‘What happened?’ Heather asked.
‘Well, I was just coming into Glasgow, at a dark bend just before Calderpark Zoo, when a man came out onto the road waving me down. He was smartly dressed in a dark overcoat and a shirt and tie and I thought it was somebody that had broken down, so I slowed down a bit . . . I nearly stopped, and then I got a good look at him in the headlights.’
‘What did he look like?’ Heather asked in a low shocked voice.
‘Quite good-looking,’ Claire told her. ‘He wasn’t very tall but he was broad and fit-looking, with nice dark wavy hair. It was his smart looks that stupidly made me slow down, thinking he was genuine. I was crawling along when he came around to my side of the car and tried to open it – thank God I’d locked it when I got in.’
‘What did you do then?’ Heather’s anxious voice echoed on the line. She was also feeling a little bit disturbed herself, as the description she’d just given was exactly how she would have described Gerry Stewart. She nearly said as much to Claire but then just as quickly she dismissed the idea. There were probably thousands of men in Scotland who fitted that description.
‘It was his eyes that frightened me,’ Claire told her niece. ‘They were weird-looking – dark and piercing straight into me. So I just put my foot down and scooted off as quick as the car could go, and I never looked back until I hit the streetlights in Glasgow.’ She paused. ‘He was probably only a drunk or something like that, but I wasn’t taking any chances – not with that lunatic still on the loose.’
‘Well,’ Heather said, ‘I am really glad that you’re OK . . . and you did exactly the right thing.’ She then went on to give Claire the good news about Kirsty and Larry, and how her father was now fine about the whole situation.
‘Oh, I’m delighted,’ Claire said. ‘I feel much better hearing that.’
Heather glanced at the Departures board. ‘That’s my platform that’s just been announced,’ she told her aunt. ‘I’ll ring you next week.’
‘And come out to the house again soon, especially now we’re going to have Paul with us for a few weeks.’
‘I will,’ Heather promised. ‘I will.’
Chapter 71
July 1958
After a two-year engagement, Kirsty Grace married Larry Delaney in Rowanhill Church. Thankfully, Father Finlay was away on holiday, and they had a cheery, young, newly ordained priest to celebrate the wedding Mass. The summer’s day was bright and sunny, and Kirsty looked more dazzling in her white fitted sequinned dress and her little diamond tiara and veil than she had ever looked on the stage.
Her career had really taken off in the last couple of years and she was now travelling as far as London to perform in bigger, more prestigious venues, with Larry – as always – by her side. There was even talk of a recording contract, but that would have to wait until after the honeymoon. They had booked two weeks off for their big event and had a trip to Italy planned for the day after the wedding. They would spend their first night as a married couple in Larry’s newly decorated apartment.
Two of the bridesmaids, Heather and Liz Mullen, looked almost as stunning as the bride in their dusky-pink sequinned dresses – very similar in design to the bride’s – and their delicate feathered pink head-dresses. They were watched closely by Paul Ballantyne – Heather’s fiancé – and Liz’s latest boyfriend, a nice quiet chap from Cleland.
The youngest bridesmaid, everyone agreed, stole the show.
Lily Grace – now a full head taller than when she was in hospital – wore the most beautiful dress that made her look like the fairy from the top of the Christmas tree, except that it was in the exact same pink as Heather and Liz’s dresses.
Sophie had painstakingly made Lily’s dress over the last few months, enduring endless anxious visits from Mona, and was overwhelmingly grateful when she sewed on the very last sequin.
As everyone watched Lily move gracefully up the aisle after the bridal party, numerous people discovered they had lumps in their throats, thinking back to the paralysed little girl she had been only two years before. Continuous physiotherapy and steely determination on the tenacious Lily’s part had finally beaten the polio into submission.
Claire McPherson fought back tears of pride and emotion as she watched the three Grace girls standing at the altar, and she said a silent prayer of gratitude that all had worked out so well. She and Andy had had their marriage blessed the year before in a small private ceremony in a Catholic church in Glasgow, and they were now expecting their first baby.
Sophie Grace watched with pride as Fintan formally handed over his younger daughter to the care of Larry Delaney. And later, as they took their marriage vows, she watched the love shining out of Kirsty’s eyes and she offered up a prayer of thanks that she’d had the courage to face Fintan on that cold winter’s night.
