It was Christmas Eve and I was putting the finishing touches to our Christmas tree (it had literally only come out of the roof space an hour beforehand as I refused point blank to be blinded by twinkly lights and have an extortionate electricity bill just because everyone else in the street wanted to look at my tree . . . bah, humbug!). I didn’t see the point in putting it up at all as I intended to be away for most of Christmas but Luke insisted that we had to get into the holiday spirit and at least have a tree up for when we returned on Boxing Day.
“Are you ready to go, love?” he asked as he carried several bags downstairs and added them to a pile of wrapped presents which were sitting at the door. I normally didn’t ‘do’ presents but decided that I would participate in the tradition this year as I had so many people to thank (apologise to) for putting up with me. It had been a hard year for everyone.
I had already given Frankie her gift – a beautiful angel necklace – and she had been thrilled with it.
“It’s just to remind you that my daddy is watching over you as well,” I had told her.
The thought that things could have been very different, had she not had the life-saving smear test when she did, was never far from my mind and I wanted to let her know how precious she was to me.
I had grown very fond of the little angel that Robbie had given me and still talked to it, shouted at it and cried over it when the mood took me.
“Just coming now,” I said as I added the last few pieces of tinsel to the tree (okay, who am I kidding, what I did would be best described as firing it in the general direction and hoping that it would land successfully and stick somewhere).
We arrived at Mammy’s house shortly after nine o’clock and even I stopped for long enough to appreciate the enchanting scene she had created by adding tiny sparkling blue icicles to the front of the cottage and adorning the trees at the side with crystal lights. A real pine tree had been cut and decorated and was standing pride of place in the living room and a variety of beautiful baking aromas coming from the kitchen added to the atmosphere.
“Happy Christmas, love!” Mammy announced, throwing off her apron and coming to greet me with a hug.
“Are we the first to arrive?” Luke asked.
I remained silent even though I wanted to enquire if he could hear any loud mouths in the vicinity drowning out the soft music that was playing in the background. The place didn’t smell like a brewery either and the whiff of cheap perfume wasn’t threatening to knock me down. Which basically all went towards concluding that no, his parents hadn’t arrived yet.
“Yes, dear. Come in and I’ll get you a wee drink. What’ll it be? I have mulled wine or brandy or whiskey or there’s beer.”
I stared at Luke long and hard.
“I think I’ll just have something soft for now, thanks,” he said quickly. He had been out several times with his father and the end result was always the same.
Donal and Robbie were already ensconced by the fire and I waved a cheery hello to them both.
I wasn’t the world’s greatest present-shopper but had decided to buy gifts for both of them as they were so good to my mother and knowing that they were only a short distance away made me feel much more confident about her security.
“I’ve got something for you,” I said to Robbie who looked startled at first.
“I didn’t know that we were going to be exchanging gifts,” he said awkwardly. “I didn’t bring anything for you. I just brought some wine and a bottle of brandy for us to share.”
I quietened him with a wave of my hand. “Look on it not as a Christmas gift but as a thank-you for all you’ve done for my mother and for being nice to me when really you should have been kicking my arse for being such a cow.”
He went to place the gift under the tree but I stopped him. “You can open it now if you like. You might enjoy it tonight.”
He gave me a quizzical look and then began to tear the wrapping off. I was like a child watching him as I couldn’t wait for his reaction.
Having peeled the wrapping paper off, he looked at the box and then slid it open to reveal its contents. He stared for a moment, took the item out, and once he read the inscription I saw his eyes grow misty although he covered it well by faking a coughing attack and then wiping his whole face with a hankie.
I had put a lot of thought into what I would give him as he had shared an understanding with me when I had been particularly confused (as well as horrible).
“What’s that?” Mammy asked, coming over and squinting.
“It’s a new pipe,” the old man said.
“I thought that your old one was very precious to you,” Mammy said gently.
“It is but just look at the message on this one.”
Mammy took the box from him and read what was written in small writing on the handle.
It said: ‘No matter where you are I will always be with you. An angel wherever you smoke.’
“It’s beautiful and a lovely thought.”
Mammy gave me a slow smile and gazed at me with pride in her eyes. Donal also appeared to have placed me slightly higher in his estimation as he too was looking fondly in my general direction and then Mandy and the mad parents arrived and the magic was broken and replaced with much guzzling and nasal laughter.
We had decided that we would have a few drinks in the house first and then go up to the hotel and see the delightful Judith. I hadn’t been in her company since the day Luke, Gabriel and I had gone to see her to discuss menus, table layout, possibilities for a band and to get a sneaky peek at the honeymoon suite which was totally exquisite and had made me want to jump on the four-poster bed and drag Luke with me.
I had eventually got over the initial shock of having my reception there although I didn’t think Judith had. Gabriel had pulled out all the stops and been the ultra-officious wedding planner and quizzed her tenaciously, telling her that everything had to be perfect as his bride was just that – perfect.
I had nearly wet myself laughing and Judith had been raging. She had tried hard to hide it but not hard enough as the corner of her mouth had curled and I could swear that I heard a low growl emanate from her person.
