Three Women (2 page)

NINA HARRIS WHISKED THE
eggs together before folding in the rest of the ingredients to make the chocolate almond cake. She poured the mixture carefully into the cake tin and popped it into the hot oven. Now she could set about making the creamy chicken and mozzarella dish that was one of Erin’s favourites. She and Tom had offered to treat Erin to a birthday dinner down in the village tonight, but their daughter had said she’d far prefer dinner at home if that was okay.

Nina had phoned Erin at breakfast time to wish her happy birthday and, as she listened to her daughter’s excited voice on the phone, Nina still couldn’t credit that it was twenty-six years since Erin had been born. It seemed like only yesterday that she had held in her arms a beautiful, blue-eyed baby with a steady gaze and a fuzz of reddish-gold hair.

Every year as they celebrated Erin’s birthday Nina remembered the past, and the other woman who had given birth to their daughter on that date and then somehow made the difficult choice of giving her up for adoption.

When Erin was small Nina had been nervous that one day
this
woman would turn up and demand her child back – even try to steal her back. But as the years went by the fear had eased and she had been so busy, always organizing birthday parties with cakes and balloons and bouncy castles and face-painting and magic shows and trips to the puppet theatre, that gradually the worry of this other woman had passed.

Erin had been almost twelve weeks old when all the complex legalities and stringent interviewing processes and assessments were finally overcome and they received the good news from the social workers for the adoption agency that they could collect their baby from St Raphael’s Children’s Home. After so many years of trying to become parents they couldn’t believe it and were totally overwhelmed finally to be handed a baby girl to take home. They had been scared as anything coming home with Erin, worried they would somehow harm or hurt her, this precious baby they had been given, and neither of them had slept a wink that first night as they watched her sleep in the antique wooden crib they had bought for her.

It had taken them a while to learn to relax and enjoy being parents, but from the first minute when Erin Grace Harris had grasped her finger fiercely in her tiny hand, Nina knew that Erin was hers for ever. She was her mother and that’s what mattered …

Motherhood was such a complex issue, as Nina had discovered. One did not have to give birth physically to a child to love and bond with it and become a mother. Giving birth was the least of it! Every day you concentrated on doing your best to love your children, to help them to grow and become warm, rounded, good people capable of loving and being loved. From coping with sleepless nights and childhood temperatures and illnesses, and cooling down hot, teething gums, to teaching
them
how to talk and walk and cycle their bikes and learn to read and write and study and think and become decent human beings. As far as Nina was concerned, it had always been a case of nurture, not nature, with Erin and their son Jack. Tom and she had done their utmost to be good parents and make Erin and Jack feel totally loved and wanted. They’d encouraged each of them to learn, explore and enjoy the things that held their interests and gave them pleasure and joy.

On days like today she thought of the scared young woman who had given them such a gift when she had signed the agreement to let Erin be adopted. She hoped that, wherever that girl was now, she was happy and had a family of her own.

They were quite a crowd for dinner, as Nina’s sister Lizzie – who was also Erin’s godmother – and her husband Myles were coming and Tom’s brother Bill and his partner Charles. Her mum May would join them for dinner too; Myles and Lizzie would collect her en route. May Armstrong was eighty-six years old and had her good and bad days, though she had seemed chirpy enough when Nina spoke to her earlier. Between them, Lizzie and she kept a good eye on their mother, who unfortunately was beginning to suffer with failing physical health and worrisome early signs of dementia. Her geriatrician had advised two years ago that their mum should consider moving into a home, but May had refused point blank, saying she could manage and that she would far prefer, when the time came, to die in her own home than to be incarcerated in a nursing home surrounded by old people she didn’t know.

All they could do for the moment was try to be around as much as possible to help, and to keep things to a balanced routine that worked best. Her mum had a home help who came
in
three mornings a week and she went to the Silver Seniors Lunch Club every Thursday, which was held in Glenageary’s local parish hall and was something May really enjoyed. Weekends they took turns, and once a month their brother Mark came up from Kilkenny and stayed with his mum for two nights.

Nina set the table then hurried upstairs to change before everyone arrived.

