Where There's A Will

by Mary Malone

  “Can I get either of you anything?” she offered.

  “You could give us a proper explanation,” Pru scoffed.

  “I’ve given things a lot of thought and weighed up everything you’ve said.” She paused a moment, looking from one to the other, dreading the guaranteed onslaught once she’d finished her announcement.

  “And?” Pru couldn’t wait.

  “Give her a chance,” Henry glared at his wife.

  Her brother’s reaction gave Jess hope. Maybe she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought. “I’m staying put. Moving to Clonakilty isn’t an option for me.”

  “Maybe you don’t believe so right now but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.” Pru’s tone was more civil, her attitude dented by Henry’s remark.

  “We have invested quite a bit into the place,” her brother pointed out.

  “Henry!” Jess cried. “Of course I’m not forgetting that! What do you take me for? And I have a proposal for you regarding paying towards it.”

  “No need to shout,” said Pru. “Think of your little boy. Remember how miserable he was here. Why would you want to stay so close to those nightmares? Find a new address without history, baggage or bad memories. That’s what you need.”

  Greg had been miserable. Jess couldn’t disagree. But since her mother’s death, his form had improved, happy now the atmosphere in the house had lightened, making little if any mention of his grandmother or her hot temper. He’d even forgotten his hatred of closed doors, his memory of his grandmother ordering him to his bedroom for the slightest naughtiness obviously fading. Insisting the bedroom door was to be kept closed was just another layer of the old woman’s cruelty.

  “We’re not leaving here,” she insisted, hating the thought of moving away from Kieran and the life she felt was slowly coming together. “Memories fade. Greg has never been happier. I don’t want to put him through any more upheaval.”

  “There’s no talking to her when she’s like this!” Pru said to Henry then turned on Jess again. “You can’t expect Henry to stand back and accept this! He has more right than you to be here!”

  “Pru, this is Jess’s home as much as mine,” Henry warned, defending his sister for the second time.

  Jess threw him a grateful look. “Now Greg’s in school I’m going to look for morning work and, as soon as possible, I’ll get a loan to pay you what you’re owed for the refurbishments. It’ll take another while though.”

  “For goodness sake, why would you get a loan when we’re offering a straight swap for the house in Clonakilty?”

  Jess glared at her sister-in-law, relieved when Greg burst into the kitchen and gave her an excuse to ignore her. “Hi, pet. What’s the matter?”

  “Kieran’s out front. Can I go out to him?”

  Jess felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Not now, pet. I think he said he’s busy for the evening.”

  “But, Mum, he’s not busy. I can see him. He’s sitting on the wall.”

  “Not now, pet,” she told him. “We have guests. Want to watch a DVD instead?”

  “Okay but I’m going out when they’re gone.” He pointed a finger at his aunt and uncle.

  Jess didn’t bother reprimanding him. She felt exactly the same herself. Taking him by the hand, she led him into the living room and set up his favourite DVD.

  “Sounds very close between Greg and Kieran,” Pru stated when she returned.

  “Is that why you’re having cold feet about moving somewhere else?” Henry added.

  “This is our home and we’d like to stay,” Jess reiterated. “I won’t deny Greg is very fond of Kieran – and no wonder – Kieran’s very kind to him.” Unlike his uncle and aunt, she thought sourly, who barely acknowledge his existence.

  “You’re very trusting of him with your little boy, considering he’s only back a few months?” Pru planted more poison in their friendship.

  Jess was growing weary, Henry’s support wavering between lukewarm and cold. “Look, I’ve known Kieran for years and, yes, I do trust him. And, yes, I do have feelings for him and I think he feels something for me too but I can’t be sure.”

  “So I was right,” Pru exclaimed, turning to give Henry a smug look.

  “It isn’t a very good idea to get too involved at this time, Jess,” he said in a gentle tone. “You’ve only buried Mum. And there’s no guarantee he’ll stay around. You said so yourself. Do you really want Greg to get close to somebody, only to lose them again?”

  Jess raised an eyebrow at her brother’s advice. He’d seldom offered her any pearls of wisdom in the past. “You think I haven’t already given that consideration? And Kieran mightn’t be interested so I’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Henry, tell her this isn’t on. We have our hearts set on this house.”

  “We can always trade up to something else.” Henry attempted to appease wife and sister in the one statement.

  Pru snorted and took the argument back to the beginning again. “You’d agreed to move from here, Jess. Isn’t it best to stick to the original plan and start a new life? There are lots of young families in our development, more convenience too.”

  Jess shrugged. “That was before.” She looked from one to the other. “Don’t you think I deserve happiness?” She turned to her brother. “Henry, I’m not side-stepping the fact you’ve invested money in this place but I’ve invested the last few years taking care of our mother while you furthered your career.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” Pru scoffed.

  Pru’s condescending tone angered Jess. She was damned if she was dancing to her tune. “I’ve packed Mum’s stuff. I’d like you to take it with you today please, Henry,” she said to her brother.

