Foreign Affairs (76 page)

They walked slowly, utterly content in each other’s company. The sun was beginning to set when they turned to walk back to their villa. Great slashes of pink and purple and gold streaked
the sky. The sun was a molten red orb suspended over the horizon. Slowly it began to dip, turning the waters to flame. Ronan and Jennifer stood watching as it sank lower and lower until just the
tiniest arc remained, then it too disappeared. High in the sky, a pale crescent moon, almost transparent, waited for darkness and its hour of glory.

‘That was beautiful,’ Jennifer breathed. Watching the sunset was one of the highlights of their day. As was watching the moonrise and the sunrise. They’d gone shopping and
explored the island, of course. They spent a day in George Town, the capital. But mostly they were content to be in each other’s company, relaxing and making love and enjoying their new
togetherness. It more than made up for the hassles of the wedding day. Ronan’s throat was fine again and there was nothing to mar their pleasure.

Ronan had his arm around her waist as they walked back up the steps onto the terrace. They walked past the rippling turquoise pool and suddenly he gave her a little push and she went flying
in.

‘You swine!’ she protested, gasping for breath when she surfaced.

‘I told you to be on your guard,’ Ronan said smugly as she swam over to the edge where he was standing laughing his head off. Jennifer reached up and made to grab him by the ankles
but he was too quick for her and stepped back.

‘I’m no fool,’ he joked.

‘It’s lovely anyway,’ Jennifer declared as she began to swim around lazily.

Ronan dived in. ‘So are you, or have I told you that already today?’

‘A thousand times,’ Jennifer giggled as she swam over to him. They kissed, softly at first and then with a passion that left them breathless. Ronan reached down beneath the water and
eased her bikini bottom off. She helped him remove his shorts. They stood entwined in the undulating waters and slowly began to make love, kissing and caressing and giving each other uninhibited
pleasure as the skies darkened around them and the stars twinkled in the firmament.

Chapter Seventy-Five

If she’d been exhausted during her pregnancy – it was nothing to what she felt now. Brenda yawned.

‘Claudia, I’m trying to feed John, please be a good girl,’ she said crossly as she tried to prevent her daughter from swiping the baby’s bottle. Poor Claudia’s nose
was terribly out of joint with the arrival of two little strangers who were taking up so much of her mother’s attention.

Claudia started to scream. Her screeches added to the cacophony of wails. Lauren was yelling in her cot, waiting to be fed. John was red in the face, seeking the teat of his bottle. Claudia
stamped her feet and slapped Brenda.

‘Into the playpen with you, you bold girl,’ Brenda snapped, laying John on the sofa, where he rent the air with his wails, his little fists flailing the air. She lifted a kicking,
struggling Claudia in her arms and put her in the playpen. Claudia howled in fury. Brenda felt like howling herself. She knew she should reassure her eldest daughter and lavish attention on her but
it was impossible with two small babies to look after.

She picked up John, settled him in her arms and put the bottle back in his mouth. He stopped crying and sucked greedily. Brenda looked at the downy little head nestled in the crook of her arm.
He was a placid little fellow except when he was hungry. His twin, Lauren, was much more lively and demanding.

She’d known having twins was going to be hectic but nothing had prepared her for the constant feeding, changing, bathing and dressing that was her lot these days. So much for the life of
leisure she’d envisaged on leaving work. She’d never worked so hard in her life and she was always exhausted.

It wouldn’t be so bad if she got a decent night’s sleep, Brenda thought dispiritedly, giving a huge yawn. But Claudia was teething and having a hard time of it. Lauren never slept
through the night and John always woke at six for his happy hour of gooing and gaaing. Brenda couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a full night’s sleep. She craved sleep more
than anything. Brenda was always promising herself little naps in the day but it never worked out. She could rarely get her three children to sleep at the same time during the day.

The house was a shambles. There were toys all over the floor. Wads of nappies, tubs of Sudocrem and Vaseline spilled out of a baby bag that was stuck behind one of the armchairs. Baby clothes
covered the radiator. Brenda glanced out the window. There was a good breeze out today, although it was cloudy. As soon as she’d bathed the babies and Claudia, she’d hang out the
wash-load that was in the washing-machine. Or maybe she should do it before she gave them their baths. Rain was forecast for the early afternoon and she was running low on clean vests.

