Three Women (13 page)

‘Erin, this is such an opportunity for me to transfer over there. You do realize what it will mean in career terms?’

‘Of course,’ she said, not wanting to admit she had no idea of the inner workings of the company he was always talking about.

‘I’ll be at the heart of everything in Hibernian – the London office is where all the major transactions happen. My bonus will be bigger, I’ll get a much broader experience and with any luck there’ll be far more chance of promotion, not like here where everything is on hold.’

He was excited and happy – the total opposite of what she was feeling.

‘It’ll take about six weeks or so to organize the total transfer, but I’ll be working full time in London by then.’

‘Luke, I’m so happy for you. I know that’s what you want,’ she said, kissing him.

‘Yes, but I want you there with me too, Erin. Have you heard any more about the interviews?’

‘Nothing yet,’ she replied. ‘But I’ll chase them up.’

She wasn’t going to tell him that she’d been asked to go over last Thursday for a first-round interview with a really good design company in Battersea and she had turned it down.

‘I’ll go and look at some apartments next week when I am over, try to get an idea on rents and locations. We want to be pretty central, so it’s probably going to cost a fair bit,’ he warned as he kissed her goodnight.

Erin was stunned. She didn’t want to be rushed into things; she needed time to think.

‘Couldn’t you share with some of the other guys for a bit until I know what’s happening?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, with my career … Getting a new job might not be that easy and I have a lot of projects here that I need to finish.’

‘Okay, maybe you’re right,’ he grinned, kissing her again, ‘but that’s only temporarily, until you and I get a really nice place of our own.’

Erin couldn’t even think about London now – she was much too busy. Luke was thinking about his career and she had to think about hers …

NINA HAD BOOKED
the cinema and organized to meet her old friend Vonnie for an early-bird meal in Bruno’s Bistro in Dun Laoghaire before heading to the cinema to see the screen version of
The Dressmaker
, a French book they’d both really enjoyed reading.

‘My book club loved it too, but I’m just nervous that they’ll destroy the book,’ admitted Vonnie, ‘and then no one will want to read it again.’

‘Sometimes the film works really well and brings the book to an even bigger audience,’ said Nina, who was always struck by the visual elements of everything she read. ‘Remember
The Help
, and
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
and
Chocolat
. They all were brilliant!’

They ordered quickly, both opting for the red wine, as the restaurant filled up with Saturday diners.

‘Thanks for asking me,’ said Vonnie. ‘It beats sitting in on my own!’

‘I’m on my own tonight too,’ laughed Nina. ‘Tom’s in Kilkenny having dinner with some friends after a golf outing.’

Nina knew how hard it was for Vonnie ever since she and her husband, Simon, had separated. It was no fun being single again at their age and trying to manage on your own. Vonnie’s life had literally fallen to pieces eighteen months ago when Simon had left her for a twenty-eight-year-old who worked in the bank with him. Vonnie was doing her best to keep things normal at home, but she was under enormous financial and emotional pressure.

Nina found herself confiding in Vonnie about Erin’s birth mother’s failure to turn up to meet her last week.

‘What kind of woman would do that to her daughter? She sounds like a right b—, if you ask me. Erin must be so upset!’

‘She is, but you know something? I’m happy that that woman is not coming back into our lives. It’s something I’ve been dreading for years,’ Nina admitted, ‘that Erin and this birth mother of hers would meet and just click and be so alike and in tune with each other that suddenly I’d become obsolete.’

‘Don’t be so stupid, Nina! You’re her mum. Nothing will change that!’ insisted Vonnie. ‘How could you even think that?’

‘I know it’s pathetic, but it’s what I was worried about and now, thank heaven, it’s not an issue any more,’ Nina said, relieved, as Vonnie filled her in on her week.

‘Simon’s so enthralled with bloody Louisa that it’s as if our three boys never existed. He suddenly wants to be young and carefree with no dependants,’ she confided. ‘He’s complaining about paying their school and college fees and the cost of keeping them. Honestly, does he think the boys are going to stop eating and growing just because he’s not around? I have to find some kind of job, Nina, I badly need the money.’

Nina felt so sorry for Vonnie. Her friend had been a stalwart over the years, generous and kind to all who knew her, and with her blonde hair and curvy figure she was absolutely gorgeous. Simon O’Neill must need his head examined to have left her for another woman.

‘Jobs are really scarce,’ said Nina, knowing well that if twenty-three-year-old college graduates couldn’t find work with all their degrees and energy and computer savvy, with the best will in the world it was going to be almost impossible for someone like Vonnie to find a job.

‘Trust Simon to go and pick the worst time in the bloody world to dump me!’

Nina burst out laughing.

‘I’m serious, Nina. I have to do something. I saw a computer course advertised in the local employment office to help people get back to work and I put my name down for it.’

‘You and computers!’

