by Maeve Binchy
'They came to say goodbye to me,' Gertie said. She had very few satisfactions, she would savour this one.
'Maybe I was out,' Rosemary said.
'Could be.' Gertie put a lot of doubt in her voice.
'And where are you off to?' Rosemary wanted to change the subject.
'I have a busy morning.' Gertie sounded on top of the world. 'I've hired a girl to do ironing and I want to ask Colm if he'd give me a trial to do his tablecloths and napkins. We do his towels already.'
'Oh I think for a restaurant like that he'd need a proper laundry, and particularly for Horse Show week.' Rosemary poured cold water on the scheme.
'Colm will know, and then I go in to Marilyn, do her floors and ironing. And she's going to drive me to this place where they do cheap electrical signs, and we're going to have one put up over the launderette.'
Gertie looked so pleased with the modest plans for the day that Rosemary was touched. Gertie, who used to be so handsome when she worked in Polly's all those years ago with Ria, Gertie who had lost everything for loving that madman. 'And Jack. How is he these days?'
'He's fine, Rosemary, thank you. He gave up drink entirely and it suits him,' said Gertie with a big broad smile.
Hubie telephoned to know if he could call by the house and welcome Annie to Westville. Brian too, of course, he added as an afterthought.
'Please do, Hubie. They both love it here and they've been playing that game you set up every evening.'
'Great.'
The admiration in his eyes for shapely blonde Annie was obvious. 'You're even cuter than your picture,' he said.
'Thank you,' Annie said. 'That's very nice of you.'
Where had Annie, who was not quite fifteen, learned such composure? Ria wondered over and over. Certainly not from her mother who was still unable to accept a compliment. Possibly from Danny who had managed to appear calm no matter what was happening. She was very worried to hear the children say that he was broke and fussed.
As Hubie, Brian and Annie went up to the pool she decided she would call Rosemary about it. It would be nine o'clock at night at home. Rosemary would be in the cool elegant penthouse. At her desk maybe with papers. Watering the plants in her roof garden. Entertaining three people to one of her brilliant and apparently effortless meals? In bed with a lover?
Ria had realised this summer for the first time how lonely parts of Rosemary's seemingly perfect lifestyle must be. When you live by yourself your life is not dictated by others, you have to choose. And if you don't plan something you sit staring at the walls. No wonder Rosemary spent so much time with them in Number 16.
There was nobody at home. Rosemary might be out at Quentin's, or in Colm's? Possibly she was with Marilyn, they had become friendly and gone to a fashion show organised by Mona.
'Rosemary, it's Ria. Nothing really. Only a chat. The children have arrived and everything's just wonderful. I wanted to talk to you about whether Danny and Barney's business is in any trouble. I can't call Danny obviously, and I thought you might know. Don't call me back about it because the kids will be here and if there is anything to tell I don't want them to hear. But you can see how I'm a bit out on a limb here and you're the only one I can ask.'
Barney had asked Danny to meet him in Quentin's.
'We can't go there, Barney, we owe them, remember?'
'I remember. That's been settled, and I told Brenda it would be cash tonight.'
'With Bernadette or without?'
'Without. Nine o'clock okay?' He was gone.
Perhaps at the very last moment he had pulled something out of the fire. Barney was an old-time wheeler and dealer. He had come from working on building sites all over England to being the most-talked-of builder and property developer in Ireland. It was inconceivable that he would declare himself and the company bankrupt next week, which was now on the cards.
Danny wore his best jacket and his brightest tie. Whoever he was being brought to meet would need to see a buoyant Danny Lynch, nothing hangdog. He had been putting on an act for years, that's how you bought and sold houses for heaven's sake. Tonight would be the biggest act because so much depended on it.
'I might be late, sweetheart,' he said to Bernadette. 'Big Chiefs' meeting called by Barney, sounds like light at the end of the tunnel.'
'I knew there would be,' she said.