“Am I allowed to ask what you got for Donal?” Mammy asked.
“I’m afraid I was rather boring and just got him a new jumper and some socks and have to admit that Frankie picked them out but it’s the thought that counts.”
“I have something rather special for you,” she said with a mysterious wink.
“Give!” I demanded. I had always had lousy patience when it came to waiting for anything.
“Nope. It’s not Christmas until tomorrow and as it’s a Chrissss-mas present you’ll just have to wait until then. I can’t wait to see your face.”
“What are we talking about?” Luke asked upon joining us in the kitchen.
“Oh, nothing, Luke. I was just telling Ruby about the Christmas present I’ve got her which she is going to love.”
“Bet she’ll like mine better.”
“Oh, that’s right. You got her something similar, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I’m sure they’ll complement each other very well.”
I rolled my eyes and left them to their game. It was probably clothes or a new scarf and a pair of boots or maybe they’d got me the sketch-pad and pencils set I’d been droning on about for the last six weeks. I’d even left the catalogue out and put a big black ring around the number, in the hope that when Luke would next look at it he’d get the hint. Men don’t do well with subtlety. They need it spelt right out to them.
We left the cottage about an hour later and walked the short distance to the hotel. You’d have imagined that it would have been rather quiet on Christmas Eve night but in actual fact business seemed to be booming.
“Do people have no homes to go to? No children to sit and build toys for?” I asked in surprise.
“I’m sure they do but it’s traditional around here to go for a drink on Christmas Eve night and, a
s there are no pubs left within a ten-mile radius, this would be the main attraction,” Donal explained.
“Why are there no pubs left? Has business been that bad?”
“Not bad at all. They’d all be fine if the thugs with the baseball bats would stop going in and wrecking them.”
“It’s not exactly Mafia country around here, is it?” I commented. “So why have there been so many incidents? It doesn’t make a lot of sense – and anyway I thought that the Smugglers’ Inn was well on its way to being revamped again?”
“It was but then the firm who were putting in the new furniture left all of a sudden and never came back. It was all very strange.”
“Then there was the bar in the golf club and the bar at the Smugglers’ Bay Yacht Club,” Robbie continued. “They’ve all been hit in some way and, as you can imagine, their owners are all very fearful of future attacks and are taking their time in re-opening to give the guards a chance to get to the bottom of it all.”
“And in the meantime the McQueens are laughing all the way to the bank. Life simply isn’t fair, is it?”
“Happy Christmas!” everybody shouted once the clock had hit twelve o’clock. Surprisingly I was really enjoying myself (especially given the fact that the manky in-laws were in the area). I had a feeling that Mandy had told them to behave (or perhaps threatened them with eviction). Fred was his usual arrogant self but on a much smaller scale and Beverley was trying very hard to be charming which could be quite a scary experience when you were on the receiving end of much sleeve-tugging, nudging and scarily large smiles.
There was no sign of Judith anywhere although we did get speaking briefly to Aisling.
“So what’s been happening since the last time I was here then?”
“Her Royal Highness wasn’t very impressed by the fact that she can’t have your mother’s cottage but seems to be concentrating on other things. There are still a lot of suits and hushed meetings happening which none of us are privy to but as long as she doesn’t annoy me I don’t care.”
We left the hotel shortly afterwards and walked arm in arm the short distance home.
“Since it’s now officially Christmas Day, can I please have my presents?” I begged. “Come on. It’s your fault I’m like this, Luke. You kept teasing me.”
“I don’t know, Ruby. What do you think, Isobel?”
“I don’t know, Luke – she might appreciate them better if we wait until morning. After all, Santa Claus doesn’t appear on a whim just because one of his recipients happens to be just a wee bit impatient.”
They both burst out laughing and looked nearly as excited as I was when they left the room.
Two minutes later I had a blindfold placed on me and was led to another room.
“You’re not going to put me in front of a firing squad or leave me to the mercy of Judith or anything sinister, are you?”
“You can take it off now, Ruby,” Luke said as he gently kissed me on the cheek.
I rubbed my eyes and looked at the two large packages that had been carefully wrapped in coloured tissue paper. My heartbeat increased one hundredfold as I knew instantly what they might be.
I ripped the paper from the first one and gasped as I saw what it was.
Frozen Lake Christmas was the title and it was the picture from Sarah Larkin’s collection that I had been most drawn to.
“There’s another one here for you to open, Ruby,” Luke said gently.
“Sorry, I got lost there for a minute,” I said.
Gently I eased the wrapping off the second picture which also had Sarah Larkin’s name in the corner. It was a beautiful print that I had never seen before. It was called Outstretched with Love and it depicted a pair of hands being held out to a little girl as she ran towards the owner. They were on a beach, complete with its own path which led up into the mountains.
“Are you happy?” Luke asked.
“Nah. Take them back and ask for a refund.”
Luke went to handle the painting I was holding and I pointed my finger at him. “Touch it and you die. I can’t believe that you did this. I seriously do not deserve this after everything that’s happened this year.”
