Light A Penny Candle (61 page)

‘Yes, yes.’

‘Very nice, this reception, very generous of you, Mr White.’

‘Yes, well, indirectly, only indirectly.’

In desperation Johnny looked for someone to rope in. Tony Murray was nearby. Johnny filled his glass. He was a handsome fellow, this husband of Aisling’s. ‘Have you met Aisling O’Connor’s husband, Mr White?’ They had, and obviously hadn’t found much to talk about then either. Johnny battled on, and filled Tony Murray’s glass
again
. With relief he saw that Mrs Noble was organising the food on the tables at the end of the room and he was able to direct them both towards it. Tony Murray said he had to slip downstairs to make a phone call. Fine-looking fellow, but a bit restless, Johnny thought.

Aisling had taken down Harry’s address and promised to visit him in Preston. She was stunned to find herself laughing so heartily with the terrible Mr Elton who had come to take Elizabeth’s mother away. After a while she even felt bold enough to tell him that.

‘I know.’ Harry was solemn for a moment. ‘I think Elizabeth sometimes feels the same. She’s such a good friend to me, but I think she stops now and then and puzzles over it all.’

‘No, she always talks of you with great love,’ Aisling said.

‘Does she now? That’s good to know, she’s a great lass, I think of her as my own daughter. She always loved being over in your place too, mind. She said it was the best time of her life.’

‘We are being polite to each other.’ Aisling looked around for Tony; she couldn’t see him, but he must be in that group which was moving to the food. ‘Elizabeth’s very happy today, she’s delighted with Henry and the whole thing. …’

‘Yes.’ Harry nodded, but his earlier enthusiasm didn’t seem so marked now. ‘Yes, I hope she made the right choice, she says she has, she says she has. I always thought she’d marry Johnny Stone.’

‘Yes, well they both took long enough to consider that one, and it didn’t work out at marrying each other did it?’

Harry laughed. Aisling was a great girl, he thought, a corker to look at too. ‘Yes, but you see Elizabeth’s her mother’s daughter, there’s a flash of Violet in her all the time. I hope this fellow will be enough for her.’

‘Well, if he’s not, let’s hope that history won’t repeat itself, and we won’t see another wicked Mr Elton coming to carry her off in the future.’ They moved towards the table and Aisling saw that Donal was having an animated chat with an attractive blonde, and she noticed with some relief that Tony had come in the door; he must have been to the toilet. He looked a bit better now, less pale and sickly.

Mrs Noble could whisper without even appearing to move her mouth. ‘Mr Elton, do you think we should discourage the waitress from passing any more wine to that rather stocky, well-built man near the door? An Irishman I think.’

‘Thank you,’ said Harry, ‘I’ll see she passes him no more.’

A little later: ‘Mr Stone, just before the speeches begin can I call your attention to that dark-haired Irishman? Over there.’

‘The Squire,’ Johnny smiled.

‘Well, I don’t want to say anything to Miss White, or indeed Mrs Mason as she must be called now, but he does seem to have a half bottle of spirits in his hip pocket. It may be unimportant but I felt you should know.’

Johnny stood behind Tony Murray for a while. Twice he saw the wine glass which had contained white wine until Harry had motioned the waitress away being refilled from a half bottle of vodka which now only had a third of the contents left. He did it very cleverly, with one hand, glass on the table, bottle out, cap off, filling down and bottle replaced in a moment; all the while Tony was looking innocently ahead of him, and with his other hand he was taking little puffs from his cigarette and waving across the room – but there was nobody returning his wave.

Simon was courteous, wordy, flowery, and urbane. Those were the words that Aisling thought she would have used to describe him. He didn’t say anything real about either Elizabeth or Henry, it was all little witticisms but people liked them – and indeed he said them very well.

The cake was cut, the champagne was produced, and toasts were drunk.

‘Are you going to make a speech?’ Aisling asked Elizabeth’s Father.

‘Oh heavens no, no, she promised, she said I didn’t have to.’ He looked worried.

‘Go on out of that, she’d love you to say a few words … just a word or two, it would mean a lot.’

‘I don’t think …’ He looked flustered.

‘Tell them she was a smashing daughter, and she’ll be a good wife and you’re glad that everyone is here enjoying themselves and it’s a happy occasion.’

‘Is that all I’d have to say?’

‘Certainly that’s all. Go on now, slay them, knock them sideways.’

