by A. O'Connor
“How did you track me down?” Kitty said as she glanced over at Michael who now had an amused look on his face.
“Lionel,” he said.
“Oh, hullo, Michael!” He turned back to Kitty. “I tracked down your servant, the insolent one – Molly – and she told me you had come here.” He took her arm and began to lead her away. “I need a stiff drink after it all – hot toddies all round, I say – and you can tell me about this awful ordeal you’ve been subjected to by those beasts.”
Kitty glanced back at Michael who saluted her and then turned and walked into the restaurant to join Gearóid and the others.
Later that evening Michael and Gearóid were sitting with the Kiernan family in the hotel lounge. Kitty sat quietly, almost embarrassed by what had happened between her and Michael earlier. Michael for his part was talking as normal, occasionally looking at her and smiling sheepishly. Gearóid was holding Maud’s hand protectively while Lionel sat with an almost unconcerned look on his face.
“The best place you can be is here for now,” Michael told the family. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe to go back to Longford.”
“I’ll have to try and get back as quickly as possible to secure the hotel and other premises – if they’re still standing,” said Larry. “But the girls can stay here for however long it takes for it to be safe again.”
“It won’t be safe until this damned war is over,” said Kitty.
“You could always come and stay with my parents, Kitty,” said Lionel. “Mother would be delighted to have you stay … and we could try out the new tennis court we’ve had installed.” He looked out at the grey skies through the window and added, “Although it’s not the best weather for tennis, I suppose.”
Kitty glanced at Michael’s smirking face, feeling awkward at Lionel’s vacuity during such a terrible time.
“It is simply all unbelievable,” said Chrys.
“You should just be glad you got out of there alive,” said Gearóid.
“I had better be getting back to Dublin – work to do,” said Michael, rising from his chair.
Larry stood up and shook his hand. “Thanks for coming out to see us, Mick, and making sure we are alright.”
“If you need anything – anything at all – let me know,” said Michael. “Goodnight, ladies.”
He nodded to Kitty and Maud before turning and leaving quickly.
“It was very good of Mick to come and see how we were,” said Maud.
“Good of him?” snapped Kitty. “It’s the like of him and his bloody war that destroyed our business and nearly cost us our lives!”
As Kitty sat at the dressing table brushing her hair, Maud came out of the bathroom in her nightgown.
“You shouldn’t have said that about Mick earlier, Kitty, not in front of Gearóid,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s as much Gearóid’s war as Mick’s – he’s fighting it too – on all of our behalves, may I add!”
“I never asked anybody to fight any war on my behalf. I was quite happy with my life before this war came along – now look at us! Staying a hotel because we are too frightened to go home, if we still have a home standing!”
“It wasn’t the Irish who attacked our town, it was the British. You sound like a British sympathiser!”
“I’m an Irish patriot, Maud, you know I am. But I can’t stand all this murder and mayhem – the British may have attacked our town, but they didn’t shoot that young constable in our bar, did they? I’m not a political person, Maud, I never was, and sometimes I don’t know why I am part of this circle – Gearóid, Mick and Harry. How did this happen? I’m just a straightforward girl who likes dances and the races – I’m not a political beast. I’m no Countess Markiewicz.”
“You know the reason why we are all together. I’m engaged to Gearóid, you are courting Harry and then there was whatever was going on between Mick and Helen. It was love that brought us all together.”
“Yes, love might have brought us together but war is tearing us apart! Helen was the wise one, abandoning whatever was going on between her and Mick. She was safely ensconced in her nice fiancé’s respectable home while the rest of us shivered in the kitchen praying for deliverance. As for Harry – what kind of courtship can you have from three thousand miles away? That’s why I have made a decision – the cleverest decision of my life.”
“What decision?” asked Maud, sitting down on the side of the bed and staring at her.
“This evening Lionel asked me again to marry him – and this time I said yes.”
“Oh!” Maud was shocked. “And what about Harry?”
“What about him?”
“He thinks you’re his girl,” said Maud.
“Let him think away! If I’d got killed by the Black and Tans last night then I’d be nobody’s girl! I don’t want any more of this war and fighting, Maud. If I settled with Harry this would be my life forever more, right in the middle of politics and mayhem. I just want a nice quiet life with somebody like Lionel who can give me that. I’m not like you, Maud. I guess I’m much more like Helen.”
“But you don’t love Lionel, Kitty!”
“I’m – I’m very fond of him.”
“Fond! Fond won’t keep you warm at night!”
“And neither will a man who lives three thousand miles away! Or for that matter a man like Mick Collins who you’d never see because he’s always on the run from an assassin’s bullet! No, I’ve made up my mind and it’s me and Lionel from now on. I just know we’ll be very happy together.”
Kitty turned back to the mirror and resumed brushing her hair as Maud sat staring at her in amazement.
CHAPTER 13
Although Maud’s words had unnerved her, Kitty was sure she had made the right decision in accepting Lionel’s marriage proposal. After the terrible things she had witnessed in their hometown, she wanted to escape the war and anybody involved in it. Lionel was her escape route and, as she had said to Maud, she was very fond of him. He was a very agreeable fellow.