  Pru pursed her lips. “Just like that!”

  Henry looked around him and shivered. “That’s pretty callous, Jess. Have you stripped everything she owned?” His gaze strayed to the walls, the absence of photographs noticeable.

  “Everything,” she clarified. “Her clothes are in bags, the rest in boxes. Keep it, dump it. I don’t want anything from it. She’s left me enough mementos, none of them good. I’ve even packed all of her jewellery. You can have the lot.”

  Pru was speechless. “But they’re worth –”

  “A fortune? I know!”

  Henry continued to stare at his sister. “Aren’t you going to keep her wedding ring?”

  Jess shook her head, her eyes locking with his. “I need to put the past behind me, all of it.”

  Pru, on the other hand, was already on her feet. “Where is the jewellery?”

  “It’s in her bedroom,” Jess told her. “I’ll show you.”

  Upstairs she opened one of the big cardboard boxes and took the jewellery box out.

  Pru reached out eagerly for it. “Let me have that. Henry will pack the rest into the car. I can’t believe you’re getting rid of all of your mother’s belongings. Some of her brooches and necklaces date back to her mother’s generation.”

  Jess glared at her, hanging on to the box. “And more of it ridiculous stuff my father broke his back working to try and pay for! And she still treated him like crap!”

  Henry appeared at the door. “Stop – both of you!” he said, surprising them all, his unexpected and unaccustomed outcry bringing silence to the room. “Give us a minute, Pru.”

  Shocked, yet relieved to hear her brother taking a little control, Jess flopped on to the floor.

  Looking highly offended, Pru reluctantly exited.

  There was a brief silence between brother and sister.

  “Thinking of that night still gives me the shivers,” Jess said then.

  “She died of natural causes,” Henry reminded her. “The post mortem reported as much.”

  “I still feel things would have been different if I hadn’t left the pills beside the bed. There might have been time to call an ambulance when we got back from your house.”

  “Your life was hell. I didn’t see it at the time, didn’t want to see it i
f the truth were known.”

  “I could have left. I could have walked away,” Jess argued. She’d thought it over.

  “You acted in her best interests, Jess. You gave her the medication. She demanded the brandy – after she’d drawn her crutch across Greg’s head and lashed out at you too.”

  His sister dropped the box she’d been holding, watching as pieces of her mother’s jewellery rolled around the floor.

  Henry came to sit on the floor beside her. “Don’t think I’m not carrying guilt too. I could have intervened. Over the years I should have done so much more instead of running away – boarding school, college and marrying Pru. There was always an out and I took it.”

  “But you never even acknowledged how horrible she was,” Jess said.

  Henry shrugged. “I was afraid.”

  “I hated her, Henry. She terrified me. The doctor said she was manically depressed but I find that hard to believe.” She stared at the paint scratches on the wall, a memory of where her mother had lashed out with the crutch, missing Jess but connecting with the wall. “I should have called the doctor before I left that evening. He might have given her stronger tranquillisers.”

  Henry continued stroking her hair, letting his sister talk.

  “But seeing her lashing out at Greg and bringing blood to his forehead, all I wanted to do was run.” She shook her head, unable to go on, unshed tears in her eyes, her lips shaping into a watery smile. “Although running was difficult when the sight of blood had me weak at the knees!”

  Henry laughed. “Some things haven’t changed then.”

  “Too much has changed,” his sister responded.

  “Dad left for the same reason,” her brother stated.

  “Did she hit him?” She’d never known for sure, had never witnessed it but guessed it had progressed to that when she’d left for Cambridge and it had only been the two of them in the house.

  Henry nodded, his eyes glistening with tears as he remembered hiding in his room while she laid into her husband. “Physically and mentally, withered him with menacing looks, reduced him to nothing,” he told Jess. “And again I stood by and let it happen, walking away from the atmosphere at the first opportunity.”

  “We should have taken it in hand years ago. If only I’d reported her assaults . . .” Her voice trailed off. It was far too late for ‘if onlys’.

  “Pier Road is your home, Jess, for as long as you want it to be. You’ll receive no further argument from me. Or from Pru. I’ll see to that,” he smiled. “And if there’s anything you need, big or small, just call me and I’ll come running. Alone with a bit of luck!”

  Eyes bright with tears, Jess nodded and pulled her brother to her, hugging him for the first time in years. “Thanks, Henry. That means more than you’ll know.”

  Chapter 38

  Marian’s afternoon was ruined. She’d called around to see Seth, disgusted when he wasn’t home. She rang his phone several times and he eventually answered and agreed to meet her near the Baltimore Inn in Schull. Parking nearby, she spotted Seth outside the pub talking to someone. On time for a change, she thought.

  By the time she got out of the car, the man Seth had been in conversation with had disappeared.

  “I’m sorry,” Seth said, flopping on to the bench outside of the pub. “There’s nothing concrete yet.”

  “But what’s the delay? Surely the geriatric assessments will stand up to scrutiny?” She sat beside her brother, crossing one leg over the other.

