“It’s hanging in the wardrobe,” she answered. “Daddy put it there last night. We hardly saw Mammy at all yesterday. I think she must have had a sore head. Auntie Ruby, why are you here and why are you taking us to school? Mammy always does that.”
“You’re right, darling. Mammy’s head is very sore and she’s very tired so I’m going to take you to school instead to give Mammy a wee rest. You don’t mind, do you? I’ll even stop at the shop and get you something nice for break-time if you like.”
“We have to eat fruit at break-time and drink water and there’s lots of water in the fridge and fruit in the bowl downstairs,” she answered gloomily.
“So no chocolate bars or crisps then?” I said. (Flippin’ schools take the pleasure out of everything these days! Playing Swap Break would be hard without Monster Munch or Curly Fries, that’s for sure.)
“Well, Auntie Ruby will just have to get you treats later on then,” I said.
“Will you still be here when I get home?” she asked in surprise.
“Would you like me to be?” I asked and got my reply as she hugged me tight and buried her head in my shoulder.
I then woke up Ben who was just as surprised but a lot less cheery (not a morning person at all – not dissimilar to myself).
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh well, that’s just charming,” I said, faking annoyance. “I’ll just go home then, shall I?
“Is Mammy all right?” he asked with a frown. “She seemed really upset yesterday and kept on telling us to go out of the room so she and Daddy could talk and then I heard her shouting at Daddy and him saying he was sorry.”
“Did you actually go out of the room or did you just pretend to go out and leave your ears behind?” I asked, bemused.
“I sat on the stairs,” he said. “I was just worried, that’s all.”
I ruffled his hair and he immediately reacted as if I’d bitten him.
“Where’s the hair gel?” he asked as he went straight to the mirror and started to pull all sorts of odd faces whilst tweaking his hair into funny shapes with his fingers.
“You look like Bart Simpson,” I commented and got a sideways poke of the tongue in response.
Owen appeared, looking dishevelled, with Baby Jack in his arms.
“I slept on the floor in his room last night,” he explained. “I didn’t want him crying and wakening Frankie. I took her up to bed after she fell asleep on the sofa but she woke pretty soon afterwards and tossed and turned half the night.”
“I’m going to take the children to school,” I said. “And I’ll take Jack to nursery. I think you should stay with Frankie today.”
“I have to teach this morning unfortunately,” he said, “but I’ll be cleared up before lunchtime and then I’ll take a half day.”
“Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll be here and I’ll make sure she’s okay.”
“I know you will, Ruby,” he said. “Every girl should have a friend like you.”
“What? A loud-mouthed, opinionated redhead who detests all things girlie?”
“They’re the best sort, didn’t you know?” he said, which made me feel fuzzy and warm in one respect but desperately helpless in another.
Chapter 33
I had been keeping in close contact with Luke while I was away and had heard that, in the two days since I’d been gone, quite a few unusual things had been happening at the hotel. Firstly Bitch Features had returned after mysteriously disappearing for several days and appeared to have had some type of personality transplant.
“What do you mean she came to the cottage and left flowers?” I demanded, speaking to Luke over breakfast on the morning I was due to go back to Mammy’s, and thinking he must have been hallucinating.
“Firstly she sent Aisling down to say that her father would like to have dinner with your mother tonight and then she arrived with a bouquet.”
“Had she been at the brandy decanter, do you think?” And I wasn’t joking. I’m a great believer in the old adage which suggests that a leopard can’t change its spots and this leopardess certainly didn’t appear the type to do so, therefore I smelt a very large rat.
“Tell Mammy to meet him,” I said thoughtfully.
“What?” Luke said in a surprised tone.
“Well, how else are we going to find out what’s going on?” I demanded. I am also a big fan of whoever thought up the idea of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer.
“She can hardly interrogate him, Ruby. This is your mother we’re talking about. Not you. Besides, he’s not likely to tell her anything if he is up to something.”
“I’m not asking her to interrogate him! But he’s hardly asked her there on a date, has he? There’s obviously a motive behind it. Trying to scare her didn’t work so they’re going to try and butter her up now. Well, it’ll take more than a bunch of poxy flowers and a meal to do that. I’d love to be a fly on the wall. Can you not send her out with a Dictaphone in her pocket or put a wire on her?”
“Put a wire on her?” Luke repeated slowly. “Ruby, have you been watching old reruns of Spooks again?”
“No, I have not,” I said crossly. “I’ve been far too busy with Frankie although I think she’s feeling a lot more positive now.”
“Well, that’s no wonder. She’s been spoilt rotten since you went home. Chemists should bottle you and sell you as a tonic, Rubes.”
I had to admit that I was about to declare myself bankrupt as I had been putting all my efforts and my bank balance into keeping Frankie and the children happy, and I was also officially knackered. I had been staying in my own house (which I was going to have to tidy before I left, in case Luke had forty heart attacks on his return) and going to Frankie’s every morning in time to take the children to school so that she could have a break. Frankie and Owen both protested at the start but I am quite difficult to argue with so they simply let me get on with it. Owen was teaching at another campus and had to leave early each morning and Frankie was working on an event for the college and had decided to work from home and was grateful for the opportunity to lie in her pyjamas whilst I sorted everything out.
