Who is Alice?

by Miranda Manning

  For the first time since Lizzie had planned this trip she let go of her doubts and let herself believe that that would be the case.

  Eliza had her back to the door when Hugo, Lizzie and Nicola came into the dining room.Cassandra had just said something that made her laugh. Cassandra had started to talk again when she looked over Eliza’s shoulder and saw Lizzie. Suddenly she couldn’t continue what she was saying.

  Eliza looked behind her to see what had caused Cassandra to stop dead in her tracks. She looked across the room and initially was silent.Everybody held their breath.Then with a gleeful shriek Eliza shot across the room, grabbing Lizzie in a tight embrace.

  “Be careful, be careful!” Hugo said.“Don’t hurt yourself.”He was referring to the soreness Eliza had suffered since the operation.

  “I don’t care, I don’t care!” Eliza practically sang and the onlookers thought she would squeeze the life out of Lizzie.

  They were all in tears when she finally did let her go.

  Alice, appearing just then from the kitchen, was the first to speak.“Anyone for sherry?” she asked. She had decided unilaterally that champagne would be too cheesy for this occasion and since nobody at all had taken any interest in the menu for the meal she had made all the decisions herself.

  Alice poured the sherry and Eliza sat down at the table, still holding her daughter’s hand as if her life depended on it.There was so much to talk about. Nicola was sort of sorry that they couldn’t leave at that stage but there was no point in regretting that now.They all sat down around the elegantly prepared table.Suddenly there was a hum of conversation. Lizzie was asked about the flight as if they were used to her dropping by.Apparently the plane bounced all the way from Luton to Galway but she was so apprehensive about the weekend that the turbulent flight didn’t bother her.Eliza asked about the children and Lizzie showed her the photographs she had brought – only about tenas she didn’t want to bombard her mother with information.

  Alice glided in from the kitchen, placing mushroom and truffle paté before them.Nicola and Cassandra had never tasted her cooking before and were really impressed.

  “Gosh, Alice, this is beautiful.Surely you didn’t make it yourself?” Nicola gasped.

  “I did.” Alice was pleased with herself.“I am a woman of many hidden talents.”

  “Obviously,”Cassandra agreed.“You said before that you learned to cook out of necessity.”

  “That’s true.Being the ex-concubine of a Very Important Person has its advantages and I fully intend to take advantage of this talent but tonight is not the night for us to discuss that.Raise your glasses to Lizzie! And to Eliza and Hugo – without them I don’t know where I’d be!”

  They all raised their glasses and Hugo got up and got a bottle of Burgundy from the wine rack.

  Alice served porksteak stuffed with walnuts for the main course because Hugo had told her that porksteak was Lizzie’s all-time favourite dinner when she was a child.

  “I can’t believe you remembered that,” Lizzie said, her eyes welling up.

  “I have only one child,” Hugo replied.“And everything about you is important.”

  Alice looked wistful when he said that – conscious that she would not get the same reception if she were to return home.

  Noticing the sadness in Alice’s eyes, Cassandra broke in:“Gosh, Hugo, it’s a case of blessed art thou amongst women.In all the times I’ve been here I never actually was aware that you are the only male in The Coven. It’s any man’s dream.”

  Amid the laughter, Hugo replied.“Without the two most important women to me, my life would be meaningless.Not that I don’t appreciate having you all around.But in any case Mary in apartment three has two small boys, but they are all so independent we hardly see them.”

  The dessert was a chocolate roulade which Alice had doused liberally with brandy.She had contemplated doing a Queen of Puddings because she knew that too was one of Lizzie’s favourites but she decided that that would be going a bit too far.

  “Wow!” Nicola said.“Alice, you will have to give me some lessons.I’d love to be able to cook like that.”

  “Anyone can do it,” Alice replied.“It just takes practice and a very serious reason for not eating out – ever. I haven’t been practising much since I came to The Coven. I had other fish to fry – if you’ll pardon the expression.This was a good opportunity to polish up my skill – such as it is.Yes, it was lovely cooking for such a group.I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  “We certainly did,” Hugo said.“I’d like to propose a toast to Alice. To Alice!”

  They all raised their glasses.

  “To Alice!”

