by Maeve Binchy
There was no time for Andy to meet Ria properly on her own. 'I could come back another weekend?' he said.
'It wouldn't be fair to ask you, Andy. I'll be up to my elbows in cooking and children and I couldn't concentrate on you.'
'You didn't, even when you could.' He was reproachful.
'I was very flattered to be invited to concentrate.'
'I'm not giving up, I'll think of something.'
'Thank you, Andy.' She looked around to make sure there was nobody in sight and kissed him playfully on the nose.
'I wish you weren't going off to that hicksville town to see the Maines,' Hubie said to Annie.
'No, it will be fun, they're nice people.'
'And Sean's a good-looking guy,' Hubie said gloomily.
'Is he?' Annie pretended to be surprised.
'Remember… I'm in Westville, he's in the boondocks,' Hubie said.
'I'll remember,' Annie promised. Kitty wouldn't believe all this. Two men fighting over her. But then Kitty would ask, 'Which of them did you sleep with?' And Annie wasn't going to sleep with either of them.
'What did Mona say?' Danny asked.
'Nothing at all.'
'Nothing?'
'Total silence,' Barney said. 'It was much worse than any words. And Ria?'
'I haven't told her yet.'
'But Danny, you'll have to tell her. She'll hear.'
'I must tell her face to face, I owe her that much.'
'You're going to get her home?'
'No, I'm going out there.'
'On whose money, might I ask?'
'On your money, Barney. You've got my house, for Christ's sake. You can give me a lousy air ticket.'
They were sitting by the pool planning what to pack to go to the Maines.
'Are you still into lists, Mam?'
'I think so,' Ria said. 'It makes life easier.' The telephone rang, Ria went to get it.
'Sweetheart, it's Danny.'
'I did ask you not to call me that.'
'Sorry. Force of habit.'
'I’ll get the children.'
'No, it's you I want to talk to. I'm coming out there tomorrow.'
'You're what?'
'I'm coming out to see you all for the weekend.'
'Why?'
'Why not?'
'And is Bernadette coming too?'
'Of course not.' He sounded irritated.
'Forgive me, Danny, but you do live with each other…'
'No, I mean, I'm coming to talk to you and Annie and Brian. Is that all right or has America been put off-limits?'
He sounded very edgy. Something in her throat began to constrict. Was it over with Bernadette? Was he coming to ask her forgiveness? A new start. 'When do you arrive? Do you know how to get here?'
'I have all the details you gave the children about the buses and everything. I'll call from Kennedy.'
'Yes but Danny we were going away for the weekend… up to Gertie's sister.'
'Gertie's sister! That can be changed surely.' He was very impatient.
'Yes,' she said.
'See you tomorrow,' he said.
Ria went slowly back to the pool. This was too big to blurt out. The new Ria nowadays thought before she spoke. She wouldn't tell them until she had thought about it. She wouldn't cancel Sheila Maine either. Perhaps the children could go for one night. And leave her alone with Danny.
It was her that he was coming to see. That's what he had said on the phone. 'It's you I want to talk to.' He was coming back to her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The doorbell rang in Number 16 Tara Road. It was Danny Lynch. The smile was very warm. 'I hope I'm not disturbing you, Marilyn?'
'Not at all, won't you come in?'
'Thank you.'
They went into the front room where Marilyn had been sitting reading. Her book and glasses were on the table.
'You like this room,' he said.
'Very much, it's so peaceful.'
'I liked it too. We didn't live here enough, it was always down in the kitchen. I'd like to have sat here of an evening reading too.'
'Yes, well of course it's easy for me, I'm on my own. When there's a family it's different.'
True,' he said. She looked at him enquiringly. 'I'm flying to New York tomorrow, I'll be staying in Tudor Drive. I thought I'd pay you the courtesy of telling you.'
'That's very kind of you, but not at all necessary. Ria's free to have whoever she likes, but thank you anyway.'
'And I need some documents to take with me.'
'Documents?'
'Yes, they're upstairs. I wonder if I can go and collect them?'
