The House

by A. O'Connor

  “Well, at least you can be free of it all now,” said Janet.

  “Yeah, but I’m the one who sold the family seat, aren’t I? No matter how hard things were in the past, they always hung on to it. I just sold out!”

  “You’d have been mad not to in this market. Besides, Nico, the house is falling down and you don’t have the cash to save it. At least the Fallons will do something with it now.”

  “Yes, I dread to think what though. They will turn it intoa veritable Disneyland of tackiness. I can see it all now – they’ll turn the old ballroom into an indoor heated swimming pool complete with naked Grecian statutes. And there will be marble everywhere and Jacuzzis and . . . oh, I shudder to think!”

  Janet giggled. “You don’t know that.”

  “Oh, I do! Did you see those chunky diamonds she’s wearing today. It’s all about money and nothing about taste with them.”

  Kate fingered the diamond necklace around her neck before she continued to the bar.

  “Tony?” asked Kate as they ate out that night.

  “Yes, darling?”

  “I was just thinking. Nico Collins is an architect, isn’t he?”

  “So he claimed.”

  “Why don’t we employ him to renovate the house? He knows it more than anyone else?”

  “You can employ whoever you want. I made it clear that’s your baby, and I don’t want anything to do with rebuilding it.”

  “Yes – sorry – I forgot,” Kate nodded.

  Chapter ninety

  Nico’s architect’s firm, Collins & Darcy, was a small company he had set up with a college friend, Darrell, a number of years before. It was based in a small Georgian building in Baggot Street.

  Kate walked into the building for her appointment. She had made sure to wear extra diamonds for the meeting.

  “Good afternoon, Kate, good to see you,” said Nico as the secretary showed her intohis office.

  She shook his hand and smiled broadly before sitting down.

  “I was surprised to hear from you again,” he said, looking a little concerned. “I thought all the contracts had been signed and the money paid and it was all done and dusted.”

  “Yes, it is. I wanted to speak to you about another matter.”

  “Oh really?” said Nico, sitting forward and looking interested.

  “Yes, I was going to enquire about engaging your services as an architect.”

  He smiled broadly. “Of course! I would be delighted.”

  “You know my husband is in the process of building a gigantic shopping mall?”

  Nico’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped. “Yes, I’m aware of it . . . and you would like to employ us to d-d-design it?” he stuttered in amazement at the magnitude of the contract.

  “Oh no, don’t be silly!” She waved her hand in a dismissive fashion. “A little practice like yours couldn’t possibly cope with a project of that size.” She gave a jingle-jangle laugh.

  Nico’s mouth closed firmly as he looked at her, annoyed.

  “No – I merely mention the mall because my husband is so busy that he has entrusted me with the house and I was going to suggest you handle the renovation.”

  “The house? You mean my house? I mean your house?” He shook his head, irritated with himself. “The house you bought from me?”

  “Yes – what other house would I mean?”

  “Well, thank you for thinking of me. I’d love to do the job.”

  “Good! Then if you could submit a quote to me? By Monday? I’m anxious to get on with it.” She stood up and put out her hand which was dripping in diamond rings and bracelets.

  He took her hand and shook it.

  “Ta ta!” she said as she turned and strode out.

  Nico sat looking after her, surprised, delighted and for some reason frightened by the offer of work.

  Kate had arranged to meet Nico at the house and as she neared Castlewest in her red Ferrari she was amazed how much it had changed since her family had emigrated in the eighties. As she passed housing estate after housing estate, and pharmaceutical plant after information-technology centre, she realised the town was buzzing with prosperity. As she drove through the main street all the memories of growing up there came flooding back, and she realised she had probably changed more than the town. The town’s proximity to the lake and beautiful countryside and nearby sea had also made it a tourist destination and there were many tourists wandering around.

  She put her foot down and headed out on the new motorway that led towards the house.She turned off it and drove through the local little picture-postcard village that she remembered was near the house. Most of the houses in the village were now bought as holiday homes for professionals living in Dublin. She sped through the village and continued around the lake towards her destination.

  Kate drove through the gateway and up the overgrown driveway, screeching to a halt in front of the house. Nico was already there waiting for her. Stepping out of the car, she walked across to him.

  “You decided to travel by more conventional means this time?” he said.

  “It’s Tony tends to use the helicopter not me. Besides, I needed my car. I’m staying down for a few days while I organise things.”

  “You staying in Castlewest?”

  “No, Ashford Castle.”

  “Where else?” He didn’t hide the note of cynicism in his voice.

  She reached intoher bag and took out the keys, then walked up the steps and unlocked the metal door.

  “I’ve been working on some sketches and designs for you to look at . . .” He went to unzip his folder as he followed her through the hall.

  She dismissed him with a wave of a hand. “Yes – later.”

  He looked at her, affronted at her rejection. “I thought if we kept to as much of the original design and lay-out of the house . . .” He trailed off as she darted intoa nearby room.

  Before he could follow her in, she marched back out intothe hall and looked at the staircase.

