Page 120 of The Girl with the Irish Secret
‘I’m glad you came with me, though,’ Vi said to reassure him. She’d also been glad that he’d given friendship vibes ever since he arrived. There didn’t seem to be anything romantic between them any more. ‘It’s good to know you’re nearby and that I can share whatever I learn straight away with someone I trust.’
‘Whatever it is will stay between us,’ Leo said.
‘I know. But we’d better go in.’ Vi pressed the button, said her name and who she was visiting when prompted by a tinny voice and then the entrance door opened. They stepped inside and Leo disappeared through a door marked CAFETERIA. Then Vi walked to the desk in the reception area and rang the bell.
A nurse appeared within seconds, smiling at Vi. ‘Hello, can I help you?’
‘My name is Violet Fleury and I’m here to visit Fidelma Sheridan,’ Vi said.
‘Oh yes, of course,’ the nurse said. ‘She’s expecting you.’ She pointed at a door. ‘It’s through there and down the corridor. Then the second door on the right. Her name is on it.’
Vi felt increasingly nervous as she walked down the corridor. Here was the moment she had been waiting for since before Christmas. What was Kathleen’s real identity? Did Fidelma know?Is it right for me to dig into this?Vi asked herself as she reached the door with Fidelma’s name on it.Would it be betterto leave well enough alone and just follow the script? No, she answered herself,the truth has to come out, or at least be found so that I can play the real Kathleen and not some glossy image of who the public thought her to be: the feisty Irish colleen.In any case, it would be nice to meet the woman who had known Kathleen when they were both young and hopeful.
Vi took a deep breath and knocked on the door. After several minutes, a soft, melodious voice called: ‘Come in.’
Vi slowly opened the door and peered in. A tiny woman with a shock of white curly hair sat on an armchair by the window. She smiled at Vi. ‘Hello, are you Violet?’
‘Yes,’ Vi said and walked into the room that was bright and welcoming with walls covered in framed prints of flowers and beautiful landscapes. The room smelled faintly of lavender. ‘Hello, Fidelma. Thank you for agreeing to see me.’
‘Why wouldn’t I?’ Fidelma asked. ‘I like having visitors as long as they speak softly and have happy faces.’ She looked at Vi for a moment. ‘Yes. You have a happy face, even if your eyes are a little sad. But you also look very like Kathleen, the way I remember her. The red hair, the green eyes, the freckles… Very similar, as if you were sisters. Except…’ Fidelma paused and leaned forward, staring at Vi. ‘You don’t dye your hair, do you?’
Vi flicked her hair back from her face. ‘Not, this is my real colour.’
Fidelma sat back. ‘Thought so.’ She gestured at a chair beside her. ‘But please sit down so we can chat properly. Do you want a cup of tea? I could ring the bell and ask someone to get you whatever you want.’
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Vi said, smiling at Fidelma’s ladylike manners. ‘Unless you want some tea yourself?’
Fidelma shook her head. ‘No, dear. I don’t want anything right now. I just had lunch and it was delicious. Thank goodness my daughters got me into this home which is expensive but wellworth the money. They sold my house in order to pay the fees, but I really didn’t mind. I was a little homesick at first, but now I’m content to stay here, where there are people to look after me. Things were getting difficult in my big house, you see. Dusty and draughty and full of leaking pipes and a roof that needed repairs. Who wants that in their old age? Not me, that’s for sure. I don’t miss that old pile one little bit.’ She smiled mischievously as Vi sat down on the chair. ‘But don’t tell my daughters how happy I am. I like to make them feel just a tiny bit guilty. Keeps them on their toes and gets them to visit me often.’
‘I won’t tell,’ Vi promised, trying not to giggle. Fidelma was so endearing with that glint of humour in her pale blue eyes.
Fidelma nodded and patted Vi’s knee. ‘Good girl.’ She sat back and looked at Vi for a moment. ‘So,’ she continued. ‘You have come here to talk about Kathleen?’
‘Yes,’ Vi said. ‘I’d like to know as much about her as you can tell me. Whatever you remember.’
‘No problem,’ Fidelma said. ‘I remember things that happened a long time ago better than what I had for dinner last night. And my year at the dance school was probably the most wonderful time in my life. Except for getting married and having my daughters, of course. But that had to do with my adult life. When I was young…’ She paused for a moment, her eyes wistful. ‘I was so excited to start lessons at the school. I had been practising ballet at a little dance school in our neighbourhood and had just started on pointe shoes. The dance studio was very well known and only for students who showed promise. My parents had scraped together enough money for a year’s tuition. They hoped I’d become a ballerina like Anna Pavlova.’ She laughed. ‘My mother had these dreams for me, you see. And then I ruined them by getting married and becoming a housewife. I don’t think she ever really forgave me.’
‘I’m sure she did,’ Vi remarked, getting impatient. She wished Fidelma would get back to her memories of Kathleen without any more distractions. ‘So you met Kathleen at the dance school?’ she asked, hoping to get Fidelma back on track.
Fidelma smiled. ‘Oh yes. We met the very first day. Kathleen was in the more advanced class then, I was in the junior class. But we started to chat in the changing room that first day. She was so kind to me. Made me feel more confident. She said she was envious of my slim frame. Kathleen was quite statuesque and not really built for classical ballet. But she was very good at it all the same. I used to love watching her practise. She was so graceful.’
Vi nodded. ‘Yes. I’ve seen her movies and that lovely gracefulness was part of her beauty.’
‘Exactly,’ Fidelma agreed. ‘But she was also very kind and very ambitious. I do remember that Christmas show where the talent scout noticed her. It changed her whole life, really. She had wanted to go on the stage, maybe get a part in a play at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. That’s what she was working towards. But then Hollywood came calling and she was whisked away to a life she wasn’t really prepared for.’
‘I can imagine,’ Vi said, trying to envisage what it had been like to get an offer like that when Kathleen was still so young.
‘She was only nineteen,’ Fidelma said as if reading Vi’s thoughts. ‘It was in nineteen forty-eight, just after the war. I was a little younger and I thought it was like a fairy tale. But when she left, I missed her terribly. We had become close friends during my first year at the school.’
‘How lovely,’ Vi said, shifting on her chair feeling more and more impatient. How could she get Fidelma to reveal what Vi really wanted to know? ‘So then,’ she started, ‘when she left, you must have been upset.’
Fidelma nodded. ‘Yes. I missed her terribly. And of course, she missed me. She said I was her only true friend in whom she could confide her deepest thoughts and secrets.’
‘What kind of secrets?’ Vi asked, feeling she was getting closer to the point.
‘Who she really was,’ Fidelma said. ‘You see, she wasn’t… Oh I don’t know how to explain it.’ Fidelma stopped, looking emotional. ‘I haven’t spoken to anyone about this,’ she said. ‘It feels like a betrayal in a way.’
Vi touched Fidelma’s hand. ‘Well, you know, I’m going to play Kathleen in a movie about her life and it’s going to be especially about the love story between her and Don. But I’ve been feeling off about it from the very beginning. I’ve read the letters she wrote to you; she was independent, full of ambition, and depth. Her story is much more than just a romance. I want to show who she really was.’