“You’re going to go back to your mother’s tomorrow,” she had commanded the evening before. “I’m fine. I just overreacted a bit, I think. I’ve been in touch with the doctor and he says that they get lots of abnormal smear results although he did say that only a small percentage of them showed up severe cell changes. I’m not going to dwell on it though. I’m going to be positive and hopefully next week will bring good news. I’m going to have a procedure which involves scraping away cells for a biopsy. They can treat it there and then too, if it’s not too bad, which is good, I think.”
There was nothing good about anything that suggested your fandango needed to be scraped but I wasn’t going to share that gem with Frankie. I was simply going to do a lot of praying in the hope that my daddy was paying attention.
I had agreed to leave as I wanted to get back to Mammy, but would miss the children. Carly had been heartbroken when she heard that I was going and I had to beg Owen to make sure and take her to the shop in my absence.
“Auntie Ruby is a menace and we’ll have to tell the dentist to chase her if all your teeth fall out,” he said whilst Carly grinned broadly at me.
“He wouldn’t chase Auntie Ruby,” she said confidently. “Because Auntie Ruby would bust him!”
“She knows you so well,” Frankie said, fondling her daughter’s hair and hugging her close.
“Brush your teeth loads,” I said, pretending to do mine with my finger and making faces at Frankie and Owen.
“I love Auntie Ruby,” I heard her say. “I wish she could live with us all the time.”
Owen stifled a laugh and Frankie hid in Carly’s hair to hide her own amusement.
“Shut up, both you tarts,” I said to Frankie and Owen. “I wouldn’t want to live with you lot either. It’s like being on holiday with the feckin Brady Bunch.”
/> I arrived back in Donegal in time to see Mammy getting ready to go out. She seemed much more relaxed. The word around the village was that several other people’s homes had been broken into and two men had been apprehended.
“Oh,” I said, totally taken aback.
“It kind of puts paid to your theory of the break-in being a ploy to scare your mum then, doesn’t it?” Luke said thoughtfully. “I’m glad, though, as your mother seems much happier. I think she’s relieved at the fact that people were arrested. It makes her feel safe which hopefully means that we can go home soon.” Luke put his arms round me and nuzzled my neck.
“Did you miss me?” I asked, putting my head to one side.
“I did actually,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting you home and having you to myself for a while, Ruby ‘Nightingale’. Always quick to go and help others. It’s one of the things I love about you.”
I felt myself blush (oh great, now my face was the same colour as my hair!).
“It’s nothing,” I said. “I was only doing what anybody else would do. My mother needed me and my best friend was upset. Although I’ll be grateful when everything settles down again and they all quit having problems. For me, trouble seems to come like buses – all at feckin once.”
“Yes, well, I think this bus is about to leave,” Luke said. “I think we should go home tomorrow. Your mother will be grand. Besides, it’s nice to know that Donal and Robbie are only down the road if she needs them.”
“Have they been here much?” I asked.
“Donal has hardly left and Robbie has been up and down too. They’re both full of concern and genuinely do care.”
I nodded and made a mental note to thank Donal the next time I saw him. I also wanted to call into the shop to see Robbie as I had found myself increasingly warming to the elderly man. He was very like me. (Yes, unfortunately for the rest of mankind there are two such creatures in the world.) He called a spade a spade and said exactly what was on his mind which wasn’t always a good thing but compared to some of the underhand activities that had been going on lately it was a welcome change.
Luke and I decided to open a bottle of wine and sit outside in the gazebo after Mammy left, looking lovely in a red dress and matching pumps. She reckoned that her intruders had done her one favour as all her clothes were looser and her waistline seemed to have reduced.
“It’s called the Stick-up Diet,” she had joked. “Although I wouldn’t recommend it to the fainthearted even though it seems to totally wilt your appetite. I think I’m going to have a salad tonight.”
“Sure you will,” I said, smiling at Luke and knowing fine well that as soon as Mammy spotted the menu that salad would be the very last thing on her mind. “It’s more of an accompaniment than a main meal, don’t you think?” she had been known to say in the past.
Donal and Robbie arrived a short time later and I went straight to the cupboard, brought out two more glasses and invited them to join us.
“I always come prepared,” Robbie said, producing his famous hip flask containing brandy. “Will you boil the kettle for me, Ruby, and I’ll make myself a cup of tea and add a splash of the good stuff to it.”
I went back into the kitchen and he followed me and closed the door, making me feel slightly perturbed. I hoped he wasn’t going to tell me off.
“I wanted to give you this,” he said, producing a little box.
I was intrigued and took it from him tentatively. I took a knife from the cutlery drawer and snipped the Sellotape that was holding the lid down and carefully removed an object that was encased in bubble wrap.
I looked quizzically at Robbie. “What is it?” I asked.
“Well, it would spoil the surprise if I told you,” he said. “Go ahead and open it. We got a collection of these in the other day and when I saw them I thought of you.”
That sounded ominous. It was probably a gargoyle or one of those signs that said ‘The dog’s all right – just beware the owner doesn’t bite.’