“Yup, you certainly are hard work,” Luke said. “But I suppose you’re worth it.”
I have to say that it was one of the best Christmases I had ever had and I was hopeful that this would be indicative of a new year which would be filled with love and laughter and see me marry my true love without too much stress.
As usual I was wrong.
Chapter 56
It was the month of February and so far my year had been pleasant enough. There had been no major catastrophes and I was feeling upbeat and cheerful. My decision to call off the search for my birth mother had been a good one and I was optimistic that having taken a break I would be in a much better frame of mind to start pursuing it again when I decided that the time was right. (I should have known that the ‘black cat being squished by the bus’ scenario was bound to raise its head sooner or later.)
Rose Malone had been in touch with me at the end of January to ask if Frankie, Carly and I could go for a fitting and naturally Gabriel was going to come along as well. I had taken his advice about the cake and, instead of going for the three-tiered plastic-figured variety that I had first planned on choosing, I was now getting a cake made in the shape of a cottage which would have pink roses made from icing cascading down the sides. Gabriel was thrilled that I had changed my mind and thought that he was a master negotiator. (Little did he know that the biggest incentive was that I knew how much it would piss Judith off, hence no negotiating needed.) I had also decided to go for the stationery he suggested and he was liaising with the photographer, the lady he had recommended to arrange the flowers and the limousine firm. He was also a dab hand at dealing with Judith who I preferred not to talk to (unless there was something I knew I could annoy her about).
Strange things were still happening in the hotel although Aisling still wasn’t sure what. I had grown to like her very much and considered her to be a good friend. She was also very kind to my mother which added instant brownie points to the situation.
“It’s tomorrow that you go to Belfast for a dress fitting, isn’t it?” Luke asked as he stirred a pot of soup.
“It is,” I said, cutting hunks of bread from a large French stick. “I’m so excited to see what she’s done with my dress.”
Luke gave me a strange look, laughed to himself and took the butter out of the fridge.
“And what may I ask is so feckin funny?”
“‘I’m so excited to see what she’s done with my dress,’” he said, mimicking me in a voice that wasn’t too dissimilar to Gabriel’s.
“Shut your face,” I said. “I can still arrive in a pair of DM boots and some dungarees if you’d prefer it.”
“No, thanks, the dress sounds fine. It’ll probably be the one and only time that I’ll ever get to see you not in trousers, so from that point of view the sheer novelty factor will be overwhelming.”
I threw a dishcloth at him and got cutlery out of the drawer.
“I was wondering though, when you go to Belfast tomorrow, do you think that you could arrange to meet up with Mandy and Mum? Just for a quick cup of coffee or something?”
“Yeah, sure,” I said, willing myself to remember to text Mandy later on.
“You don’t mind?” he asked.
Of course I feckin minded but Luke was giving me hound-dog eyes and I was in a good mood because I was looking forward to seeing my dress.
“No. As long as they don’t want to gatecrash the bridal shop, then that’s fine.”
It was strange in a way but we had now got used to having Luke’s mother and father around. They had never gone back to Spain and seemed content to be here. Another surprising turn-up had been the fact that they had just moved into a rented apartment not far from Mandy’s flat. Their mother had recently started a hair and beauty course and was making very scary noises about want
ing to do my hair the day of the wedding. (Please piss off. My hair is bad enough without letting some enthusiastic mature student near it just so that she can impress her tutor and then shag him.) Luke’s father was still a very annoying drunk but had made a New Year’s resolution to cut down on his intake and only drink beer (in copious amounts) and leave the hard stuff to everyone else. If nothing else it was a start.
I rang Frankie and she answered on the first ring.
“You wouldn’t be just a wee bit excited, would you?” I asked as she squealed and I held the phone away from my ear.
“Just a bit. I cannot wait to see my dress! And I’ve another bit of news for you!”
“If you tell me that you’re pregnant again and that bumps are the new look for going up the aisle, I’m going to kill you and I’m very afraid that Gabriel may have a heart attack.”
“Don’t be so silly! I’m not pregnant but I know somebody who is and she’s coming home tomorrow and if you don’t mind would love to come with us to the dress shop!”
“Oh my God, Ella’s pregnant again!” I yelled. “Way to go, Hammy! His target practice is definitely much improved.”
“Isn’t it fantastic?”
“So what time are we meeting at then? I told Rose that we’d be with her at around twelve o’clock.”
“That’s perfect. We can pick Ella up from the airport and then just go ahead to meet Rose.”
“Is she travelling on her own?”
“Yes. Hammy is insisting that she gets away for the night on her own. She’s only coming for two days though – she says that that’s all she could manage without seeing Baby Celia.”
It was slightly after twelve when we arrived at the dress shop the following day. Ella’s plane had been slightly late, the traffic had been manic and parking impossible. We had ended up parking across the road in the car park of the big red-brick women’s rescue shelter and had sneaked out the gate, hoping that nobody would shout at us for trespassing.
Anyone for Me? Page 30