Page 41 of The Widow's Irish Secret
Tricia nodded and nibbled at her bun, happy to change the subject. ‘Yes, I’ve done a lot of the painting and polishing of all the floors.’
He seemed impressed. ‘It looks so professional. I didn’t know you were so good at stuff like that.’
‘Well, I am and I love it. There you go, now you know more about me,’ Tricia remarked. ‘The present me, I mean.’ She paused and put the bun back on the plate. ‘So what do you do on a Sunday normally?’
‘I usually go for a walk and then go to a pub for lunch. But today is different. I kind of invited myself to Sunday lunch at Sylvia’s later today. There is something I want to talk to her about.’
‘Really? What?’ Tricia asked, intrigued.
He looked away. ‘Oh, just something trivial,’ he said airily. ‘Your girls are coming too. Did she ask you as well?’
Tricia stared at him. ‘Sunday lunch? Today? With the girls? No, she didn’t. And they didn’t tell me about it either. My phone is in the bedroom charging, so maybe they texted me or something…’
‘Go and check it now,’ he urged. ‘I only talked to Sylvia this morning. She might have asked the girls on the spur of the moment.’
‘Sylvia never does anything on the spur of the moment.’ Tricia got up from the sofa. ‘Why do you want to talk to Sylvia?’ she asked again before she left.
When Cillian didn’t answer, Tricia ran into the bedroom and found her phone on the windowsill. As she turned it on, she discovered several messages and two missed calls along with a voicemail. The text message included one from Lily, one from Rose and two from Vi, all telling her about the lunch. The voicemail was from Sylvia, as were the missed calls.
‘I have tried to reach you several times,’ Sylvia said in the voicemail, sounding annoyed. ‘Just to invite you to Sunday lunch. There will be a surprise guest whom you will be delighted to meet and the girls, their husbands and children have all accepted. Let me know as soon as possible.’ Then there was a click as she hung up. Tricia rolled her eyes, laughed and dialled Sylvia’s number.
‘Finally,’ Sylvia said as she replied. ‘Are you coming or not?’
‘Coming, of course,’ Tricia said on the brink of laughter. ‘How can I refuse an invitation like that?’
‘I should hope not,’ Sylvia said, slightly mollified. ‘It’ll just be family and Arnaud is cooking.’
‘Then I’ll definitely come,’ Tricia said. ‘He’s a five-star chef. Only family, you said, so who’s the surprise guest?’ she asked even though she knew.
‘You’ll find out when you get here,’ Sylvia replied. ‘One o’clock and don’t be late,’ she said and hung up.
‘You were right,’ Tricia said when she came back into the living room. ‘Sylvia had invited me and now she’s annoyed she couldn’t get me straight away. So I will have to turn up and apologise for not being available when she wanted.’ Tricia sat down beside Cillian. She wanted to ask why he had contacted Sylvia and what he wanted to talk to her about but she knew it was no use. It was obvious he wasn’t going to tell her and she didn’t want to start another argument.
Tricia wondered if Sylvia knew they had been seeing one another. Had Cillian told her? Sylvia couldn’t have known about their relationship in the past, but if she knew, would she bring it up? How would she feel about Tricia’s relationship with Fred’s best friend? She felt so worried all of a sudden as all these questions whirled around in her mind. She wanted to share her fears with Cillian, but then she started thinking about Sylvia’s plans for Violet and felt angry. ‘I’m annoyed with her, too, to behonest. Nothing I want to bore you with, though, except…’ She stopped, not quite knowing how to continue.
‘Except what?’ Cillian asked.
‘Well, it has to do with your colleague, or whatever she is. Ilse, I mean,’ Tricia continued, hoping Cillian might at least finally reveal why he and Isle were in town. ‘It appears she’s got very pally with Sylvia and now she seems to know everything about Vi’s wedding plans, which were actually private. But Sylvia seems to have taken to Ilse big time and told her things that made me very angry.’
‘Sylvia?’ Cillian looked confused. ‘And Ilse? I had no idea that they knew each other.’
‘They met at the hairdresser’s,’ Tricia said. ‘And started to talk. One thing seems to have led to another and now they’re bosom pals.’
‘What did Ilse tell you that made you so angry?’ Cillian asked.
‘Well, she said Vi is going to wear Sylvia’s wedding dress, which is not true. Vi wants to wear my dress, actually. I’m afraid I’m going to have it out with Sylvia about this. She told a total stranger things we haven’t had a chance to discuss yet. A private family matter too. I really don’t like what this Ilse woman said to me. It is none of her business.’
‘Ilse is like that,’ Cillian said. ‘I mean, she makes friends easily and gets people to talk. She’s very charming when she wants to be.’
‘When she wants to get close to important people, you mean?’ Tricia asked, lifting an eyebrow. ‘Sylvia being a very important person around here.’
‘Yeah, well…’
Tricia sat up. ‘Yeah well – what? You know I think it’s time you told me about your work and how Ilse is connected to it. I can’t stand you keeping secrets from me like this. You have to trust me or we will never be able to go forward.’
Cillian looked taken aback by her tone. He looked at her for a moment. ‘I’m sorry. I really can’t tell you until “they” give me the go-ahead. It’s a very important project.’
‘I thought you trusted me,’ Tricia said, her heart beating faster.
