Page 187 of The Missing Sister
‘Katie,’ I said, standing up to hug her, ‘thank you so much for coming.’
‘As if I wouldn’t! I might have been shocked and upset yesterday – who wouldn’t be? But I know you must have had your reasons, Merry, and ’tis so grand to see you! Where are your kids?’ she asked.
‘Out there, braving the waves. They’re both mad for surfing, so.’
I listened to what I’d just said and had to smile because, with the West Cork accent all around me, I was slipping back into it myself.
‘Is there somewhere we can talk? I mean, privately?’ Katie asked me.
‘Is here not private enough?’
‘You need to remember that walls have ears here, and my husband, well, he’s well known round these parts.’
‘Are you saying you’re ashamed to be seen with me?’ I giggled.
‘Of course I’m not, but what I want to tell you... well, we might not be comfortable being interrupted.’
‘Okay, let’s go up to my room.’
We ordered cappuccinos from room service and chatted away about how modern this part of the world had become.
‘Don’t I know it – until recently my husband had one of the biggest construction companies here, so he’s been kept very busy in the last few years,’ said Katie. ‘Now there’s a downturn, but he saw it coming and managed to sell the business last year. He’s sitting on a fortune, whilst the new owner and all those fellows who worked for him will probably watch the whole thing go down the drain. He’s always been lucky that way.’
‘Or a clever businessman?’
‘I suppose, yes,’ she agreed with a weary smile.
‘Can I ask you something, Katie?’
‘Of course you can, Merry. I’d never be keeping any secrets from you, anyway.’
‘Touché,’ I said with a slight grimace. ‘Are you happy with Connor?’
‘Do you want the long or the short answer to that?’ she replied with a shrug. ‘I mean, there was me pulling pints at the Henry Ford pub and he waltzed in one evening and swept me off my feet. Even then his company was starting to do well, so he’d all the luxuries. He showed me plans to build a grand house on land he’d bought in Timoleague, took me driving in his flash sports car and then presented me with a big rock of an engagement ring when he asked me to marry him.’ Katie shook her head. ‘You’ll be remembering what our childhood was like and how I’d sworn I’d not repeat it, so to have a rich man offering to marry me felt like a miracle. Of course I said yes, and we had a big wedding up at the Dunmore House Hotel, and a honeymoon in Spain. He spoilt me rotten with clothes and jewellery, said he wanted me to look the part on his arm.’
‘Were you happy?’
‘Back then, yes. We were trying to grow a family. It took a long time, but I managed to produce a boy and a girl – Connor Junior and Tara. It wasn’t long after Tara was born that I got wind of my husband’s first affair. He denied it, o’course, and I forgave him – and then it happened again and again, until I couldn’t any longer,’ she shrugged.
‘Why haven’t you divorced him?’
‘Knowing Connor, he’d have found a way to wriggle out of me getting much in any settlement, so once the kids had left home, I decided to go to college and take my nursing exams. It took me three years of driving back and forth to Cork City, but I got my qualifications, Merry,’ she smiled proudly. ‘So, for the past fifteen years, I’ve been working up at the old people’s place in Clonakilty, and I love it there. I’m happy enough, Merry; I’ve learnt we all need to make compromises in life. What about your hubby? Was he a good one?’
‘He was, yes,’ I smiled. ‘Very good. I mean, we had our ups and downs as any marriage does, and went through some very hard times financially when we were building up our vineyard—’
‘Vineyard, is it? Remember how we used to steal Daddy’s homemade porter? A couple of sips of that could pull the skin off a cat!’
‘I do! It tasted disgusting.’
‘But we still drank it,’ Katie giggled. ‘Sounds like we’ve both come a long way since our childhoods.’
‘We have. Looking back, we lived close to the breadline, didn’t we? I remember walking to school with big holes in my boots because we couldn’t afford new ones.’
‘We’d definitely be described as deprived kids these days, but then, ’twas half of Ireland at the time,’ said Katie.
‘Yes, and after all that suffering our ancestors went through to fight for their freedom, nothing much had moved on in reality, had it?’
‘As a matter of fact, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.’
