5 Peppermint Grove

by Jackson, Michelle

  5 Peppermint Grove

  Michelle Jackson

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. All characters, names and events, other than those in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  © Michelle Jackson 2012

  www.michellejackson.ie

  Also by Michelle Jackson

  One Kiss in Havana

  Two Days in Biarritz

  Three Nights in New York

  4am in Las Vegas

  Praise for 5 Peppermint Grove

  Michelle never lets the reader guess what’s coming and keeps the suspense with the warmth she adds to every page. Bookshelf reviews

  Jackson’s latest novel will resonate with many Irish readers who have been touched by the heartbreak of emigration. Funny and empathetic, it is probably her best work yet. Irish Independent

  Another great book by a great Irish author! Michelle Jackson never disappoints! Bookworm

  Personally I think this is my favourite out of Michelle’s books that I’ve read so far as it had a little bit of everything in it, an interesting mix of characters, stunning location, family dramas, great friendships, new romances, as well as a bit of intrigue. ShazsBookBoudoir.blogspot.com

  Note on the author

  Michelle Jackson is the author of the bestselling novels One Kiss in Havana, Two Days in Biarritz, Three Nights in New York and 4am in Las Vegas. She enjoys travel and gets immense pleasure from the research that she has to do for her books. She lives in Howth, Co Dublin, with her husband and two children.

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated my wonderful son, Mark, who loved Perth!

  Prologue

  Perth, Western Australia

  Autumn 1976

  Angela put the last of Kevin’s clothes into the small brown suitcase. She clicked the fastener closed and sat down on the bed, feeling a gentle kick from her unborn child. She was not sure if she was doing the right or wrong thing by her children but taking them back to Ireland seemed like her only choice. Fred could follow if he wished. Her husband loved this town and revelled in the new life that they had made here. But for Angela the squawking crows reminded her of a baby crying and she longed for the sweet sharp thrill of the sparrow and the thrush. When she put her nose to the bright pink roses in her garden, they just didn’t have the same scent as the ones in her mother’s garden back in Dublin. Yet she would leave this place with a stone in her heart and a sickness in her stomach.

  Fred entered the room. He stared first at her and then at the small brown suitcase.

  “So you are really going then?”

  “I told you that I was,” she replied, tight-lipped and looking straight ahead at the empty wall.

  “Where will you stay?”

  She pursed her lips.

  “With your mother, I suppose?” he answered for her.

  She shrugged. “Or maybe with my sister. I don’t care. I have to get out of this place.”

  “I think you’re being very cruel, Angela – I need to be with my son – Kevin needs me.”

  “He never sees you – if you aren’t at work you’re at the pub. You don’t need your family.”

  “My family is the very reason why we made the move to this country – a fresh start! It’s been good for us, Angela – I’ve plenty of work – you don’t want for anything.”

  “What would you know?” she sighed. “You’re never here.”

  She stood up and looked her husband hard in the eyes.

  “Our plane leaves in three hours.”

  Chapter One

  Dublin Autumn 2011

  Ruth just had to tell Julia her news. It was a big step but she was sure that her best friend would be pleased. She was driving back from dinner with her boyfriend and was disappointed with his reaction but she could rely on Julia to always listen and be there for her.

  “Julia, it’s me!”

  Julia was sitting up in bed. She had taken work home and was sorting out her priorities for the Travel Show she would be visiting in London in two weeks’ time. But she always liked to take a call from her best friend.

  “Hiya, Ruth – how are you?”

  “Julia – I’ve done it – I’m taking the plunge!”

  Julia couldn’t believe her ears. Had her friend finally seen sense – was she going to finish her disastrous relationship with her villainous boyfriend of ten years?

  “Oh, well done, Ruth – I’m so glad to hear that you’ve made the break – you know that it’s the right thing to do.”

  “I just walked into the office this evening and said it straight out – he was so shocked.”

  Julia had to think twice. “What was Ian doing in your office?”

  “Not Ian, silly – Oliver! I told him where he could stick his job! Said I’m sick of working for a brute who expects his staff to work until seven o’clock every day – and work weekends!”

  Julia bit the side of her cheek and closed her eyes. It had been too good to be true. The four hours spent with Ruth the night before had all been in vain. She was pleased that her friend was freed finally from her painful employment but this wasn’t the news that she wanted to hear. Ruth needed to see real sense and, although Oliver was a slimy creep, at least he wasn’t sleeping with her. She felt a lecture coming on but wondered if this was the right time for it.

  “I’m pleased that you are out of that place, Ruth, but what are you going to live on? If you walked out you won’t get redundancy or the dole, you know!”

  Silence at the other end of the line.

  “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Ruth said sheepishly.

  Julia had to think quickly. She really needed to give her friend a boost but up to now had put off offering her a job as she didn’t want to cross the boundary of their friendship. It would be changed forever and maybe even damaged if Julia became her boss. But Julia was well connected in the travel business and only this morning had heard of a wonderful opportunity with Tourism Ireland, working out of Australia. It was a two-year contract and would suit Ruth to a tee with her marketing experience. She really needed to do something drastic to rescue Ruth – but this job was something that she was reluctant to suggest as it would mean putting such a distance between herself and her best friend. But lately Julia had said goodbye to so many friends who had to move away for work to the far corners of the world. It was becoming a sad fact of life in Ireland that the emigration drum was sounding again as it had done for her parents once upon a time and her eldest brother Michael who now resided in Singapore.

