The House by the Liffey (26 page)

Izzy had stayed closely in touch with Jed. They corresponded regularly and from time to time they spoke to each other by phone. Her parents often wondered what the attraction was. She had known him for such a short time, and had had little person-to-person contact with him. Noola had described him to Milo and on that basis he was just as puzzled as her mother.

Izzy couldn't persuade Jed to come over to Dublin for a holiday. He was worried about his business, which was going through a tricky patch and he didn't want to leave it, even in the hands of his very competent store manager. Could Izzy not come back to Minneapolis instead he asked.

Her life was hectic. The life of a concert pianist was not an easy one and she was fully committed to a programme of formal and informal concerts and rehearsals, not to mention the hours of practice she had to put in as well as giving music lessons. Fortunately she loved it, otherwise it could have become very tedious. In the end she decided that she owed herself a holiday and agreed that, providing Jed could arrange for her to have access to a piano for the essential practicing, she would go over there for a break. She had to make the point to him very strongly that she must practice regularly, just like an athlete or sportsman needed to workout, otherwise, like them, you “lost form” as she put it. Her plans meant she would be away during the time Cathy would be on holiday with Sam. As in Cathy's case, Harry was glad Izzy wouldn't be at home when the nasty affair became public as was now inevitable, although the whole world would know eventually.

Jed was so excited. He couldn't wait to see her again. So that she wouldn't feel compromised he asked very close friends if Izzy could stay with them. That way not only would they be chaperoned but there was also a piano in the house. The Earles were delighted to oblige. They were genuinely fond of Jed, who regularly babysat for them and helped around the house and garden in his free time. Their three children adored him and they all regarded him as an additional member of their family. They were pleased that he had found someone he obviously liked a lot and hoped that, at long last, he might be thinking of marriage.

Jenny Earle couldn't believe her luck. Privately she hoped Izzy might be persuaded to play as a surprise guest at a charity concert her Women's Sorority were organising. The charity was one which was raising funds for “distressed musicians” and there were surprising numbers of them. What could be more appropriate than to enlist Izzy's support.

‘Oh, Jed. How exciting. We're going to have a famous musician staying with us!'

‘Yes, and she's very self-effacing about her talent – never makes a big deal of it!'

Izzy was tickled at Jed's old-fashioned attitude but so appreciated his desire to protect her reputation. This also helped Milo and Noola to feel happier about her planned trip to the Twin Cities. Jed was obviously no fly-by-night wanting to take advantage of a much younger girl and indeed a wealthy one too. Izzy was accumulating quite a fund of savings on her own account, as well as having the legacy from her grandparents. She would be quite a “catch” in that respect, for any man. She had matured into a lovely young woman. She had large trusting eyes with the wonderful strawberry-blond hair which had deepened a little in colour as she had grown up. She had remained slight of build and still had that fragile look, which, with her pixie face, added greatly to her attraction. She had a ready smile, which always made her look like a slightly mischievous sprite.

Butler to the core, Izzy had fallen in love with Jed and, so far as she was concerned, that was it. Nobody else got a look in. Milo and Noola wondered what would have happened if Bertie had suddenly appeared on the scene again but that was not something they could contrive. So far as they were concerned, he would have been a more acceptable choice, if it came down to her having an interest only in older men. At least they knew all about him. Even more important, they liked him a lot and trusted him.

* * * * *

The great day dawned and on arrival in Minneapolis Izzy's eyes searched around for Jed. They spotted each other at the same moment. Both ran and outstretched arms were wrapped around each other.

‘Oh, Izzy, Izzy, I thought this moment would never come. I can't tell you how excited I am to see you again. And you look as beautiful as ever.'

‘Jed, it's so good to see you too. You haven't changed a bit, although why would you? It hasn't been all that long!'

‘I know what you mean though. You wonder if you've remembered accurately. The photographs help but they're no substitute for the real flesh-and-blood person. If you're not too tired, I'd love to take you somewhere special for dinner. I don't want to share you with anyone else just yet.'