  “That stairs aregoing to take a lot of restoring, it’s in a dangerous state as Janet said,” advised Nico.

  “Well, I was planning on ripping the whole thing out!”

  “What?” He looked at her, amazed.

  “And instead of a staircase put in a glass elevator, what do you think of that?”

  “But –”

  She marched into what had been the dining room. “And I was thinking of turning this room intoa gym.”

  “Into a gym?” he checked, incase he was hearing things.

  “This figure doesn’t keep itself, you know. Then the small sitting room –” she looked to be deep in thought, “into a sauna.”

  “A sauna!”

  She walked across the hall and into the large drawing room.

  “Hmmm, that fireplace has to go!” she declared.

  “But it’s the original fireplace from the 1840s! It’s the one thing that survived the fire in this room.”

  “That’s my point – so old-fashioned and damaged! In fact, I want all the fireplaces replaced. All those old-fashioned ones in the bedrooms, yuk! I want underground heating put in instead!”

  “Intoa Victorian house?” He was incredulous.

  “With marble floors.”

  “Marble!”

  “Marble floors – everywhere!” She marched out and down the hall. He hurried after her. “Except here in the hall, of course. I want tiles here which light up and change colours as you walk on them. I saw it once in a shop in Rome, amazing!” They entered the ballroom. “And here! I want this turned into an indoor heated swimming pool.” She marched around the room.

  He raised his eyes to heaven, as his face turned red.

  “But not just any indoor swimming pool. I want statues –Grecian and Roman and every other type we can think of. And swings hanging from that ceiling! So we can swing – over the pool – while we sip Pina Coladas!” She had a satisfied dreamy look on her face.

  “I think –ahem – Kate, I
think we have very different ideas of how this renovation should be done.”

  She looked at him, full of concern. “Oh dear – do you think my plans wouldn’t be in keeping with the house?”

  “Yes, I do!” he said angrily.

  “Oh my – do you think it’s all in bad taste?”

  “Yes, I do!”

  “A veritable Disneyland of tackiness even?” Her face changed and she looked knowingly at him.

  His mouth dropped as he realised she had overheard what he had said to Janet in the Shelbourne on the day of the auction.

  “You’ve been having me on?” he realised, his face going even redder, this time from embarrassment.

  She nodded.

  “You’re quite an actress!”

  “That was my profession.”

  “You shouldn’t have been listening in toother people’s conversations.”

  “Well, then, you shouldn’t have been speaking out loud in public.” She walked around the room, inspecting it. “Not a very nice way to speak about the people who had just handed you one and half million bucks, was it?”

  “I just had reservations about how you would develop the house.”

  “Based on what exactly? You don’t know us, you don’t know anything about us. If you had wanted to do the house up a certain way, why didn’t you do it yourself?”

  “Because I didn’t have the money to do it.”

  “Exactly! So why would you think you were superior to the people who have that money and made it themselves?” She walked past him. “Good day, Mr Armstrong! Close the door after you, will you?” She walked out of the room. A couple of minutes later he could hear her Ferrari speeding off down the drive.

  Nico was driving back to Dublin when the phone rang.

  “How did the meeting with Kate Fallon go?” It was his business partner Darell Darcy.

  “Not so good. I think I got fired.”

  “How?” Darell was aghast.

  “By being an ass. She’s a fairly ruthless businesswoman behind all that charm and diamonds.”

  “Pity you didn’t realise that before you pissed her off then,” said Darrell.

  “I know,” he sighed. “Talk to you later.”

  Nico continued to drive for a while, deep in thought. Then he suddenly turned and headed to Ashford Castle.

  It was late in the evening as Nico parked outside Ashford Castle and walked in through the front doors. He walked over to reception and asked the receptionist to ring up to Kate Fallon’s suite.

  “She’s having dinner in the diningroom,” said the receptionist.

  Nico went there and hovered at the entrance, looking aroundat the full restaurant. He spotted Kate immediately, sitting at a table with four others. She was talking happily, causing her fellow diners to laugh.

  Suddenly she spotted him and her face creased in confusion as she saw him smile and wave over at her.

  “If you could excuse me a minute, please,” she excused herself with a smile, then put her napkin on the table and walked over to him.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, her eyes wide with puzzlement.

  “Look, I know we’ve got off to a bad start. And I shouldn’t have judged you the way I did.But . . .I really want this job! It means a lot to me. I would love to be involved in the renovation of this house. I feel I owe it to the house – and I will work round the clock to give you what you want.”

  “I see!” she said.

  “And to show you how committed I am, I will even reduce my fee by twenty per cent if you allow me to continue working for you.”

  “Right!” She studied him intently. “Well, I accept your twenty-per-cent discount, and now if you could allow me to get back to my dinner?”

  “Of course, and thank you, you won’t regret it.”

  She turned to go before stopping and looking back at him. “Incidentally, I never said anything about firing you from the job today – but your offer of a twenty-per-cent discount is accepted and much appreciated anyway.”

  His mouth dropped open as she walked back to her table.