‘Nina, what will you have?’ Tom asked when she came back down. Her mum was ensconced in the armchair near the fire, enjoying a sherry, while Lizzie and Bill and Charley were downing gin and tonics. Her brother-in-law Myles, a teetotaller, was on his usual Ballygowan with ice and lemon.

‘I’ll have one of those too, please.’

Jack and his girlfriend, Pixie, came into the sitting room with bottles of chilled Corona in their hands.

‘What are we eating?’ Jack asked.

‘Wait and see!’ teased Nina, who was used to her son constantly enquiring about what he was going to be fed. At six foot three he always seemed to be ravenous.

‘Any sign of Erin and that lovely boyfriend of hers yet?’ asked her mother.

‘No, Mum, they must have got delayed,’ she said, going to check on the meal.

Erin arrived in a flurry of long legs encased in fine black leggings and knee-high boots, wearing a grey-and-orange striped top – or dress or whatever they called it – that picked up the colour of her long, glossy hair.

‘Mum, sorry I’m a bit late, but I was hoping that Luke could make it too.’

‘Where is he?’ Tom asked.

‘Stuck in London; he couldn’t get back as all this evening’s flights were grounded because of fog at Heathrow. I’m sorry.’

‘All the more food for us!’ crowed Jack.

‘I’d prefer he was here,’ Erin said, taking a swipe at her younger brother.

They all sat around the huge oak table in the kitchen as Nina and Tom served the meal. May insisted on sitting beside her granddaughter.

‘I want to find out when she and this Luke fellow are getting engaged and married,’ she said loudly. Ever since she had gone slightly deaf, May spoke that bit louder, unaware that everyone could overhear her conversations now.

‘Granny, we are just going out – he’s just my boyfriend,’ Erin protested, embarrassed and saying a silent prayer of thanks that Luke was not sitting beside her.

‘Have you seen a ring yet?’

Nina and Lizzie couldn’t help themselves and were in stitches laughing as poor Erin tried to handle her grandmother.

‘Your grandfather took me to Weir’s. He spent about four months of his salary on buying me this.’ She showed the gold ring with its two diamonds and central sapphire to Erin. ‘But it was worth every penny because I still wear it … never take it off me, and I might have forgotten some things but I will never forget Harry and this ring.’

‘It’s a lovely engagement ring, Granny, but Luke and I are not at that stage yet,’ Erin stumbled on.

Uncle Bill and Charley regaled them with details of a trip they had just taken to Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

‘We wanted to mark Charley’s sixtieth birthday,’ said Bill, ‘and it was a trip we both wanted to do. We have friends in
Hong
Kong and Sydney, so it was great. Exhausting going long-haul, but we both loved it!’

‘Pixie and I are hoping to go to Oz when I finish my exams in the summer,’ announced Jack.

Nina caught Tom’s eye. This was the first time they had heard any mention of this from their son.

‘Are you going on holiday?’ asked Myles as he passed around the asparagus dish.

‘No, we hope to go for a year and do that whole down-under thing!’ laughed blonde-haired Pixie, squeezing Jack’s hand. ‘We’ve both got lots of friends out there, so it should be good fun!’

‘Half the country is out there,’ laughed Charley, ‘judging by the number of young Irish people we met on our travels. They were everywhere … and they all seemed to be getting plenty of work and enjoying it.’

Nina got Jack to help her clear away the plates. He seemed besotted with this pretty Pixie of a girl, with her short, white-blonde hair and pretty face, and was obviously planning to spend the next year of his life on the other side of the world with her.

The butter icing was perfect, thought Nina, as she put ten candles on the top of the birthday cake. Lighting them, she signalled to Tom to dim the lights on their side of the room as she carried the cake over to where Erin was sitting and everyone sang

‘Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, dear Erin …’

Their daughter’s face was so happy as she blew out the candles and thanked everyone for coming. She is such a beautiful girl, thought Nina – beautiful not only on the outside, but also on the inside where it matters most.

They finished up about midnight. Jack and Pixie had already gone and got the DART to town to Pixie’s place. Erin had decided to stay the night, while Myles offered to drive everyone else home.

