The House

by A. O'Connor

  “Of course. I’ll drive up after you to the house. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I got the portrait of Clara back from the restorer.”

  “Really?”

  He walked out and came back a minute later holding the portrait which had been magnificently restored.

  She stared at Clara’s image.

  “And it turns out the portrait was painted by Jonathan Seymour. I thought that should interest you.” He pointed to Johnny’s signature, now plaintosee at the corner of the portrait.

  “A portrait of Clara by her lover. But I think I’ve left Clara in the past now, where she belongs,” she said with a sigh. “Anyway, I’d better get going, I’ve a ball to organise.”

  He hesitated. “Kate, what you said last night . . .”

  She walked quickly to the window. “The rain has gone – it looks like it’s going to be a good day.”

  Chapter One Hundred and three

  Kate walked through the house the evening before the ball. The event organisers and the caterers had just left after their day’s work. The ballroom had been set out in rows of tables, dressed with white linen and table decorations. Walking out to the hall, she saw it had been decorated with a beautiful array of garlands. She walked out the front door and across the forecourt to the row of steps leading down to the terraces. She sat on the first step and gazed out at the view. It was a warm summer’s evening, and the sun was beginning to go down over the lake. Tony spotted her from the drawing room and walked out to her.

  “It looks like we’re all set for tomorrow?” he said.

  “Yes.” She looked up at him. “It will be an amazing night.”

  “With you hosting it, how could it not be?”

  “Tony . . . I’ve been thinking . . . maybe we should sell the house and move back to Dublin.”

  “Sell the house! Are you mad? With the property crash it’s only worth about half of what we paid for it and that’s before all the money we spent renovating it!”

  “Well, rent it out then or something. I just think we might be better off away from here.”

  He stared at her incredulously. “But I thought you loved living here. It was your dream!”

  “I know it was! I just think it might be time to move on. I miss our old house and –”

  “Our old house that you compared to a hotel? Oh no!” He shook his head disbelievingly. “I don’t buy that. What’s the matter Kate, trouble in paradise between you and Nico?”

  Her eyes widened, shocked. “I’m sorry?”

  “You and Nico had a lovers’ tiff?”

  “I don’t like your idea of a joke.”

  “No – and I don’t like your relationship with Nico.” He turned and walked quickly back across the forecourt and intothe house.

  “Tony?” she shouted after him.

  She got up and raced after him.

  “What are you talking about, Tony?” she demanded as she followed him intothe drawing room.

  He turned and faced her. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about. All that time spent together doing this place up. Lunches together, business dinners together – nights together!”

  “Nights together? What are you going on about?”

  “I know about the night you spent down in Hunter’s Farm when I was away in Dublin.”

  “And how do you know about that?” She became angry. “You were having me watched?”

  “It doesn’t matter how I know, I just know!”

  “So what? I spent a night down in Hunter’s Farm because I got frightened up in the house on my own when the lights failed.”

  “You, frightened?” He laughed dismissively. “Just so handy his bed was down the road for you to fall into!”

  “You bastard! I slept in the spare room.”

  “Yeah – sure you did!”

  “Ask Nico if you don’t believe me, although you’ll only succeed in embarrassing both him and yourself.” She took out a cigarette, lit it up and started smoking.

  “Don’t take me for a fool, Kate. I know you! I know you better than you know yourself. You’ve fallen in love with him! I know you have!”

  She stared at him, startled, and they lapsed intosilence. He walked over to the window and stared out.

  She went and sat down on the couch and spoke quietly. “I admit I have feelings for him.”

  “Oh Kate!” he exclaimed as he put his face intohis hands.

  “I couldn’t help how I felt, Tony. I’ve fought it every step of the way and I have not been with him, I swear.”

  He turned and faced her. “So you were just emotionally unfaithful to me then? I think that’s even worse.”

  She put out the cigarette and stood up. “I’m sorry – I really am! As soon as I realised how I felt I kept away from him, and tried to get him out of our lives. But then you employed him and I couldn’t get away from him. I begged you not to employ him.”

  “And why do you think I employed him? It wasn’t because of his superarchitectural skills, I can assure you.”

  “So it was a ploy to try and catch us together?” She shook her head in bewilderment.

  “I knew you had fallen for him, and so I wanted to see what you would do. Give you the opportunity to go with him and leave me, if that’s what you wanted.”

  “If you knew this was happening why didn’t you fight for me? Instead of testing me?”

  “I love you, Kate, but you don’t love me anymore.”

  “I just don’t know what’s been happening to me lately. I got so caught up in the house here, and the people who lived here and Nico was part of that. He’s part of them and I ended up having these feelings that I couldn’t understand.”

  “If you weren’t happy with me and your life you would never have had your head turned by him!And now you want to sell the house! And run again! Where will you run to this time? More importantly – what are you running away from? Because wherever you run the same problem will be there, just in different surroundings. Because, let’s face it Kate, what you really are running away from is – me.”

  She looked at his distraught face. “I just wanted to get back to the way we were, Tony.”