‘That would be wonderful and I'm definitely not too tired. Are we going where I think you might be taking me? The hotel where you and I had our first dinner together?'

‘Oh! You guessed. I'm almost disappointed.'

‘Don't be. Anywhere you took me would be so special. But what about your friends? Don't they mind if we're a bit late? I don't want to seem rude when they've been so kind.'

‘They don't mind at all. In fact they came up with the idea which was perfect, because I felt the same way as you about suggesting it.'

It was such a memorable evening. They talked non-stop and were really disappointed when the time came for Jed to take Izzy to meet her hosts. The welcome she got from adults and children alike made her feel so much at home she was delighted that Jed had arranged for her to stay with this warm-hearted family in congenial surroundings. However, Jed was such a favourite with them all and there was so much excitement at having Izzy as a guest, the two got little or no time to themselves. In the end Izzy decided that, pleasant as it was, she would like to have Jed to herself for at least a couple of days and put this to him.

‘Could we slip away for a couple of days, just the two of us? They're such lovely people and I do appreciate their warm hospitality but I'd like us to have just a little bit of time alone together.'

‘Yes, it's been a bit overwhelming. How about we fly across to Las Vegas? It's such an interesting and exciting city, I'm sure you'd love it.'

‘Let's go as soon as we can without giving offence.'

Two days later they flew off to the great gambling Mecca. They hadn't booked in anywhere but Jed said there would be no problem finding somewhere to stay. They found a very upmarket hotel and Jed asked for two single rooms. At dinner that evening Izzy challenged him.

‘Don't you find me attractive, Jed?'

‘You're the most attractive woman I've ever known, Izzy.'

‘Then why the separate rooms?'

‘Perhaps because I love you too much to take advantage of you.'

‘Maybe I'd like you to take advantage of me!'

‘No, Izzy.' He paused. ‘Never in my whole life have I loved and wanted anyone so much, but there's no way I can agree to our becoming lovers. You don't know the whole truth. There are things about me that you should know and when you do I think you'll change your mind.'

‘There is absolutely nothing that you need to tell me. I know everything about you that I need or want to know.'

‘You can't!'

‘But I do, Eddie. I knew from the moment you took me in your arms on the dance floor that first evening we went out together. I looked into those gentle blue eyes and knew I had come home: I was where I wanted to be forever more, safe and protected. I was a little girl again with the man who had defended me against evil people; who had looked after me; who had saved my life.'

He looked at her for a few moments, shaken and bereft of speech. She continued.

‘I realised that some arrangement must have been made for you to disappear and come to live here with a new identity. I was glad, because I often wondered what had happened to you, but all Uncle Sean would say was that you were all right. In the end I gave up asking.'

‘How can you possibly feel this way about me, Izzy, knowing what you know? I was one of your abductors – much as I bitterly regretted that from the moment we snatched you, but by then it was too late to back out.'

‘Look at it this way, Eddie. If it hadn't been you they would certainly have found somebody else. Very likely he would not have been such a sympathetic person, one who would have cared for me as you did. In fact I could have been so much worse off and I would probably have died.'

‘But why on earth didn't you tell me you had recognised me that first time we met out here?'

‘I was afraid you'd feel morally obliged to stop all further contacts and I didn't want that to happen. I was so thrilled to have found you again, alive and well.'

‘I honestly can't understand how you don't hate me, let alone love me.'

‘But I do love you, Eddie, very much. The question now is what can we do about it?'

‘Nothing, my darling Izzy. There's no way we can marry, for then your family would have to know who I really am. I can never go back to Ireland. Inspector Flynn was so kind to me. He arranged for me to disappear and gave me financial help to make a new start here, with a new identity. I don't know how he managed to arrange it all or where he found the funds – maybe from his own pocket. I promised him I wouldn't try to return.' He paused again and with a break in his voice continued. ‘I get so homesick sometimes. It breaks my heart to think that I'll never again set eyes on dear old Dublin. But it's my own fault. I brought it all on myself. What a fool I was to do the things I did.'

