The Beach Book Bundle: 3 Novels for Summer Reading: Breathing Lessons, The Alphabet Sisters, Firefly Summer (98 page)

“But aren’t you only helping him to install himself instead of praying that it will turn out wrong for him?” Kate was mystified.

“None of us would pray that things would turn out wrong for people, Kate, that would be only asking for trouble to come on ourselves. All I mean is that there’s no point in getting hot and bothered until things do happen.”

“That’s not the American way,” Fergus said, doing a poor imitation of Patrick’s accent. “That’s not your up-and-attem-boy.”

“That’s not my way,” John said quietly.

“We’re two of a kind then, John. Give me another pint, if you will. I can’t see myself practicing law for ten minutes in New York without having a very bad nervous breakdown.”

Kate smiled at them affectionately as they toasted each other on the notion of savoring life, rather than racing through it. She would prefer to race a bit faster herself, but not as fast nor in the same direction as the smiling American, who had seemed to read her mistrust of him and smile yet more warmly on the two occasions in two days that she had met him. She was glad he was going back soon.

   A few nights later Dara crept from her room to the window just at the very moment Michael left his bed. They were never surprised that their timing was so exact, they took it for granted that they would turn up at the same time. In Fernscourt they could see him walking, touching this wall and that.

“If he loves it so much why is he tearing it down?” Dara asked yet again.

“Well he keeps saying he tried to think of ways of keeping the old ruin like it was,” Michael said, always his defender.

“He didn’t try very hard. He’s so rich, all he has to do is to say let it stay and it stays,” Dara grumbled. “Look, he’s leaving now. I wonder where did he park his car?”

“He leaves it up a bit when he comes at night, so as not to wake people when he leaves. Look, look he’s coming over the bridge.”

They watched as Patrick O’Neill paused on the little footbridge opposite their pub and stared across at Fernscourt in the same way that they had done so often, a hand on each railing of the narrow bridge.

“He’s saying goodbye before he goes home,” Michael breathed.

“Will you ever realize that to him this is his home?” said Dara.

The moonlight wasn’t bright enough for them to see the tears on Patrick’s face as he said goodbye to Fernscourt.

Chapter V

It took a little time to get things organized, but compared to the speed that most people would have moved at, Patrick was a human tornado. The finances had been organized already. The big white house in New Jersey, the symbol of his success, would be put on the market. Not at once, because that way he would have to take any price from any bidder. But it would be rented for a year first.

Bella and Andy, the couple who had looked after him, had to be paid off, thanked, found new positions. Aunts and cousins had to be placated and reassured that it wasn’t the act of a madman. He saw to passports, visas for the children, had endless discussions with numerous priests and nuns in the two schools, all of whom were sorry to see Mr. O’Neill, the number one benefactor, disappear off to Ireland with his two handsome children.

There were never quite enough hours in the day for all the form-filling, document-signing, telephoning, crating, packing, sorting, and deciding what had to be done.

But in a far swifter time than anyone would have believed possible, Patrick had everything done. He was ready to come home to Ireland.

   Patrick was so proud of his children when they stepped from the plane at Shannon Airport that he wanted to cry aloud to anyone who would listen that these two shining golden people belonged to him. Even after the night flight when others were blinking sleepily into the dawn, Kerry and Grace O’Neill looked untouched and stared around them with interest at the land that was going to be their home.

Patrick had noticed the looks of admiration that the brother and sister had gotten from onlookers both in Idlewild Airport, New York, and here in Shannon. They had clean-cut looks and they both seemed in such high good humor. They had always gotten along well together, no rivalry, no resentment ever. They had spent long hours together during their mother’s illness, and since he had been away from home before, after and even during that time, they had been thrown together a lot. They always enjoyed each other’s company. In the plane they had chattered together happily. He had never been close with Philomena or Catherine or Maureen like that. Nor with his brothers. There had been too much hardship in their family. The fight to exist had taken all their time. Friendship was a luxury they didn’t have when they were growing up.

He had hired a car from one of the big companies that had a desk at Shannon Airport. Jack Coyne had had only one chance. One chance to be in car rental in a bigger way than he had ever dreamed, but he had lost it forever. To have cheated Patrick O’Neill was the most foolish act of his life.