  “Turn back the clock?” He smiled cynically. “You can never do that, Kate.” He went and sat down opposite her. “Even if I wanted to, we can’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s all falling down like a pack of cards, Kate. The business –there’s no money left, only mountains of debt.”

  “What?” She went to him and sat beside him.

  “The banks are calling in the debt. The shopping centre is doomed and we put everything up as collateral. There’s no way out, Kate.”

  She put her arms around him. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “Oh Tony!” She hugged him tightly.

  “A lot of the people we owe money to will be at this ball tomorrow and they’ll be demanding their money back, Kate. I don’t know what to do.”

  “We’ll handle them together, Tony. We’ll put on a show tomorrow and let them see the Fallons are still in charge.”

  “I don’t care about losing everything, Kate. But I couldn’t cope if I lost you.”

  “You haven’t lost me. You never will. We can sort this out together. Like we always used to.” She hugged him tightly.

  Chapter One Hundred and four

  The next day an army of caterers were busy setting the tables in the dining room with an array of cutlery and delph, while the band set up their stage. The kitchen had been taken over by the cooks. The event organisers were rushing around checking all details.

  Kate walked through the organised chaos into the drawing room and over to the window where she could see Tony doing manoeuvres out in his power-boat on the lake. Chloe the PR woman came in looking hassled and carrying the morning newspapers.

  “Right, I think we have everything under control, Kate,” she announced.

  Kate turned an
d looked at her. “Good. I see the classical quartet has just arrived.”

  “Have they? I’d better go and meet them.” She looked a little embarrassed as she held out the papers. “I thought you might want to see these.”

  Kate took the newspapers from her and read the first headline.

  ‘Building Work Stops at Fallon Shopping Centre.’

  As Kate quickly looked through the other papers, she saw they shared the same headlines.

  “Can you make sure Tony doesn’t see any other papers lying around?” she said. “I’ll keep these.”

  Chloe nodded and exited the room.

  Kate sat down slowly on the couch as she began to read the article. The phone rang on the table beside her and she reached out and answered it.

  “Kate Fallon speaking.”

  “Kate, it’s Peter O’Brien here at The Times, can you confirm that the ball you’ve arranged for tonight is going ahead in light of the revelations concerning your husband’s business?”

  Kate steadied herself and tried to sound cheery. “Of course the ball is going ahead. It’s business as usual, thank you.” She hung up the phone and bit her lower lip.

  Later Kate walked intotheir bedroom and saw Tony at the dressing table staring at his image in the mirror.

  “There you are!” she smiled. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Everything is nearly set up downstairs so I’m going to start getting ready. My beauticians are arriving shortly.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  She walked over to him and placed her hands gently on his shoulders and said softly, “It might be a good idea if you started to get ready as well. You don’t want to be rushing last minute.”

  “I don’t know if I can face them all, Kate.”

  She bent down and whispered in his ear, “Of course you can. We have to face them. We have to show them that we’re still on top.”

  He reached up for her hand and held it tightly.

  The quartet was positioned at the bottom of the stairs playing classical music. Waiters were positioned around the hall holding aloft silver trays of champagne flutes to greet the guests.

  Kate and Tony walked down the stairs holding hands. Tony was dressed in a tuxedo while Kate wore a long red gown and her best diamonds, with her hair loose down her back.

  As they positioned themselves near the front door to greet their guests, she whispered to him: “Remember, big smiles.”

  Tony nodded and squeezed her hand while he forced himself to smile happily.

  “Kate! Tony! I just love what you’ve done to this house,” said two friends as they came through the front door.

  Kate smiled broadly as she kissed both of them on the cheeks. “I’m very much looking forward to giving you the grand tour a little later. In the meantime – champagne?”

  Nearly all the two hundred guests had arrived and the downstairs of the house was crowded with laughing, talking people. The quartet had finished and theband had taken over and were playing a version of ‘Mack the Knife’.

  Kate was mixing and mingling, playing the perfect hostess, keeping a watchful eye on Tony all the time.

  Suddenly she came face to face with Nico.

  “Kate! I’ve been trying to ring you all day!” he said, his face a mask of concern.

  “I’ve had a lot on,” she said.

  “What the fuck has been going on? I read the papers, everyone is talking about it. Has Tony gone bust?”

  Kate looked over at Tony who was watching them together.

  “Nico, I really can’t speak now. I have to go.” She moved quickly away from him and hurried over to Tony and put an arm around him.

  At that moment Steve Shaw came through the front door with four other men. Kate recognised the other men as investors in Tony’s business. Although they were all dressed in tuxedos, only Steve had been on the guest list.

  The men came straight over to Kate and Tony.

  “Steve, good to see you,” smiled Kate as she bent forward and kissed him on the cheek.

  Steve ignored her. “Tony – we need to talk.”

  Kate saw Tony visibly pale.

  “Steve, we have two hundred guests here who need our attention,” Kate said in a determined voice. “We are not speaking about business tonight – whatever needs to be spoken about can be spoken about tomorrow.”

