She was starting to relax slightly – maybe it was the vodka.
“I will never forgive myself for how I treated you and I am so happy you stuck that knife in my back because it was the bravest thing you could have done and, as horrific as this is going to sound, I think you saved both of our lives. I don’t want you to be frightened any more. I knew it was a risk coming here but I wanted you to see my face, to see my eyes, and know I mean I will never harm you ever again. I will be heading to Florida next week and I have bought a little place there by the beach. My mother is coming with me and we are going to start again over there. I’m getting a desk job with the airline. The weather’s beautiful, as you know – oh, listen to me rambling – sorry, that’s a side effect – I can go off on tangents.”
“Alex, it’s okay, I am okay.” It just hit her. Alex was ill. Now she could see it so clearly. How on earth had she not before? Mental illness was so taboo. People suffered in silence, scared to talk about unusual feelings so they always buried them deep within and therefore they eventually exploded. It was a stigma. Something to be ashamed of, as though they had any choice in how they were feeling.
“I will go now.” He stood up and wiped his palms on his black jeans.
She tried to gather her thoughts. She could just let him go and bolt the doors behind him and run to secure all the windows . . . or she could trust him. She could release all the fear inside her and let it go out the door with him. Wave a final goodbye to them both. They fed each other. Without one there couldn’t be the other. She knew what she had to do.
“Sit down. I’ll make you a cup of tea before you go. You’ve been shivering.”
“I know. I left my jacket in the car. I was honestly just going to hand you the letter and go.”
“It’s okay. Please.” She slowly eased her fearful body off the bed.
Cara was so utterly exhausted by this fear.
“Did you know I met a mutual friend of ours in London?” he said as he stood up. “No,” she said and shook her head.
“Yeah, I did, and I went straight back and told Darby, my psychiatrist. He helped me write the letter to you – okay, so he doesn’t know I was hand-delivering it but I felt I owed it to you. It would have been too cowardly of me to just post a letter. I have been a coward for years and I will not be one any more. I am facing my demons.”
The front door was suddenly kicked in and Cara stood open-mouthed as Jonathan ran for Alex like a man possessed. He grabbed him by the throat and pushed him hard up against the wall.
“Jonathan!” she shouted.
Dermot ran in now and beckoned for Cara to get back.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” she shouted as Alex tugged at Jonathan’s hands, gagging loudly.
Sandra ran in, then, soaked to the skin as the two men were – the rain was now pelting down outside. “Cara, are you okay?” she panted and then screamed when she saw Jonathan and Alex struggling.
“It’s okay, Jonathan, let him go! He’s not threatening me!” Cara screamed.
“I’ll fucking kill you if you frighten her!” Jonathan yelled. “I don’t know what’s going on here but I saw the look on Sandra’s face when she knew you were looking for Cara! I will kill you!”
“And I second that, mate!” Dermot stood tall in front of Alex now as Jonathan dropped him and he fell to his knees.
“It’s over!” Cara held out her hands to Jonathan and he grabbed them and held tight. “He just came to apologise and he’s leaving for Florida. It’s good. I’m glad he came. I’m so tired of being frightened of him.” She shook her head fiercely. “I won’t be scared any more.”
“You sure you’re okay?” he hissed, out of breath, rubbing his thumbs across her hands.
“Yes, finally, I am okay – finally I feel free of him.”
The little cottage fell quiet and the only sounds were the heavy rain and the heavy breathing of its occupants.
“God, sorry, I’m going to be sick!” Sandra put her hand over her mouth and ran for the bathroom.
Dermot pulled Alex up. “I guess I don’t have to say this but I’m saying it anyway. Never come near Knocknoly again. Right?”
Alex nodded and Cara let go of Jonathan’s hands and approached him. She pulled the letter from the back pocket of her tracksuit. “Here you go!” She handed it to him. “I forgive you.”
