, and as she made the tea Kate came into the kitchen minus her white coat.

“You look less like the district nurse now,” Nora smiled.

“I feel less like one too,” Kate told her.

“This is so good,” she declared as she bit into the crunchy sandwich that Kate had whipped together.

“That’s because you’re hungry,” Kate told her. “Hunger is a great sauce.”

“Nana Nellie used to say that,” she remembered.

“She did indeed,” Kate agreed, and then, looking at her appraisingly, “You are so like her that sometimes it’s uncanny to watch you.”

“Jack says that too,” she said.

“That’s a big compliment coming from Jack,” Kate told her, “because he loved Nellie.”

“You mean really loved her?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, really loved her. You’re old enough to understand now. Your grandfather was an alcoholic who gave her a hard life and, I’d say, slowly killed whatever had been between them. Jack, I think, had always loved her, even before she married my father, and when Dad died it is easy to understand that over the
years of being there for her and working with her a huge bond formed between them. As I grew up I was always aware of it and knew that they loved each other deeply.”

“Did you mind?”

“No, not at all. As a matter of fact it made home a more warm, loving place,” Kate told her.

“But they never did … well, you know what I mean,” she finished in confusion.

Kate leant across the table and gently stroked her face.

“I think that being there for each other was enough. When my father died nothing changed, and by then Mossgrove was in such a state that all their concentration was on saving the place, and by then as well we were growing up and became the centre of their universe. We were Nellie’s children, but in some way we were Jack’s as well. Jack and my father had gone to school together and were best friends, and despite all the my father’s shortcomings, I think that Jack understood him.”

“Jack understands us all,” Nora marvelled, “and now he is looking across the river and is going to help Danny Conway.”

“That’s the beauty of Jack: there is no bitterness in his heart. All his energies are channelled into his love of the land.”

“Do you think that he’ll be able to help Danny?” Nora asked.

“Well, if anyone can Jack can,” Kate told her. “Is it important for you?”

“I don’t really know,” and she could feel her face warming, “but I always liked Danny, and now I feel such admiration for him that he is so enthusiastic about getting across the river up and running. But that place is so run down that I cannot imagine it ever looking good. It somehow seems like an impossible dream.”

“Don’t underestimate Jack and Danny,” Kate told her, “and as well as that, Jack feels that they have old Molly Barry on their side. He feels it in his bones.”

“Oh, Jack’s bones,” Nora smiled. “I sometimes wish that I had bones like Jack, and then I’d know what was around the corner.”

“Sometimes ’twould be handy,” Kate agreed, and something in her tone alerted Nora that Kate was worried. So she had been right in thinking that Uncle David had something on his mind, because if Uncle David had a problem, then so would Kate. She decided that she was not going to follow Kate’s advice about not asking questions.

“Are you and Uncle David worried about something?” she asked bluntly.

“Does it show that much?” Kate said in alarm.

“No, no,” Nora assured her, “but I’ve been watching Uncle David, and I sensed that he is not himself. I know that he is always under a bit of pressure when we are coming up to exam time, but this year he is more preoccupied than worried. As if he had something else on his mind.”

“You are a very perceptive young lady,” Kate told her, and Nora felt a twinge of guilt, because where Uncle David was concerned she watched his every mood, “and you are right that he has something else on his mind besides the exams. There was a letter from Rodney Jackson, and we can’t have the Jackson house for the school after the summer.”

“What?” Nora exclaimed. “But why?”

“Because apparently he wants to turn it into a hotel,” Kate told her.

“A hotel. But that’s crazy. What would we do with a hotel
in Kilmeen, and what about the school?” she demanded in a shocked voice, realising that this could destroy her own future plans.

“We don’t know,” Kate said bleakly. “At the moment it’s all a bit up in the air, but Rodney is coming soon so we’ll know then. He was supposed to be here for Easter but he got held up.”

“But where did this idea of a hotel come from?” Nora demanded.

“You are as wise as I am,” Kate told her.

As she walked home to Mossgrove, Nora had planned to call in to Rosie to discuss last night, but Kate’s announcement had changed her mind, and luckily Rosie was not out at the gate. She was dismayed at the prospect of no school in Kilmeen. She wanted to get home and discuss things with Peter. If Rodney was not going to give them the Jackson house for the school, what were they going to do? It was the only house in Kilmeen big enough to house the school, though she had to admit that there had been times when she had thought that it was too grand for all the running and thumping that was done up its lovely curved staircase. But Uncle David was very concerned about the care of it and was for ever telling the students to be careful and not to be banging the old doors or scratching the woodwork. Now she wondered what the future was for the Jackson school. Where would they go? They just could not close down. But she felt that Rodney Jackson would not do anything as drastic as telling them that they could not have the school without offering them an alternative. But what! And what put the notion of a hotel into his head? With all his visiting back and forth, did he feel the need for a hotel in Kilmeen? Nora could find no answers, but when she got home Peter was not long
putting his own slant on the whole thing. She found him sitting on the old sofa in the kitchen looking through the newspaper that Jack had brought from the creamery that morning.