Page 23 of The Book of Irish Secrets
‘I’ll have the same, as I brought a bottle of red I want to taste,’ Pierce said. ‘I’ll go into the kitchen and open it if you show me where the glasses are, Noel.’
The men went into what Claire assumed was the kitchen while Rose sat down in an easy chair opposite the sofa and rang the pizzeria. She placed the order and then hung up and smiledat Claire. ‘We’ll let the men do the work and we can just sit here and chat and the children can watch the cartoons.’
‘I want to chat too,’ Sophie said. ‘What will we chat about?’
Claire smiled at the little girl. ‘Anything you like. Maybe you want to ask me a question?’
Sophie nodded. ‘I do.’ She studied Claire for a moment. ‘You have a lot of freckles. Have you counted them?’
‘No.’ Claire laughed. ‘Maybe I should?’
Sophie stood on her knees on the sofa and looked closely at Claire’s face. ‘There’s an awful lot of them so it would take all night to count them. But how did they get there?’
‘Sophie,’ Rose chided, ‘it’s not polite to comment on the way people look. They might not like it.’
‘But freckles are nice,’ Sophie said. ‘I wish I had some. Just a little sprinkle on my nose would be cute. How could I get some?’
‘They just appear,’ Claire said. ‘I couldn’t do anything about it.’
‘Oh.’ Sophie looked disappointed. ‘But maybe I could paint some on? With a marker?’
‘I can paint your face,’ Freddie offered.
‘No thanks,’ Sophie said. ‘I can do it myself.’
‘I want to watch the cartoons.’ Freddie wriggled down from Claire’s lap and sat on the floor in front of the large TV in the corner.
Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t watch that baby stuff. I’ll go and see if Daddy and Uncle Pierce are laying the table in the kitchen. I can hear them laughing, so maybe they’re just having fun.’ She jumped down from the sofa and went through the door to the kitchen.
Rose smiled and shook her head. ‘She is such an old lady sometimes.’
‘Ah, she’s lovely,’ Claire said. ‘They both are. You’re very lucky.’
‘I know.’ Rose reached out and stroked Freddie’s blond hair. ‘They are the best things in my life.’ She looked at Claire awkwardly.
‘When my husband and I were first married we talked about having a family,’ Claire explained, as she guessed what Rose was thinking. ‘But then we drifted apart and our marriage slowly failed. I felt that I didn’t want children with him. I have never really had that yearning to be a mother, anyway.’
‘Some women never feel that,’ Rose said, looking more at ease after Claire’s explanation. ‘That’s not unusual. You shouldn’t feel bad.’
‘I don’t, actually,’ Claire said after a moment’s reflection. ‘I like children, really. It’s just that I never wanted my own. My sister, Marian, has two children and I spent a lot of time with them when they were small. But then they moved to Australia, which felt sad. Her husband is Australian and he wanted to go back there after many years living in Ireland. I keep in touch with them through FaceTime and emails and so on, but it’s not the same. I’m hoping they’ll come for a visit in the summer, though. I miss Marian terribly.’
‘Of course you do,’ Rose said. ‘I couldn’t bear it if any of my sisters moved so far away. Even if Lily and I have ding-dong arguments from time to time,’ she added with a wry smile.
Claire nodded as she remembered how lonely she had felt when Marian had left to live in Australia. It had meant that she had no family in Ireland and that her close relationship with her sister was gone forever. ‘Oh yes, Marian and I often argued. But we always knew we would support each other if we needed it.’
‘Must be hard to have lost that feeling,’ Rose said kindly.
They were interrupted by Sophie running into the room. ‘The pizzas are here!’ she shouted. ‘I looked out the window and saw the van. And Daddy says he’s sorry they didn’t come in with your drinks but now we have to go and sit down and eat pizza and youcan have the drinks at the kitchen table.’ She drew breath and then ran to the hall as the doorbell rang.
Rose got to her feet. ‘We’d better go and get the pizzas and then do as we’re told. Hey, Freddie, the pizzas are here.’
Freddie shot up from the floor shouting, ‘Yay!’
They all went into the large bright kitchen where a big round table was set for six and Noel was pouring wine. Rose and Pierce got the pizzas and carried them to the table then proceeded to cut them up, passing plates around the table while Claire sat down between Sophie and Freddie and helped them cut up their slices into smaller ones suitable for their little hands.
The evening went on to be really enjoyable and once the children had been put to bed, the grown-ups finished the pizzas and had more wine and chatted late into the night. Pierce moved to sit beside Claire which made her feel oddly flattered, even if he didn’t pay her any special attention.
When they both got up to leave, Pierce helped Claire with her coat, saying he’d walk her home as the B&B was only a short distance from Karina’s house. ‘I couldn’t let a lady walk home alone in the dark,’ he said as they waved goodnight at Noel and Rose and thanked them for a wonderful evening.