He slowly raised his arm and took the letter from her. “Thank you,” he whispered and held the letter in his hands before ripping it up into four pieces and stuffing them into his pocket. She watched him move towards the front door. She knew she would never see Alex Charles ever again.
Chapter 28
The morning of the auction arrived and with Jamie Keenan in tow they all headed up to Dublin in a hired minibus. Dermot was driving and had to shout at them all several times to keep the noise down.
Old Mrs Reilly was almost on top of Jamie. “And now tell me where do you buy those tiny shorts of yours?” she asked and he laughed. “You really are edible, young man, do you know that?” She held her hand up in the shape of a paw and licked it.
“Leave the kid alone, you madwoman! Can’t you see you’re old enough to be his granny?” Big Bob, sitting across from them, called over.
“He’s jealous.” She nodded in his direction. “Wants me all to himself that one, can’t stand the thought of you and me together.” She winked at Jamie and he laughed.
“You’ll make the chap sick!” Big Bob roared now and turned his head sharply to look out the window.
***
Jamie had been so enthusiastic right from the very start. Sandra had called him the following morning on a conference call with everyone around the table and asked him out straight if he had any interest. He listened quietly and, after Jonathan had relayed the facts and figures of the hotel, he had made a noise. It sounded like a child making a car noise. It went on for quite a while. Turned out he had been doodling Jamie Keenan’s Restaurant over and over again on a tennis tournament brochure.
“I think it’s exactly what I have been looking for, guys,” he said eventually.
Everyone whooped and Jonathan shushed them.
“Okay, well, I can bring all the paperwork to you,” Jonathan said, “and we can meet your solicitor today if that suits?”
“Great. Well, I’m in London all week. I’m up to my eyes in TV interviews today – but can you come here tomorrow?”
“Yes, Jamie, and listen, thanks so much,” Jonathan said.
“See you then.”
Jonathan hung up and looked around at his team – or, rather, his fellow investors – as they sat around grinning at him.
“God, Sandra, how do we thank you?” he said.
Sandra shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll think of something!” she laughed.
Jonathan then ushered everyone out back to work as he had the bank manager coming, the Moritz’s accountants coming and his own solicitor coming. It was a massive undertaking.
Although Jamie would be the main shareholder everyone else was buying a share of the hotel too. Some very small, some not so small like Jonathan’s own. They needed to draw up contracts today. They would bid at auction under Jamie’s financial backing, open a company and then split the shares after.
***
Sandra moved up beside Jamie on the bus. “I’d say it’s been a while since you were on a minibus?” she laughed.
“Yeah,” he said, “and I’m enjoying it! In fact, I must get myself one of these bad boys to truck around Knocknoly in. Be a bit of a babe-magnet, don’t you think?”
“Thanks, Jamie.”
“Thanks for what? It’s all about me to be honest. I’m not doing this to help you or anyone else – it’s exactly what I had been looking for. I’m just so excited about finishing out this year and then starting my course.”
“What course?”
“Oh, I’m doing a full year’s intensive cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris when the season ends!” He looked really excited as he t
urned to her now. “Imagine, Sandra, I will have this opportunity to learn from the very best. I can learn about regional products and flavours. For more than a century Le Cordon Bleu has enabled aspiring chefs like me to turn their ambitions into a reality. I can’t wait. I will come back and start running my own kitchen in my shareholder hotel.”
“And you will be amazing, of that I have no doubt, but isn’t there something you aren’t telling me?”
“Ah shucks, babe!” He batted his eyelashes at her. “Yeah, I’ve made my decision. I’m retiring at the end of this tour. I’m done, Sandra. I need a change. When I held that trophy up and winked at you in London it hit me. The victory never lasts long enough. It’s over all too soon but the pain and heartache of losing stays with you for weeks and sometimes even months. The Moritz came to me at the perfect time. I see it as a sign actually.”
He looked happy and relaxed for the first time and Sandra was so pleased for him. “What about Carolina?” she asked now.