  Chapter ninety-one

  Nico pulled into the gateway of the Fallons’ house in Dublin, looking up at the high electric gates and high wall around it. He opened his window and, reaching out, pressed the intercom on the pillars.

  “Hello?” It was Kate herself.

  “Nico Armstrong for our meeting.”

  The heavy iron electric gates suddenly started to part and he drove in and up the short drive. He looked up at the new white building with pillars at the front and long windows and it was as he had imagined it would be. He grabbed his folders and walked towards the door.

  The front door opened and there stood Kate, in a white flared satin trouser suit.

  “You found the placeall right?” she asked, as she moved back to let him in, and closed the door after him.

  “Yes, your directions were easy to follow.”

  He followed her through a round hall which had a spiral staircase. They walked down some steps intoan oversized sitting room. As he expected the house was all cream sofas, glass tables, cream carpets, spacious, with double doors leading into other rooms.

  She fitted into her movie-star surroundings as she poured them both a drink and sat down opposite him. His ancestral home wasn’t going to know what hit it, he thought.

  He unzipped his folders and started handing her his drawings.

  “These are the plans we’re submitting to the Council for the rebuilding for planning permission. It’s everything you asked for, and we just need final approval from you before we submit them.”

  She quickly looked through the plans. “These all look in order.So where do we go from here?”

  “As soon as we get planning we can get the building work done straight away. I’ve already tendered the building firms. After that we will be renovating the interiors, which will need a big input from you on how exactly you want your house to be.” He looked around at the room, takingit all in. “You mentioned this was going to be a main residence for you and Tony?”

  She stood up, lit up a cigarette and started walking around.

  “Yes, we aregoing to relocate there. So it’s going to be a home for us. Tony likes his parties and to entertain, so it will have to be a show place as well. That house, I believe, used to have a reputation of being one of the best houses in the country for balls and parties.”

  “That’s right.”

  “We want it to have that reputation again. I want it to regain its reputation for glamour and beauty.”

  As he looked at her he thought that if anyone could do it, she could.

  “I’ve a clear idea of how I wish the house to be. I want it restored as much as possible to the original interiors that were there.”

  He nodded approvingly.

  “With, of course, a modern feel. Tony hates antiques – he says you never know who’s had them before you!” She gave a light laugh. “So we’ll have very chic modern furniture but with the walls, ceiling, features to be as close to the original as possible.”

  “I see. I can’t find any good records in libraries of what the inside of the house was like, only the outside.And of course it was so long ago nobody who lived then is around to tell us. . . There may be something in the artwork stored in the ballroom. I can take a look and see.”

  “Yes, if you could.”

  The front door opened and they could hear two men talking loudly and jovially.

  “Here’s Tony now,” said Kate.

  Nico began to tidy away the drawings as Tony came in with another man who Nico immediately recognised from the press as Steve Shaw, the head of Eiremerica Bank.

  “Hello there, again,” said Tony as he shook Nico’s hand before going over and kissing Kate.

  “Nico was going through the plans with me,” explained Kate.

  “Very good. Are you joining us for dinner, Nico?” asked Tony.

  “No, he was just leaving,” Kate said.

&
nbsp; “Nonsense, I’m making meatballs – you’ll love them!” said Tony.

  “No, I really should be going,” said Nico.

  “I insist,” smiled Tony.

  Nico realised when Tony Fallon insisted, it wasn’t wise to resist, even if his wife looked displeased that Nico had overstayed his welcome.

  It was all very informal. They were ushered intoa giant kitchen and all had to sit around an island while Tony cooked. As if being in the company of the head of Eiremerica Bankwasn’t enough, they were soon joined by several other guests who were captains of industry or well-known faces from the entertainment industry. Nico felt out of his depth, and nobody seemed that much interested in him anyway, as they fawned over Tony and Kate.

  “When you’re redesigning that house we’ve just bought make sure you renovate that kitchen into a super-duper one for me, Nico,” said Tony as he served meatballs on to everyone’s plates.

  “Tony does all the cooking in our home,” Katesaid. “He says the kitchen is the main room in any house and he practically lives here.”

  “I’ve done some of my best business deals over my kitchen table,” said Tony as he continued to serve.

  “Yes, we plan to do a total overhaul of the semi-basement,” said Nico. “The kitchen was designed as a working room for cooks and kitchen maids – on strictly utilitarian principles.”

  “What house is this?” asked Steve, suddenly alert, looking at Nico as if he had seen him for the first time.

  “We’ve bought an old country pile and Nico is rebuilding it for us,” said Kate.

  “How very exciting,” said a woman called Melanie who Nico recognised as a television presenter. “I hear that’s all the rage. I know one friend who is a developer who bought an old manor and got an underground car park put in and a car elevator, so his wife can bring the car up intothe kitchen to unpack the groceries!”

  “Well, I’m afraid Nico has banned us from installing anything vulgar, haven’t you, Nico?” Kate looked at him teasingly.

  “Where’s the house and who did you buy it off?” questioned Steve.