  Chapter 18

  Alice, Nicola and Cassandra had agreed that they would leave Eliza and Hugo to their own devices over the weekend. They were to be left alone with Lizzie. They had a lot to talk about and a lot of catching up to do.

  This gave Alice the chance to turn her attention to her own daughter. She had decided that sheshould explain to Grace at least some of the reasons why Jack had reacted like he did when she turned up at his office.

  Grace had been so upset by what had happened to her in the Dáil.

  “I couldn’t believe it, Mum,” she said.“Uncle Jack pretended he didn’t know me at first.”

  “I know, love.He isn’t accepting any calls from me either.” Alice felt that Grace might feel better if she knew that she wasn’t the only one being ignored.

  She felt Grace deserved an explanation.Of course she couldn’t tell her the whole story but she could let her know what to expect next.With Christmas coming up, Grace deserved to know that Jack would not be visiting this year and that there would be no presents from him.

  So Alice explained to Grace that the relationship between them and Uncle Jack had broken down and that it was unlikely he would be a significant part of their lives in the future.She knew however that, strictly speaking, this was not true and that Jack Madden would have to remain in their lives for the rest of his life but not in the way that he had been up until this.

  “Did you have a row or something?”Grace was trying to grasp the situation.

  “No,” Alice replied carefully.“But now that he is Taoiseach he won’t have time for us and his family in Dublin will be much more by his side.”

  “I miss him,” Grace said.

  “I don’t,” Orla chimed in.“He brought us nice things but he never talked to us – not the way Hugo does. I like Hugo better.”

  Alice smiled to herself.Life can be so simple when you are a child.But she was aware that Hugo might not be a permanent part of their lives either, though for very different reasons.

  “You’re right,” Alice said to Orla. “Hugo is a much nicer person but he isn’t part of our family either so we can’t expect him to be around for us all the time, though I think he would make a better effort than Uncle Jack.”

  “But you were always so happy when Uncle Jack came to see us,” Grace said.

  “I was, but that was because I thought he loved me more than he actually did,” Alice replied sadly.

  “I thought he loved you,” Orla chimed in again.“But he never showed any interest in me and Gracereally.”

  Looking back on it now, Alice could see that Orla was right.Funny that the younger of the girls had spotted something that neither her mother nor her sister had.

  “You may be right. I don’t think he loved any of us that well.We just made his stays in Galway more interesting,” Alice agreed.

  “In what way?”Grace queried.

  “We were sort of like a second family.His Galway family.”

  “But couldn’t we still be that?” Grace asked.

  “No.Now that he is Taoiseach, he will be under the spotlight and two families aren’t really the done thing.”

  Grace didn’t seem satisfied.

  “Grace,” said Alice, “we are on our own now.I think we make a great team.Sometime after Christmas – probably near the summer – we will move out of The
Coven and into our own place and we will be independent.”

  “I’m not sure I want to be independent, whatever that means.”It was Orla again.“I like it here.I don’t want to move out.”

  “I like it here as well,” Alice said.“But the time will come when we are able to stand on our own two feet and then we will leave this apartment and someone else who needs it as badly as we did will get it.”

  “But what about Hugo and Eliza?” Grace demanded.

  “What about them?”Alice asked.

  “Will they disappear from our lives just like Uncle Jack?”

  “I don’t think so.I hope they will always be friends.You can ask them about it when Lizzie goes back to London.We won’t disturb them today.”

  “Okay.” Grace seemed reasonably satisfied with the conversation and they decided they would make crumpets for tea.

  Nicola’s landline rang at eleven o’clock.She was still in bed.

  “Hello,” she said sleepily.

  “Rise and shine!”

  Did Séamus always have to be so chirpy?

  “I can’t shine at this time on a Saturday morning.What kind of a day is it?”

  “Cold.”

  “It’s always cold in November.I haven’t opened the blinds.Is it raining?”

  “No.I have an idea for tomorrow.Can I come over?”

  “I suppose so,” Nicola replied, still not quite awake.

  “Wow, your enthusiasm is really flattering.”

  “Sorry.When do you want to come over?”

  She felt guilty. The last few weeks had been so hectic that she didn’t know if she was on her head or her heels but she did know that the time she had spent with Séamus had been calm and relaxing, so she was very grateful to him for that.