As they continued their stay at the Grand Hotel, Gearóid came regularly to see Maud. Kitty kept wondering if Michael would show up with him, but he didn’t come again.
A week after the ransacking of the town, the Kiernans got word from Michael that it was safe for them to return and secure their premises and home.
Kitty went home with a sense of dread. Arriving back in Granard, she saw that the town bore the scars and wounds of the ransacking. Buildings and houses were boarded up, shops still remained closed, their stock stolen by the Black and Tans. People were still very frightened, having experienced first-hand what the Tans could do. They were fearful that anything could set them off again and they could raid the town again, leaving another trail of mayhem and destruction.
As Kitty walked into the Greville Arms, her heart sank. It had been badly damaged. From windows broken to the bar being smashed, there wasn’t a room left that had not been vandalised. She sat down on a windowsill and the tears fell down her face as she saw thirty years of her family’s hard work destroyed in one night’s reckless thuggery.
“We’ll build it up again,” promised Larry. “No matter how long it takes.”
Kitty looked over at the spot where the young constable had been shot and where he had lain dying in their bar. She remembered the terrible look of fear on his face. She felt haunted by that night. Her thoughts drifted to Harry and she was glad that he was in America, safely far away from an assassin’s bullet. But Michael wasn’t in America. He was there and a target every day of his life.
As she stared down at the spot where the constable had died, she was possessed by this terrible fear for Michael – fear that he might suffer a similar fate. A tear trickled down her face as that thought consumed her with a sadness that she found unbearable.
“Are you alright, Kitty?” said a voice behind her and she turned to see Maud there.
“Oh, yes, just remembering that dreadful night
. That poor young man, I wonder how his family are.”
“I don’t know what’s happened to the world over the past six years,” sighed Maud. “With the Great War and everywhere in turmoil, from Russia with its revolution to Ireland with our war. It’s like the whole world has gone mad and people just kill and think nothing of it anymore – right down to here in our own home.”
“Do you worry about Gearóid?” Kitty was curious about how she dealt with her fears. Somehow, they had always avoided discussing the matter. Although not as well known or as high-up and powerful as Michael, Gearóid was a national hero too. At twenty-five, he had been the youngest officer to fight at the General Post Office in the Easter Rising and he had been given the role of raising the new national flag over the GPO when independence was being declared. He was certainly a target.
“Of course I do. I’m worried sick about him all the time. I fear the day will come that I get the news he has been shot and killed. But I can’t live my life in fear, and I can’t run away from the man I love because of that fear. I have to get on with it, Kitty.” Maud smiled at her then turned and left her alone with her thoughts.
***
It will be Christmas soon, Kitty thought, time to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. Time to pretend everything is still normal, as things used to be.
A flash automobile pulled up outside the building.
“Look who has arrived – your fiancé!” said Maud.
Kitty turned and saw Lionel jump out of his motorcar and walk jauntily towards the building.
“Hello!” he said as he came into the bar.
He came across to Kitty and kissed her.
“How is everyone?” he asked cheerily, as if he was oblivious to the destruction that lay around them.
“How do you think we are – coming home to this?” said Maud.
“Oh – yes – yes – of course,” said Lionel, looking around for the first time and grimacing at the wreckage. “What a mess!”
Kitty stood and sighed as she rolled up her sleeves. “Well, this place won’t get put right with us just staring at it. Let’s make a start.”
As the women got to work, Lionel stood looking on blankly.
Kitty threw her eyes to heaven, grabbed a sweeping brush and thrust it at him.
“Don’t just stand there, Lionel! Start sweeping up that broken glass!”
“Oh, right, yes, of course,” he said as he looked at the brush and began to haphazardly sweep.
CHAPTER 14
Once Hazel and John arrived back in London, Hazel wasted no time resuming her campaign to bring peace to Ireland. Armed now with first-hand experience of the war, she regaled all her friends and contacts with stories of the horrors of what they had seen during their visit.
Winston Churchill was often in John’s studio painting while John worked beside him. Winston loved painting in the studio as it was common knowledge that it was the best in London. He also hoped that some of John’s genius would rub off on his own art. More than all that, though, Winston found it therapeutic to be at the Laverys’ house. However, as Hazel now took every visit as an opportunity to lecture him on Ireland, he found the visits less therapeutic than he used to.
The time seemed to fly with the lead-up to Christmas. John and Hazel threw themselves into the Christmas party circuit. Only two years after the ending of the Great War, people wanted to now forget about the horrors and devastation it had brought. The Roaring Twenties had begun, and the upper classes of London were leading the way. John and Hazel were at the heart of it. But Hazel could not stop thinking of Ireland and the ongoing war and campaigned tirelessly to bring peace to the country.