“Come on, kids,” Patrick called as he held the door of the car open. “Come on, climb in, I’m going to take you home.” Their faces showed the excitement they felt.

Patrick looked at them with a lump in his throat. They were extraordinarily beautiful, he thought, both of them. It was not just the pride of a father who has worked his guts out so that his children would have everything he never had. Surely he was being objective as he looked at them standing close together in the early morning sun.

Grace had a head of hair that looked like an advertisement for a shampoo, her curls seemed to be shiny and bouncy and there was no way they could be kept down. Two minutes after she came from her shower, or even running out of the waves when they went to the ocean, it was the same. She had big blue eyes and a dimpled smile. Her father called her his little princess, and her brother had called her a baby doll. Her mother said she was like an angel in human form.

It was just as well for Grace O’Neill that she went to a school where the nuns did not believe in praising the girls and that she had an aunt who regarded all good looks as a personal calling from the devil leading to sin and possibly damnation.

Grace was a cheerful child, not nearly as spoiled as she could have been, the idolized baby in that big house. She had realized early in life that you got your way much more easily by smiling and thanking rather than sulking and crying. Nobody told her this; she had always known, or else she had seen it work with her brother and picked it up from him. It was unusually nice to be the center of attention, with people admiring and patting her on the head.

Kerry O’Neill was tall and blond; he looked like a Swede, not as if he came from Irish stock. His hair curled softly around his neck; on another boy it could have looked sissy, but not on Kerry. His skin was always lightly tanned, summer or winter. His eyes were a bright and unsettling blue. They were rarely still, but moved here and there almost as if they were looking for something. It didn’t matter, though, because they looked back at whoever he was talking to often enough to show he hadn’t lost interest. You got the notion that Kerry’s restless eyes moved even when he was asleep.

His smile was wide and all-embracing. Nobody could smile like Kerry; all those white teeth seemed to crack his face in half. The smile never got to his eyes but that’s because his eyes moved very fast. They hadn’t time to smile. Grace had once seen a picture of the Blue Grotto in Capri, and said that it reminded her of nothing as much as Kerry’s eyes.

Kerry never said much, but people didn’t realize this. They usually thought he was very interesting because he agreed with them or listened or seemed to be taking part in conversations all the time. It was only with Mother that Kerry had talked a lot. When he came back from school he would sit and talk for ages in Mother’s room. Mother had been in bed for so long it was hard to remember when she had been up and around.

   They drove across the countryside in the early morning sunshine, pointing things out to each other. Patrick told them that this was a city, Limerick, and that Nenagh was a big town. City? Big town? They couldn’t believe it. It was like seeing one of those model villages he had taken them to once, where ordinary mortals seemed like giants.

“We don’t go on too much about how much bigger things are back in the States,” he began carefully.

“Of course not,” Kerry said. “They’d think we were boasting about home.”

“And it would be bad-mannered,” Grace agreed.

They couldn’t believe when they saw signs for Killarney. Please could they go there. It was in the wrong direction, their father said. People in Mountfern thought Killarney was the other end of the country nearly, but one day he’d take them there. And there were signs to Galway. Yes, he had seen Galway Bay on his last visit. Then the roads became narrower, they left the main routes and headed into the midlands. Soon the signs for the town came up. “Not far now,” Patrick said. His heart was beating faster at the thought of taking these golden children to the spot they had come from. Back to their home.

They wanted to know why were there no signs for Mountfern.

“It’s too small for a road sign. It’s only when you’re on the road going past it that there are directions. It’s only a little place.” He hoped he had explained this sufficiently to them.

“It’s only little now,” Kerry said “One day everyone will know it.”

Patrick flashed him a grateful look and then said no more. They came to the first of the two signs saying Mountfern half a mile.

“Hey, have you passed it?” Kerry called out.

Patrick explained that this was one way which brought you along River Road, he wanted to come in by Bridge Street so that they could get an impression of the place.

“Will they have a band on Main Street?” Grace giggled.

“Nothing would surprise me,” Patrick said as they came to the turn and approached the place that had always been a name on his father’s birth certificate.