  “Have you eaten?”

  “No.You woke me up.”

  “Oh, yes.Sorry.I’ll be over in half an hour and I’ll bring breakfast.Is that okay?”

  “Grand,” Nicola said.“And sorry if I sound grumpy.I am a morning grouch.”

  “I wouldn’t mind getting used to that,” he said cheerfully and he hung up.

  Nicola scrambled out of bed and into the shower.She was about to put on a track suit when she decided to go for the more smart-casual look instead.Track suits really shouldn’t be worn anywhere other than in the gym, no matter how glamorous, and hers weren’t really very glamorous.

  She put on her slim-line needle-cord jeans and a purple wool sweater she had bought in the Blarney Woollen Mills and looked at herself in the mirror.

  Not bad for an overworked, underpaid social worker, she thought, and she carefully smoothed on her lipstick to make the picture complete.She was tidying away her pyjamas when there was a ring at the door.

  “What makes you so full of energy?” she smiled as she opened the door to Séamus who had a full bag of shopping.

  “Breakfast for the lady!” he grinned and he busied himself finding the cups, bowls and plates to serve the food, all of which he admitted buying at the nearest supermarket.

  “Not bad,” Nicola smiled as she tucked into muesli, topped with fresh raspberries – from Israel – followed by crispy fresh rolls and smoked trout from the Corrib.They topped it off with some sort of exotic coffee with which Nicola was not familiar but which Séamus assured her was the only coffee worth drinking.She was not convinced but she drank it gratefully anyway.Jonathan rarely made her as much as a cup of instant, let alone presented her with a full breakfast when he hadn’t even spent the night.This was a life she could really come to enjoy.

  “What’s your idea for tomorrow?”Nicola asked.“Always presuming I’m free!”

  “Oh gosh,are you?”

  “Tell me what the idea is first and then I’ll decide if I am or not.”

  “Tomorrow is Trail Sunday and I thought we might go and walk the Great Western Greenway.”

  “Sounds a bit intimidating.What is it?”

  “It’s a walking and cycling trail which has been created by Mayo County Council along the old railway line between Newport and Mulraney.What do you think?”

  “Sounds nice – if we get the weather.”

  “We’d have to bring rain gear because if it rains we won’t be anywhere near a road for a long distance so we would have to keep going.”

  “How long is it?”

  “Eighteen kilometres, but the forecast is good.”

  “You’re on.I will have to root out my rain gear.I haven’t used it since I was in college.”

  “I remember it – bright red and a bit bulky.You sort of looked like a beach ball in the middle of winter.”

  “You had better watch yourself or I could change my mind!” Nicola laughed.

  But he was right and she marvelled at how he could deliver an insult in such a flattering way. In any case she had no other gear and she hadn’t time to buy some, so if it rained tomorrow she would again become the bright red beachball of her poverty-stricken college days. Secretly she was pleased that he remembered her rain gear from so many years ago.

  “You had better go home before I clatter you! I will bring the picnic tomorrow.”

  Nicola’s phone rang again. It was Cassandra.

  “How are you getting to The Coven to pick up your car?I was thinking we could share a taxi.”

  “I’ve a better idea – hang on a second,” Nicola answered and she covered the mouthpiece and asked Séamus if he could pick Cassandra up and take both of them out to The Coven to pick up their cars, which they had left there the evening before.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “Séamus and I will pick you up in about ten minutes,” she toldCassandra.

  “Can I take it that Séamus stayed with you last night?” Cassandra was all ears.

  “No, you cannot.You are such a busybody!” Nicola laughed and put down the phone.

  The following day was bright and briskly cold as they set off in Séamus’s ancient Volkswagen Beetle.

  “I’m hoping to do it up and it could become a collector’s item.”

  “You’ll have quite a job to do on the body.It’s covered in rust.I thought these things weren’t supposed to rust?”

  “It’s over twenty years old and I think its other owner used to go camping on sea shores so that would test any paintwork,” he replied cheerfully.

  “Well, so long as it gets us there,” Nicola said and they put a Leonard Cohen tape into the ancient tape deck.

