Cassandra had done all the work on finding out about what they could expect to get for the apartments.The plan was to sell the apartments and buy in a nice but less upmarket area and hopefully Alice would have enough money left over to set herself up in business.She could live on her maintenance for a whileand she could probably continue to work for the hotel until things picked up.
Cassandra still had no great plan, other than to help Alice out, but she would have money left and she wouldn’t need to come to any earth-shattering decisions until she was good and ready.She had a few ideas but nothing concrete and she needed time to research them.
She looked at the houses around the west side of the city.For some reason she was hoping that they would find a place near The Coven.She hoped that she wasn’t developing a sort of dependency but she couldn’t see herself going back to the kind of insular life she had lived up until the time of the assault.She wanted to keep the friendships she had developed over the last six months and she hoped that the feeling was mutual.She found a nice new estate on the Moycullen Road which still had a number of houses unsold.Looking at the prices she felt that they would be suitable for herself and Alice but Alice was so busy she hadn’t time to look at them. In any case, until they got an offer on their own places they couldn’t really do anything about moving on.Both women were really grateful for The Coven.Without it they would have been scouting around for rented places which almost inevitably wouldn’t have been up to the standard of where they were living now. Cassandra was enjoying the search while Alice could only think of the visit to Mayo on Easter Sunday.
Chapter 44
Alice asked the girls to dress in their best clothes.
“What’s so special about today?” Orla wanted to know.
“We’re going to see Nana and Granddad.”
“Oh, brill!” Orla said.“Can I wear my new jeans or should I wear a dress? I’ve really really always wanted a Nana and Granddad. It will be just brill!”
“I think it will,” Alice said though she was very apprehensive about the meeting. “Maybe you should go with the dress. It’s sort of an occasion. You are their first grandchildren but you have two cousins who are two and five. A boy and a girl!”
“Will we be meeting them?”
“I think so – if your uncle is around.He is working the farm and as far as I know he lives in a house on the land, so hopefully we will see him.”Alice was by no means sure.Her brother Brian hadn’t been in touch since she left home though he must have known that he could contact her by getting her address or email from their sister. But he had been very young when she left – about fourteen – so that was probably the explanation.
The girls got into the car with their usual enthusiasm but Eliza and Hugo noticed with sympathy just how apprehensive Alice was.Lizzie and the boys had arrived on Good Friday and would be staying till Monday and Eliza had planned an Easter Egg hunt in the garden on Sunday afternoon.She regretted that Alice’s girls wouldn’t be around for it but they had their own grandparents and it was only natural that if bridges could be built it was best that they spend the day with them.
The drive to Mayo would have been beautiful if Alice had not been so nervous. The girls were in great form and Alice was glad of that. The village hadn’t changed much in the thirteen years since she had been there, though there was a Supervalu where Browne’s used to be and the petrol station had been modernised and also sold hot food.There was also a large hotel at the edge of the village which hadn’t been there before.Alice wondered who came on holidays to Ballydubh.It wasn’t exactly a hub of activity.They drove through the village and about a mile out the other end and turned off the main road to the farmhouse.Alice was so nervous she could barely breathe. It was almost twelve thirty. Her parents would be home from eleven Mass and would have got the papers.Her mother usually served the dinner on the dot of one.
When they drew to a halt in the farmyard the girls jumped out of the car but suddenly went quiet and stood beside Alice – not rushing ahead of her as they usually did when they were out.
They walked slowly towards the door.
Alice braced herself and rang the bell.
Margaret opened the door and Graceexcitedly thrust the box of chocolates they had brought for her into her hands. Alice thought her mother looked relaxed and softer somehow. She bent down and kissed both girls on the cheek and gave Alice a quick hugbefore leading the way into the kitchen.
Alice was shocked when she saw her father.He had aged so much.The effects of the stroke were visible in that the left side of his face had drooped and he stood up with difficulty and with the aid of a stick.
“Hello, Dad,” Alice said.
Liam O’Brien dropped the stick on the floor and held out his arms – his left one falling to his side immediately.Alice walked over to him and held him.She tried not to cry but couldn’t stop herself and before long all the adults in the room were weeping gently.
“Why is everyone crying?” Orla asked.
“Because we are happy,” Liam said.“Which of my grand-daughters are you?”
“I’m Orla and this is my sister Grace,” Orla replied formally.“I never cry when I’m happy.”
That remark broke the ice and immediately everyone was laughing through the tears.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Alice said, while her mother busied herself with serving the dinner.
“So am I,” he said.“I should have been more understanding.”
“But you were right.He wasn’t the man I thought he was.”
Just then her mother asked the girls to help her with the table, which they did with great enthusiasm.She didn’t want too many questions about why Granddad wasn’t understanding and why Alice thought he was right.They were too young to understand all that had gone on thirteen years ago and she wanted them to enjoy the day.
