Finishing Touches (42 page)

‘You look dishy in your tails,’ Barbara assured her husband, leaning over and giving him a peck on the cheek.

‘Barbara! Not in front of the lads,’ Ian muttered in horror. He’d be the laughing-stock of the station.

‘If you don’t get up and dance, I’ll kiss you again,’ Barbara warned tartly. Deciding on the lesser of two evils, Ian Murray walked reluctantly to the dance-floor and
took his wife in his arms. The guests cheered loudly as the band swung into action and began to play ‘When I Fall in Love.’ The cameras clicked as people took photos of them and Barbara
felt like a film star! Encircled in her husband’s arms, knowing she was a vision in white and the centre of attention at last, Barbara smiled happily, even when Ian, who was no Fred Astaire,
stood on her toe. It didn’t matter; today she was the happiest woman in the world. Her wedding had been everything she had wanted, although a few well-known people she had invited to the
afters had not yet turned up. But the night was young and besides, if they didn’t turn up they might get a nasty surprise some time when they read her column. Nobody snubbed Barbara Jordan
Murray and got away with it! Barbara smiled to herself as she planned a few nasty little items about the unsuspecting non-arrivals!

She would be glad when it was all over, Nora thought a little wearily as, beside her, her sister Elsie sermonized about the amount of money being wasted on Barbara’s
reception. Privately, Nora agreed. It was outrageous the amount of money it cost to get married in Dublin and of course it didn’t help that Barbara had wanted as grand a wedding as possible,
white Rolls-Royce, red carpet, the lot. Not that she minded paying for the wedding. Jack, God bless him, had left her comfortable and the income she got from renting the farm supported the family.
A wedding in Port Mahon would have been well within her means, but this shindig had cost an awful lot more than Nora had anticipated. As well as which, when Irene and Cassie decided to get married,
they would be perfectly entitled to have as big and grand a wedding as their sister. Nora knew that Cassie would never allow her mother to be put to the expense that Barbara had put her to.
Nevertheless, it didn’t do to make fish of one and flesh of another!

She’d have to get used to the idea of weddings, she supposed. John had told her quietly that he and Karen were going to get married but they weren’t saying anything for the time
being so as not to encroach on Barbara’s limelight. John said that it would be a fairly small wedding and that he and Karen would be paying for it. Nora was delighted for John all the same.
He couldn’t have picked a nicer girl than Karen. She was very fond of her daughter-in-law-to-be; there were no airs and graces or nonsense about her, unlike the girl her younger son was
seeing.

Martin’s girlfriend was called Jean Allen and Nora felt her son was getting too serious about her. To be honest, she found it hard to take to her. Maybe she was being unfair to the girl,
maybe she was shy rather than stand-offish but Nora had the sneaking suspicion that little Miss Jean Allen was looking down her aquiline nose at them, sitting there when she visited with Martin,
saying very little, but taking it all in.

It was strange to think that all her children were adults now. It seemed like only yesterday that she had had a houseful of children who looked to her for the final word on everything. Well, she
had done her best to rear them well. She had put her trust in God; it was all she could do. And it was all she could do now. All in all, today had gone well enough except for that awful moment she
forgot Ian’s surname when she met his parents at the church. It was mortifying. She was standing at the entrance to the church when they arrived and held out her hand to greet Ian’s
mother. ‘Hello, Mrs . . .’ But it had just gone; for the life of her she could not remember her future son-in-law’s surname. Fortunately, Cassie had covered it up very quickly by
saying, ‘Welcome, Mr and Mrs Murray.’ Just thinking about it gave Nora a hot flush of embarrassment. Her memory wasn’t at all as good as it used to be. It was probably the stress
of the wedding. She was going back to London with Cassie for a few days to have a little break after all the excitement and she was really looking forward to it.

Cassie was very good to her; indeed all her children were. John had been so kind to her today, making sure that everything was running smoothly. He had given a lovely speech on behalf of the
family, seeing as Jack, God rest him, was not there to do it, and she was very proud of him. And they all looked so well. Even Martin had made the effort to please his mother and had got a suit and
cut his hair and Irene, her baby, oh she looked lovely, a vision in her bridesmaid’s dress. Nora smiled as she watched Irene dancing with the best man. Just then, John came and held out his
hand.

