The Ghost of Grania O'Malley (10 page)

‘It was that son of mine, that Tibbott, the one who went collecting crabs in America. I deserved better. He was maybe twenty by now and wild in the head. He got himself shut up in prison by the English – well, that wasn't difficult, it happened to a lot of people. I spent a year or two behind bars myself, and it was no fun at all, I'm telling you. They'd have hanged him given half a chance, but I wasn't going to let that happen. A mother hen has to look after her chicks, doesn't she? So the boys and me, we sailed for England, up the Thames to Greenwich to see the English queen, Queen Elizabeth herself. I sent ahead and told her I was coming, that I wanted to see her. I was polite about it mind. Always best to be polite if you want to get what you want. I said to her, I said: “I want my son out of your jail. He's done nothing wrong.” Which wasn't strictly true.

‘And she says to me, she says: “What's in it for me?”

‘And I replied quick as you like, “How would you like America?” So it wasn't mine to give, but she wasn't to know that. “It's mine,” I told her, “It's Irish.”

‘“Indeed?” she said, all smiling and hoity-toity. Anyway, to cut a long story short, she took America for the English, and I had my son back – so I hadn't lost anything I hadn't lost already and I'd got what I wanted out of it. Happy as a lark I was. Only, as I was leaving, she says to me: “You're a bit of a pirate, aren't you?”

‘“Sometimes,” I replied.

‘“So am I,” she said. “But don't tell anyone. And listen, Grania O'Malley, if you're going to pirate from now on, then do it quietly so's no one notices, then we shan't have cause to disagree.” I tell you, that queen was a woman after my own heart.'

She threw a log on to the fire and nudged it in with her bare foot. ‘Well, there you have it, my life story in a crab shell. But that's all done with and a long time ago. These last centuries, the boys and me, well, we've been sort of waiting around. You don't like to interfere once you're dead, but there's times when you just can't sit by and watch. There's times when you're needed. And in recent years I've not liked what I've been seeing, what I've been hearing. Dead or not, these are my lands, my sea. All my life I defended them as best I could. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. And I never minded the losing, because I always knew we'd win in the end. Invasions and occupations, they come and they go – the Normans, the English, the Scots. They've all come and they've all gone. We've had the famine, we've had the plague. There was nothing a poor ghost could do but watch and weep. But the Big Hill on Clare, once they do that you can't put it right afterwards. There are some things time won't heal. I'm with your mother, Jess, and with you. One way or another, the thing has to be stopped.'

‘But no one listens, do they, Jack?' said Jessie. ‘Mum's told them and told them, but they don't listen. It's the gold. They're all greedy for the gold.'

‘And you can hardly blame them, can you?' said Grania O'Malley. ‘After all, they're only human, aren't they? It's a natural enough thing to be greedy – not good maybe, but natural. I was quite keen on the gold myself at one time. I never knew a pirate that wasn't. Now listen, me and the boys, we've been pondering this for some time now, and we've all agreed that the treasure in the big chest over there is not a lot of use to us any more. I mean, all we do is gamble with it, and we can do that with the pebbles from the beach just as well. I'll not pretend they're at all pleased with the idea of parting with it, but they know as well as I do, that it's in a good cause. And besides, they do what they're told – mostly.'

A gleam came into her eye. ‘I've been waiting for just the right moment, and this is it. When you're all dried off again, the boys will row you home to Clare and drop you off, not that far from where they found you. There's a cave there – Piper's Hole, we used to call it. I've hidden in there a dozen times when the English came looking for me. It's maybe the deepest cave on the whole island and you can only get at it from the sea. It'll be just perfect. And guess what you'll find at the very back of the cave, undiscovered for close on four hundred years? The lost treasure of Grania O'Malley. Are you beginning to catch my drift?'

She got up and walked over to the chest under the window. She lifted the lid. ‘This treasure came from the Santa Felicia, one of the great galleons of the Spanish Armada, driven on to the rocks in the worst gale I ever saw. We rescued most of the crew, and the treasure, and the captain too – Don Pedro. He was a sick man, so I nursed him like a good Christian woman should. He was handsome too, eyes so dark you could drown in them – but then that's another story.' She seemed suddenly sad. ‘Another story for another day maybe. Let's just say that, ever since, we've been keeping Don Pedro's treasure for a rainy day, and now the rainy day has come. There's more gold in this chest than they'll ever find inside the Big Hill. It'll be you that finds it, so by rights it'll be you that decides what's to be done with it. All you have to do is to tell them that you're happy for everybody on the island to share the treasure, providing they leave the Big Hill alone. How would that be now?'

