Scarlet Feather (26 page)

Is something happening?’ Simon asked when they all sat down at the kitchen table.

‘Why do you say that?’ Lizzie asked.

‘Well, everyone here’s sort of waiting,’ said Simon.

‘No, Simon, we’re sitting round a table having tea.’

Cathy continued her attempt to improve the twins’ manners. ‘And making general conversation rather than centring everything on ourselves. That’s what people do, you see.’

‘Is everybody all right for sugar and milk?’ Maud said obediently.

Muttie cleared his throat. ‘There’s nothing better than a family sitting down round a table,’ he began. ‘All over Dublin there’s people sitting down to their tea now, watched by their cats and their budgies and their dogs.’ He looked around him proudly, as if this was a perfectly normal remark to make out of the blue… He waited, but the children said nothing. They looked at him solemnly.

Tom felt he had to fill in the gap in the conversation. ‘You’ve got a point there,Muttie, a family could be watched by all kinds of things, a hamster, a rabbit, well, from its hutch if the angle was right, and a dog, of course.’

Still not a word from Maud and Simon.

Muttie was desperate now. ‘But there was never a dog in this house, of course, not having been in the past a family of dog lovers.’

‘No, that’s right,’ Lizzie shouted as if reading lines from a play. Then the twins leaped up.

It
is
,’ cried Simon.

I
knew
it,’ shouted Maud, and they were out of the room in a flash and up the stairs towards the main bedroom. There were sounds of barks and screams and snuffles, and then they arrived carrying the puppy. It looked like a toy, all black fur and wagging tail and panting breath.

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Maud.

‘It’s a he, I looked.’ Simon was holding the puppy and looking again in case there should be any misunderstanding.

Is it for us?’ Simon asked, hardly daring to hope.

‘It’s for the pair of you,’Muttie said gruffly.

‘To keep for ever?’ Maud said, unbelieving.

‘Sure, of course.’

‘We’ve never had an animal, a real animal,’ Simon said.

‘There was a tortoise at The Beeches but he went away,’ Maud said. ‘And you know we were hoping you might get a dog. And only today…’

‘We heard it whimpering inside the door,’ Simon took up the story.

‘And I said maybe it was a puppy.’ Maud wanted to show how bright she had been in identifying the dog.

‘And I said yes,Muttie
could
have got himself a puppy, but also it could be just some old person groaning and grunting on the floor of Muttie’s bedroom and we’d better not go in.’ Simon also needed praise for the great control that he had shown.

‘But we never knew it was for us,’ Maud said.

For ever,’ Simon said.

Cathy realised that this was the moment when the twins actually changed their personality. And everyone else seemed to think the same. The way they stroked it and laughed aloud at its antics would melt the hardest heart. They had the little animal on the table now, flopping about on its fat little paws. Tom put a newspaper under him, just in time, and people hastily took their cups of tea and biscuits away.

‘He just beautiful,’ said Maud again.

‘And he’s very intelligent, too. Did you find him on the street or somewhere?’ Simon asked innocently.

‘Aw, well, I sort of went out and chose him, you see, he’s yours now, he’s for the two of you,’Muttie said, beaming all over his face.

‘Dad went out to a kennels and bought him for you,’ Cathy said proudly.

‘And Lizzie went out to work so that she could pay for the vet’s fees for injections and everything…’ said Geraldine.

‘And we’ll show you now how to train him,’ said Lizzie.

‘You just keep pulling the newspapers nearer the door every day, well, that’s what they used to do at Oaklands.’

‘And what are you going to call him?’ Tom wanted to know.

The puppy looked up as if interested to know as well. ‘Hooves,’ said Simon, and Maud nodded eagerly. There was a silence.

‘Hooves Mitchell,’ Maud elaborated, in case they hadn’t understood.

‘Yes Maud, but normally dogs don’t get called by their surname, so he’ll just be Hooves for most of the time, okay,’ Cathy said.

‘Okay,’ said Maud.

‘And… umm… why exactly did you think of this… um… interesting name?’ Tom voiced everyone’s thoughIs.

The children were surprised that they didn’t understand something so obvious. ‘It’s what Muttie always says is the best thing in the world… the thundering hooves that match your heartbeat,’ said Simon.

Muttie blew his nose very loudly.

‘And when they’re off…’ said Maud, ‘then the sound of those hooves touches your soul.’