Father cleared his throat. Elizabeth looked up, startled. It had all been going so well, Father wasn’t going to do anything absurd like saying it was over now? There were still five more bottles of champagne to be passed around.

‘I’d like to tell you all that I am not a good speaker, but I cannot let the moment pass without expressing my gratitude to you all for coming, my hope that you are enjoying the reception. …’ A lot of hear-hears at this. ‘And I would mainly like to say that I am very happy that my daughter, Elizabeth, is marrying such a splendid man as Henry Mason, I am sure he will make her very happy and I can tell him that if she is as good a wife as she has been a daughter, he will be a lucky man. Thank you very much.’ It was so simple and unflowery, after all Simon’s complicated and convoluted phrases, that it touched everyone. Glasses were raised again to the bride and Elizabeth had to concentrate very hard on the table cloth to stop the tears coming into her eyes. Fancy poor Father steeling himself to do that, he must have been practising it all the time. Who would ever have thought Father could have thought of just the right thing to say?

Harry had asked Mrs Noble if they could use the piano. She was most enthusiastic, so before Elizabeth was even aware that Harry was on the piano stool he had struck up, ‘For They Are Jolly Good Fellows’, and everyone in the room including Father was joining in. Harry was in his element, he got them singing ‘On Ilkley Moor Baht ‘at’, and to the cries of more, he had ‘My Old Man Said Follow The Van’.

He played ‘It’s A Long Way To Tipperary’, specially for the contingent from Ireland, and then that turned into ‘Pack up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag’.

‘Another Irish song,’ Stefan called. The Irish have the best songs.’

‘I’ll sing one,’ Tony said.

‘Oh my God.’ Aisling turned round to see who could come to her aid. She saw Johnny not far away. ‘He doesn’t sing, stop him,’ she said desperately.

Tony said, ‘Do you know Kevin Barry?’

‘No,’ said Harry good-naturedly. ‘But you start and I’ll pick it up.’

‘In Mount Joy gaol one Monday morning,

High above the gallows tree

Kevin Barry gave his young life

For the cause of Liberty. …’

‘Please Johnny,’ Aisling begged.

‘Hey what about some song we all know?’ Johnny called out.

‘No, let me finish,’ Tony said.

‘Let him finish,’ Simon said. ‘Can’t cut a man off midsong.’

‘Just before he faced the hangman

In his lonely prison cell.

British soldiers tortured Kevin

Just because he would not tell…

The names of those …

The names of those …’

Tony looked around irritated. ‘What comes next? Come on, someone must know?’ Everyone looked blank.

‘The names of those …

His something comrades …

And other things they wished to know …

Tell us now or we will kill you …

Barry proudly answered no.

‘Ash you know the words, come on, you can hold the tune, join in.’

Aisling spoke clearly across the room. ‘I can’t remember them, I think you’ve skipped a verse, but, honestly, it’s not a song for a wedding. Hangmen, prison cells, can’t you sing something more cheerful and we’ll all join in …?’

‘It’s important that we finish it,’ Tony said doggedly. ‘There’s another verse:

‘Kevin Barry you must leave us,

On the gallows you must die,

Wept his broken-hearted mother

As she kissed her son goodbye. …’

Harry did a loud crescendo at that point, by way of ending, Johnny started to clap; so did a couple of others and then everyone joined in.

Tony was very obviously not finished, but Harry had a louder voice. ‘Right, we’ve had Ireland’s turn … anyone from Wales …? Come on, there must be someone from a Welsh choir …? Or Scotland …?’ With the heaviest chords he introduced ‘I belong to Glasgow’, and Mrs Noble made sure that the remaining champagne was being poured among the guests.

Aisling said to Donal, ‘Get him out, Johnny Stone will help you.’

‘Aisling, I don’t know. …’

‘Right out of the room. If you want to do something to help I want him right out of here.’ She saw Donal talking to Johnny and Johnny walking over to Tony. Tony was pointing back at the piano; Johnny was making a sign with his hand of a person who had a glass in his hand – he was asking Tony out for a drink. Tony gesticulated towards the bottle of champagne which he could see circulating. Johnny was shaking his head. He was indicating the stairs. Mrs Noble was with them. Whatever they were saying Tony was going like a lamb.

Harry in his role as compère was saying that as the humble pianist he had been informed that the bride and groom would leave shortly so could everyone join in a chorus of ‘My Dear Old Dutch’? He had his arm tightly around Elizabeth’s shoulder and she was smiling at him, Stefan was patting Anna on the hand, and everyone was joining in because Harry had a way of roaming around and catching your eye if you didn’t sing.