  “Ruth, I have just the job for you – you would love it so much – working for Tourism Ireland promoting Ireland abroad.”

  “Oh Julia, I don’t want to be travelling all the time – you know Oliver had me running around and never gave me my correct days off.”

  “It wouldn’t be like that at all – you would be in the one place. The job is in Australia.”

  Silence and shock from the other end of the line.

  Julia spoke gently. “Ruth – you must have thought of it at one time or another – it really wouldn’t do you any harm to go abroad for a while.”

  “B-b-but what about Ian?”

  Julia took a deep breath – she didn’t want to say what she thought about Ian Hawkins.

  “What about your career, Ruth? Think of the great opportunity. I can call my contact in Tourism Ireland and set up a meeting for you next week – it’s just what you need.”

  “I’m not sure, Julia – I mean, what about my mum and dad? I can’t leave them.”

  “Your mum and dad are well. Your mum missed you at first when you moved out but she has got used to it. I bet they would love to come and see you in Australia!
”

  “B-b-but I can’t just go – I’m thirty-four!”

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “I’m too old.”

  Julia was beginning to lose patience. Ruth should realise by now that Julia knew what was best for her.

  “I’ll call you tomorrow, Ruth. Okay?”

  Ruth sniffed down the phone and hung up. She knew her friend well enough by now not to push the point. She got out of her car and turned the key in the door of her apartment in Clontarf. It was nice but she missed the warmth and cosiness of her home in Sutton Park. She had moved out because she needed a place where she and Ian could meet away from the watchful eyes of her mother. But since her younger brother, Niall, had moved out five months ago to get married, her mother had been asking if she would consider coming home again. If it wasn’t for Ian she would definitely move back there.

  There was a lot that she would have done with her life if it wasn’t for Ian. November was the hardest month of the year – all the build-up to Christmas would be upon her in a couple of weeks, reminding her that she would be spending another special time of year without a partner of her own. Her parents wanted her to go with them down to Kerry where her older brother Kevin lived with his wife and two children. Niall would be going to his new wife’s family and for the first time she realised that she could possibly be totally on her own with her parents this year.

  She turned on the light in the kitchen and the fluorescent bulb flickered. It was on the way out – how would she change it? She’d have to wait until Ian came around – although he probably wouldn’t know what to do either. He employed a local DIY man to do all the handiwork around his palatial residence at the end of a cul-de-sac on the south side of the city.

  She pulled out the chair from under the kitchen table and sat on it. The seat was cold and even the cushion didn’t soften the hardness of the wood. Everything seemed amplified this evening. The coldness, the emptiness and the loneliness. She wondered why Julia never commented on these moods and emotions – surely she felt them every now and then? She never mentioned that she was feeling older or longing for a partner. Ruth felt lucky that at least she had Ian. But Julia never spent an evening completely alone – her kookie granddad and bridge-playing mother were always knocking about her house. The emptiness of the apartment echoed as she breathed out loud, amplifying her seclusion. This was not what she had planned for her future.

  It made her consider Julia’s offer more carefully. Especially now that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to pay next month’s rent. Her landlord had the deposit so that would give her a few weeks to work something out. She could go back to Sutton Park.

  Suddenly her phone rang. It was Ian.

  “Hey there,” she smiled into the phone.

  “Ruth, I have to go on an overnight tomorrow – I forgot one of the lads asked me to change – and I’ve Lisa’s birthday party on Sunday so we won’t be able to go to Johnny Fox’s for the afternoon – I’m sorry.”

  She had only left him half an hour earlier – why hadn’t he told her then? He was making even more changes to their plans in recent months and at times she wondered if he was seeing someone else.

  “But you promised that you would stay with me – it’s been nearly two weeks!”

  “I’m sorry, kitten – you know I want to be with you but the airline is really tightening the pilots’ belts – they have put me on four Paris runs back to back this Saturday.”

  Ruth knew well how it felt to be the understanding partner, following whatever Ian’s needs were, but right now she was the one traumatised after walking out on her job and for once she wanted him to comfort her. He had finished up in the restaurant without dessert, pretending to be interested when she disclosed all that had happened earlier with Oliver.

  “I really wanted to have some time with you this weekend. I know that it’s Lisa’s birthday, but what about me?”

  Ian huffed down the phone. “I am doing the very best that I can, Ruth – you know that I have the children to think about – they are the innocent ones in all of this.”

  Ruth bit her lip – he had a knack of making her feel bad when in fact she was the injured party. Julia had coached her on this matter: Tell him that the children were not in the equation when you met. Tell him that he was the one who made the decision to have children. But Ian had wangled his way out of the responsibility for bringing his children into the world. He had blamed a burst condom for the conception of his first child, Lisa, and said that his wife, Ciara, had tricked him into believing that she was on the pill for the birth of the twins.

