Rose of Tralee (39 page)

‘Yes, always,’ Mona said, and spoke no more until they drew up outside a large comfortable-looking house with a number of smart cars already parked before it. Garnett saw her out and into the hall, where he spoke to a man in tails about their table, whilst Mona went to the cloakroom and divested herself of coat, hat and long leather boots. She had brought her court shoes in her bag and popped them on, then checked herself in the large, pink-tinted mirror which hung on one wall. Her hair was tousled and she was rather pale, but a comb and a quick flick with her little rouge pad soon cured that, and out she went to join Garnett in the hall.

‘Ah, lovely as ever,’ Garnett said gallantly. ‘Mona, I’ve just discovered that the confounded manager has made a muddle and our quiet table has been double-booked. But I’ve hired a private room and our meal will be served there. How does that suit you?’

Mona stared. A private room? Did he mean a ... a bedroom? But he was not looking guilty or shifty or anything like that, just enquiring, with his rather bulging pale eyes fixed on her face and one long pale hand fingering the bow tie at his neck.

‘Umm ... I suppose it’s all right,’ she said at last. One good thing – she was not in the least afraid of Garnett. If necessary she firmly believed she could scream louder, scratch harder and run more swiftly than her companion. ‘Let’s take a look.’

The room proved to be a small sitting-room with the promised log fire, a table and two chairs set temptingly close to the lovely warmth, and a comfortable-looking couch. It was not a bedroom nor a boudoir, whatever a boudoir might be. Mona did
not know, but she believed it was a very compromising sort of room.

‘Well?’ Garnett asked. ‘Shall I tell the fellow to bring our meal in about ten minutes? Give you a chance to have a drink of something warming and to settle yourself.’

‘All right,’ Mona conceded graciously. She crossed the room and sat on one end of the couch, then patted the cushion beside her. ‘Do sit down, Garnett, and stop fidgeting about like that.’

Garnett had been poking at the fire one minute and standing up to peer at the contents of the bookshelves which flanked the fireplace the next. Now he looked across at her and grinned. ‘You sound just like my mother,’ he said cheerfully. ‘She’s always telling me to sit down and stop fidgeting.’

‘Well, do it then,’ Mona demanded. ‘Then you can tell me what we’re goin’ to have for our supper.

‘I ordered asparagus soup, roast duck and all the trimmings, and a raspberry Pavlova to follow,’ Garnett told her, taking his place beside her and putting an arm round her waist. ‘And now that we’re on our own at last, I’ve got a proposition to put to you.’

‘We’re often on our own,’ Mona said rather uneasily. ‘What d’you mean, Garnett?’

‘I’ve told the waiter not to serve dinner until I ring the bell,’ Garnett said, his long face flushing. ‘I... I’ve been wanting to ask you something for weeks, Mona, but somehow I never seemed to get the opportunity. So just listen to me for once and don’t interrupt or I’ll take the whole evening to come out with it. It’s like this...’

It was Christmas Eve, and the two girls were rearranging their rooms, for Colm had carried his father’s case down to the docks earlier in the day and seen him off for his two weeks at home with the family in Dublin. Then he had gone to work, because tunnelling did not stop for anything, not even for Christmas Eve, though Colm would be off work for the following two days.

‘Here, you’d better take your apricot jersey coat and skirt,’ Rose said, taking the garments from their shared wardrobe and offering it to her cousin. ‘It’s so pretty that if you left it behind I wouldn’t be able to resist wearing it.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t see it what with the door an’ all the other gear,’ Mona said. ‘Can you bring it down, then? Oh, and you can keep that rose-pink lipstick; it don’t do a thing for me.’

‘Oh, Mona ... are you sure? Thanks ever so much,’ Rose said with real sincerity. She had coveted the rose-pink lipstick for a long time. ‘And if that’s the last lot, we’d better go downstairs as soon as we’ve settled them in Mr O’Neill’s room. Mam’s ever so busy; we could give her a hand.’

‘She can’t still be cooking, can she?’ Mona asked, tottering under her load. ‘But I don’t mind helping.’

‘All women seem to do in the run-up to Christmas is cook,’ Rose observed, following her cousin down the steep attic flight. Her arms were full of clothes and
she was wearing two of Mona’s hats on her head and looking very strange indeed, but at least it would save another trip up and down the narrow stairs. ‘Unless they work for Patchett & Ross, of course, in which case they have to type out huge great sheets of goods dispatched and goods delivered until their fingers nearly fall off.’

‘Or unless they work in the Exchange Station arcade, like me,’ Mona said, clattering down the steps and raising her voice to be heard above the noise. The main stairs were carpeted but the attic ones were not. ‘Now I’ve been makin’ wreaths an’ bouquets an’ Christmas arrangements until me hands nearly fruz off it’s been that cold.’