‘Mam, would you do me the honour?’ He smiled down at her.

‘I’d be delighted, son,’ Nora smiled back, allowing him to lead her onto the dance-floor to join her daughters in the first dance of the wedding.

Judy O’Shaughnessy felt a horrible prickly heat suffuse her body and she broke out in a sweat. Excusing herself from the table she slipped quietly from the function room
and went into the ladies’ rest room. A quick glance around showed that she was the only one there. Entering one of the cubicles, she vomited as quietly as she could. It was her third time
today. When it was over she bathed her face in cold water and rested her hot forehead against the cool tiles.

As far as she could make out, Andrew had not noticed her indisposition. He was having a ball! The life and soul of the party as usual. Her boyfriend really had a great capacity for enjoying
himself. But then, he was such good company, so attractive and self-assured. Sometimes Judy wondered what he saw in her. She knew he loved her naturally blond curling hair and he loved the reaction
of other men when they walked into a function arm in arm. He enjoyed the fact that other men desired her. It was a turn-on for him, he admitted. Andrew told her once that she was very soothing to
be with; he hated argumentative women. Judy had been terribly flattered.

They had been together for over two years now and she had been living with him for the past six months, although her mother would have another nervous breakdown if she knew that. It was very
wearing on the nerves, actually. Mrs Jordan had been very cool to her and Judy suspected that Barbara had spilt the beans about her co-habiting with Andrew. It was a bit mean of Barbara. If Ian had
not moved into the flat, Judy would have been quite happy to stay there but it had been downright embarrassing at times walking unsuspectingly into the sitting-room and finding the pair of them
mauling each other and kissing and cuddling. In the end, she had spent most of her time up in her bedroom and one night she had been moaning to Andrew and he had suggested she move into his
penthouse in Sutton. She loved that penthouse with its huge airy rooms and spectacular views over Dublin Bay. Andrew was an extremely wealthy young man. He came from an affluent background, his
family were bankers and he himself owned and managed a very successful PR firm.

Andrew was always entertaining clients and because she was well used to meeting people through her job, Judy had no difficulty mingling and making small-talk and occasionally acting as his
hostess. Andrew was most generous and lavished gifts of clothes and jewellery on her, despite her protests.

‘You’re mad! Let him give you presents and take them while the going is good,’ Barbara said enviously when she tried on the emerald-and-diamond dress-ring that Andrew had given
her last Christmas. Judy nearly died but Andrew just laughed at her protests and said that was one of the things he liked about her, that she hadn’t a mercenary bone in her body.

Judy looked at the ring on her right hand, glinting under the fluorescent light. It might be the last present he’d be giving her the way things were going, and Angela O’Shaughnessy
would no doubt suffer the mother of all nervous breakdowns if past behaviour was anything to go by. Sighing deeply, Judy retouched her make-up and sprayed some Magie Noire on her neck and wrists
before rejoining the celebrations.

Laura Quinn was really enjoying herself at this wedding, so unlike her own stressful day two and a half years before. It was great not to have to worry about wedding cakes and
seating arrangements, and she had been looking forward to this occasion ever since the invitation had landed through her letterbox. Just as well it was being held on a Saturday, though. She would
have had a hell of a job getting a day off from work. Just thinking about work made her blood boil.

It was an understatement to say that Laura was not entirely happy with her apprenticeship in William Bennett Solicitors. The men who had been taken on with her had cushy numbers while she spent
her time running around like a lunatic making sure everything she did was perfect and that she always met her deadlines, no matter how unreasonable. The partners in charge of each of the different
sections where Laura spent some time were much tougher on her and the other female apprentices than on the men. There was a saying that women had to be twice as good as men to succeed, and it was
certainly true of her job.

But today wasn’t the day to be thinking of work. She was having far too much fun. It was great to see the girls again. She had missed them so much. Cassie was looking terrific, so
different from the pale, drawn depressed person she had been after she broke off her engagement with Robbie. She was so much more confident and in control of things. This interior design course she
was doing had given her a whole new lease of life. And Aileen too was in tip-top form, back to her zany, bubbling self and
so
glamorous. They were going to have a night together before the
girls went back.

