Kenny sighed, “I want to know what you think? Obviously you haven’t got a clue.”
“Just a straight dealer,” John joked spreading his hands in a nothing to offer gesture.
Kenny sighed. “John, opportunity comes only once. With you on the inside and me on the outside calling the shots with the bank we could be millionaires.” As Kenny said this he looked quizzically about him and simultaneously threw back his drink. John signalled the bargirl.
“Irish and a bottle. None for me, I’ve had enough. I have to drive.”
“No more for me,” Kenny added and the bar maid retreated.
“What do you think?” Kenny said after a silence.
“There is nothing,” John said and Kenny grunted. “But if there were developments what would your part be Andrew?”
“We should agree to help each other John.”
“Let me consider,” John offered to buy time.
“Now, now or never. I can’t let you loose on this one. What do you say?”
“If I say no?”
“No hard feelings, we go on as professionals. I can’t do anything on my own. If you are not interested it is likely that there is no scope.”
John considered. If he said no Kenny would look elsewhere. Kenny was too greedy. John sighed; it looked like he had to go along for the ride.
“I’m in,” John said. “What do I do?”
Kenny smiled, “John just confirm, straight up to me, that the Firm is sound, except for the trouble with this one client.”
“Consider it confirmed. The firm is sound and has good management. Excepting maybe Peter, the boss’s son. He is a young shit.”
“Thank you John, now do nothing. If you hear nothing, fine. Anything on the grapevine and I need to know. And we will be in touch. You know where to reach me. Mum’s the word about this conversation. I will talk to some people through the firm’s contacts. Also to the banks and the principle Debenture Holders with O’Byrne paper. I know the Investment and Pensions Funds people well from other dealings.”
With that Kenny threw back the remains of his whiskey and then emptied the Guinness glass in two swallows. He smiled at John, picked up his coat and departed.
Quietly John finished the remains of his drink. Why did he have the feeling that the vultures were circling? Suddenly in a hurry he stood up. Better move, his wife Mary had tennis.
Chapter thirty-one
Michael O’Byrne drove slowly towards home, his mind preoccupied, going over his last discussion with Peter.
“Dad you will blow the deal if we try to delay, the fifty million was not the first offer, don’t rock the boat. I had to negotiate to get the price up from forty five million. If you back off now it will be seen as bad faith. They will want to start negotiations again.”
Michael had been doubtful and expressed the view that in his experience the offer made on the first day could usually be bettered. “What we need Peter is a white knight, someone to come in and create a market for our shares. I’m sure AF could go higher if we can create a market.”
“Leave off Dad, you are just wriggling on the hook. They have us. Let’s not spoil the deal or we could have nothing. I think we should get our timing right, but we press on and then we take a stance, a final negotiation to close the deal, and to force them to come up in price, say a target to sixty million and be careful to see how it goes.”
“A final negotiation?”
“Yes Dad, if we have a target of, say, sixty million and they have fifty maybe we can land it in between. Your cut of the sale price is more than enough to start up something else. A new business.”
“A new O’Byrne’s?”
“Of course not Dad, they are bound to ask you to sign something not to compete in the same business for a number of years. It is standard practice.”
“I don’t know any other business Peter.”
“Together Dad,” Peter smiled confidently at him. “Together we will get into something new.”
Somehow that had satisfied him. He wanted very much to be in business with his son. He felt he had missed his son, first because Peter had been sent as a boarder to Castleknock School for his education, and then because he himself had spent so much time at the business, travelling and hustling. Now Peter was grown up Michael did not want to let him go. Somehow he had missed most of Peters growing up years, or so it felt.
As he pulled into the driveway Michael noticed the light on in the Gate House. The Kitchen and living room lights were on. Michael frowned. Nana was very economical and she would hardly leave two lights on at a time, not if she could help it. Ann-Marie? Ann-Marie was spending a lot of time with her Nana these days. It was as if she had rejected her own mother after the row over the Biker.
Michael pulled in and got out of the car.
It was a while since he had said hello to Nana.
“Hello the house,” he called, giving a rat-tat-tat on the stain glass window in the hall door. He waited, knocked again, this time with the doorknocker. Seconds later the door was opened. It was Ann-Marie.
“Oh,” she sounded surprised, and then she smiled. “Dad, come in.”
He followed her in. Something about Ann-Marie’s surprise made him wary. But everything was in order. Nana was watching the television, the nine o’clock news. A one bar electric fire glowed in the grate. There was a pot of tea and some cups and some cake on the table.
“Michael,” Nana said, delighted to see him, and attempting to stand up.
“Don’t get up Nana, just dropped in. How are things?”
“Get your father a cup of tea Ann-Marie.”
Michael sat himself. “Did you see the news?” Nana asked, “those farmers are always looking for more money.”
Michael laughed. Nana, for all her years still had a great interest in economics and politics. Ann-Marie busied away the dirty dishes and went into the kitchen. Five minutes later she bounced back with a steaming mug of tea. “We have just had tea,” she explained why she had brought only one mug. She offered Michael the remains of the cake.
