Page 9 of The Book of Irish Secrets
‘Great. Well the calendar is pretty full, so let’s discuss that. There’s the birthday party at Magnolia next week. Sylvia is pretending to turn eighty-five yet again and she wants it to be very special.’ Karina leaned over the table. ‘She’s really eighty-seven,’ she whispered. ‘We all know but nobody dares say it aloud. This is just between you and me, you understand.’
‘I won’t tell a soul,’ Claire promised.
‘Excellent.’ Karina shook her head and laughed. ‘She doesn’t even look eighty and nobody knows how she does it. Must be good genes and a huge amount of lotions and potions. And all that tai chi and yoga that she does too. Plus that dishy Frenchman giving her lots of TLC. We’d all look a lot younger with that kind of regime.’
‘You look way younger than your age too,’ Claire said, admiring Karina’s glowing complexion and bouncy blonde hair.‘It says in your bio that you’re sixty-two but you look at least ten years younger.’
‘Thank you,’ Karina said, looking pleased. ‘Not that I like talking about age but it’s nice to hear. I don’t have a handsome Frenchman to make me feel good, but my husband isn’t too bad, I have to say. He’s away on business but he’ll be home in time for the party, so you’ll meet him soon. You, my dear, look nice and healthy. I have no idea how old you are but I’m guessing around the forty mark.’
‘Something like that,’ Claire said, pleased to hear she looked younger than her real age. She paused for a moment. ‘But I’d like to hear about the job and what you expect me to do.’
‘Of course,’ Karina said, apologetically. ‘I got a bit derailed there talking about Sylvia. So yes, there’s that party looming and then there’s a wedding the following weekend. Strange to have a wedding at this time of year, but there you are. You will be liaising with Rose Quinn, who looks after the business end of Magnolia. I think she does wedding planning these days just to bring in some extra cash. She’s Sylvia’s granddaughter,’ Karina explained. ‘Married to Noel Quinn, our solicitor. I’ll give you his details should you need them.’ Karina paused and drank some coffee. ‘I also need you to look after the bookings of my catering jobs and remind me a week or so beforehand so I can plan what to buy.’
‘Do you do any of the catering in this kitchen?’ Claire asked, feeling a dart of guilt at the mention of Rose and Magnolia Manor. She didn’t want to meet her yet, or lie to her face about who she was. She felt suddenly nervous. Was she beginning to weave a web of lies? she wondered fleetingly.
‘No, most of it is done at Magnolia in the old kitchen in the basement that has been rebuilt. It’s been done up to professional standards. This is too small for things like that. All Sylvia’sidea, actually, as we do all the weddings there. You won’t mind working there from time to time?’
‘Of course not,’ Claire said, excited that she would have an excuse to spend time at the manor.
‘Great,’ Karina said, looking satisfied. ‘You’ll have to do the shopping for the events and go around to the organic farms and get whatever I’ll need. You have a car, I take it?’
‘Yes, I do,’ Claire said and fished a notepad from her bag. ‘I need to write all this down.’
‘Well, I can print it out for you,’ Karina said. ‘It’s all in the computer you so kindly fixed for me.’
‘Oh, great.’ Claire put the notepad back. ‘I can print it, if you like. I suppose I’ll have access to your business files? Then I can do the bookkeeping as well, if you like.’
‘That’s a great idea.’ Karina looked relieved. ‘Then I’ll have more time for my Insta profile and my Facebook page. I enjoy that so much and I like being in touch with my followers. Posting photos and doing all the hashtags and all that takes up a lot of time, so if you do the bookkeeping, it’ll free up time for me.’
‘Yes, I think it’s good for you to be in touch with your followers,’ Claire agreed. ‘It’ll help with the marketing when your cookbook comes out. All your fans will want to buy it.’
‘That’s true. And then…’ Karina rattled off another list of things she needed help with until Claire felt quite dizzy. This job would be quite challenging but it was a great change from her previous rather monotonous work at the insurance agency, and it would be a lot more fun.
‘We’ll draw up some kind of contract,’ Karina said. ‘I’ll get Noel to see to that. We can sign it in his office which is just down the road from here.’
‘Great,’ Claire said at the same time as Karina’s phone pinged.
She pulled it out of her pocket. ‘It’s Sylvia. She wants me to come over for lunch to go through the plans for her birthday party next month. You might as well come with me so you can meet her. I’d say Rose will be there too. I’ll text them to say I’m bringing my new assistant. Is that okay with you?’
‘Of course,’ Claire said, feeling she didn’t have much choice. Her heart started beating faster at the prospect of finally going to Magnolia Manor. She would have to pretend not to have any knowledge of the place or the people in it. Was she comfortable with that? She wasn’t sure but there was no way she could get out of going with Karina. Was she doing the right thing? There was no time to decide. This was the moment she had been waiting for and she found it hard not to show her excitement.I’ll be meeting my third cousin, she thought, nearly breathless with nerves.I will finally come face to face with a member of my father’s family – a real Fleury woman.
FIVE
Claire found it difficult to concentrate on what Karina was saying during the drive to Magnolia Manor. She was too excited to take anything in, except the lovely view down the hill of Dingle Harbour and the street lined with houses painted every colour of the rainbow. ‘It’s so magical,’ she said. ‘All these little houses in bright colours and the fishing boats and the ocean. So different to any Dublin harbour.’
Karina glanced at Claire while she drove across the bridge and down the road. ‘Is this your first visit to Kerry?’
‘Yes,’ Claire confessed. ‘I’ve never been to the southwest before. We always used to go down the east coast to Wicklow and Wexford for our holidays when I was a child. And then my husband and I had a mobile home near Rosslare for a while.’
‘That’s the difficult ex-husband?’ Karin asked.
‘That’s right.’ Claire shrugged. ‘Don’t worry,’ she added when Karina looked concerned. ‘I’m not a bit sad he left me. It was quite a relief, to be honest. We weren’t very compatible, to say the least.’
‘But you kept trying to please him?’
‘Well, yes, I did,’ Claire replied, surprised by Karina’s astute observation. Was she that transparent? ‘I thought if I could bethe kind of wife he wanted me to be, we’d be happy,’ she said. ‘But I failed miserably.’ Claire shrugged. ‘I’m not very good at relationships, I suspect.’
‘Doesn’t sound like it was your fault,’ Karina soothed. ‘Sometimes people find fault with everything because they’re not really happy themselves.’