I unravelled the wrapping and revealed a small angel made from crystal. It glinted and sparkled in the light. I examined it closely and held it reverently.
“It’s lovely,” I said, at a loss to fathom why he was giving it to me.
“It’s a guardian angel,” he said gruffly (obviously embarrassed as when he and I were together we were more likely to be sparring partners as opposed to people who exchanged gifts). “I thought you might like it as a reminder of . . . as a reminder of your – your father, God rest his soul. My wife, Donal’s mother, used to collect angels. She loved them and I gain great comfort from their presence.”
I resisted the temptation to loudly say “Aahhhhh!” and started to think that I’d spent too long with Frankie this week and as a result had turned into a soppy git.
“That’s a really nice gesture, Robbie,” I said. “I’ll put it pride of place on my mantelpiece and it will indeed remind me of Daddy who no doubt is smiling down and laughing his head off at me at this present moment. He really was a gentleman, you know.”
“I know he was,” Robbie said. “Your mother talks about him all the time. It’s hard to move on after a death. I never could. I just turned into a grumpy old goat who forgets his manners and shouts a lot.”
Luke came in, looked from me to Robbie and down to the crystal in my hand, then walked straight back out again with a bewildered expression on his face.
My mobile rang at that moment, preventing any further conversation. I answered the call, listened intently, felt the colour drain from my face and then got angry.
Luke and Donal came hurtling into the room when they heard my raised tones and when I came off the phone three people were staring anxiously at me.
“Harry McQueen has only offered to buy Mammy’s cottage for two hundred and fifty thousand euro,” I said weakly.
Chapter 34
“I hope that you’re going to deliver for me this morning,” I said, wagging my finger and speaking intently. “No half measures today. I want you to go and speak to The Boss and tell him that I expect his full co-operation in this matter. This is a very important day and it’s imperative that everything runs smoothly for all our sakes. Don’t let me down now.”
I regarded my subject and dusted its head. My little angel had become an integral part of my life. I spoke to it every day, stroked its head, cleaned it (yes, I know you’re all in shock but Daddy always looked his best when he was here so his representative was going to be no different) and occasionally shouted at it when I felt the need to let off some steam.
Luke and I had been back for a week and today was the day that I had been both dreading and looking forward to with nervous anticipation. Frankie was going to the hospital this morning for her procedure and we were all on tenterhooks.
I had spent the previous evening with her and, although she seemed relatively calm, I knew that she must be very frightened but determined not to show it. Angelica had returned home from her school trip and was being particularly agreeable which meant that she also realised the enormity of the situation. Owen had thrown himself into his work and had been teaching the part-time students the evening before and was glad of the distraction.
Frankie’s appointment was at eleven o’clock and I had been up since six as I couldn’t sleep and was totally restless (so much so that when Luke emerged, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, I had cleaned the kitchen, mopped the floors and washed out the shower).
Luke came straight over and enveloped me in a bear-hug. “It’s all right, sweetheart,” he said, gently stroking my head. “Everything will be fine.”
“Get off me,” I ordered. “Why are you talking to me in that stupid tone of voice?”
“Because you’re obviously very disturbed,” he answered in a high-pitched tone. “You cleaned.”
“Feck off!” I said and threw a duster at him.
I had brought my angel to work with me and was happy to report that all of me was here. Mr Reid had been right. It was no fu
n for anyone when Ruby Ross was only half there so she decided to pull it together. In the short time that I had been back, I had put ten students into placements, made four new contacts with employers who were willing to take placements on and had scheduled countless students with fifteen-minute time slots to discuss their future.
“Nice to have you back,” Mr Reid had commented one morning in passing. “The place just wasn’t the same without you.”
“Glad to be back,” I had responded with a smile.
Even though a lot had happened over the last few weeks, and I would have had every reason to have gone into a meltdown, I didn’t. Instead I had decided to apply the philosophy that ‘That which does not kill us can only make us stronger.’ (If it didn’t kill me, that is.)
I hardly let the phone ring once before I answered it, hoping that it was Frankie ringing to tell me some good news but was disappointed instead to hear an older woman’s voice.
“Is that Ruby?” she asked softly.
“Yes, it is.”
“Ruby, it’s Rose Malone here. I have put together a design for your wedding dress, bridesmaid’s dress and the outfit for the little flower girl and was wondering when would suit you to come down to Belfast and view them, as I’d like to get started as soon as possible and let you see some material samples so you can choose the colour and fabric.”
“Oh right,” I said. I hadn’t expected any of this to be happening so soon and nothing could have been further from my mind but suddenly the idea of going back to the homely side street that seemed to have a magical quality all of its own appealed to me greatly.
“Give me your number, Rose, and I’ll get back to you after consulting with my bridesmaid.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
I looked mournfully at my phone and wished that I could ring my bridesmaid and tell her the good news but I couldn’t. Decisively I took my mobile and scrolled down to look for Mandy’s number. Talking to someone else for five minutes would occupy me and stop me from panicking over Frankie ringing or not ringing as the case might be.
Anyone for Me? Page 19