Both ladies, both young and old fussed and mothered over Michael.
It was cosy and warm and friendly in the small living room. They watched TV, interspersed with conversation and an hour passed harmlessly and pleasantly.
“Must get back to the house,” Michael stretched and stood up. “Lift Ann-Marie?” he offered.
“No thanks, I’ll just help Nana to bed and then go up myself.”
“Its quite dark.”
“Don’t worry I am well used to running up the driveway. I won’t be scared. You go ahead Dad.”
Michael took his leave and they listened as his car pulled away.
“It put the heart across me,” Nana said.
“Thanks for saying nothing,” Ann-Marie said kissing her forehead.
“Where’s Seamus?”
“I let him out the back door when dad knocked on the front.”
“Quick thinking child .You will be the ruin of me yet.”
“Come on, I’ll help you to bed.”
“I’m not that helpless. By the way I did not hear the motorbike start up. So Seamus is still out there?” Nana asked suspiciously.
“No Nana, he is not an idiot. I told him to walk the bike to the main road before he started it up. In case Dad would hear.”
Solicitously Ann-Marie straightened out the living room and then went clattering about in the kitchen with the dishes. Earlier she had nearly died when she realized there were three mugs on the living room table. Fortunately her dad had not noticed.
Nana went her bedroom on the ground floor, and when she finished in the kitchen Ann-Marie helped tuck her into bed and kissed her forehead. She fussed until her Nana was settled with “Good child, you can go now.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Ann-Marie smiled and turned out the bedroom light.
“Put out all the lights,” Nana called after her.
Ann-Marie put the catch on the front door and then slammed
it as if she was going out. Quietly she crept to the upstairs bedroom.
“Ssshh,” she whispered as Seamus swung off the bed and made to speak.
“I didn’t know whether to come down or not when I heard the car go,” he whispered.
“You were right to be careful, I wanted to put Nana to bed.”
“Nana, I better go and say goodnight to her.”
“No.”
“No?”
“She thinks you are gone.”
Seamus looked at Ann-Marie. It was a warm but appraising look.
“I bet she thinks you are also gone Ann-Marie.”
Ann-Marie giggled, “We’d better be quiet or she will think she has burglars and call the police.”
“What if she comes up?”
“Nana is killed with the arthritis she hardly ever comes upstairs these days. It’s the narrow turn at the top of the stairs, she is afraid she will fall.”
Seamus smiled. “Alone at last,” he said.
He put a gentle finger to Ann-Marie’s cheek and drew her to him for a kiss. It was a modest kiss and for devilment Ann-Marie licked the inside of his lips. A passion gripped him and he pulled her onto the bed without breaking the kiss. He rolled on top.
Ann-Marie punched him in the ribs, and when he came up for air she weakly said, “Stop it.” She could feel his muscular body all along the line of hers. He plunged his head between her neck and shoulders in a passionate kiss.
Ann-Marie hit him a slap on top of his head. “Stop, you are making the bed creak, Nana is not deaf.”
He grinned up at her from where he had been nibbling her ear. She pushed and Seamus rolled on to his side.
Button by button he began to undo her blouse. Ann-Marie held back his hand but gently he persisted and she watched as he slowly opened her blouse. She could only dimly make out his face in the dark but she sensed his voyage of discovery.
“How do I get it off, I don’t want to hurt?” he said referring to her lacy black bra.
She looked at him wondering, “Have you never taken a woman’s bra off?” she asked mockingly.
“I’ve never been alone with a woman.”
“You have led a sheltered life.”
“I love you,” he said simply.
Ann-Marie arched her back and unclasped her bra at the rear. Slowly he lifted each cup off. Her full soft rounded breasts flowed out. She smiled at the wonder and pleasure in his face as he made each discovery and then moaned as he kissed and licked her treasures.
“Stop…”
“Mmmm”
Seamus began to unzip her skirt. Ann-Marie resisted the desire to lift her knees and pull him into her.
“I suppose you have never taken a girls knickers off either.”
“Never.”
“Well you’re not going to tonight.”
She laughed and wiggled until they nearly fell off the bed. “I love you Seamus,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
“Seamus, you should only take a girls knickers off if you are prepared to go all the way. Its the point of no return.”
“Would you go all the way with me Ann-Marie?”
“… Yes, but I don’t want to be pregnant.”
“We’d have to get married if you were pregnant.”
Ann-Marie giggled, she liked the thought.
“Stop Seamus,” she instructed in a determined whisper. She crossed her legs on his hand so it could move no further. “If you have no condom it’s no. I have my pride I want it the proper way.
“Marry me,” he whispered with a big grin on his face.
“Yes.”
They kissed, this time the passion tinged with a mutual acceptance. Ann-Marie took his hands in hers. She felt strongly romantic and her sexual desire had eased out into warmness towards the world in general and Seamus in particular. The lay silently for a while until Ann-Marie decided her chest was getting chilly. She snuggled up to Seamus and they kissed.