Brenda Brennan directed him towards the booth. Danny knew that this is where they would be. Whoever he was going to meet might not want to be seen supping publicly with McCarthy and Lynch. Their names were not so good at the moment. He was surprised to see only Barney there, the other person or people hadn't turned up yet. He was even more surprised to see that the table was only set for two.
'Sit down, Danny,' Barney said to him. 'This is the day we hoped never to have to see.'
'Everything?' Danny said.
'Everything, including Number 16 Tara Road,' said Barney McCarthy.
Rosemary was also having dinner in Quentin's. With her accountant, her manager and two men from a multinational printing company who wanted to buy her out. They had approached her, she had not gone to them. They were suggesting very attractive terms but were finding it difficult to persuade her how lucky she was to be approached in this way.
One man was American, one was English, but they knew that their nationality had nothing to do with their incomprehension about this beautiful blonde Irishwoman with her flawless make-up, shining hair and designer outfit.
'I don't think you'll ever be able to realise capital in this way again,' the Englishman said.
'No, that's true, nobody wants to take me over as much as you do,' she smiled.
'And there's nobody apart from us with the money to do so, as well as the will, so it's not as if you can play us off against anyone else,' said the American.
'Quite true,' she agreed.
Rosemary had seen Danny go into the booth with Barney McCarthy. Nobody had joined them. That was a bad sign. She knew that if she agreed to this deal, if she sold her business, she could save them. It was almost dizzying to think that she had that much power. She lost track of what the two men were saying.
'I beg your pardon?' She went back to the conversation.
'We were just saying that time is moving on and as you approach forty you may want to get a life for yourself, rest after all this hard work. Put your feet up, take a cruise, live a little.'
It had been the wrong thing to suggest to Rosemary Ryan. She didn't see herself as a person putting her feet up. She didn't like strangers telling her that she was approaching forty. She looked pleasantly from one to the other. 'Come back to me in about six years. You will of course have worked out that by then I'll be half of ninety. Ask me again then, won't you? Because it really has been such a pleasure talking to you.'
Her mind wasn't fully on what she was saying, she had just seen Barney McCarthy, white-faced, storming out of the restaurant. Danny was not with him. He must be still sitting in that booth where people went when they wanted really private conversations. Rosemary Ryan would not rescue him from bankruptcy but neither would she leave him on his own after a body-blow.
'Gentlemen, I'll let you finish your coffees and brandies on your own. I'm so grateful for your interest and enthusiasm, but as you said for me time is moving on and I can't afford to waste any of it. So I'll say goodnight.'
The men were only struggling to get to their feet when she was gone.
'Rosemary?'
'Brandy?'
'Why are you here?'
'Have you eaten?'
'No, no there wasn't time to eat.' She ordered a large brandy for him and a bowl of soup and some olive bread. A mineral water for herself. 'Stop playing nursemaid, I don't want to eat, I asked you what are you doing here?'
'You need to eat. You're in shock. I was at another table and saw Barney leaving… that's why I'm here.'
'My house is gone.'
'I'm so sorry.'
'You're not sorry, Rosemary, you're glad.'
'Shut the hell up… pitying yourself and attacking me. What did I ever do bad to you except betray your wife, my friend, by sleeping with you?'
'It's a bit late to be getting all remorseful about that, you knew what you were doing at the time.'
'Yes I did, and you knew what you were doing playing with Barney McCarthy.'
'Why are you here?'
'To get you home.'
'To your home or my home?'
'To your home. My car is outside, I'll drive you.'
'I don't want your pity or this soup,' he shouted as the waiter laid down a bowl of parsnip and apple soup.
'Eat it, Danny. You're not functioning properly.'
'What do you care?'
'I care because you are a friend, more than a friend.'
'I told Barney McCarthy I never wanted to lay eyes on him again. You're right, that wasn't functioning properly.'
'That's business talk, panicky business talk, that's all. It will sort itself out.'
'No, some things can never be forgotten.'
'Come on, you and I were bawling at each other the other night and here we are sitting talking as friends. It will happen with Barney too.'