The ceremony over, the group came out into the sunlight to watch as wedding photographs were taken, with everybody cheering and laughing and enjoying the lovely summer’s day.
As the guests milled around, they chatted about the usual wedding topics – how beautiful the bride and bridesmaids were, how very lucky they were with the weather and also about the man who had been convicted and hung earlier that week for the seven murders he had committed between January 1956 and January 1958 around the west of Scotland.
The people in Rowanhill commented again and again how uncanny the resemblance was between Gerry Stewart and the convicted man, Peter Manuel – leaving Kirsty and Lily to speculate about whether or not the prowler they had seen around the Graces’ house was Gerry or Manuel. They plotted between them not to tell Heather anything about the incident at all, thinking that she should be left with the few good memories she still had of her former boyfriend.
When Claire McPherson saw the stark photographs of Peter Manuel in the newspapers, she was horrified to recognise the thick dark hair and the piercing dark eyes. She had no doubt that he was indeed the man who had flagged her down on the road just outside Calderpark Zoo in Glasgow. Claire joined the list of women who had had a narrow escape from the mass-murderer who, it transpired, had a string of convictions for rape and indecent assault prior to his murder conviction.
The summer of 1958 heralded a return to the earlier, carefree days that the Grace girls had enjoyed. The dark shadows of fear and suspicion slowly lifted and the long summery nights in Scotland replaced the two dark winters of endurance.
Heather and Kirsty and the fully recovered Lily Grace could now face the future confidently with all the hope and freedom their young hearts desired.
THE END
AISHLING GAYLE by Geraldine O’Neill
Published by Poolbeg.com
Aisling Gayle is one of life’s pleasers. A young, country schoolteacher in 60s Ireland, she spends her life pleasing philandering, Jack-the-lad husband Oliver, and pious mother Maggie.
She also worries about her sister Pauline, home from England with an illegitimate child, and her brother Charles who sees life differently to most other people. Aisling’s wedding anniversary reveals Oliver’s latest infidelity, and she decides to escape for the summer, accompanying her parents to beautiful Lake Savannah in Upstate New York.
There she meets Thomas Carroll, a slow but amiable teenager and a frightening encounter introduces her to his father, reclusive artist Jameson Carroll. Soon Aisling finds herself in a once-in-a-lifetime, passionate affair.
As return to Ireland and Oliver looms, can her passion overcome the obstacles awaiting her? Can Aisling Gayle find the courage, at long last, to please herself?
TARA FLYNN by Geraldine O’Neill
Published by Poolbeg.com
Tara Flynn, a village girl, befriends Madeleine, the unstable daughter of the wealthy Fitzgerald family. Redheaded Tara, beautiful and ambitious, soon attracts male interest . . . and
not only that of her beloved Gabriel, son of the family.
Meanwhile her friend Biddy Harte, a kindhearted orphan fostered by the
uncaring Lizzy Lawless, has fallen into another trap.
Soon heartbreaking events force the girls to leave their native Ballygrace and flee to England and Tara’s hopes of romance with Gabriel are dashed.
The girls’ new life in Stockport, near Manchester, brings romance for Biddy in the shape of burly wrestler Fred Roberts. But can she rely on his love when shameful secrets loom from the past to
confront her?
And can Tara still hope to climb the ladder of success in her new career as an estate agent? Or is prosperous, handsome businessman Frank Kennedy the answer to both ambition
and loneliness?
TARA’S FORTUNE by Geraldine O’Neill
Published by Poolbeg.com
It is the early 1960’s and flame-haired Tara Flynn has
almost everything she ever dreamed of as a child growing
up in Ireland.
Married to her first love Gabriel Fitzgerald, she is now mistress of Ballygrace House which overlooks the Tullamore countryside.
But after several years of marriage there is still one thing
missing – a much longed-for baby.
Tara remains loyal to Biddy Harte who has left her troubled
past in Ballygrace behind and is now a respected landlady in Stockport. When Biddy’s husband Fred is seriously injured
in the wrestling ring, Tara soon realises that Biddy has
reverted to her old ways. And when the shocking
consequences of her actions are revealed, Biddy discovers
that all her friendships – including Tara’s – are sorely tested.
But Biddy is not Tara’s only concern as a terrible tragedy
takes her idyllic life back into the darker days of her past.
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The Grace Girls Page 53