“What about her? It’s all over, I’m afraid. She is engaged to Mario Setaela. A quick but incredibly passionate romance, she told me. She’s happy so I’m happy for her. They both want the same things. I’m where I want to be right now and I owe it to myself to take this journey. It’s funny, you know, I think I want a family but I don’t think I ever want to get married. The commitment is too much for me – pathetic, eh?”
Sandra thought about this comment and digested it like a warm sticky toffee pudding.
“We’re here!” Jonathan shouted down the bus before she could respond to Jamie. Cara was beside Jonathan, fixing his tie, and Sandra could hear her telling him to take a deep breath and calm down a bit.
“Okay, now listen, all of you – especially you, Mrs Reilly – no shouting out during the auction, I know how you get. Jamie is in control of the bidding. We are up against stiff competition so please don’t get too excited just yet. This stud farm is very keen – . . .”
“Hold that keen – Keenan’s here!” Jamie stood now and hit his head. He hung onto the handle at the top of the case-rack, towering body almost bent in half. “‘He who dares wins, Rodney, he who dares wins.’ I am usually the one listening to the pep talks. It feels great to deliver one for a change so here it is. Positive thinking, like Sandra says her little book The Secret says, is the key. I believe in all this. I believe in the power of positive thinking. We need to send our message out there. We will own the Moritz!” He squeezed out past Sandra now and pulled his bag down. He opened it and pulled out blank pages and pens and handed a sheet and a pen to everyone on the bus. “Now, let’s put the power of visualisation to the test. I want you each to draw a picture or write a paragraph about us winning this morning. When you do this you are all generating powerful thoughts and the feeling of already winning. The Law of Attraction then returns that reality to us just as you saw it in your mind. He who dares wins!”
Jonathan punched the air now. “You are right! Do it everyone. Focus! Let’s get in there, Jamie. The rest of you follow as soon as you’re done.”
As they took their seats in the cold air-conditioned bare room Sandra was miles away. She was staring at Jamie who was shaking hands with some people. She’d just nip to the loo again before they started.
“Are you peeing again?” Cara whispered as she stood to let her out.
Sandra darted towards the neon ladies sign, her bag clutched tightly under her arm. She closed the toilet door and sat on the toilet. Slowly she opened her bag and removed the fifteenth pregnancy test stick of the last two days. She pushed it under and peed on it. This time she didn’t put it down and the thick blue line popped up in seconds, still in her hand. Sandra Darragh was well and truly pregnant.
Sandra slipped back out just as the auction was beginning. More than two hundred people were crammed into the room for the auction of the Moritz and seventy-four other properties.
The Moritz was up first. They all shuffled in and took up an entire reserved bench. The organisers hushed the room now and a grey-haired woman dressed in a tailored red suit with huge shoulder-pads took to the podium.
“Good morning, everyone, and welcome. If everyone could push up on the benches we might create more seats for those of you standing at the back of the room.” There was a shuffle of feet and bags and coats. Then she spoke again. “I would like to announce that more than one hundred and ten thousand people have read the catalogue online, from over ninety countries.”
“What catalogue? It’s in a catalogue? What, like Family Album?” old Mrs Reilly said out loud before Big Bob shushed her.
“Did you not hear what Jonathan said, woman? No talking!” He reached over and patted her knees gently.
The auctioneer continued. “We don’t take questions at this point, if you don’t mind.”
Big Bob put a protective arm around old Mrs Reilly now and nodded at the woman. “We understand,” he whispered.
“So before we begin in the room, I’d also like to add that we have more than fifty registered overseas bidders from places including Hong Kong, Australia, Italy, the Middle East and the UK. The reserve price this morning is two million euro. Shall we begin?”
It was a slow build-up to the off-the-ground starting price of one point five million. In the current climate they had to climb to the asking price. Jamie played a blinder and took his time and whispered occasionally to his two solicitors on either side. Phone bids were coming in and people with phones glued to their ears raised hands, left the room, ran back in. When they hit the two million mark Cara watched Jonathan leave the room, his face ashen.