‘Isn’t it funny how men seem to want every bleedin’ job done before Christmas, and make you go grey and insane doin’ it?’ Rose said idly. ‘Even Mr Garnett’s got all naggy about his work bein’ up to date before the holiday. Still, it’s over now for another year. They can’t follow us home an’ force you to make holly wreaths an’ me to type invoices. So from now, we’re safe to enjoy ourselves.’

‘Mmm,’ Mona said. She reached the landing and crossed to Mr O’Neill’s room, where she began to hang her clothes in his now empty wardrobe. ‘You goin’ out tonight, Rosie?’

‘Yup. We’re goin’ to the Daulby Hall – there’s a big Christmas Eve dance, wi’ spot prizes an’ a special non-alcoholic punch, an’ mistletoe an’ all sorts,’ Rose said, following her cousin into the room and beginning to pile her belongings up on the bed. ‘Then after that we’ll go to Midnight Mass at St Francis Xavier’s in Salisbury Street, so we’ll probably be home even later than you, for once. Where’re you goin’, then? Is Tommy takin’ you dancin’, or
something o’ that nature?’

There was a pause whilst Mona carefully arranged her apricot jersey costume on two hangers and pushed them into the wardrobe. When she spoke it was lightly, however. ‘I don’t know, not for sure. I might – well, I might be goin’ out wi’ the girls from me first job, you know, the ones from the jam factory. It ‘ud be a laugh, an’ you know how hard it is when the fellers work shifts. Tommy may be on his perishin’ tram.’

‘Doesn’t he know yet? Colm does. He’s off today, tomorrow an’ Boxing Day,’ Rose said contentedly. She looked appraisingly round the room. ‘Isn’t it nice down here. I quite envy you, our Mona. You’ll be able to use the bathroom, mornin’s, instead of sharin’ that old washstand wi’ me. That means a hot wash an’ all, because Mam always keeps the fire in, for the boarders.’

‘That’ll be a treat,’ Mona said vaguely. She followed Rose’s example and looked consideringly around the room. ‘Yes, it is nice. In fact, I’ve been wonderin’ . . .’ She turned and glanced almost measuringly at Rose. ‘I’ve been wonderin’, lately, whether I might not move out in the new year. I’m real comfortable wi’ you an’ Aunt Lily, you know that, but a friend’s suggested we share a flat, quite near Exchange Station, an’ once the snow starts an’ the trams get later an’ later, an’ more an’ more crowded ... well, it might be an idea, even if only for the winter. Just because the journey would be shorter an’ that.’

‘No!’ Rose said, looking, she imagined, as dumb-struck as she felt. ‘But we thought you liked it here, Mam an’ me. An’ what about Tommy? I don’t know whether you an’ him’s serious, but . . .’

‘We aren’t,’ Mona said hurriedly. ‘He’s a lovely feller, but I don’t think he wants to be serious about anyone just yet. He’ll need to be in a better job than the one he’s in now afore he starts thinkin’ about gettin’ hitched.’

‘A better job than being a tram conductor?’ Rose said incredulously. ‘Why, Mona, me dad brung me up on a tram driver’s wages an’ you couldn’t have had a nicer home than ours . . . an’ look how his insurance helped Mam to manage when he were gone. Surely, if Tommy was serious ...’

‘He ain’t,’ Mona said hurriedly. ‘How you do jump at a girl, Rosie! I said he’s not thinkin’ o’ marriage an’ I meant it. He’s got real ambition, has Tommy. But I don’t know if I’ll take a share in the flat; it’s a big decision, an’ – an’ I’ve not seen it yet.’

‘Well, it’s up to you, o’ course, but I really did think you were happy here,’ Rose said rather reproachfully. She could not help it, she had had to persuade her mother to take Mona as a lodger and now it looked as though her cousin was going to repay her by walking out – and in the new year, too, when the weather would mean that more money would go on fuel and good, hot food. They would not be able to replace Mona with anyone else, either, because Mam, Rosie knew, would not expect her to share her room with anyone other than her cousin. Just for a moment, Rose thought it would be nice to have her room to herself again, but then she remembered how good it was to have another girl to confide in from time to time, and sighed. Now that she thought about it, she rather enjoyed having a go at Mona’s make-up or trying on her new blouse or skirt. But still, it was up to her cousin to decide whether she would stay or go.