'No it won't, he's very shabby, he told me he'd settled up the bill here and it turns out he hasn't.'
'Why did he want to tell you here?'
'He said he needed neutral ground. All he was doing was humiliating me here in front of the Brennans, people I know and like.'
'How much is the bill?'
'Over six hundred.'
'I'll pay that now on my card.'
'I don't want your charity. What I want is your investment, I told you.'
'I can't do it, Danny, it's not there. Everything's tied up.' Out of the corner of her eye she saw the group of four leaving, her own office manager, her accountant and two bewildered people who had come to offer her a huge sum of money, more than enough to bail Danny Lynch out and leave her plenty to live on. She caught Brenda Brennan's eye. They had known each other a long time.
'Brenda, there was a misunderstanding. An old bill. It was never settled. Here, can we do it now on my card? No receipt to be sent to Barney McCarthy, this is Danny paying if you get my drift.'
Brenda got Rosemary's drift. The table was booked in your name, Mr Lynch, otherwise Mr McCarthy would not have been able to get a reservation,' she said crisply. 'He said that he was your guest when he arrived.'
'Which, as it turned out, he was,' said Rosemary.
'Drive along Tara Road,' Danny asked her.
'Stop punishing yourself.'
'No, please, it's not taking us out of the way.'
They approached Tara Road from the top end, the corner near Gertie's launderette.
'Look, she's got a new sign up: GERTIE'S. What a stupid name,' Rosemary said.
'Well, it's better than calling it Gertie and Jack's, I suppose.' He managed a weak smile.
They passed Number 68, the old people's home. 'They're all asleep in St Rita's, and it's not even ten o'clock,' Rosemary said.
'They're all asleep there at seven. Imagine, I won't even be able to afford to go there when I'm old and mad.' They passed Nora Johnson's little house at Number 48A. 'It must be about time for Pliers to go out and foul the footpath,' Danny said. 'Pliers always likes to go where it will cause maximum discomfort to everyone.'
The little laugh they managed over that got them past Number 32, the elegant renovation with its beautiful penthouse where Danny and Rosemary had spent so many hours together. Frances and Jimmy Sullivan were putting out their dustbins at Number 26. 'Kitty is pregnant, did you know that?' Rosemary asked.
'No! She's only a kid, Annie's age.' He was shocked.
'There you go,' Rosemary said.
They were at Number 16. 'It was a beautiful house,' Danny said. 'It always will be. But I won't be living there any more.'
'You'd moved out already,' Rosemary reminded him.
'I don't like that woman Marilyn at all, I can't bear to think she's living there in the last few weeks that I own it,' he said.
'She's gone off me,' Rosemary said. 'I don't know why, she used to be perfectly pleasant, but she's curt to the point of rudeness now.'
'Madwoman,’ Danny said. They were passing Colm's restaurant. 'Plenty of cars,' he said. 'We were mad not to give him a start. Look where I'd be tonight if I had a piece of that restaurant.'
'We weren't mad, we were careful.'
'You may have been. I was never careful, I was just wrong, that's all,' Danny Lynch said.
'I know. How did I fancy you so much?' Rosemary said wonderingly.
'Can you turn the car?'
'Why? This is the way.'
'I want to come home with you. Please.'
'No, Danny, it would be pointless.'
'Nothing between us was ever pointless. Please, Rosemary, I need you tonight. Don't make me beg.'
She looked at him. It had always been impossible to resist him. Rosemary had already been congratulating herself that her infatuation had not let her sell her company for this man. And he wanted her. As he had always wanted her more than his prattling little wife and the strange wan girl he lived with. She turned her car in the entrance of Colm's restaurant and drove back to Number 32.
Nora Johnson taking Pliers for his nightly walk saw Lady Ryan driving up the road with a man in the passenger seat. Nora squinted but couldn't see who it was. For a moment she thought it was Danny Lynch. Lots of people looked like that. She had liked Danny and loved him calling her Holly. And she had thought he was handsome when she met him first. But when all was said and done what Danny had was cheap good looks.