Neil called Cathy on the mobile just as they were leaving.

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘It doesn’t matter, Neil, nobody expected you to be there, and it was great, they just love the puppy…’

‘That’s what I was calling about, Cathy. They can’t go on living in this fool’s paradise. Uncle Kenneth is back cleaning up The Beeches, Kay is getting out of hospital at the weekend… This can’t last here, all this make-believe.’

‘It’s not make-believe, it’s a home. What kind of a home is that uncle of yours making for children?’

‘According to Dad and Walter, who’ve been dragged in to help, not too bad a fist of it. Walter even suggested that they get some food from you for the freezer.’

‘I’ll tell them what to do with food for the freezer,’ Cathy said.

‘Cathy please, we’ll talk later.’

‘Sure.’

Geraldine was leaving then too.

‘Sorry I can’t stay longer, Cathy, Freddie’s coming round for a drink. I was going to cook an elegant dinner for him tomorrow night – he usually drops by on a Wednesday, but he has to go to some do, poor love.’

‘No,
I’m
leaving too. Listen, do you want some posh canapes? I have a box in the van.’

‘You’re an angel, just the thing.’

Geraldine was gone in minutes, her smart red car taking the corner of St Jarlath’s Crescent sharpish.

Tom came out then, and they got into the van. ‘Wasn’t it fabulous to see their faces,’ he said.

‘Yeah.’

‘What is it?’

She told him.

‘The courts, the social workers?’ Tom began.

‘Love the biological parents, apparently.’

‘Even if they’re fruitcakes?’

‘So it seems.’

‘You’ll miss them,’ he said simply.

‘I’ll miss them, certainly – but can you see Muttie walking that floppy hound called Hooves round for the rest of his life? He’ll be devastated.’

‘Won’t they take it with them? The dog?’

‘No – those two would freak if they had to cope with a dog as well as children.’

‘But surely they’ll go on visiting St Jarlath’s Crescent a lot?’

‘Kenneth Mitchell’s son, going to a working-class area? Never! They’d be afraid they’d learn a common accent
and
get fleas!’

‘It’s just not fair,’ Tom said. They were driving up to the Riordans’ house as he said this. There were definite sounds of a party.

‘There’s another thing that’s not fair,’ Cathy said. ‘They swore they’d be finished by five o’clock,
now
what will we do?’

‘Leave it to me,’ Tom said.

‘Oh, I’ll leave it to you willingly, but you’re not going to go in and take Mr Riordan by the neck and shout at him about being Mr Family Man, are you?’

‘No, this is a different task altogether. Stay in the van, have a sleep. It might take half an hour.’

She heard Tom rummaging in the back of the van for something and then saw him running up the steps with a package. Cathy closed her eyes. It had been a long, upsetting day and she was nervous about tomorrow’s silver wedding. Still, this
was
her choice, she must never forget that.

Mrs Riordan came to the door. She looked at him guiltily. ‘Oh, God, is that the time?’ she said.

‘Must have been a wonderful party.’ Tom nailed his happiest, most enthusiastic smile to his face.

‘What? Yes, they’re all in good form.’

‘Can I go in and say hallo to the ladies, I brought them a gift,’ he beamed at her.

‘What? Yes, of course, come in.’

‘Good evening, ladies,’ he said pleasantly to a group of eleven women who had drunk too much wine but who had also, he was pleased to see, eaten almost all the food provided. I thought you’d like…’ he began.

‘A stripper!’ screamed one of the women happily.

‘Sadly no,’ he said hastily. I’ve hurt my back. I wouldn’t be able to give you a proper performance at all, but I
did
come with a gift of petits fours and chocolates to thank Mrs Riordan for using our food… So here’s a box to divide among you.’

They thought this was wonderful, and even though they said he was terrible to be giving them things that contained four hundred calories a bite, they ate them all the same.

‘And while I’m here, why don’t I give you more room to enjoy things?’ Adroitly he started to clear the table. The women rushed to help him, and they scraped the plates. In the kitchen, they saw him begin to stack them in the crate.

‘We must wash them first,’ Mrs Riordan said.

‘No, no, we do that back at base, all part of the service,’ he said.

But they insisted. A sinkful of hot, soapy water, another for rinsing, two ladies drying. The party was in the kitchen now.

‘Your back doesn’t look all that bad to me,’ said the woman who had hoped Tom was a stripper.