   Everyone knew they were coming. From their garden the vicar and Mrs. Williams waved at the car.

Judy Byrne was parking her small car outside her house; she peered out of the window to get a good look at the handsome American and his family.

Mrs. Sheehan was looking out of the top window of the barracks. There were two or three people standing outside Conway’s, who held their hands to their eyes to shield them from the light and get a good view. It was too early even by Conway’s peculiar opening hours to have gathered drinkers; these must be people talking on their way back from mass.

Patrick explained that some people in the parish went to mass every day.

“Do we have to?” Grace asked anxiously.

“No way.” Her father patted her reassuringly.

Daly’s was opening for business, so was Leonard’s. Sheila Whelan’s blinds were up long ago, but normally it was a sleepy, slow-moving place.

On the bridge a group of children had gathered; they bent forward to glimpse the passengers in the car, then they hung back again, lacking in confidence. It annoyed Patrick to see the Irish children so uncertain when his own two were so sure, so easy.

Quickly he turned the wheel and maneuvered them into River Road. Loretto Quinn waved enthusiastically from the shop, young Father Hogan striding along in his soutane waved his breviary cheerfully. Then they were passing Ryan’s licensed premises.

“Is that a real place where they sell liquor?” Grace asked.

“Yes, why?” Her father was interested.

“It looks like a kind of toy shop, you know, in a board game. It just needs a thatched roof and it’s a typical Irish cottage.”

“Ah, we’ll be having the thatched cottage bit ourselves,” Patrick said.

“Why are we stopping?” Kerry asked.

“Let’s get out for a moment.” Patrick held the doors of the car open for them.

They scampered out, stretching their legs after the drive. With an arm around each shoulder he walked them to the footbridge and pointed out the ruins of Fernscourt.

“That will be our home,” he said. He was glad that they were looking at the old house which stood magical in the morning mists and sunshine, its ivy walls and odd shapes looking more picturesque than anything Hollywood could have dreamed up as a beautiful ruined castle. He was glad that they couldn’t see the tears in his eyes. The effect couldn’t have been more satisfying. His son and daughter looked in amazement at the sight in front of them.

Across the river from the little wooden bridge where they stood was a great path of laurel bushes. On either side cattle grazed among old rocks and boulders, some covered with moss. The ruins of a great house stood open to the skies. Ivy tumbled from the highest walls, and old portals stood open: doorways leading nowhere except into further open-roofed space. There were gorse bushes and heather dotted around the place, splashes of bright yellow and deep purple.

“You’re going to build all this up, make it like it was?” Kerry was unbelieving.

He had seen the artist’s impressions certainly, but nothing had prepared him for seeing the place as it was … a magnificent ruin.

“That’s what we’re going to do,” Patrick said proudly.

“It’s going to look like a castle,” Grace breathed.

“That’s the idea,” Patrick said.

“And how much land, Father?” Kerry was shielding his eyes with his hand and looking around the landscape of a dozen different shades of green.

“Not as much as I’d have liked. You see a lot of people were granted their land back, you know they were tenants but they were able to buy it outright, so naturally that’s theirs now and they don’t want to sell. It was only the house and the immediate surrounds we got from the Land Commission. I got a couple of acres from fellows who were anxious to sell … but you see the problem …” He was about to explain, but Kerry saw it too.

“You don’t want to be seen to be buying up the land, taking it away from the peasants again, in case you are seen to be the bad guy wearing the black shirt, instead of the good cowboy.”

“Right son, got it in one.” Patrick was pleased mainly that Kerry was so interested.

“And will this all be gardens …?” Grace gave a sweep of her hand.

“Yes, coming down to the river … there’s going to be a dock for boats there, and footpaths.”

“And where will the entrance be?” Kerry looked left and right.

“Funny, that’s one thing still in dispute. The original one went off that way. There’s a big overgrown path, that’s the way vehicles will be coming on site. I’ll take you around and show you. The Dublin architects want to keep it that way. They say it follows the original plan, even though nothing else will be like the original. The American architects say it would be better to open up that overgrown path over there and have the entrance coming from the town, from the big bridge.”