Page 67 of Heart of the Wren
“Are you talking to me or the cat?”
The farmhouse, the only home I’d ever known, loomed over us, harsh and aloof, its curtains open, its fireplaces cold. “The fairies wanted to take me to the Otherworld. If you hadn't been here, I would have gone. I would have left all this behind. And here I am, leaving it all behind anyway.”
“It’s not too late, if you’ve changed your mind.”
I took a deep breath and put my hand on the small of his back. “Nah.” I called the dogs and opened the brown bear door to let them into the back of the van. “I worry how they’ll cope with going from a farm to a cramped van.”
“We’ll be driving in the countryside,” Dara said. “They’ll have miles and miles of open space to run.”
A teal-coloured Ford Anglia roared over the flat bridge and stopped by the house. Pat hopped out, wearing a shirt and tie and fixing his moustache, which of course was as perfect as ever. “Ah, I’m glad I caught you before you left.” He was all smiles and handshakes. “I’d have kicked myself for missing you.”
I told him I’d left the paperwork and keys in the living room.
“Grand, yeah, grand.” His smile lingered a touch too long. “Oh, c’mere to me. Have you heard the news? I was in with Mrs Murphy on the way here and she told me about Father McDonagh.”
“What about him?” Dara asked.
“He’s gone.”
“Gone?” I gave Dara a furtive glance.
“Gone,” Pat said. “Moved to another parish overseas. Mrs Murphy says there was a whole big furore on New Year’s Eve. He was having dinner with some of his coterie, you know, and a woman came knocking on his door, demanding money.”
“Money for what?” I asked.
“Their children,” Pat said. “Hers and Father McDonagh’s.Ho-ho!Honest to God. It’s all after coming out over the past couple of days. All his dirty little secrets come to light. He’d been sleeping with a woman from Cork for years and had at least three children with her. And he had another woman on the go in Galway. God only knows how many others dotted around the country. Sure isn’t that why he kept getting moved around by the church? He was only here for, what, six months? Can you believe it? He’s gone. Sure it’s all change around here.” He smiled at me again.
I touched his arm.
“Ah, stop, will ya,” he said with a laugh. “You’re a good man, Lorcan, and I’m glad you’ve found someone. You’d better keep in touch, now. I expect a letter or a phone call once a month, at least. You may not know where you’ll be, but you’ll always know where I’ll be.” He waved his arm towards the house.
“I thought your daughter and her husband were moving in,” Dara said.
“They are, they are,” he said, “but I’m getting on a bit and they thought I should move in with them. There’s plenty of room. And Brian wants to do up the old cottage out the back for me. He’s worried I won’t be able to manage the stairs.”
“Go on outta that,” I said. “There’s plenty of life in you.”
He smirked and dropped his chin. “I might have to keep on my own house, so I have somewhere to go and play, sure you know yourself.” He winked and slapped my arm. “You’ve done well to find a man like him.” He touched Dara’s elbow. “You’re a sexy big brute. I bet you're a great aul ride.”
“Hah!I've never had any complaints upheld.” Dara grinned, flashed his canine teeth.
Pat chuckled and slapped his shoulder. “Come here to me now, give me a hug, the pair of you. I’m going to miss having you around.” He gave us both a kiss on the lips.
Throughout my life in Tullycleena, he’d been the only person who knew every aspect of me and he’d accepted it all uncritically. “I’m going to miss you too, Pat.”
He waved us off as Dara and I bundled into the van and drove across the flat bridge, along the track, and out through the front gate.
???
We trundled along the hedge-lined lane into the village, turning at the roundabout with its moss-covered Celtic cross, and past the national school.
“You read Carol’s tea leaves, didn’t you?” I asked.
“I did but…”
“But what?”
“I didn’t tell her everything I saw.”
