Page 61 of The Widow's Irish Secret
Ilse laughed, looking relieved. She picked up a bicycle helmet from one of the seats. ‘I’ll be off now. Give me a call if you need to discuss anything further, Cillian.’
Cillian nodded. ‘Grand. See you, Ilse. I’ll be in touch before you go back to Germany.’
‘Okay. Bye,’ Ilse said and left closing the door behind her.
‘She was annoyed,’ Tricia said. ‘I’m sorry if I interrupted your work.’
‘You didn’t. We had finished. After the trouble she caused with Sylvia, I don’t feel I want to spend much time with her.’
‘She didn’t mean any harm,’ Tricia said.
‘I know. In any case, our job is finished now and then the other team will take over.’
‘The other team?’ Tricia asked.
‘I’ll tell you the whole story. You deserve to know. Sit down.’ Cillian cleared a space on the seat by the table. ‘Wait, I’ll get the coffee. Do you want a bun?’
‘Weren’t they for you and Ilse?’ Tricia sat down.
‘Well, she isn’t here now, so go ahead. They’re from that amazing bakery in Dingle.’
‘I don’t mind having one, then.’ Tricia picked up a bun and nibbled at it while Cillian busied himself with the coffee machine.
‘So,’ he said as he placed a steaming cup in front of Tricia. ‘First about the project, then whatever you have come to say. Okay?’
Tricia nodded. ‘That’s fine.’
He sat down on the seat opposite her. ‘I’m sure you know all about it by now,’ Cillian began.
‘Of course,’ Tricia said. ‘I saw the whole thing on TV. But when was the shipwreck discovered?’
‘It was found by divers way back in April. They have been diving in the bay just outside the Magnolia beach since then. First trying to establish what kind of ship it was and then when we did, trying to salvage as much as we could from it. At first we thought it was a ship that had sunk about a hundred and fifty years ago. That’s why that little drawing you found shocked me so. I thought we were barking up the wrong tree and the find would turn out to be something a lot less exciting. But then once we had examined the samples, we realised it’s much older than that.’
‘Amazing,’ Tricia cut in. ‘I can’t imagine how it would have felt to find a ship from the Spanish Armada.’
‘We were over the moon,’ Cillian said. ‘Sorry I had to tell you that lie.’
‘I thought you might have found a Viking grave or something. Full of treasures.’
‘We found treasure all right,’ Cillian said. ‘But under the sea, not in any grave. There were a lot of gold coins and other things there that have now been salvaged and sent to Spain where it all belongs. The canons and other things will be taken up slowly by the next crew. It’s a very important find.’ Cillian drew breath and drank some coffee.
Tricia stared at him, forgetting her anger. ‘So that was what the diving was all about? Did you dive yourself?’
‘No, I don’t have those kinds of skills. Ilse and a guy who works for her company are both marine archaeologists. I just examine whatever they bring up and catalogue it.’
‘Amazing. But why all the secrecy? Was it because you thought other divers would go down and steal the treasures?’
‘Exactly. That happens a lot. There are people who plunder shipwrecks for profit. It’s dangerous and illegal but there is no way to stop them, other than to keep quiet about finds like this as much as possible. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you, Trish. I just didn’t want you to be blamed if you told anyone by accident.’
‘I see.’ Tricia broke off a piece of bun and ate it without really tasting it. She knew the time had come for her to tell Cillian how she felt. She didn’t know how he would react or if he would believe that she wanted them to resolve their differences and maybe get close again. ‘That’s some story,’ she said, looking at him.
‘I had to tell you a fib to get you off the scent.’
Tricia nodded as she tried to swallow the piece of bun. ‘I do understand, though,’ she said when she had managed to get it down. She drank a little coffee to help ease her dry throat.
‘I’m glad you do,’ Cillian said. ‘But enough about that. You had something to say, didn’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Tricia said. ‘I came here to tell you something. But I’m not sure you’ll want to listen after what happened between us. I’m not sure where to begin.’