John’s eyes drooped and he stopped sucking. Brenda gave him a little nudge. John liked to linger over his bottle. He’d go for a little snooze if she let him but Lauren was yelling
for hers and Claudia hadn’t had her breakfast yet.

She took the bottle from him and sat him on her knee and winded him. He gave a loud burp. ‘Good boy,’ Brenda said, pleased. John was a topper for getting his wind up. Lauren had
difficulties and was inclined towards colic.

She fed her son the rest of his bottle, winded him again, and placed him in his carrycot. He smiled contentedly at her, and she bent and kissed him on the forehead. It was a pity her other two
children couldn’t be as placid as their brother. John definitely had Shay’s temperament.

She went out to the kitchen and got Lauren’s bottle and scowled when she saw the state of the kitchen table. Shay could have washed up after his breakfast. A sticky marmalade knife was
thrown in the sink with his plate and cup. That was Shay’s idea of clearing up. She knew he was busy these days and she should be grateful for all the extra business, but he left the house at
the crack of dawn and often wasn’t home until late in the evening. It was sometimes after nine when he got home, so he wasn’t around to help out. Not like Kathy’s husband, Kenny,
who was a dab hand at changing nappies, hanging out clothes, hoovering and the rest of it. Kathy had it far easier than she did, Brenda thought, self-pityingly.

They
all
had it far easier than she did. Jennifer and Ronan were just back from yet another foreign holiday. One of the perks of her job. Jennifer’s house was immaculate. You
could walk in at any time of the night or day and there was never so much as a cushion out of place. She didn’t have to dry clothes on radiators, she could afford a dryer.

And as for Paula Matthews,
her
life was a permanent holiday. She swanned around in designer clothes looking like a model out of
Vogue
, with her permanent suntan. If a baby
puked on her she’d probably faint, Brenda scowled as she tested Lauren’s bottle.

Life had not turned out as Brenda had planned. The twins’ arrival had changed her life completely. After Claudia was born she’d been able to get out and about, have coffee mornings
with Kathy and go into town and window-shop occasionally. But the twins had put a halt to her gallop. Brenda couldn’t ever imagine herself having a life of her own again. She fed Lauren and
put her back in her cot and took Claudia out of the playpen. She gave the little girl a kiss. Claudia was having none of it. She pouted and sulked and turned her head away. Brenda sighed. Claudia
reminded her of herself sometimes.

‘Come on, and I’ll get you some lovely Liga for breakfast,’ Brenda entreated.

‘No.’ Claudia glowered. No was her favourite word.

‘Come on, you have your breakfast with me because you’re a big girl, you’re not a baby any more. You’re my best helper.’

‘Want my bawbaw.’

‘I’ll give you a bottle,’ Brenda said patiently. Claudia kept insisting on having bottles now, because of the twins. Brenda had successfully weaned her off them before the
twins’ arrival. She crumbled up the Liga fine, heated the milk and poured it all into the bottle. She went to lift Claudia into her high chair.

‘Feeg me,’ Claudia demanded.

Brenda swallowed her irritation. At this rate she’d be here all day. She lifted the little girl into her arms and Claudia cuddled in close and popped her bottle into her mouth. Content now
that she was the centre of her mother’s attention the toddler sucked on the bottle with gusto.

Half an hour later, Brenda stood at the line hanging out the clothes. She hadn’t even had her breakfast yet and she was starving. But she wanted to get the clothes out first.

The garden was like a wilderness, she noted. Shay must do a job on it at the weekend. If she had time she’d give him a hand. She felt a certain satisfaction as she saw her line of clothes
fluttering in the breeze. She wasn’t too far behind schedule. It was just gone nine. Maybe after the baths, when she put the babies down for a sleep, she might get the house tidied up and the
clothes on the radiator sorted. If she was lucky she might get forty winks herself after the lunch-time feeds when the twins were sleeping and Claudia was dozing in her playpen. The sky was very
grey. A good hour would get the clothes dry and it could rain then for the afternoon for all she cared. She’d light a fire and pull the sofa over in front of it and have a lazy afternoon. She
wouldn’t bother cooking a dinner today, she decided. She’d get Shay to go for burgers and chips.

Brenda’s mood lifted at the thought of a lazy afternoon. She’d work like hell for the rest of the morning and then flop. Energized, she walked up the garden path to the back door. A
howl from Claudia sent her sprinting along the last few yards. Brenda raced in to find Claudia with a trickle of blood dribbling down her nose. There were marrowfat peas all over the floor. An open
packet lay on its side in one of her fitted presses.

‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’ she exclaimed. ‘I don’t know how many times I’ve asked Shay to put childproof catches on those bloody doors.’ She lifted Claudia up
and tried to peer up her nostrils.

‘Did you put a pea up your nose, Claudia?’ she demanded. Claudia was a holy terror for stuffing things up her nose. They’d been to Temple Street Hospital twice about it
before.

‘Did you put a pea up your nose? Tell Mammy.’ Brenda tried to keep her voice normal. She didn’t want to scare Claudia or make her feel she was annoyed with her.

Her daughter, still yelling, nodded.

Oh shit, thought Brenda. Her heart sank at the thought of another trip to Temple Street. Who the hell was she going to get to look after the twins? Kit was working part-time in a café in
town. Grandpa Myles was too old to be left with such young babies. God only knew where Shay was. She’d have to ask her next-door neighbour, Mandy.

Brenda ran out the front gate in her dressing-gown with a howling Claudia under her arm. Mandy’s curtains weren’t pulled. She had to knock several times before she got a response. It
was obvious she’d woken her neighbour out of her sleep. Mandy stood, bleary-eyed, gazing at her.

‘I’m terribly sorry, Mandy, Claudia’s stuffed a pea up her nose. I’ll have to bring her to Temple Street. Would you be able to look after the twins for me for an hour or
so?’ Mandy hesitated. ‘I’m really stuck, Mandy,’ Brenda pleaded.

‘OK, bring them in, and bring some of that Cow & Gate so I can make up a bottle for them. You’ll probably be stuck there for ages,’ Mandy said in resignation.

‘I’ll pay you back some way,’ Brenda promised.’ I swear to God, they’ll think I’m doing it on purpose, this will be my third time to bring Claudia in with
something up her nose.’

‘I know,’ Mandy said drily. This was not the first time she’d had to mind the twins because of Claudia’s penchant for inserting foreign bodies up her nostrils. Brenda was
too harassed to notice the tone of her neighbour’s voice. ‘I’ll be in with them in a minute,’ she said hastily, as she took off down the path with Claudia still yelling blue
murder.

‘I can’t wait,’ Mandy thought irritably as she watched Brenda’s dramatic exit. Brenda Hanley and her children were becoming right pains in the ass.
Brenda kept landing her kids in on top of Mandy. She always had some great drama or excuse. When Brenda moved in first, Mandy was glad that someone young and lively had moved in next door. The old
lady who had lived there had been a cantankerous old soul. Giving out if the boys kicked the ball into her precious garden. ‘There’s a green down the road, let them play on that,’
she’d grumble, making a big drama out of picking up the flowers the ball had damaged. Mandy was always nagging the kids to go and play on The Green. When the old lady decided to sell up and
go to a nursing home, Mandy had been on tenterhooks to see what the new neighbours would be like. She was delighted when Brenda and Shay arrived and introduced themselves.

Everything had gone very well at the beginning, although Brenda could be a bit of a nuisance, looking for milk and sugar and the like, when she ran out. But compared to Mrs Long’s
shenanigans it was paradise . . . until Claudia was born. From the time the baby was only a few weeks old, Brenda had started asking Mandy to keep an eye on her while she popped down to the shops.
That always took an age despite the fact that the shops were only five minutes away and Brenda drove there. Brenda got more blatant and asked would Mandy mind Claudia so she could go into town.
Mandy found it very hard to say no to people. She’d say ‘It’s no bother’ even though the last thing she wanted to do was mind a baby. She’d reared three of her own
without inflicting them on her neighbours. Her nine-year-old daughter Lisa was mad about Claudia so if she was at home, it wasn’t too bad.

But Lisa wasn’t at home today, she thought crossly. She was at school and Mandy was going to have to endure the twins by herself.

It was great having good neighbours, Brenda thought as she turned right onto the Ballymun Road and headed south towards town. Mandy was crazy about the kids, she loved babies.
She never minded looking after them for Brenda. Claudia whimpered in the baby chair in the back. What had possessed her to push a marrowfat up her nose? You’d want eyes at the back of your
head trying to keep an eye on her. Brenda sighed. She should have put her in her playpen while she went out to hang out the clothes but that would have started another tantrum.