Page 103 of The Girl with the Irish Secret
‘Eh, okay,’ Vi said, trying to compose herself. ‘Well, it wasn’t a date, exactly. Just an outing to show him around. Someone must have taken a shot of us with their phone.’
Joe nodded. ‘I see. Well, I’m sure some nosey lad will always try to blow up everything to make it look more interesting. Just ignore it would be my advice.’
‘You’re right, Joe. I’ll do just that. Thanks for the heads-up about it, though.’
‘No problem, pet,’ Joe said. He ran down the steps and got into his green van, waving as he drove off.
Vi smiled and waved back. Joe was a darling. He had been delivering their post ever since she could remember. He must be near retirement by now. She’d miss him when he finally stopped working. So nice of him to tell her about that photo in theMirror. It was annoying to find out that someone had taken a photo of her and Jack, but in this case it was something to simply ignore. She wouldn’t comment on it and if asked, she’d just shrug it off. She knew things like this came with the territory of having been cast in a movie to be shot on her own doorstep. A place where everyone knew everyone and liked to talk about it. Not much harm done – yet.
Vi sighed and went into the living room to look through the items in the package. It was so kind of old Fidelma to send it. Vi wondered if she could visit the old lady in her nursing home in Dublin once the filming was over. It would be nice to meet face to face.
Excited, she sat down on the sofa and opened the package. There was a note on the top of the stack of letters and cards that said:
Dear Violet,
My mother asked me to send these letters and cards to you c/o the dance studio as we didn’t have your address. My mother is a little feeble in her mind these days but she was adamant that you would want to read them. We were tidying up her house prior to selling it as she is moving to a nursing home where she can get the care she needs. She had such lovely memories of Kathleen O’Sullivan and now that you are going to play her in the movie, you might want to know more about her. I haven’t had time to read the letters, so you will be the first to see them after all these years. I hope you will like them.
Best wishes,
Emma Murray (Fidelma’s daughter)
Vi put the letter to the side, feeling grateful she had been able to contact Fidelma before the move to the nursing home. The letters might have been thrown in the bin during the move if Fidelma hadn’t asked her daughter to send them on. Vi didn’t quite believe that Fidelma was ‘a little feeble in her mind’ as her daughter had put it. She had seemed quite the opposite during their conversation. But perhaps she couldn’t cope on her own any more and that was why she had to move in to a nursing home. What a pity she couldn’t move in to the senior apartments at Magnolia Manor, Vi thought fleetingly. Then she looked at the pile of cards and letters before her and forgot all else as she picked up the first one. Vi’s hand shook as she realised that she was holding a Christmas card written by Kathleen herself.
The card was dated Christmas 1950 with a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus on the front. Vi opened it.
Merry Christmas, Fidelma! My very first one in Hollywood! It’s very strange to look at palm trees and feel the hot sun at this time of year. But this is California and not Ireland, so I have to get used to it. And – I’m going to be in a movie with Henry Fonda! A small part but it’s a beginning. My agent says it’ll be very good for my career. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and congratulations on your engagement. Brendan seems to be a lovely man with great prospects in the civil service. I wish you both the very best life together.
Love,
Kathleen
The handwriting was indeed a little difficult to read but Vi soon got used to the scribbles as she continued to look through the correspondence. Kathleen seemed quite impulsive and appeared to have scribbled the messages down without paying much attention to a nice style.
Most of the letters were short, some consisted of just a few lines, wishing Fidelma a happy Christmas or Easter and contained little information about her life and acting career in Hollywood. Frustrated, Vi leafed through the pile of papers, skipping the Christmas cards, while she looked for anything of importance. As the cards and letters were sorted in chronological order, starting with the cards dating from Kathleen’s first years in Hollywood to the years just before her death, it was fairly easy to get through to what looked like longer messages. Some of them, in the later years of the 1950s, were more detailed, describing incidents during filming, descriptions of some of Katheleen’s co-stars in various movies and the fights she had had with some of the movie people about her rights. Kathleen hadn’t minced her words and was often threatenedwith dismissal if she insisted on her demands being met. Fun reading, which Vi enjoyed, but it didn’t tell her anything she didn’t know already from the biographies she had read online.