  The Great Western Greenway turned out to be a long easy walk.Not too much up hill and down dale.The flora was still pretty green, despite the lateness of the season.They walked at a fairly even pace and stopped for lunch at the 12-kilometre point.It was quite cold but they were well wrapped up.Nicola’s main concern was that it would rain because, despite what she had said, she didn’t really want to look like a red beach ball.She resolved there and then to buy some more up-to-date rain gear if they planned to do more walking.

  She had packed a large flask of soup despite the weight and Séamus had put the rest of the lunch in his backpack.There were quite a few people on the trail but not so many that they interfered with their enjoyment of the day.The sun shone over Clew Bay and they even attempted, unsuccessfully, to count the 365 islands.

  By the time they got back to the car they were exhausted.The drive home was quiet, mainly because Nicola fell asleep in the passenger seat.

  “God, I feel awful,” she said when she woke up.“I’m not much company, am I?”

  “You’re the only company I want,” he replied and she knew that he meant it.

  They stopped off at a supermarket and got two microwave lasagnes and a bottle of Chianti Classico so that the mood would be totally Italian, and went back to Nicola’s apartment.

  They watched a DVD and Séamus was about to ring for a cab when Nicola said: “I was thinking you could stay the night. If you want to, that is.”

  “Of course I do,” Séamus replied and he did.

  When Cassandrahad got back from The Coven that Saturday morning
, she’d decided that she would visit her father the following day.With all the happy-families stuff going on with the Lynches she just felt that she needed to see him. She rang the nursing home and spoke to the Matron.

  “He’ll be delighted to see you,” the Matron said warmly.

  “Only because he thinks I’m my mother,” was Cassandra’s reply but she wasn’t sad.Her father had Alzheimer’s and had forgotten her completely. “Matron, we can plan for Christmas as well if you are working tomorrow.I can come and help out again this year.”

  “I’ll be here. You were a great help over the last few years.It really makes a difference to the quality of Christmas for the residents that you come.”

  “Thank you for those kind words, but actually I enjoy it and it is a nice way for me to spend Christmas.So see you tomorrow – I should be there at about one.Don’t bother to get lunchfor me – I’ll eat on the way.”

  Cassandra had one client in the afternoon and planned an early night. The last few weeks had been all go even by her standards and she wasn’t as young as she used to be.She wanted to be full of energy and good cheer for her visit to her father because, even though the nursing home was very nice, she found it a bit depressing.

  After her client left she had a leisurely bath and chose her clothes for the next day.She decided on wool trousers with soft lines and a long cardigan which matched it exactly.Low heels and an elegant blouse which was not too snazzy, more homely, completed the outfit.She dressed carefully for these visits.She didn’t want to appear too brassy but not too dowdy either.She always chatted with the women and had a word for the men as well.Her father always brightened up when he saw her but often had little to say after she sat down.She was in bed by eleven.

  It was a two-hour drive to the nursing home and she didn’t want to rush.She called into an open shopping centre on the way and bought her father a new dressing gown.She had noticed on her last visit that his was shabby.

  It was good day for driving.It was Sunday.She wondered if they took her father to Mass any more. When he’d been in the full of his health he was a daily Mass-goer – the irony of such a conventionally religious man having a prostitute for a daughter was not lost on her.She knew he wouldn’t have liked it but he would never know now.She had been really at alow ebb, financially as well as emotionally, when she started and it seemed like the only option at the time. She had been working as a PA to an accountant for a number of years when his company was closed down because of inappropriate use of client funds. She was not consciously involved in this illegal behaviour, so no legal action was taken against her but this was her only work experience and without a reference she was practically unemployable. She did have a degree in History and Archaeology but that didn’t qualify her for anything unless she did a Higher Diploma in Education and she felt she wouldn’t be a good teacher so she didn’t go down that route. At any rate she was hoping to be able to give up her current way of life shortly. She had nearly enough saved to pay off her apartment and after that she wouldn’t need the same level of earnings to support herself.It crossed her mind she would like to work in a clothes shop – haute couture perhaps – or alternatively she considered a career in interior design. She could act as a sort of colour consultant for people who wished to decorate and who didn’t have much of an eye.Over the years she had heard many women say that they had no eye for colour and, judging from the way they threw colours together, be it on themselves or in their homes, it was quite obvious they were right.