'Ria didn't say anything about…'
'Look, I appreciate your caution, but pick up the phone now and call her. This is kosher, Marilyn, she knows I'm coming.'
'I don't doubt it for a moment.'
'You do. Call her.'
'Please, Danny, please don't speak like that. Why shouldn't I believe you? You've given me no reason to think you might be deceiving Ria in any way.' Her voice was cold and her eyes were hard.
He seemed to flinch a little. 'You can come with me, I know where they are.'
'Thank you.'
They walked up the stairs in silence to the bedroom. Clement lay asleep on the bed. 'Hey, how did you get up here, fellow?' Danny said, tickling the cat under the chin. Then he went to the chest of drawers, and opened the bottom one. There was a plastic envelope called House Documents. He picked out four sheets of paper and returned the rest.
Marilyn watched him wordlessly. 'And if I'm talking to Ria tonight what shall I say you took?'
'Some correspondence about the ownership of this house… she and I need to discuss it.'
'She'll be home in under three weeks.'
'We need to discuss it now,' he said. He looked around the big airy bedroom with its high ceiling and long window. Marilyn wondered what he was thinking about. Did he remember fifteen years spent here with Ria or was he in fact working out what price the house would go for?
Marilyn hoped that in this complicated network of friends Ria had a good lawyer. She was going to need one. It was only too clear why Danny was going out to Westville to ruin the rest of Ria's visit. He was going to tell her that they had to sell Tara Road.
Ria was singing as she made breakfast.
'You never sing, Mam,' Brian said.
'She is now.' Annie defended her mother's right to croon tunelessly.
'Bernadette sings a lot,' Brian said.
'That's so interesting, Brian, thank you for sharing that with us,' Annie said.
'What kind of things does she sing?'
'I don't know. Foreign things.' Brian was vague.
'She only hums, Mam,' Annie said. 'Not real singing.'
Ria poured another cup of coffee and sat down with them.
'You'll be late for work,' Brian said disapprovingly.
'Well, at least Mam and I do go out to work,' Annie said. 'Unlike some people who throw a ball with Zach all day.'
'I'd go out to work if there was a job,' Brian said earnestly. 'Honest I would.'
'I think you're safe enough for the next twenty years, Brian. I mean who'd want to close down their business by employing you?' Annie consoled him.
'I have something marvellous to tell you,' Ria said. 'Something you'll be very pleased to hear.'
'What is it?' Brian asked.
'You have a boyfriend?' Annie suggested.
Brian looked appalled. 'Don't be disgusting,' he said to Annie. 'Mam wouldn't do anything like that.' He felt that somehow he had said the wrong thing as he looked at their faces. Slowly to his mind came the notion that his father after all had a new girlfriend and everyone was going along with that. Perhaps he shouldn't have said it was disgusting. 'Without telling us, I mean,' he said lamely.
'Your dad is coming to stay for the weekend,' she said.
Their mouths were open with shock.
'Here, here in Westville?' Annie said.
'They?' Annie said.
'Well, isn't Bernadette coming too?'
'No, of course she's not, eejit,' Annie said.
'Does that mean he's left her and he's coming back to us?' Brian wanted to be clear about what was happening.
'Oh Brian, we've been through this a thousand times. Your dad didn't leave you, he went to live in another place, he'll always be your dad.'
'But has he given her up?' Brian insisted on knowing.
'No, of course not. He wanted to come out and see you both and he got a chance… through work.'
'So they can't be broke after all,' Annie said with relief.
'He'll be here about five o'clock. He didn't want us to go and meet him, he said he'd take a taxi from the bus station.'
'But we're going to the Maines this weekend,' Annie remembered in horror.
'I've spoken to Sheila. You're going up on the bus tomorrow just for one night then come back on Sunday and we'll all have a big goodbye dinner for your dad.'
'I can't believe it. Dad coming here. He'll even meet Zach.'
'Well worth flying thousands of miles for,' Annie said.
'Dad could well put a stop to you and Hubie and your goings-on when he comes,' cried Brian, stung by the attack on his friend.