Danny started to caress Rosemary before she had even put the key into the front door of Number 32.
'Don't be idiotic,' she hissed. 'We've been so careful for so long, don't blow it now.'
'You understand me, Rosemary, you're the only one who does.'
They went upstairs in the lift and as soon as they were in the door he reached for her.
'Danny, stop.'
'You don't usually say that.' He was kissing her throat.
'I don't usually refuse to save your business either.'
'But you told me you couldn't, that your funds were all tied up.' He was trying to hold her and stop her slipping away.
'No, Danny, we have to talk.'
'We never had to talk before.'
She saw her message light winking on the answering machine but she would not press the button. It might be one of the men she had had dinner with increasing the offer, raising the stakes. Danny must never know what had been turned down only feet away from him in the restaurant.
'What about Bernadette?'
'It's early, she won't expect me for a long time.'
'It's foolish.'
'It was always foolish,' he said. 'Foolish, dangerous and wonderful.'
Afterwards they had a shower together.
'Won't Bernadette think it odd that you smell of sandalwood?' Rosemary asked.
'Whatever soap you get I get the same for our bathroom.' He wasn't being smug or proud of his cunning, just practical.
'I remember Ria always had the same soap as I did,' she said. 'I used to think that she was copying me but it was you all the time. My, my.'
Rosemary wore a white towelling robe. She glanced at herself in the bathroom mirror. She did not look like someone for whom time was marching on, nor a woman approaching forty. Those men would never get their hands on her company.
'I’ll call you a taxi,' she said.
'I needed you tonight,' he said.
'I suppose I need you too in ways otherwise you wouldn't have stayed. I don't do anything out of kindness.'
'So I notice,' he said drily.
She called a cab company, giving her own account number. 'Remember to get out at the end of your road, not your house, the less these drivers know the better.'
'Yes, boss.'
'You'll survive, Danny.'
'I wish I could
see how.'
'Talk to Barney tomorrow. You're both up the same creek, there's nothing to be gained by fighting each other in it.'
'You're right as usual. I'll go down and wait for the cab.' He held her very close to him. Over her shoulder he saw the light on her machine. 'You have a message,' he said.
'I’ll listen to it later, probably my mother demanding that I find a suitable man and get married.'
He grinned at her, head on one side. 'I know I should hope you will, but I really hope you don't.'
'Don't worry, even if I did I expect we'd cheat on him as we have on everyone else.'
The honeymoon period was still on in Tudor Drive. Ria could hardly believe it though she walked on eggshells. Sean and Kelly Maine proved to be perfectly satisfactory friends for Annie and Brian.
'I wish Sean was younger,' Brian complained. 'It's the wrong way round. Kelly's okay but she is a girl.'
I'm glad Sean's not your age. I think he's fine the age he is,' Annie said with a little laugh.
Ria opened her mouth to say that Annie wouldn't want to do anything silly with both Hubie and Sean fighting for her attention but she closed it again. These weeks of having to think before she spoke were paying dividends. It had been no harm learning to live in entirely new and different surroundings where people might judge you by what you actually did and said here and now and not in the context of years of friendship. Ria felt she had grown up a lot in a way she had never had to at home. After all she had never lived alone, she had gone straight from her mother's house to Danny's. No years in between like girls who lived in flats might have known. Girls like Rosemary.
She had got an e-mail from Rosemary saying that Dublin was Rumour City and that it was impossible to separate the truth from the fiction but it had always been that way. Still if there was anything to tell, she would tell it, and of course Danny wouldn't keep her in the dark if there was anything serious. Rosemary wrote that the children had disappeared without saying goodbye which was a pity because she had intended to send out a couple of dresses for Ria to wear at the picnic.
'You didn't say goodbye to Rosemary?' Ria asked them before she headed out to the gourmet shop.
Annie shrugged.
Brian said, 'We forgot her, we called on everyone else.' He seemed to think that it was a source of income they had overlooked.