It wasn’t until Kathleen had met Don, who was to become her husband and the love of her life, that she had started to write to Fidelma in more detail, pouring her heart out to the person she described as her ‘only real friend that I can trust completely’.
It appeared that Kathleen and Fidelma had met from time to time when Kathleen paid occasional short visits to Ireland, and they seemed to have had a close friendship that continued until Kathleen’s untimely death from lung cancer in 1995 at the age of sixty-six. She had met Don when she was thirty years old and had been through two broken engagements after short relationships with men with either anger issues or problems with alcohol.I’m not the best picker of men, she had written to Fidelma and had said she had gone to a country house hotel in Kildare to ride as her father had kept horses on the farm in Kerry and she had always loved riding.A horse is the best companion, she wrote.They always listen and seem to understand when you’re sad. I met some terrific horses, especially one called Peggy, a mare who is gentle and kind and never breaks into canter even when she’s startled by something. We have been on some lovely trips through the Kildare countryside and it’s been so soothing and comforting, taking me away from all my troubles. I hope you and Brendan are well and the children continue to thrive. I will write again soon as I have some lovely news (about a person I’ve just met) to share with you (if this is what I hope it is).
Vi smiled as she read the letter, knowing what would come. Kathleen had obviously just met Don but was being careful, having been through two failed relationships. She was also probably careful not to have anything leaked to the press as it looked like she had gone to the country house hotel to escapethe media coverage about her recent break-up. Any new man in her life would attract immense attention from the journalists of the gossip columns. Vi suddenly felt a strong connection to Kathleen, trying to imagine what it would have been like to be so famous. Would the movie Vi was about to star in also bring with it a lot of media attention of the kind she was afraid of? With social media the way it was today, it might possibly be a lot worse than it had been for Kathleen.
Feeling a little stiff after sitting on the sofa for over an hour, Vi jumped up and decided to go for a walk. She put the letters away and went upstairs to have a shower and get dressed. Jeans, a warm sweater and her windproof jacket would be the best outfit today as it was both wet and windy outside. All showered and warmly dressed, Vi was ready to go outside, deciding to walk through the park down to the shore and then take the path across the bridge and then on to Dingle town where she’d have a coffee and a bun in one of the cafés overlooking the harbour. It was a well-worn path for her and her family.
She might even bump into someone she knew on the way and have company in the café. She hadn’t seen any of her old friends since she arrived. She assumed most of them were either working full time or had moved to live somewhere else. She hadn’t kept in touch with anyone, feeling her sisters were all the company she needed. But now, as one of her sisters – Rose – was still not talking to her, she felt a sudden need to confide in someone who was not family. Maybe it was reading the correspondence between Kathleen and Fidelma that sparked this feeling of needing a friend she could trust. They had seemed so close, even though they didn’t meet in person that often.
Vi zipped up her jacket, put on a woolly hat and gloves and walked out of the house. The wind that brought with it a smell of the sea was cold but invigorating and she walked swiftly down the gravel path that wound around trees and bushes throughwhich she could glimpse the sea glittering in the distance. The clouds parted from time to time, permitting the sun to shine through, providing a moment’s light and warmth before the sky darkened again.Typical December weather, Vi thought, enjoying the fresh air despite the cold nearly gale-force wind.
She turned a corner behind a large oak and was startled to come face to face with a woman pushing a buggy. Vi stared at the woman and blinked.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said, stuck for something better to say as the shock of the sudden meeting made her heart contract.
17
‘Yes, it’s me,’ Rose said. Her blue eyes were cold as she looked back at Vi. ‘I wasn’t planning to meet you like this,’ she continued. ‘Or at all, really.’
‘Well, I…’ Vi started. ‘I mean, I was hoping we could get together and talk or something.’
‘I’m not ready,’ Rose said.