The bids kept coming in. It was nerve-wracking. Eventually, at two million eight hundred thousand, Jamie Keenan won, the proverbial hammer bashing the Moritz into their lives forever.
Cara stood on Tiffney’s toes as she tried to get out from her place in the row. She ran to Jonathan who was across the road, pacing up and down.
“We did it!” she shouted, stuck in the middle of the road as cars whizzed by.
“Be careful!” he shouted at her. “What did you say?”
She looked up and down for what seemed like an eternity before a gap came in the traffic and she ran to him, breathless now.
“We did it! We won!”
His eyes lit up and he scooped her up into the air and swung her around. “Oh God, I don’t believe it! Thank you!” He raised his eyes to the sky. “It’s a dream come true, Cara!” His eyes welled up. “I finally feel I have achieved something – my mother would be so proud. Yes, I know Jamie is the major shareholder but a piece of the Moritz in now mine. I can put in all the work I always did but I gain more. I can’t explain how much this means to me!” He pulled her in close and she could smell his aftershave crisp and clean. He gazed at her with a little smile on his face. “You know when I told you the night of Jenny and Max’s wedding that I don’t date staff and you laughed in my face and told me you weren’t asking me out?”
She laughed and nodded.
“Well, I guess you aren’t staff any more . . . you are a shareholder too . . .” His words hung in the air and she couldn’t find her voice. “Whenever, if ever, you feel you are ready to date again, Cara, I would dearly love to take you to dinner at our hotel sometime.”
Cheers came now from across the road and the two looked between the traffic. Tiffney and Mike were hugging, old Mrs Reilly and Big Bob were grinning wildly, Sandra was looking pale, obviously with the shock, and Dermot had his arm draped around her shoulders. Jamie Keenan looked cool as a cucumber.
“Let’s go!” Cara tugged his sleeve and they joined the others and then they all headed to the nearest pub.
“Well done, everyone!” Jonathan began the champagne toast and this time Cara enjoyed it. “The Moritz hotel is secure and the village of Knocknoly can rest assured we will bring in even more tourists with this fantastic new chef when he returns next year!”
Jamie Keenan took a bow.
Jonathan continued. “Delphine is happy to take up a place in
Venice she was offered last year so she unfortunately will go when Jamie returns. I can’t wait to get back to our hotel now and build up its reputation even more and make it the best hotel in Ireland!”
A huge cheer erupted.
“We have an announcement to make also,” Mike piped in. “Tiffney has agreed to be my wife and we would like to get married in the Moritz hotel next Christmas!”
The reaction was deafening and the little group stamped their feet and clinked their glasses noisily and hugged the young couple.
“It will be our first family wedding,” Jonathan said as Cara came over and stood firmly by his side.
Chapter 29
The afternoon sun was beating down hard for a September afternoon and Cara pulled one-year-old Ava Keenan’s pink buggy under the sun umbrella. Dermot was covered in BBQ smoke and waving his tea towel at it and Sandra was laughing at him, turning the steaks carefully. The back garden of Mr Peter’s old house was in full bloom and the roses Cara had planted smelt divine. Well, it was in fact Cara and Esther’s home now and the little hand-painted sign above the front door said just that. Esther had moved, Victoria in tow, and they had stayed in the hotel while successfully buying and renovating the property.
When Cara had tried to apologise again for all she had put her through, Esther had frowned deeply. “It’s in the past,” she had said. “We are in the future. Look at me! I have a whole new life at my age and it’s bloody marvellous. I love being around the hotel and I love Louise in the Loft, and you’re right, village life is wonderful. I can bring Victoria into the shops and no one tells me to tie her up outside. There is just one thing, though, love . . .”
“Go on!” Cara had pushed her.
“When I die I still want to be buried with your dad in Dublin.”
The Other Side of Wonderful Page 32