  Julia had rolled her eyes and tut-tutted when she heard his excuses but Ruth had believed him.

  Lately, however, Ruth was finding it more difficult to believe the words out of his mouth. He had been promoted to captain two years ago and was now even more cocky and sure of himself than he had been when they’d met.

  “Look, do what you’ve got to do,” she sighed. “I’ll talk to you after the weekend.”

  “Good girl, kitten – sweet dreams.”

  As he hung up the tears started to stream down Ruth’s cheeks and she felt a deep desire to do something radical. She really wanted to call Julia again but she would pour herself a glass of wine first and think about what she should do.

  Julia was only twenty-four when she first dabbled in matchmaking. It was a resounding success, leading to the marriage of her sister Odette and the gorgeous Craig Fagan, and had led her to believe that she had a natural gift. Ruth was with her at the time. It was regrettably the same evening that Ruth met Ian Hawkins but Julia liked to dismiss the fact that the two matches coincided.

  Julia loved to be the life and soul of the party. Her sister Odette was the complete opposite and was naturally reserved – especially in the company of strangers.

  It was a dull dank evening in February when Julia had coaxed Odette to join her in Gibneys pub in Malahide where she was meeting a crowd of friends who worked at Dublin airport. Julia had been to school with a couple of the girls who were now flying for the national airline – they had tried to coax Julia to join with them but she was adamant that she wanted to be her own boss.

  Julia was very protective of her sister, which was unusual as she was three years younger than Odette. But Odette was recently out of a five-year relationship with an engineer she had met while in college in UCD. Odette had thought they would be getting engaged that Christmas. Instead he announced in the New Year that he was taking a job in Germany and Odette wasn’t part of his plans.

  Odette was naïve and really only longed for a simple life. Having studied Arts, she was in her third year working for Fingal County Council and longed for the security and safety that a happy marriage would bring. Julia thought that Odette was selling herself short – but that was her choice.

  Julia didn’t waste time that evening in Gibneys. Craig was an ambitious and steady employee of the national airline and at twenty-nine had been already promoted to a senior position in the finance department. Julia had spent two hours grilling him the week before and all her friends thought that she was interested in him for herself. But that wasn’t Julia’s intention at all. She organised for her sister to be there with her and, within seconds of arriving, had manoeuvred things so that Odette was sitting next to Craig. Her lack of subtlety hadn’t put Craig off and the pretty Odette was instantly attracted to the tall accountant with the strong handsome features.

  Eighteen months later Julia was dressed in a cerise-pink cupcake bridesmaid’s gown – but she considered it a small price to pay for her sister’s happiness.

  Ruth’s situation, however, was not as easy to remedy. Ian Hawkins was engaged when he met Ruth. And he was married eighteen months later. Her friend of sixteen years was receiving calls from her boyfriend while he was on his honeymoon in Kenya. Ian also worked on the airlines – he was a first officer on a 737 and fancied himself as a smooth operator.

  Julia made no apologies for the abrupt wa
y that she always spoke to him. She didn’t like his style and she didn’t like the way that he used her friend. But, instead of being embarrassed, Ian enjoyed the fact that she was party to his affair with Ruth and was thrilled by Julia’s eye-rolls and sharp quips. He had no difficulty organising time away from his bride – filling in several empty roster-sheets with flights that he would never take. His poor beleaguered wife would be none the wiser ten years and three children later.

  Julia couldn’t understand how her kind and thoughtful friend Ruth was able to shut off her lover’s family from her world and run her life as if she was as important in Ian’s as he was in hers.

  Meanwhile Julia remained single, which wasn’t easy as she enthralled men with her soft brunette curls that rested on her shoulders and her dark brown eyes, such a contrast to the aqua blue of her sister’s. Of the two, Odette was the more natural beauty but she didn’t have the stunning attractiveness of her younger sister whose brown eyes sparkled with mischief and glared with contempt on command.

  The only romantic liaisons that Julia would consider were with foreign men visiting Dublin or if she was away in another country herself. The affairs all had a common pattern which involved a broken heart on the part of the men and Julia delving deeper into her work to distract her from any passion she might have felt. It was much better that way and Julia always came out in control of her emotions and the relationship. She had never had to experience a lover telling her that it was over or that it wasn’t working. Instead she remained a mystery.

  There was only one boy who had touched her heart, many years before when she was only sixteen. Richard Clery was the heart-throb of the local boys’ school – with translucent blue eyes and dark-brown curls. He rode a motor bike to school and every day Julia would walk to Keogh’s shop at Sutton Cross and wait for him to pass by and wave. It was at the rugby club disco in the year that she sat her Leaving Certificate that she finally kissed him. He didn’t disappoint and their courtship lasted three months. He bought her a bike helmet and took her on trips to Wicklow and Skerries. Then one day out of the blue he announced that he was leaving school and going to work on a cargo ship – he wanted to see the world. Julia never saw him again and sometimes when she allowed her thoughts to run free at night she wondered where he was now.