Laura sat back comfortably in her chair and sipped her Bacardi and Coke. Doug was up dancing with Mrs Jordan. He was really good like that and she loved him for it. Doug had a caring considerate
side that few saw except herself. She was very happy being married to him. She had never thought marriage could be so totally satisfying. Theirs was a real partnership. Doug was as anxious for her
to succeed as she was for him. And succeed she would. Laura Quinn would carve out a successful legal career for herself, come hell or high water.

‘Cheer up! You’re at a wedding, not a funeral!’ her husband remonstrated, interrupting her reflections. ‘I know, you’re afraid I’m going to start an affair
with Mrs Jordan. You’re jealous!’

‘Idiot!’ laughed Laura.

‘Would you care to dance with an idiot?’ Doug teased, his eyes warm as he gazed at his wife with unconcealed admiration.

‘I’d love to dance with an idiot,’ Laura said huskily. He took her into his arms and held her close as the music changed to a soft, romantic song and they danced cheek to
cheek.

‘Are you OK, Mam? Would you or Aunt Elsie or Mrs Saunders like another drink?’ Cassie asked her mother as she took a breather from the dance-floor.

‘Maybe I’ll have another Babycham and you could get a glass of lemon and lime for your aunt and a sherry for Mrs Saunders.’ Nora smiled at her eldest daughter. ‘Do you
think it’s going all right? Did everybody get enough to eat, do you think?’

‘Everybody had plenty and it’s going fine,’ Cassie reassured her. Personally she felt that the food in the Port Mahon Arms was just as good and it would have cost only half the
price. But Barbara had wanted her posh Dublin hotel and, being Barbara, she had got it!

Mind, the wedding was much better fun than she had anticipated. Cassie grinned to herself. Of course when she, Aileen and Laura got together what else could they have but fun? When they got to
the church and saw Ian in his top-hat and tails, the three of them had got a fit of the giggles which was not helped when Aileen whispered, ‘Tom Selleck, eat your heart out.’ She had
kept up a whispered running commentary from the moment Barbara had arrived at the church in her white frills and flounces.

Of course, Cassie wouldn’t hurt her sister’s feelings for the world but when she saw the dress for the first time that morning she thought to herself, Uh ooohh! It was way over the
top with its ruffles and flounces, and Barbara, who was small and skinny, was quite lost in it. But she loved it and she was the one wearing it, so Cassie kept her mouth shut. Irene looked a dream
in her ballerina-length bridesmaid’s dress, with her long blond curls entwined with flowers.

Nora, too, looked very chic in her yellow-and-black two-piece with a little veiled hat perched jauntily on her head. Cassie and she had taken a day in Dublin when she was home at Easter and
searched from one end of the city to the other before settling on the outfit that had caught her eye in Madame Nora’s. After buying the bag, shoes, and hat in Clerys, they had had a
celebratory lunch in the Gresham and Nora had enjoyed her day in town immensely.

Cassie knew today was a hard day for her mother. The first wedding in the family and Jack not there to share it with her. And Aunt Elsie sitting there moaning about everything. Although now in
her seventies and getting frailer as the years went by, Elsie still had an indomitable spirit and a voice to speak with, a voice she used many times that day until Cassie and John were nearly ready
to strangle her. Cassie had offered to drive her home after the meal if she didn’t want to sit and listen to the band but Elsie was having none of it.

‘Here I am and here I’ll stay. It would be the height of bad manners to leave before the bride!’

Cassie felt her aunt was enjoying herself thoroughly. She got the drinks that her mother ordered and went back to join the girls. At least Mrs Saunders, a great friend of her mother’s, was
there to give Nora a lift. The relations were all coming to greet her, so she wasn’t too worried about her being short of company. Poor Mr and Mrs Murray, Ian’s parents, were totally
overawed by the whole occasion and Barbara wasn’t making much of an effort to mingle with his family, being too concerned with dancing attendance on Noreen Varling and her cronies. Well,
Cassie decided, it wasn’t her problem and she was going back to the girls to have a bit of a laugh.