Dinner was a cheerful affair. The girls regaled their new-found grandfather with tales of their dance in the parade on Saint Patrick’s Day.They described their costumes and offered to put on a performance after lunch.
“Granddad might be tired,” Alice laughed.“Maybe the next time.”
“No, I am not,” her father insisted.“I’m only sorry I didn’t see the original performance.”
Alice knew then that, though progress might be slower than she would like, the bridge had been built and things would be good in the future.
During lunch she told them her plans regarding the sale of the apartment and setting herself up as a caterer. She was now in a position to fill in the blanks which had been there when her mother visited at Christmas. The girls told them about The Coven and their life there and about Hugo and Eliza and Alice thought she saw a sad look flicker over her mother’s face but ignored it.Her mother hadn’t been around for the last thirteen years but they could make up for lost time. Margaret had always deferred to her husband and though his heart was in the right place she could see why her having an affair with Jack Madden would have been a huge embarrassment to him.Now, if she had been married to him that would have been a different matter!
Her brother Brian arrived early in the afternoon with his wife Ann and their children, Paul aged five and Emily aged two. Brian hugged her awkwardly and Ann shook her hand but they both relaxed when talking to Grace and Orla who came into their own playing with their cousins and chatting with an aunt and uncle they didn’t know they had.Alice realised for the first time how much the girls had missed through having no extended family on either side.She was really angry with herself and more particularly with Jack Madden for the weird way she had lived for all those years. She was also sad that she had seen nothing wrong with it. But there was still a lot of living to do and they could make up for lost time.
Brian took the girls and the smaller children out onto the farm and showed them the lambs and let them feed them.They went and watched the cows being milked in the milking parlour and they were amazed. They had never seen a cow being milked before.
“Not sure I ever liked milk
,” Orla said loftily though until now she had never before expressed that thought.
Their granny kept hens and a few ducks so they looked to see if the hens or ducks had laid.It was all new for city children and they thought it was one large adventure playground.
While the girls were out with their uncle, Alice had a chance to speak to her parents frankly – Ann had followed Brian out to make sure that the boys were behaving.
“I suppose, if I had thought about it, I should have known that you had my best interests at heart,” she said.“Looking at it now, if either of my girls took up with a much older married man I would be really distraught.”
“We were,” her father said truthfully but not harshly.
“I thought you were just trying to control my life and I suppose the fact that you didn’t know a thing until I told you I was pregnant didn’t help.”
“Well, it’s over now and we have two beautiful granddaughters,” her mother said before her father had a chance to answer.
“And I think I was not very clever putting so much store in a politician,” Liam said. “MaybeI should have spotted that he wasn’t to be trusted.”
“They were different times, Dad.Everybody trusted politicians.I gave him my life.How stupid is that!”
“Well, guess who won’t be getting any votes from this household come the next election?” Brian had come in at the tail-end of the conversation and joined in with enthusiasm.
“I’d say he didn’t get any votes here for the past twelve years,” Alice said and she knew she was right.
“Uncle Brian said we can come for a week or two during our summer holidays,” Orla informed them when she came back in, her shoes muddy from the farmyard.“I’ll need wellingtons,” she said, as if it was all arranged.
Alice looked at her father.She was not sure if he was ready to present his two older grandchildren to the village.
“That would be great,” he said, smiling as if he meant it.
As they drove back to The Coven Alice was content. She intended to work hard on strengthening the bonds between the children and their new relatives. She wanted them to know who her family was, given that they wouldn’t know who their father’s family was for a long time to come – if ever.In any case, that branch of their family wasn’t exactly anything to be proud of.
Chapter 45
Things moved faster than Cassandra and Alice had anticipated.On Easter Tuesday there were several replies to their advertisement on Daft.ie and that week they made appointments with all the interested parties to view the apartments. Cassandra had been visiting show houses in the area over the previous few weeks so when it came to actually showing their own apartments she felt up to the challenge.Her apartment now bore virtually no resemblance to what she remembered and Alice’s was almost identical.Effectively they were like show houses without the furniture. So they both went together to the viewings.
There were two American companies interested in both the apartments and they had several individual buyers interested in buying one or the other.They showed to the individual buyers first, to test the market.There was good interest but none of them were interested in paying the asking price.They were clearly looking for a bargain and whileCassandra and Alice felt that their apartments were a bargain they weren’t as good a bargain as the buyers wanted.Eventually one offered close to the asking price of €400,000 for Cassandra’s apartment which was good indicator that they could get it so they said they would get back to him.He was a bit vague about how he would raise the finance, so they didn’t jump at the offer and decided not to worry about it for the moment.
On the Friday of the week after Easter they showed both the apartments to a HR executive from each of the American companies.One immediately said that they were too small because they wanted to use them for families coming to Ireland.Their policy was to provide accommodation for the first six months so that the family had plenty time to look at the housing situation in Galway and buy or rent at their leisure.They felt that the apartments were too executive and not suitable for children.