‘Mum, it was such a lovely night,’ Erin said, hugging her. ‘Thank you.’

‘And thank you, Erin, for being such a good daughter,’ Nina said, kissing her goodnight.

Lying in bed beside Tom, Nina couldn’t sleep.

‘You did hear what Jack said about going to Australia with Pixie?’ she asked.

‘Yes, I did,’ said Tom patiently, ‘like everyone else at the table.’

‘Did you know anything about this? Had he said anything to you?’

‘Nina, nearly every young person in Ireland is talking about emigrating or going to Australia or America or Canada … That’s the way it is because there are no jobs here for them. You know that from all our friends. Why would you think it would be any different for Jack than all the other guys in his class?’

‘I don’t want him to go,’ she said defiantly.

‘Well we can’t stand in his way or stop him,’ Tom sighed, turning to face her. ‘Jack’ll go away, but he will come back, just wait and see …’

‘What if he doesn’t?’

‘He will.’

‘I couldn’t bear it.’ Nina was so upset. ‘I couldn’t bear to lose him.’

‘Nina, we don’t own them. Jack is twenty-three years old and Erin is twenty-six … They have to make lives of their own. Erin is very keen on this Luke fellow – who’s to say he won’t end up working in London and then so might she?’

‘Tom Harris, don’t you dare upset me any more!’ she pleaded as she slipped into the reassuring curve of her husband’s arms.

ERIN COULDN’T BELIEVE
it – luke was taking her to the fanciest restaurant in Dublin. ‘I told you that I’d make it up to you for missing your birthday dinner with your folks the other night,’ he laughed, ‘and I’m the kind of guy who keeps his promises.’

It had been a nightmare getting ready to go out, as Nikki had hogged the bathroom for nearly half an hour and Erin and Claire had been forced to beg the guys next door if they could use their bathroom. Next time they rented somewhere they were getting at least two bathrooms! As the doormen let them inside Gilbert’s, the French restaurant, and she saw the style of the place, Erin thanked heaven she had decided to put on her new jade-coloured Karen Millen dress. Most of the fashionable couples were a good bit older than them and obviously wealthier too.

‘Are you sure you can afford this?’ she whispered to Luke. The Michelin-starred restaurant had a reputation for being super-expensive.

‘Don’t worry – I got a great bonus last week!’ he grinned.
The
waiter led them to a table near the window and was so attentive that Erin had to try to keep a serious face. The menu was incredible and it took ages for them both to decide exactly what they would like to eat, with the waiter taking great care to explain everything they wanted to know about the dishes that were on offer. Erin went for a mixture of seafood that included lobster, crab, Dublin Bay prawns and salmon, served with some kind of oyster foam; it was absolutely delicious. Luke ordered a really good wine and the waiter kept their glasses constantly topped up as they chatted away. One course followed after another: pork belly, seared tuna, champagne and elderflower mousse, and a berry tart. Neither of them could believe it as seamlessly they were presented with each gourmet dish.

‘This place is amazing,’ she said. ‘Thank you for bringing me here.’

‘Erin, I always want to do things to please you and make you happy,’ he said softly, taking her hand. ‘You know that.’

She nodded. Over the past few weeks their relationship had been getting more serious … they both knew it. Luke was becoming more and more a part of her life and she was structuring what she wanted to do around him, as his work schedule was kind of crazy. He was commuting back and forward to London a lot and it looked like this was going to become a regular feature.

‘I’m back there Wednesday,’ he said, sipping an Irish coffee.

‘But I got tickets for us to go and see the Frames in Vicar Street.’

‘I won’t be here – maybe you can bring one of the girls or sell them on the internet?’ he suggested.

‘I’ll bring Lilly from work. She’s a massive fan and was
saying
the other day that all the tickets were sold out and she couldn’t get one.’

‘There you go – no harm done!’

Erin tried to hide her disappointment. She had to accept that if she had a boyfriend with a high-flying career who could afford to take her to Gilbert’s for dinner, then she couldn’t expect him to be around all the time.

‘Hey, let’s get a last drink and then head to Club 55!’ he suggested. ‘I think Ronan and a few of the guys from the office are going there later.’