'Mam, there are no goings-on,' Annie appealed.
But Ria didn't seem interested in whether there were or there weren't. 'Let's think what we'll do tonight when your dad comes. Will we drive him around Westville and show him the sights? Would he like a barbecue here by the pool? What do you think?'
'Dad's got much quieter, you know,' Annie said thoughtfully. 'He sits and does nothing a lot nowadays.'
For some reason that made Ria feel uneasy. The picture of Danny sitting still wasn't an easy one to create. Danny who never sat down, who was always on the go. What was making him quiet these days? Annie was observant, she wouldn't have imagined that. And from what Ria had heard, Bernadette was no ball of fun at keeping the conversation going. It seemed to be a silent house just as it had been an eventless holiday on the boat. So different to what the energetic quick-moving Danny Lynch had wanted all his life.
But she gave no hint of her anxiety. 'Well, if your dad would like to be quiet… then hasn't he picked a great place for it? Now I'm out of here, as they say at the shop, while I still have a job to go to. See you lunch-time.'
When she had gone the children looked at each other across the table.
'You're a little thug, a combination of a rat and a thug and that's saying something.'
Brian looked at her mutinously. 'And you're nothing but a jeer, a horrible old scornful jeer. What has Zach done to annoy you? Nothing at all, and you're always making fun of him.' His face was red and upset.
'Okay, peace?'
'No, not peace. It's only peace until you see Zach again and start groaning.'
'Okay, not peace, but it's going to be great to have us fighting when Dad arrives.'
'Why do you think he's coming?' Brian asked.
'I have no idea. But I don't think it could be anything bad,' Annie said reflectively.
'No, like he's given all the bad news already. It might be something good though, mightn't it?'
'Like what?' Annie wondered.
'Like he's leaving Bernadette?' Brian sounded hopeful.
'Didn't look much like it, did it though?' Annie said. 'They're very lovey-dovey.'
'Do you think Dad will sleep with Mam when he's here?' Brian asked suddenly.
'I don't know, Brian, but can I beg you on bended knees not to ask them if they're going to? Either of them.'
'What do you think I am?' Brian asked indignantly.
Ria came home from the gourmet shop with two big brown paper bags. 'Now we've lots of work to do, will I make a list?' she asked them.
They exchanged glances. 'What needs to be done?' Annie asked.
'We want to clean the place up and show Dad what a great house this is, scoop the leaves off the pool, make a super meal, and make up the bed…'
'Will he not be sleeping with you, Mam, in the same bed?' Brian asked. There was a pause. 'Sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean to say that.'
Danny was packing his things in the office when the phone rang.
'Rosemary Ryan?' The girl raised her eyebrows questioningly.
'Put her through,' Danny said.
'I hear that you're going out to America,' she said.
'You could hear the grass grow, sweetheart.'
'I didn't hear it from you,' she said crisply, 'when we were last talking. In bed.'
'I gather you're not in the office,' he said.
'You gather right, I'm on my mobile in my car very near your office. I'll drive you to the airport.'
'There's no need, honestly.'
'Every need,' she said. 'Ten minutes' time I'll be parked outside.'
He came out of the building where he would probably never work again. The offices would be repossessed on Monday. Danny carried the grip bag he was taking to Westville, and two large carrier-bags, the contents of his desk. 'Do you know what would be wonderful? If you could keep these for me until I come back, save me going out to Bernadette and dropping them at home. And I can't leave them in Tara Road; that Kamp Kommandant will hardly let me past the door.'
'It was actually she who told me you were going to America,' Rosemary said as she negotiated the traffic along the canal.
'Did she now?' He wasn't pleased.
'Yes, I met her this morning in Tara Road and she asked me whether I had heard anything of your plans. I told her she could call Ria to check. She said she didn't want to make waves. That was her expression.'
'Was it?' he grunted.
'You don't think she could know about us do you, Danny?'
'I certainly didn't tell her.'
'No, it's just that she looks at me coldly and says things like "your good friend Ria"… with what sounds like heavy sarcasm. Did she say anything to you?'