‘That's cool,' said Jack, a broad grin on his face, ‘that's real cool.'

‘That's what I thought too,' said Grania O'Malley.

‘Can I look?' Jessie asked. Her legs were stiff with cold, and walking wasn't easy, but she had to get up and look. The chest was filled to the very top with gold cups, gold plates, gold doubloons, and gold chains. There were crosses that sparkled with emeralds and rubies, there were rings and pearls and bracelets and necklaces, and heaven knows what else.

‘Is this where my earring came from?' she asked.

‘Both of them,' said Grania O'Malley.

Jessie dug her hand in, cupped a handful of coins and let them run out through her fingers. ‘It'll work,' she said. ‘It'll really work. Once they see this, once they touch it they'll forget all about the gold on the Big Hill, they're bound to.' They looked up together as they heard a helicopter flying low overhead. ‘They'll be out searching for us,' said Jessie. ‘My mum and dad, they'll be worried sick.'

‘They won't have to be worried for much longer,' said Grania O'Malley. Jack ran to the window. The helicopter was heading out over the islands of Clew Bay, out towards Clare. ‘We'll get you home soon enough,' said Grania O'Malley. ‘We'll wait just a little for the high tide to float the galley off the beach and then we'll be on our way.' She was gone down the stairs and they were left alone.

Jack stared down into the chest. ‘I do not believe this,' he said. ‘I just do not believe this.' Jessie draped a necklace around his neck and filled his hands with coins.

‘Believe it now?' she said.

There were raised voices downstairs, and then they heard Grania O'Malley shouting above the others. ‘Will you be still and just listen! Did I ever let you down, did I?'

‘Yes,' said one of the pirates.

‘Well, maybe I did, but not often. And we always shared and shared alike, the good times and the bad? And we all agreed, didn't we? The treasure has to go, so we can save the Big Hill.' There were still rumblings of discontent. ‘Tell me this, will you?' she went on. ‘Being a rich ghost, does it make any one of us happier? Well, does it?' There was a long silence. ‘Brendan, Donal, upstairs with you, and get that chest down. And be nice to those children while you're at it. Try smiling, for God's sake. It won't hurt. There's nothing I hate worse than a bunch of sulking pirates.'

The two pirates that came up the stairs shortly after did try to smile at them, but not very successfully. They looked longingly into the chest for a moment, before they closed the lid and carried it away downstairs. It wasn't long after that Grania O'Malley came for them, took them back down the winding stone stairs, and led them out of Rockfleet Castle and into the bright light of day. Both she and Jack took a hand each and helped Jessie down over the rocks towards the waiting galley.

High in the stern, with Grania O'Malley sitting on the treasure chest beside them, they went one last time through the plan to be sure they all understood, but it was difficult for Jack and Jessie to concentrate. There were two helicopters buzzing about overhead. The lifeboat was out looking, and the ferry too. It looked as if every boat on the island was at sea. As they came out into the open ocean, out of the shelter of Clew Bay, the ferry passed within hailing distance, the deck lined with searchers – Michael Murphy was there, Father Gerald too, and Mrs O'Leary from the pub. Some of them had binoculars trained right on them. But none of them seemed to be able to see them at all. The galley raced on, dipping into the wash the ferry had left behind, the spray showering everyone on board.

‘You'd think they'd look where they were going,' laughed Grania O'Malley, wiping her face. ‘Now have you been hearing me, you two? They only have my treasure if they leave off the mining on the Big Hill. Are we clear? It'll work a treat, you see if it won't.'

As they neared the shore, Grania O'Malley took the tiller herself and navigated the galley in through the surging seas. She waited for the right wave, gave the word, and then they surfed the crest of it through a narrow opening in the reef and into the calmer waters of a hidden inlet. Half the pirates shipped their oars now and scrambled forward, leaping into the sea and wading waist-high towards the shore. Heaving on the ropes, they hauled the galley in. They unloaded the treasure chest first, and with the greatest care. Then came the children's turn to be handed over the side. They were carried – a lot less carefully, Jessie thought – out of the shallows, up the shingle, and dumped on the beach beside the chest.