‘Oh, Eddie! Now I want to cry for you.'

‘Don't do that! I don't deserve it from you of all people. Aside from the fact that I love you so much, the contact with you has somehow allowed me to keep in touch with home. You know, I think I fell in love with you all those years ago, when I thought you were the bravest little girl I had ever met, incarcerated in that foul cellar and coping with it all with so much courage.'

They talked on turning the whole problem around and around. He told her the full details of his sad story, being brutally honest, holding nothing back: details which could not have been given to her as a child, but which he had told Sean all those years before. When he finished the story, explaining how he landed in so much trouble in the first place, trying to help the underage, pregnant girl, Izzy was indignant.

‘But her parents
asked
you to help her. It wasn't your idea. Were
they
not sent to prison too?'

‘No! They denied any knowledge of the whole thing. Made out that the girl had approached me unknown to them and they knew nothing about it.'

‘How dishonest! But what about the girl herself?'

‘She was terrified and backed up her parents. She even denied that she had told me the pregnancy was the result of being raped by her uncle. I hadn't a chance. It was my word against hers and everyone believed
her
.'

‘So that really led to everything else: rejection by your family; hard labour; a miserable existence when you were released.'

‘Yes, Izzy, then succumbing to the temptation to get the money so I could go far away and start again. How stupid can you get! And of course you know the rest of the story – no one knows it better.'

Izzy did understand Jed or Eddie feeling he could never return home.

‘Well, if you can't go back to Ireland I could come to live here instead.'

‘No, Izzy. There'd still be the question of my true identity and that could cause a split with your family. I could never agree to that. Equally you can see that I can never agree to our becoming lovers. Somehow that would seem like compounding the original crime I helped to commit.'

‘If we get married here then I will come to live here and nobody at home need ever know who you really are. After all, where I live is my choice. My parents would be the first to agree with that, even though they'd be sad that I was so far away. My sister got married and moved away from Ireland. I wouldn't be the first in the family to do that. Dad's brother, Tommy, moved away too.'

‘Too many problems, Izzy. How are you going to explain to your parents that you want to get married here, in fact can't get married at home, as would be usual and expected?'

‘If we get married here, tomorrow, there would be no more to be said. The whole city seems to be geared to spur of the moment marriages: marriage parlours everywhere. Mum and Dad would be disappointed not to have been here for it but they're very flexible people and would accept it.'

‘No, Izzy. I can't let you do this to them. It's not fair and getting married in haste like that you'd almost certainly live to regret it. Compared to you I'm almost an old man, with a really disreputable past. And what about your career?'

‘My career can be continued from anywhere. I don't have to live at home for that.'

‘There's no way I can agree to rushing into this Izzy, much as I'd love to do as you've suggested. It might not be illegal but to me it would be completely immoral.'

‘But, Eddie . . . '

‘Let me finish, Izzy, please. I've had to work so hard to make a new and decent life and I've lived very strictly on the straight and narrow. I paid such a high price for my mistakes and deservedly so. I was determined that never again would I do something that I knew was wrong, but now I'm beginning to feel that I was very wrong to want to pursue our friendship. I honestly didn't intend it would get to this stage with both of us. I just so loved and valued the contact with you. I'm obviously still such a fool, for I thought we could be very good friends and nothing more, on a sort of uncle and favourite niece basis.' He paused. ‘I didn't foresee that we would fall so deeply in love.'

‘You know, Eddie, just like you think you fell in love with me when I was eleven years old, I'm convinced I fell in love with you too at that dreadful time. I came to depend on you totally. I remember so well the day you brought me the ice cream and chocolate and then when you put your arms around me to protect me from the dreadful Willie.'