  “Don’t worry,” Seth sighed, pulling a cigar from his inside pocket and placing it between his lips.

  “Got a cigarette?” Marian asked after she’d searched her pockets and realised she’d left hers at home.

  “Afraid not. I’ve another cigar though if you’d care to try it?”

  “No thanks!” She wrinkled her nose at the strong smell of cigar smoke. “Do you honestly think you’ll pull it off?”

  Seth coughed, flicking ashes onto the ground and stamping on them. “I wouldn’t have taken it on if I thought it’d fail. But you’ll have to be patient. This is the law we’re dealing with, not a simple retail exchange at a customer-service desk!”

  “No need for sarcasm,” she replied, nudging him with her elbow. “Who was that guy you were speaking to when I got here?”

  “John Kilmichael.”

  “Who?” The name didn’t ring a bell.

  “Frank hasn’t told you?”

  Marian shook her head in confusion.

  “Polly’s son.”

  “Her what?”

  “Frank hasn’t shared this information?” Seth dragged on his cigar, taking cruel delight in getting one over on his brother-in-law. “I thought he’d be bragging about his nephew!”

  Marian looked dumbfounded. She uncrossed her legs, placing both feet on the ground, sick to her stomach. “No, he hasn’t told me.” She pursed her lips tightly, bringing her eyes up to meet Seth’s. “Where Polly was concerned, Frank has always put me second. And keeping her precious baby a secret is no different. How long ago?” She looked at him. “How come you know about him?”

  “I found him, reintroduced them,” Seth told her, shocking her yet again.

  “But why? You and Polly hadn’t spoken for years!”

  He didn’t respond, simply raised an eyebrow.

  She brought a hand to her lips. “Oh no, Seth! You two had a baby together? Don’t tell me he’s your son? No!”

  Her brother gave a simple nod of his head, the faint smile on his lips a definitive response to her question and confirmation that he was indeed the father.

  “You’ve got a son?” she repeated.

  “Yes,” he confirmed.

  “How did you find him?”

  Seth let out a long sigh. “Kilmichael is a fairly uncommon name.”

  “But how did you find out his adopted name?”

  “Traced it through the adoption agency. There are ways and means of getting information.”

  She pushed her hair back from her face, shaking her head in disbelief. “But why didn’t you tell me what was going on? I’m your sister! Why not introduce him to me? He’s my nephew too! And I was only feet away from him just now and still you didn’t even bother to introduce us,” she accused, filled with a mixture of hurt and outrage.

  Seth pursed his lips. “He doesn’t know Polly was his mother. She wouldn’t tell him, made me promise I wouldn’t tell him we were his parents.”

  Marian seethed inside, outrage escalating to fury. Yet again, Polly had called the shots, taken the lead, dictated the direction something as important as reuniting a son with his parents should take. “And you let her away with that?”

  “Yes, because that arrangement suited me perfectly. She had her reasons and I had mine.”

  Marian was finding it difficult to understand the picture her brother was painting. “But you were just speaking to him? You’re obviously in some form of contact?”

  “Not really. He knows me to see from the initial contact, knows I’m a friend of Polly’s. He came along while I was waiting for you. Had called to see Kieran apparently.”

  “And you have no desire to develop a relationship with your son? Your only child?”

  Seth shook his head. “Think of the scandal. She was a widow, her husband lost to the sea not so long before. Think how it would have affected my business dealings. How it would still affect my business dealings. Anyway, I’m too selfish to be a father and getting into some sort of emotional attachment with a middle-aged man offers little appeal. And I certainly don’t fancy sitting a forty-something-year-old on my lap!”

  “But how could she resist telling him? He was her only child!”

  “She was ashamed – ashamed she’d been with me with her husband not too long dead – ah, you know what Polly was like, filled with morality, the romantic memory of her short marriage precious. Also, she worried her son would hate her for giving him up when she had a home to offer. But she had no choice about that. Think a
bout it – it really would have disgraced Glen’s name if his widow produced a child out of nowhere. She couldn’t do that to Glen, keeping his memory untarnished the only thing left that she could do for him. Times were certainly different then but even now it would be considered a scandal. I guess guilt and loyalty overpowered compassion and love for her son.” Seth paused a moment, a fleeting wistfulness crossing his face. “But not a moment went by that she didn’t think of that baby, life passing her by being the price she’d paid for the difficult choice she’d made.”

  Marian put her face in her hands, devastated at how she had been deceived for so many years. And Seth had said the man had been with Kieran. Had Polly entrusted her secret to Kieran too? Had she insisted he keep it to himself and not tell his own mother? She wouldn’t put it past her.

  Marian raised her head. “Seth, I don’t care what lengths you need to go to. You have to get that will overturned.”

  Polly Dulhooly had never shown her any respect, her brother’s announcement another confirmation of that fact. Marian wouldn’t stop until she’d repaid the favour.

  Chapter 39