‘We'll be off then,' said Grania O'Malley, ‘before we all change our minds.' The crew looked their last at the chest, like dogs that have had their favourite bones taken away. Grania O'Malley bent down and patted the chest. ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow,' she said wistfully, and then she smiled at them. ‘Shakespeare. Now there's a fellow I'd like to have met. Maybe I will one day. But there's a lot of things I never did that I should have done, and many more things I did that I should not have done. Maybe that's why I'm doing this. Who knows?'

She ruffled Jack's hair; and then stood, hands on her hips, looking down at Jessie. ‘Well, do I get a kiss, or don't I?' Jessie did not hesitate. She reached up, put her arms round Grania O'Malley's neck, kissed her on the cheek and hugged her. ‘I'll know it if you need me,' said Grania O'Malley, ‘and not a word to a soul about me and the boys. Promise? They'd not believe you anyway.'

She turned and strode out through the shallows towards the galley. The last they saw of her, she was standing on the prow of the galley, just as Jessie had seen her in her dream. She waved, and the galley simply vanished. They were left standing alone on the beach, the treasure chest beside them, the retreating surf hissing over the shingle.

* * *

The chest was unbelievably heavy. At first they wondered if they could shift it at all. But they knew they had to. They didn't want anyone to see it until the time was right, until they were ready. It had to be hidden. One heave at a time they dragged the chest up the beach and into the dark depths of the cave until they could drag it no further. They were still sitting on it, trying to get their breath back, when they heard voices from high above them on the clifftop. ‘Shall we answer?' Jessie said.

But Jack had noticed something. ‘Not with your earring on,' he said. Jessie clapped her hand to her ear. She had forgotten all about it. She took it off quickly, and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans.

‘Ready,' she said.

‘Let's go,' said Jack, and they walked out of the cave and began to shout. ‘Down here! Down here!'

Even as they shouted, their voices were drowned by the sudden thunderous din of a helicopter overhead. It hovered for some moments over the cliffs, swooped out to sea, dipped and turned back towards them. There was a man leaning out and waving, and then he was being lowered towards them. The down-draught blew Jessie on to her bottom and she stayed sitting where she was on the wet pebbles as the man landed and ran over towards her. He crouched down beside them. ‘Nothing more to worry about,' he said. ‘You'll be fine now, just fine. Bit cold, are you?'

‘A bit,' said Jack.

‘We'll get you back soon enough,' said the man. ‘Ladies first, eh? I'll be back for you in a minute.' He put his hand on Jack's shoulder. ‘Just stay where you are. Won't be long.'

He snapped Jessie into the dangling harness and up they went, turning and swirling in the air together. Strong arms grabbed her and hauled her into the helicopter. She was strapped in at once and smothered in blankets. It seemed no time at all before Jack was beside her in the helicopter, and they were skimming low over the fields, over the quay, over the abbey ruins and the school; and there was the farm below them, and the house, and the ‘creatures' in the garden. Jessie found Jack's hand, squeezed it hard and got a squeeze back in reply.

As they landed in the field, the sheep scattering in all directions, they saw Jessie's mother and father come running out of the house and Panda too, his hair flattened along his back, barking at the helicopter. Mole was scampering away in amongst the sheep as fast as his legs could carry him. The hugging seemed to go on for ever, two at a time, and then all four of them together. Jessie thought they'd never let go. The helicopter rotors slowed at last to a whine and then stopped. There was quiet again, except for Mole braying his indignation, and Panda still barking at this extraterrestrial invasion.

There was a hot bath, hot chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches, and all the time the questions. Jessie answered them – that's what they had both agreed. She kept as close to the truth as possible. She had slipped on the rocks and fallen into the sea. Jack had dived in after her and saved her. They were a long time in the sea, and so cold, and then they'd been swept into this inlet and had found shelter in a a cave. Jack had tried to climb the cliff but he couldn't, so they just waited there in a cave. She kept it simple, and if they asked more, she said she couldn't remember.