‘Wait till I’m on real form,’ he said to her roguishly, and she blushed with excitement.

They helped him carry the boxes down to the van, where Cathy leaped out in disbelief and began to stow them away. At that moment Mr Riordan’s car came into the drive.

‘Thank God the place isn’t looking like a bomb-site, you’re a pair of angels,’ said Mrs Riordan, pushing two twenty-pound notes at them. ‘Go on, go out and have a drink on me.’

Mr Riordan nodded at them. ‘Looks as if it was all a good lunch,’ he said grudgingly.

‘Oh, the food was all right but I think they rather liked me as a stripper for most of the afternoon.’

‘You’re making this up,’ the man spluttered.

‘Well, you’re never going to know, are you, Mr Riordan? After all, they’re obviously going to say it didn’t happen, aren’t they?’ Cathy and Tom laughed all the way to the city.

‘Will we drop in on the reception after Neil’s lecture? There’ll be warm white wine and cold sausages provided by one of the faculty wives,’ Cathy said.

‘Sure, will I call Marcella? She should be home by now, we could pick her up on the way, she might like an outing too.’

‘Great idea.’

They spent the forty pounds in a Chinese restaurant. Cathy noticed that Marcella had three prawns, no rice, no stir fry, no sweet and sour pork. Tom noticed that Neil was concerned because the Chinese waiters were probably not in trade unions. They told the story of Hooves.

‘Isn’t The Beeches a big house with a garden?’ Marcella asked. ‘They might be able to have it with them there.’

‘Not until it’s trained, it would run straight out on the road and be killed,’ Cathy said.

‘But maybe they won’t be going back there for ages.’

Neil said that it would be much sooner than anyone thought; the law actually did move quickly in restoring children to their homes.

It seems a pity if they’re happy where they are,’ said Tom, who had been touched by the family scene in St Jarlath’s.

‘That’s not the point.’ Neil was very strong on that. ‘Years ago, children were always being taken from their homes and given to people who would so-called improve them… At least nowadays the importance of the birth parents is actually recognised.’

Cathy thought that this was being over-recognised in this particular case. But she said nothing. There were so many other things to be discussed with Neil, and a rare meal out for the four of them was not going to become a battleground over Simon and Maud.

The Hayes household was up to high doh when they arrived at six-thirty. Two discontented sons who lived at home were hanging around, unsure of what to do. An equally discontented daughter attached to what looked like a young man mightily disapproved of by her parents was saying that it was inconceivable and intolerable that there was no way she could use the ironing board in the kitchen, where it had always been used. Mrs Hayes said they were to call her Molly, and her husband was Shay. He was a plump, somewhat anxious man, who was obviously a hard taskmaster at the business he ran, and felt the need to bark out orders on this occasion as well.

‘Shay, can I make us all a quick cup of coffee and briefly run through the agenda with you?’ asked Tom.

Meanwhile, Cathy had switched on the kettle, asked June to help get the ironing board and iron up to the spare room, got the boys to put the two Persian cats into a place with a litter tray and a bowl of food, a place from which they could not emerge and eat the trifle or shed hairs on the salmon. By the time the kettle had boiled Cathy had persuaded Molly that the main thing was for her to go upstairs and rest with her feet slightly raised. Cathy had even brought her a cold mask for her eyes, it worked wonders, she said.

‘But setting everything up… ?’ Molly begged.

‘Is exactly what you are paying us well to do, and believe me we will do it,’ Cathy said firmly.

She heard Tom telling Shay that they had a chain of command, a checklist, a routine to follow and it was wise if they were left to themselves to do it. He had always thought it good for the family to come down at seven-thirty, half an hour before the first guests arrived, so that they could examine everything and check it was all in order. Shay nodded, it made sense. And soon the Hayes family, fuelled with coffee, had all gone to their rooms. Tom and Cathy got into action, the food was unpacked, the conveyor belt for canapes was under way with June and her friend Helen. The buffet tables were set up. The ashtrays were placed in the conservatory where smoking was allowed, the cake was unwrapped and placed on a silver stand. The creamy dessert which needed to have the number 25 written on it with toasted almonds was produced, the salads were filling up the great glass bowls that had been rescued last night from the Riordans. It was all going according to plan. At exactly seven o’clock the two barmen arrived. Con, the cheerful redhead they had spotted in a pub, and Walter, sulkier and moodier than ever.