It was the night of the Marquess of Londonderry’s Christmas party, to be held at his London residence on Park Lane. The Marquess, Charlie Vane-Tempest-Stewart, had been a very good friend of the Laverys for well on a decade since Hazel had first arrived in London and befriended him and his wife, Edith. Charlie had even lent John and Hazel their estate in Ulster to stay in during their recent Irish tour. Much to Edith’s displeasure, Charlie had relentlessly pursued Hazel over the years, sending her expensive gifts that John had insisted be returned. Charlie was one of the richest men in Britain and his wealth came from his vast estates in Northern Ireland. A Protestant and vehemently against Irish independence, he sat on the opposite side of the political divide from the Laverys, despite their close friendship.
As Hazel sat at her dressing table in her bedroom, applying her make-up, her personal maid Florrie combed back her auburn hair.
Hazel sat back and looked at the result.
“You look amazing, my lady,” said Florrie.
Hazel leaned closer to the mirror and examined her flawless skin.
“I wonder how long I’ve got left,” she said.
“Sorry, my lady?”
“How long have I got before the ravages of time begin to appear.”
Florrie giggled. “But you are only a young woman, my lady. And there is no sign of age with you. You’re the most beautiful hostess in London, everyone knows that.”
“Thank you, Florrie – I wasn’t fishing for a compliment, just stating facts,” Hazel said, fully aware she wasn’t as young as everyone assumed she was. “The problem about women who are deemed beautiful is that, once they are deemed so, all everyone does is wait for the beauty to fade and disappear. It’s like an ugly spectator sport the woman is meant to endure. The jealousies, the envy, the spite – everyone knows they will get their revenge in the end as time will carry out that vengeance all on its own. All they have to do is sit back and watch and wait.”
“Well, I think they’ll have to wait a very long time for that vengeance to be carried out on you, my lady!” said Florrie with a smile as she continued fixing her hair.
“Thank you, Florrie,” said Hazel, smiling at the girl’s reflection in the mirror.
John stood at the fireplace in the drawing room, looking at his watch.
“Where is your mother? We are going to be late for this damned ball!” he said.
Alice stifled a giggle. It was so rare to see John agitated that she found it highly amusing when he was.
“I shouldn’t worry, John,” she said. “The party won’t start until Mama has arrived anyway!”
“That’s not the point. Edith will be looking for excuses to berate us – your mother anyway, and I’d prefer not to give her any opportunity.”
“Edith will be looking for excuses to berate Mama because she is furious that her husband has shamelessly pursued Mama for years – and he doesn’t care who knows it! Including poor Edith and you!”
John looked at Alice with a mixture of concern and amusement. “I sometimes wonder if we have been responsible guardians to you, Alice. You are far too precocious and knowing of things that girls of your age shouldn’t be aware of.”
“I couldn’t have wanted for better guardians than you and Mama, John. But let us be honest – Mama is not like other mothers. She has never held back from speaking freely in front of me on any issue or matter concerning her. I sometimes think she forgets I’m in the room, she speaks so freely!”
“Oh, she always knows when you are in the room, Alice dear, do not think otherwise. It is more that, because your father died before you were even born, her circumstances were such that she didn’t have the resources to be like others. In a way you had to grow up more quickly and your mother treated you more as a friend than a daughter.”
She sighed. “I sometimes think I have taken the mothering role with her!”
“Well, she does rely on you, Alice, as she relies on me,” said John. “To others, outside the family, she epitomises the overconfident socialite. We know the truth.”
Alice smiled at him. “I hope she never forgets how lucky she was in meeting you. And not just for her, for me too!”
He walked over to her and kissed her forehead. “You don’t know what it means to me to hear you say that … in a way, it makes me feel better for the mistakes
I made with my first family.”
She looked at him speculatively. “You know, I think the reason you are agitated tonight has nothing to do with being late and everything to do with whose party it is – the Marquess of Londonderry who openly pursues Mama.”
“I must admit I find Charlie’s behaviour distasteful. Most of the men who flock around your mother I do not mind. Sometimes I tell myself it is almost flattering that my wife is so admired. But Charlie is far too wealthy and far too aristocratic … he’s the real deal – whereas I am just the cheapest of imitations. In the world of art, he would be described as the masterpiece, whereas I would be classed as a forgery.”
“But, John – you have something that none of the rest have and they envy you it shamelessly.”
“My talent?”
“No – your wife!” said Alice as she threw her hands in the air and laughed loudly.
John burst out laughing too and they hugged.
Their car pulled up outside Londonderry House, a gigantic mansion on Park Lane. Their footman, who was acting as chauffeur for the night, got out of the front of the car and opened the door, allowing Hazel and John to step out.
They made their way to the front door.
“Good evening, Sir John and Lady Lavery,” the butler greeted them.
“Good evening,” said Hazel as two of several footmen assisting him took their coats and scarves.
They continued into the giant foyer which was full of exquisitely dressed guests. The whole place was decked out in marvellous Christmas decorations. On either side of the splendid staircase, which was the centre point of the foyer, were giant Christmas trees. As they made their way through the crowd they were greeted warmly by different guests.