Page 42 of The Widow's Irish Secret
Cillian frowned. ‘Please, Trish, try to be patient. It won’t be long till we tell the whole story.’
But Tricia had had enough. ‘I need some space. And I need to think.’ She got up to look out the window in an attempt to make him leave. It was all getting too much to cope with. All the stress and controversy was getting to her.
‘Okay.’ Cillian took his cue, and she could soon hear his chair move, and his soft footsteps as he left. The peace between them hadn’t lasted long and she felt so confused about how to handle her feelings for him. He was constantly blowing hot and cold and Tricia was beginning to feel it might ruin everything between them.
21
Sylvia’s Sunday lunch was not the quiet little family party it usually was. Tricia was happy to see Nora there too. She would be a great support if things went south. She had no idea what to expect. It started off very good-humoured and when Cillian arrived, the girls appeared delighted to meet him, with Sylvia introducing him as Fred’s best friend. They listened intently all through lunch to him reminiscing about Fred as a young boy and then as a university student. They laughed at the scrapes the two of them had been through and all the pranks and jokes they had played on other people. Vi was especially entranced, hanging on every word about her late father who she had never known. And no one seemed to notice Tricia and Cillian’s familiarity with one another – or the tension between them. Did Sylvia know they had been together earlier that day? And if she knew, was she upset? It was impossible to tell.
Tricia felt tears well up as she listened to Cillian’s stories, Fred suddenly so alive just for a fleeting moment. It was like gazing through a looking glass at a time that had been so happy and carefree. She noticed that Sylvia was equally moved and that Arnaud held her hand in a tight grip all through to the end ofthe meal. Tricia wished she could hold Cillian’s hand, but even though they were sitting together, she had to appear cool and detached, just as a friend. It was difficult but Tricia thought that they had managed it perfectly. In any case, the girls were all listening to Cillian with rapt attention and didn’t notice anything at all going on between them. The children – Naomi, Liam and Sophie – were running around the table laughing and shouting but nobody paid much attention to them as they listened to Cillian’s stories about Fred.
Tricia looked around the table at Lily, Rose and Vi, marvelling at how lucky they had been to marry such wonderful men. It was a lovely moment, full of happiness despite the feeling that two people were missing. But she felt that Fred was there and his father, Liam, too, as they all shared memories of them.
Was this all Sylvia had intended for the afternoon? An old friend visiting to share stories about Fred and the good times? It was a lovely thought and Tricia wished it would continue.
But then the spell was broken when someone arrived while Sylvia served dessert. Tricia stared in shock at Ilse standing in the door of the kitchen. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘Sorry to interrupt the family gathering. I just popped in to see Sylvia. But I don’t want to disturb you, so I’ll tiptoe out again.’
‘What is she doing here?’ Tricia mumbled to Nora.
‘I have no idea,’ Nora said. ‘She seems to pop in to see Sylvia all the time.’
‘Annoying woman,’ Tricia muttered.
Sylvia got up and rushed over to kiss Ilse on the cheek. ‘Please stay, dear Ilse. We’re all so happy to see you. You’re not disturbing us at all. Get a chair, Arnaud, and then you can have dessert and coffee with us.’
Arnaud found a chair and Ilse squeezed in between Cillian and Vi, beaming at them both. She shook hands with Vi. ‘Hello,Violet. I’m Ilse, a friend of your grandmother. So lovely to meet you at last. You’re even prettier in real life than your photos.’
‘Thank you,’ Vi said primly. ‘You’re very kind.’ She smiled politely but Tricia could tell she was uncomfortable.That woman seems to have a talent for getting up people’s noses,Tricia thought.And what is she doing here, pushing into a family gathering like this?Most people would have felt embarrassed at arriving to a Sunday family lunch uninvited, but Ilse seemed delighted to be there.
Ilse turned to Cillian. ‘Hi, there. Nice to see you back. Did you have a good trip?’
‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Very good. I’ll tell you about it later.’
Ilse winked at him. ‘You can fill me in on your visit when we’re on our own.’
Cillian squirmed. ‘Okay,’ he said stiffly. ‘We’ll meet up tomorrow as we planned and then I’ll tell you about the meeting in Hamburg. I didn’t expect to see you here, to be honest.’
Tricia felt that the comment from Cillian was an implied criticism of Ilse having turned up like this uninvited. But Ilse didn’t look put out in the slightest; she only smiled and then started chatting to Sylvia across the table. Tricia looked at Ilse and wondered how she could appear so relaxed, gushing at everyone, pretending to be close friends with someone she had only met recently and trying to push into the family circle. But that could be because of loneliness. She didn’t seem to have any family and was all alone in a foreign country. Not that her behaviour wasn’t intensely irritating, but Tricia suddenly felt sad for this brash woman and decided to try to be nice to her. It would be hard but she had to grit her teeth and do her best.
‘You look suddenly very serious,’ Cillian mumbled in her ear. ‘As if you’re struggling with a problem.’
Tricia smiled. ‘Struggling with myself, I think. I’ll tell you later.’
‘Okay.’ He quickly squeezed her hand under the table for a second and let it go again.
It had been a fleeting gesture but comforting all the same and Tricia suddenly felt much better. It was a sign that things weren’t so bad between them. At least there was nothing going on between Cillian and Ilse; they were just working together.
But that was not what was bothering her – it was that Sylvia seemed to be so taken with Ilse. Tricia found that odd. Sylvia was usually hard to please and Tricia found it difficult to deal with her. There was tension between them despite Sylvia’s many acts of kindness to Tricia: having the cottage cleaned from top to bottom and the gifts of items of furniture. But maybe that was because of Sylvia’s fear of losing the girls’ affections in favour of their mother.
‘Tricia, you’re not eating,’ Sylvia said, her voice cutting into Tricia’s thoughts.
‘Oh.’ Tricia looked at a plate with a slice of tarte Tatin that had been put in front of her. ‘Sorry. I was thinking about something.’
‘Something important?’ Sylvia asked, looking intently at Tricia from her place across the table. Had Sylvia noticed Cillian’s gesture towards Tricia?
‘Do you know who the first tenants of the gardener’s cottage were?’ Cillian asked, changing the subject very suddenly. Tricia glanced at him, and their eyes locked for a moment. She could tell he wanted to save her by distracting Sylvia from Ilse, despite him making her promise to keep the drawings secret. ‘The O’Gradys,’ he went on and Sylvia nodded. ‘What do you know about them?’
‘Nothing much,’ Sylvia said. ‘They would be in the staff records. I think the house was built in eighteen sixty-nine, and they were the first family to live there.’