  Steve gave her a filthy look. Kate smiled at the four men with Steve.

  “Good evening, gentlemen, nice to see you all again. I must have missed seeing your names on the guest list, but you are very welcome regardless.”

  She saw Chloe busily rushing around and called over to her.

  “Chloe, I wonder if we can make a quick arrangement with the caterers to set four extra places. These gentlemen are unexpectedly joining us for dinner.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Chloe frowned and rushed off.

  A loud bell sounded throughout the house.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is now being served in the ballroom,” said the head waiter loudly and the crowd started making their way intodinner.

  “If you could excuse us?” Kate smiled at Steve and the other men and led Tony away.

  “Thank you,” whispered Tony. “I couldn’t face them tonight.”

  “You don’t have to. And when you face them, I’ll be there with you – every step of the way.”

  He managed to smile at her. “For better and for worse?”

  “For richer and for poorer.” And she kissed his cheek.

  She held his arm tightly as they walked down the centre of the ballroom towards their table at the top. She felt everyone’s eyes on them as they walked. Some eyes sympathetic, some curious, others gleeful. At one stage in the middle of the room, Kate felt Tony falter slightly and she was frightened he would fall. She gripped his arm tightly and they continued to their table and took their seats.

  All the French windows along the side of the room were open to allow some air to circulate. The band had relocated to the stage and were playing the jazz version of ‘Mad About The Boy’. Kate was glad she had placed some of their closest friends at their table – they were working overtime to pretend everything was normal.

  The guests had finished the starters of goat’s cheese tartlets or warm chicken salad, and now a multitude of caterers were serving barons of lamb for main course with a mushroom stroganoff for vegetarians.

  Kate saw Nico seated in the middle of the ballroom staring at her. She saw him take out his mobile phone and send a text. A few seconds later she heard her mobile phone bleep and she discreetly took it out of her handbag and read it:

  Meet me after dinner in the forecourt – please.

  She put away her phone and tried to concentrate on the conversation around her.

  Dinner lasted for over an hour, and as the guests retired to the drawing room for drinks the caterers quickly got to work removing the tables to clear the ballroom for the dancing later. As Kate mingled, she saw that Tony was in safe hands with old friends. She walked through the hallway and slipped out the front door. She walked down the steps and manoeuvred through the array of Bentleys, Mercedes and Range Rovers parked there, looking for Nico. She spotted him over by the steps down to the terraces and went over to him.

  “I can’t stay long,” she said. “Tony will be looking for me.”

  “Is it true what they are writing in the papers – that Tony is finished?”

  She nodded and sighed loudly. “I’m afraid it is. I only found out yesterday myself.”

  “But I thought Tony was indestructible.”

  She put her hands in the air and said cynically, “Well – there you go!”

  “So what are you going to do now?”

  “The bankers and investors are already in there baying for blood. We’ll have to meet them and see what can be done.”

  “We?”

  “Me and Tony.”

  “Kate, I’ve been thinking a lot since that night in Hunter’s Farm. About what you were saying about
me and you?”

  She looked at him and shook her head. “I shouldn’t have put all that on you, Nico, I’m sorry. I’m fine now.”

  “But what you said about us?”

  “There is no ‘us’, Nico. You were just a distraction for a bored wealthy socialite with nothing better to do. And as I will no longer be bored, wealthy or a socialite, my little . . . infatuation has now ended, you’ll be glad to know.”

  “Kate!”

  “I know I’ve allowed myself to have silly thoughts and been living in fantasy land instead of concentrating on what is real – my life. Tony needs me now more than ever. I can’t let him down now. Please forget everything I said.”

  “So you’re letting duty come before your real feelings?”

  “I’m putting my husband before anything else – and that includes you.” She looked at the determined look on his face. “Especially you!Don’t you get it, Nico? Are you still so high and mighty, thinking you are an Armstrong, that you can’t believe you were just a distraction to me? Something to occupy me and entertain me when I was bored?”

  “You said it started off like that – but the feelings became real.”

  “I say lots of things for whatever audience I’m speaking to.”

  “Kate, I feel the same way about you. I haven’t admitted it to myself, because it seemed so stupid. You seemed so happy with Tony and how could I ever compare to somebody like the great Tony Fallon?”

  “Nico, don’t say anymore. I should never have told you those things and I’m sorry I did. You were part of the whole fantasy of buying the house. That’s over now.I have to get back to Tony and my guests. Goodbye, Nico.”

  She turned to walk away but he grabbed her arm. “Nico! Tony needs me. Don’t you get it – he needs me.”

  She broke free from his grip and walked back to the house as her eyes welled with tears.

  Kate walked through the guests in the hallway and into the ballroom where the band was playing, the saxophonist filling the room with his music as the people danced. The song came to an end and the saxophonist came to the microphone.

  “We’re having a lot of requests for our hostess, Mrs Kate Fallon, to sing a song. We all know she is a lady of many talents. Could we have a song please, Mrs Fallon?”