‘I am happy, I telled you I was,’ Mona said. But she
spoke absently, less as if she meant it than that she wanted to calm her cousin’s fears. ‘Honest to God, Rosie, I’ve been happier wi’ you an’ me aunt than I’ve been for years. I don’t suppose I’ll go, not really. But since the subject came up . . . oh, come on, let’s go downstairs an’ give Aunt Lily a hand with wharrever it is she’s up to. Tell you what,’ she continued as the two girls left the room and began to descend the stairs, ‘I won’t try to mek up me mind one way or the other until Mr O’Neill’s back in his own room again an’ we’re sharin’ once more. How’s that?’

‘Fair enough, I suppose,’ Rose agreed. ‘I can understand you wantin’ a place of your own in a way, our Mona. You’re older’n me, I expect it irks you more, sharin’. Only it won’t be that long before one of us is thinkin’ of marryin’, then the other one will be left wi’ our attic room all to herself.’

‘Oh? Do you mean Colm is that serious already?’ Mona said lightly. ‘Because none o’ the fellers I go around with have mentioned marriage. Not yet.’

‘Nor has Colm . . . we’re probably a bit young yet,’ Rose said, ‘and we’d have to save for ages an’ ages before we could even get engaged. But . . . but I do like him more than I’ve ever liked a feller before, even though he isn’t a tram man.’

‘You’re quite, quite mad,’ Mona said as the two of them entered the kitchen. ‘You don’t wed a feller for his
job
, Rosie, there’s a lot more to it than that!’

Lily Ryder, making mince pies, looked up and smiled at them. ‘Who’s talkin’ about gettin’ wed?’ she asked cheerfully. ‘Don’t say Tommy’s popped the question, our Mona!’

‘I don’t know why everyone thinks that because Tommy an’ me’s good pals we’re thinkin’ o’ marryin’,’ Mona said rather reproachfully. ‘Tommy’s
got ambitions an’ I reckon he knows he’ll go further – and go further faster, what’s more – if he isn’t held back by a wife.’

‘Well, queen, you’ll find that when he meets the right woman he’ll suddenly realise that money and ambitions come a long way behind marriage,’ Lily said wisely. ‘There, an’ I bought a few sprigs o’ mistletoe specially for you young folk ... what’ll I do with ’em? Give ’em to Gully?’

‘Gully, Gully, give ’em to Gully!’ the parrot squawked commandingly. ‘Who’s a clever boy, then? Gi’s a kiss, gi’s a kiss!’

‘I’ll give you a clout,’ Rose said, wandering over to the pantry and taking a handful of sultanas from a large stone jar. ‘Or would you settle for some sultanas, old boy?’

Gully, craning from his perch until his head was pressed against the bars, gave her to understand that he would settle for the sultanas, so she fed them to him one by one, then turned to her mother. ‘Can we help, Mam? We’ve changed the rooms round like you said. An’ I told Mona she’d be able to use the bathroom, ’cos Mr O’Neill does. Was that all right?’

‘Aye, that’s fine,’ Lily said. ‘In fact over Christmas you’ll both be able to use the bathroom, if you fit in with the fellers, that is. They need to shave, which takes a bit longer, but you won’t mind that I dare say.’

‘Hot water!’ Rose said ecstatically. She remembered the early days in the house, before they had got their full complement of boarders and she had been able to use the bathroom each morning. ‘When I marry it’ll be a feller who can give me a proper, real bathroom, all to meself!’

Her mother clicked her tongue. ‘There’s not many wi’ bathrooms in the city,’ she said. ‘I can charge an
extra couple o’ bob on the rent ’cos o’ that bathroom. But you get your weekly baths, girls, you must admit that.’

‘Oh aye, it’s a heap better’n the tin bath in front o’ the fire an’ all,’ Rose agreed. ‘But it’s so nice to get hot water straight from the tap, Mam, instead of having to break the ice on the jug.’

‘You’ve not had to do that yet this year,’ Lily said a trifle reproachfully. ‘An’ if you come downstairs you can always have a hot kettle. Only, what wi’ gettin’ the fellers their breakfasts ...’

‘It’s all right, Mam, we were only kiddin’,’ Rose said, laughing. ‘If it comes to breakin’ the ice up there in the attic I’ll come downstairs for hot water quick enough. Now how can Mona an’ meself help you. You’re off to Midnight Mass later, so we’ll finish up for you so’s you can get changed!’

‘Well, alanna, it’s been a fine day, so it has, and I wouldn’t have missed one moment of it for the world! All the presents, an’ the food, an’ the singin’ round the piano . . . but d’you know what the best moment of all was?’

Colm and Rose were standing on the second floor landing, clasped in each other’s arms. It had been, as Colm said, a wonderful day, with everyone exchanging presents at the breakfast table, then going off to church – those who had not attended Midnight Mass, that was – with the grand Christmas dinner served up on the best china and consisting of hot turkey, sausages, stuffing, bread sauce and every vegetable Lily had been able to lay her hands on.