'She said something about… you've never done anything that would make me think you weren't trustworthy, have you? It seemed a bit odd at the time, I'm trying to remember the words. But… no, I think we're only imagining things.'
'Why are you going, Danny?'
'You know why I'm going. I have to tell Ria face to face.'
'It won't make it any better for either of you, it's a wasted journey.'
'Why do you say that?'
'Even if you do tell her she still won't believe that it's going to happen. Ria doesn't believe unpleasant things. She's going to say "Never mind, it will all turn out fine".' Rosemary put on a childish voice to imitate the way Ria might speak.
Danny looked at her. 'What did Ria ever do to you to make you despise her so much? She never says anything except good things about you.'
'I suppose she let me walk off with her husband under her nose and didn't notice. That's not a clever way to be.'
'Most people don't have to be so watchful of people that they think are their friends.' Rosemary said nothing. 'I'm sorry, that was smug and hypocritical.'
'I never loved you for your fine spirit, Danny.'
'It's not easy, what I'm going to do, but fine spirit or no fine spirit, I think she deserves to hear it from me straight out.'
'Did you tell her what you were coming out for?'
'No.'
'She probably thinks you're going back to her,' Rosemary said.
'Why on earth would she think that? She knows it's over.'
'Ria doesn't know it's over. In twenty years she still won't believe it's over,' said Rosemary.
At the airport Danny met Polly Callaghan.
'Fleeing the country?' she asked him.
'No, going out to discuss the whole sad tale with Ria. And you? Deserting the sinking ship?'
'No, Danny.' Her eyes were cold. 'You know better than that. I'm giving Barney a littl
e space with Mona for the weekend, he needs it. You're not the only one with a long sad tale to discuss.'
'Polly, I have spent the morning apologising to people for things. I'm upset, I lash out. Forgive me.'
'People will always forgive you, Danny. You're young and charming and you have a whole life still ahead of you. You'll be forgiven and you'll start again. Barney may not be so lucky.'
And she was gone before he could say any more.
The taxi drew up outside the carport. Danny stared up at the house where his family was spending the summer. It was much more splendid than he had imagined. He wondered would he have liked Marilyn Vine under more normal circumstances. Possibly. After all, she had remembered him from a chance meeting half a lifetime ago. They might well have been friends, business associates. And now he was walking into her home.
He could hear Brian shouting: 'He's here!' and his son hurtled down the slope to meet him and hug him.
A boy with a ball and a baseball cap on backwards stood watching closely. Brian's new friend no doubt. Annie, slim and tanned in her pink jeans, was right behind him. The hug was as warm as when she was four years of age. At least he hadn't lost them.
Danny had tears in his eyes when he saw Ria. She had come out too to meet him but she didn't run to him as she would have done in times gone by. She stood there serene, pleased to see him, a big smile all over her face. This was the Ria who hadn't realised that the marriage was over, the Ria who had lost all dignity and control the night before she left for America and who had begged him to leave Bernadette. But she was a different woman now surely. Confident and aware of the real world for the first time.
'Ria,' he said and stretched out his arms to her. He knew the children were watching.
She hugged him as she would have hugged a woman friend, and her cheek was against his. 'Welcome to Westville,' she said.
Danny let his breath out slowly. Thank God Rosemary had been wrong. All during the flight he had been wondering had he given the wrong message to Ria on the phone. But no, he knew that she saw him coming just as a friend. What a tragedy that he would have to change this mood entirely when he told her about Tara Road.
There was no opportunity to tell her the first night. Too much, far too much happening. There was a swim in the pool, a couple of neighbours or friends dropping in. Trust Ria to have got to know everyone. Admittedly these people didn't stay long, they were introduced, Heidi, Carlotta, two cultured gay men who ran a business in the town, a student who obviously had great designs on Annie. They had all dropped by, they said, to say Hi to Annie and Brian's father. He wasn't being presented in some cosy way as a current husband, Danny noted with relief. A glass of wine and club sodas in the garden and a platter of smoked salmon, then they were gone and there was a family barbecue beside the pool.