“No love-making until you produce a contraceptive,” she explained.
“Where can I get one, not at this hour?”
“Ejit,” Ann-Marie remonstrated.
“Do you know how to wear one?” she asked with a giggle.
“Feck off,” Seamus said giving her a squeeze.
Ann-Marie let her hand wander slowly down his leather jacket to his leather trousers. “Don’t move or grab me. If you do, I stop,” she whispered.
Seamus groaned and lay still and tense. She kissed his forehead, his eyes, and his lips. Hungrily Seamus responded but lay still on his back. Then he juddered to a climax. Satisfied, Ann-Marie smiled a possessive smile at him.
Seamus was shattered.
“I’ll never do it alone again,” he whispered, kissing her breasts.
Ann-Marie laughed happily. “We better go now,” she whispered, “Nana mustn’t know we have been in the bedroom.”
Silently they dressed and departed the house. Seamus walked Ann-Marie up the driveway to within view of the house. “You don’t mind finding out I live up in big house?” she asked, snuggling into his arm as they walked along.
Seamus put his arm around her and kissed her. “Not if you don’t.”
“I work there as one of the chamber maids.”
“I’ll take you out of there,” Seamus promised.
“Do you really intend being an engineer?” she asked. “I was surprised when you mentioned it to Nana.”
“Sure.”
“My parents are snobs, but I don’t think they could object strongly to an Engineer.”
“Its not your parents I want,” Seamus said with emphasis.
They parted reluctantly, Ann-Marie reminding Seamus to push his bike up to the main road before he started up. He waited until she reached the front door and then slipped away, moving quietly back to where he had hidden his motorbike.
Chapter thirty-two
They were just finishing supper when Ann-Marie breezed in.
“Supper darling?” her mother asked.
“No thank you, I ate in Nana’s. I warned cook,” Ann-Marie replied.
She kissed her mother and father and bid them good night. “I am going to watch TV in my room” she explained, “and I have some studying to do.”
“Goodnight,” her parents echoed in chorus.
“Brandy to finish?” Michael offered.
“I’ll have a gin,” Ann said.
They left the dining room to the maids and went into the living room where Michael fixed the drinks. He lit himself a cigar. Ann watched her husband warily. The cigar usually meant a serious conversation.
“I had a peculiar phone call today,” he began.
Ann stayed silent.
“The parish priest rang me today,” Michael continued. “Ann, he expressed grave concern about you.”
“I was a bit drunk today,” Ann admitted with a wry smile. She was inwardly shocked. That rat of a parish priest, she thought. Of course he would be the only one in the parish with enough nerve to stand up to the lady of the manor.
“The parish priest told me you were at the jumble sale today.”
“Duty called, I had agreed to open it.”
“He said that at a point in the afternoon you were out the back of the main tent.”
Ann held her glass tightly, the bastard.
“He said you were lying on your back kicking your feet in the air. Showing your legs to the world. He said, or he tried to say, you had no knickers on.”
Michaels voice was cold and he was appraising her with a jaundiced eye. He was furious, a fury fed by the business events of the day. One thing he would not tolerate was the family being turned into the village joke.
“He is a liar,” Ann denied vigorously.
“I rang around. I have confirmation.” Michael’s eyes drilled into her.
“I…” Ann hesitated, “I had to go out the back to lie down. I’d had a bit to drink. Everything was so boring I was going mad. I needed to lie down. It was such a nice day
. I lay out the back. Everything else is exaggerated.”
“I understand a crowd gathered at the edge of the main tent. They were laughing at your carry on.”
“Rubbish, I lay down. They were concerned. It was nothing.”
A maid stuck her head in around the door.
“Excuse me,” she said. “But the doctor has arrived.”
“Thanks,” Michael replied, and the maid withdrew.
“I asked for the doctor to call Ann. In case you were feeling ill. Will you talk to him for five minutes?”
“Doctor? I don’t need the doctor. Dr. Miller is a quack. I don’t go to the local doctor.”
“Dr. Miller is our family doctor. He came out tonight at my request. I would not like to waste his time Please see him.”
Ann considered, she knew Michael was determined, “If you insist. I’ll give him five minutes.”
Michael pulled the bell cord at the mantelpiece. Elizabeth, one of the downstairs maids appeared. “Send in Doctor Miller,” Michael instructed.
Dr. Miller was a short squat man in his early fifties. He had been the family doctor since he joined his fathers practice twenty-five years before. He had sharp penetrating eyes but his manner was jovial and relaxing.
Michael excused himself and the doctor sat opposite Ann. He began by discussing familiarities like the weather and so forth. Ann had expected some sort of physical check up but the doctor seemed unconcerned. He accepted an offer of a drink and fixed it himself. Ann took another gin.
“I hear you had a little over the top today,” he began. Ann smiled a tight smile
“How many bottles would you do a day?” he continued.
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