Donal put his arm into Aisling’s, and they sang together
as
Harry swept them back to the beginning of the song again.

‘We’ve been together now for forty years

And it don’t seem a day too much. …’

Aisling looked at the door; Mrs Noble and Johnny were standing there singing too. There was no sign of Tony. The goodbyes were being shouted. Elizabeth came over and held on to Aisling.

‘Bless you for coming. It wouldn’t have been a wedding without you.’

Aisling said, ‘I remember saying the same thing to you in Kilgarret. Oh, Elizabeth I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’

‘What about?’ Elizabeth’s clear expression meant she didn’t know what Aisling was apologising for.

‘Tony. I’m so sorry, I don’t know how he got that drunk, I watched him like a hawk. I’m so sorry he stood up like that and disgraced himself and us. …’

‘Goodbye, Aisling,’ Henry interrupted. ‘Goodbye, thank you so much for being our bridesmaid, witness. You are good to have come all this way.’

‘Thank you Henry.’ Aisling fingered the little brooch with the pearl in it that Henry had given her. ‘It’s beautiful, I’ll never forget the day.’

‘Oh and say goodbye to Tony for me. I can’t see him,’ Henry said.

‘I spend my time saying goodbye to Tony for people, I think I should say goodbye to him myself. …’

They all went downstairs in a happy troop, and clustered around the car. Elizabeth pecked at Father’s cheek; she had given Harry a hug on the stairs. She was kissed by everyone and when Johnny kissed her very tenderly he said, ‘You’re the loveliest lady I ever met, I always said it and I always meant it. Be very very happy.’

Mrs Noble saw Tony and two men coming out of the bar where she had directed him, he had an arm around each of them. She blocked him from view by pretending great surprise. ‘Hallo, Mr Murray. Fancy seeing you here,’ she said, while she could hear the taxi revving up.

‘How do you know who I am?’ Tony growled suspiciously; he felt he was being prevented from doing something he wanted to do, but wasn’t sure what it was.

The two men who were being dragged with him said, ‘Come on back in the pub mate, they close soon.’

‘Yes, we’ll all be in then, everyone’s coming in, in a moment,’ Mrs Noble said.

‘Great,’ said Tony, and re-entered just as the final cheer saw the taxi off. The crowd were dispersing on the pavement.

Mrs Noble drew Aisling aside. ‘I thought I’d mention that he is in that establishment across the road Madam, if you wanted to know.’

‘You’re a brick,’ said Aisling, ‘I don’t want to know. I’m going to take my brother off to the pictures. But thank you for telling me, and thank you for getting him there.’

‘Not at all – a very high-spirited man, your husband.’

‘Very,’ said Aisling. ‘Listen, what will you do when the pub closes if he tries to get back into your place?’

‘I’ll tell him the crowd moved on, I’ll point him off towards … where would you like him to head …?’

‘I’d say the River Thames but that would sound a bit strong. Anywhere at all, he knows the hotel we’re staying at so he’ll end up there.’

‘Poor Aisling, this must be so awful for you, and the last time you saw Elizabeth was your own wedding,’ said Donal as they set off.

‘That’s right.’

‘It must be sad for you … you know your wedding day turning out so great and now this so awful. …’

‘Actually, Donal, my own wedding day turned out pretty awful for me too, but that’s a long story and let’s not tell it now.’ She smiled at him and slowly his white, anxious face broke into a sort of a smile too, and they went off to buy an evening paper and see what film they would go to.

XVII

DONAL TOLD EVERYONE
that the very same day they came home from London on the plane the British started their war, they went off to Suez.

‘It wasn’t a real war, stop going on as if you were out in the front line,’ Eamonn said. ‘Sorry Mam,’ he added suddenly when he saw Eileen’s face.

‘I wonder, when I’m dead and gone, will any of you remember you had an elder brother?’ Eileen said.

‘Oh Mam, of course we will.’

‘Go on about the wedding.’ Niamh was home for the weekend; she felt slighted that Elizabeth had not invited her, but Elizabeth was awfully stuffy and English in some ways. Fancy thinking that it might interfere with her studies.

‘I’ve told you everything, it was like a service only no altars, no music and he wasn’t a priest. And it was all in English of course, like Protestants anyway.’