Page 55 of The Widow's Irish Secret
‘Yes,’ Tricia said. ‘Sorry, Ilse, I have to hang up. I’m expecting Lily to call any minute.’
‘I know,’ Ilse said, her voice trembling. ‘I just wanted to say that it wasn’t my fault. I just happened to mention the wedding dress and then everyone started to shout and then Sylvia… Oh, it was awful. That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll hang up now but we can talk later. Bye.’
‘How weird,’ Tricia said when Ilse had hung up.
‘What did she say?’ Cillian asked.
‘Something about the wedding dress and a row and then Sylvia collapsing or something. What on earth was going on?’
They were interrupted by the phone ringing again. This time it was Lily.
‘Mum? I just spoke to the doctor.’
‘What did he say?’ Tricia gripped the phone so hard her hand hurt while she waited for a reply.
29
‘It’s not a heart attack,’ Lily replied. ‘It was a panic attack. Quite frightening but not dangerous.’
‘Ooooh.’ Tricia felt weak with relief. ‘Thank God in heaven.’ She turned to Cillian, who had pulled up beside the road. ‘It was just a panic attack. Sylvia’s okay.’
‘Phew,’ Cillian said and relaxed some of the tension in his hands as they gripped the steering wheel.
Tricia turned on the speaker. ‘How is Sylvia now? She must have been very frightened by that. I’ve heard panic attacks feel like a real heart attack, so it can be traumatising.’
‘They gave her a sedative and she’s asleep,’ Lily said. ‘They’re keeping her in for a day or two to do some tests. Could be that her blood pressure is up and given her age, they want to make sure she’s okay before they release her.’
‘Very sensible,’ Cillian said.
Lily let out a giggle. ‘You should have seen Granny when she had recovered and the doctor started talking about her age. It appears she has been telling fibs for years. She’s actually a whole two years older than she’s let on and she was so annoyed when they told us. She said it was confidential and how dare they givesuch personal details to all and sundry like that. Then, when they said she had to stay in, she started getting out of bed and demanded they give her back her clothes and asked for a taxi to take her home.’
‘Typical of Sylvia,’ Tricia remarked, still wobbly after the scare.
‘I know,’ Lily said, still laughing. ‘But they told her they wouldn’t be responsible for what happened if she left. So she got back into bed and asked for a cup of tea. Earl Grey, of course, which they didn’t have. Then they gave her a sedative and she fell asleep. So now we’re going home but it would be great if you could go and see her tomorrow morning. We’re all a little tired after all the drama, to be honest.’
‘Of course you are.’ Tricia thought for a moment. ‘What brought on the panic attack? Ilse called and babbled something about a row to do with Vi’s wedding dress. She hung up before I could ask her to explain.’
‘Yeah, well…’ Lily paused. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you right now but you should know what it was about. We were all in the kitchen having just finished dinner. Noel and Dominic left to take the kids home as it was getting late. Ilse was there, too, and she started talking about Vi’s wedding and how lovely it was that she was going to wear Granny’s wedding dress. But Vi said she wasn’t and she was having your dress altered so she could wear that. And then Granny got upset and Ilse suggested Vi was being unkind to her grandmother. Rose agreed and said Vi should consider Granny’s feelings. I said Rose should consider Vi’s feelings and that it was her big day. Then I’m afraid we had a bit of a row and Vi burst into tears and Ilse kept going on and then…’ Lily paused and emitted a sob.
‘What happened then?’ Tricia asked, feeling a dart of guilt. She had meant to take up the whole issue about the wedding dress with Sylvia but had been distracted by her outing withCillian, and also the whole mess about the will. And now, because it hadn’t been resolved, there had been this argument that landed Sylvia in hospital.
‘Well, there was a bit of shouting,’ Lily continued, ‘and then Granny suddenly clutched her chest and said she couldn’t breathe and she was in pain. She looked as if she was having a heart attack so we called an ambulance. It arrived very quickly, thank goodness. The ambulance men were amazing and put an oxygen mask on Granny and carried her out on a stretcher. Oh, Mum, I thought we were going to lose her. We all did.’ Lily stopped and blew her nose.
‘But you didn’t,’ Cillian cut in. ‘It must have been very frightening but now all is well.’ He glanced at Tricia. ‘So we can continue our little outing and we’ll see you soon.’
‘I’ll go and see Sylvia tomorrow,’ Tricia promised her daughter. ‘Bye for now and try to have good rest.’
Lily said goodbye and then Cillian started the van. But instead of driving towards Kerry, he turned the van around and began to drive back the way they had come.
‘What are you doing?’ Tricia asked. ‘You have to drive me home so I can go and see Sylvia tomorrow. I promised Lily I would.’
‘Sylvia is fine,’ Cillian said. ‘All is well and she’s resting. Tomorrow is Sunday and she will have to stay in the hospital until at least Monday, I’d say. You can see her then.’
‘But…’ Tricia protested. ‘She’ll be so upset.’
Cillian pulled in at the roadside and stared at Tricia in the dim light. ‘Tricia, this was supposed to be our special weekend. A day or two to get to know each other and to sort out where we’re going. Then you got that phone call and we thought Sylvia was in real trouble. But now we’ve found out it was a false alarm and we can all relax. Sylvia is being taken care of by the excellent nursing staff in the hospital in Tralee. I’m sure she’d be happyto see you but she doesn’t actuallyneedyou to be there. It’s no longer a case of life or death.’
‘I know, but I think she needs my support all the same,’ Tricia argued. ‘I feel it’s partly my fault that they had that row that upset Sylvia so. I want to make sure she’s okay. We can do this next weekend or any time after your press conference and I have heard from Noel about…’ She stopped.