“I raised two girls here,” Alice said, hoping that she might sway them.
“One family coming here shortly has two teenagers, one boy and one girl, and I’m not sure this is big enough.These apartments are more suitable to childless couples.But, depending on what else is on the market, we might be interested in taking one of them and finding a larger apartment or house at another location.”
Alice and Cassandra were disappointed but it was early days and to have such interest in the first week was a good sign.The reaction of the second company executive was less certain.She walked around both apartments several times as if measuring it with her paces.She hmmmed and sighed a lot and looked out the windows, tested the showers and door handles and said very little.
“I had hoped they would be furnished,” she said.
“We decided to leave them unfurnished so that the buyer could put their own stamp on them,” said Cassandra, “but if you like we can arrange for them to be furnished, if we can come to an agreement on a price. Alternatively, we know a small interior-designing company that would do it at a very good price.”
“I’ll think about it.I’ll try and get back to you by this day next week.”
“Thank you.In the meantime we will continue to show it to other interested parties,” Cassandra said with great warmth and she crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping that there would be other interested parties.
Alice spent the week on tenterhooks. Cassandra was much calmer.She showed Alice the estate on the Moycullen Road with three or four houses of varying sizes unsold. There was also a small commercial unit which the developer obviously envisaged as a shop but Cassandra thought that Alice could use it for a kitchen.Alice wasn’t sure.She liked the area and the houses and she was delighted that Cassandra was considering buying there but she felt that the commercial unit was a step too far.She put her eye on one of the larger houses – four bedrooms – which was not quite complete. Downstairs it had a kitchen, dining room, sitting room and study.
“I could make the kitchen into my work kitchen and the study our own kitchen,” she said. “I should talk to Sinéad and Will and see what they advise.”
“Hold your horses,” Cassandra laughed.“We have to sell our own places first.”
“But it’s an idea, isn’t it?”Alice said.“I like it here.I certainly would consider buying here. What about you?”
“Well, I brought you here.I like it as well but we’d better not jump the gun.”
They showed the apartments to three other viewers the following week but it looked like nothing concrete was going to come of those viewings.
“We can always give them to an auctioneerif we don’t sell them soon,” Cassandra said. “After all, there must be some knack in selling houses, otherwise nobody would employ someone to do it for them.”
Then at precisely nine o’clock on Friday morning Cassandra received a call on her mobile from the woman from the American company.
“We are interested in the apartments,” she said.“But we are offering thirty-five K below the asking price.”
“I’ll have to consult with Alice.She’s taking her children to school at the moment and we’re showing two other people after that. We’ll call you back before lunchtime.”The bit about showing it to others was a piece of fiction but Cassandra felt justified.
She rang Alice with the news.
Alice was delighted.“We weren’t really expecting the asking price anyway,” she said.“I think we should take it.”
“I’m tempted to try and bump it up another five or ten grand for each apartment.I’d say they can afford it and we have had a bit of interest.” Cassandra was a much more hardnosed businesswoman than Alice.
“But what if they don’t bite?We’ll have lost the opportunity and selling to a company would be much better than to an individual.They’ll have the money so we won’t have to wait.”
“I think we should give it
a shot.They may be expecting it. I’ll try five.”
“I hope you’re right.” Alice was doubtful.
“If I’m not we can let them have it at the price they’re offering.One way or another I think we have a sale. We won’t ring them until near one.”
Alice’s stomach was in a knot as she drove back to The Coven.She had an appointment that afternoon to look at vans.She would need a suitable one for carrying the food from her home to the customers. Hugo and Eliza had told her that she could continue to use their car if she needed it but she felt that she should at least look into buying her own and customising it a bit.An acquaintance of Cassandra’s who had a small restaurant and did home deliveries was going to advise her.
She couldn’t be alone that morning.She went into the big kitchen and was glad to find Hugo and Eliza there chatting.
“We have an offer.I’m scared.”
“Don’t be,” Hugo said.“It will be okay.”
Cassandra came in full of confidence.
“I suppose Alice told you our news,” she beamed. “I’m going to try and bump up the price a bit but if they don’t go for it we’ll accept their offer anyway.”
“I think you’re right,” Hugo said.“I’d be surprised if what they offered you is their final offer.”
Alice was relieved to hear him say that. Hugo was so calm she relaxed a bit – but not much.
Cassandra rang the company at a quarter to one and asked to be put through to HR.
“We are interested in your offer but it isn’t the only one we have had.If you were prepared to raise it by €10,000 per apartment we would be prepared to give it to you for a quick sale.”
There was more hmming and sighing on the other end of the line and eventually the woman said, “Five thousand. That’s my final offer.”
“Done,” said Cassandra and they agreed to email each other withthe names of their solicitors.
Who is Alice? Page 30