‘I know – but I just have to master all the stuff employers want nowadays. Excel and PowerPoint and CAD or whatever it is I need. The boys said they’d help me. Anyway, I’m bored sitting at home. It’ll be good for me to have to go to a class every day and meet new people.’

‘That’s wonderful, Vonnie – you’ll do great. How long does the course last?’

‘Six months, but then you can do an advanced course if you want.’

Nina was full of admiration for her. Vonnie had courage and was picking herself up and starting over again instead of feeling sorry for herself.

They both had ordered the seafood bake for their main course and shared a dessert of warm, gooey chocolate pudding
and
home-made ice cream afterwards, keeping an eye on the time, conscious of people waiting at the bar to get a table.

As she paid the bill and they grabbed their coats and passed along by the other tables, Nina stopped suddenly, spotting friends of theirs.

‘Hey, Nina, how are you?’

It was Frank Hennessy and his wife Brenda with their son Richard and his wife. Frank, with his bald head and big build in a tight-fitting blue-striped shirt, stood up to say hello. She introduced them to Vonnie.

‘Frank, I thought you and Tom were playing golf today,’ she said, kissing him.

‘No, Richard and I played this afternoon – he wiped the floor with his old man!’

‘Were you playing down in Kilkenny?’

‘No, not today. We stuck close to home. The two of us played out in Woodbrook. Why?’

‘Oh, I must have got mixed up. I thought Tom mentioned that he was playing with you today in Mount Juliet … My mistake – it must be someone else he was playing with,’ she said, suddenly embarrassed.

‘The cinema,’ mouthed Vonnie silently.

‘Look, we’ve got to go – we’re rushing to see a film,’ she explained as they grabbed their coats and headed outside.

Nina wondered if maybe Tom was at home and checked her phone. Nothing, no messages.

‘What’s up?’ asked Vonnie as they walked together towards the large Omniplex cinema.

‘Nothing – just me getting a bit mixed up about what Tom was doing today.’

‘You’re lucky you don’t have to worry about Tom, not like
the
way I was about Simon. He told me so many lies – working late, stuck at work things, weekends away with work colleagues on so-called conferences and business things. It was just one lie after another, and I never even suspected. Imagine – new suits, new shirts, new clothes, new flipping boxers and socks and aftershave, and I still didn’t twig it … I was such a fool. Alarm bells should have been ringing.’

Nina said nothing. Tom had invested in a new business suit and shirts a few months ago and dumped most of his comfy old underwear too. He was nothing like that bastard Simon, but what the hell was going on?

The cinema was packed and even though she tried to lose herself in the film, her mind was racing. Where was Tom tonight, and who was he with?

She could see Vonnie was engrossed in the story, but she was finding it hard to concentrate. She was being silly, imagining something when there was absolutely nothing going on, only that she hadn’t been listening properly to what Tom was saying … She turned her attention to the screen.

Coming home in the car, Vonnie rambled on about the film. Nina said little. Truth to tell, she had barely seen it. Vonnie asked her in for a cup of coffee. She couldn’t face going home on her own in the state she was in and was glad to sit in the cosy kitchen as her friend made her a cup of caffeine-free coffee and produced a packet of her favourite Jaffa cakes and they tried to concoct a hundred crazy ways for Vonnie O’Neill to make money quickly …

NINA HAD BARELY
slept a wink all night. There had been no message from Tom and even though she had been tempted to phone him and demand to know where he was, she had somehow retained her composure and done nothing. Something was going on; she had no idea what it was, but one thing she was sure of was that her husband was absolutely nothing like Simon O’Neill, who had always been a womanizer. Poor Vonnie had put up with a lot with that Romeo, and even though it was hard on her she was probably better off without him.

After getting showered and dressed, she walked down to Dalkey village, went to mass and bought the Sunday papers. There was probably a very innocent reason for her thinking Tom was in Kilkenny.

It started to lash rain around lunchtime and all plans to bring the dog for a walk were abandoned, as Bailey had developed an aversion to rain in his older years and would almost have to be dragged out the door if he felt a raindrop. Wanting to keep herself busy, she decided to work and sought the refuge of her study.

She had been commissioned by one of her publishers to do ten illustrations for a beautiful new collection of Oscar Wilde stories. He was one of her favourite Irish authors and she was very excited about it. Drawing and painting had always been a big part of her life and she was lucky to have had the opportunity to go and study art when she left school. Work had been hard to come by when she graduated and she had done bits of everything: illustrations for magazines and newspapers; selling her prints and paintings at various exhibitions and shows; and over time she had built up a body of work. Even when the children had come along, Tom had encouraged her to keep her own career going – he knew how much it meant to her. Once she sat at her drawing board or easel, time and worries and cares seemed to disappear. The room was a mess – organized chaos, she called it – but she knew where everything was. Sitting down, Nina concentrated and began to work.

It was just starting to get late when she realized the time and switched on the lights. She never pulled the curtains, as she liked to see the garden. Daylight brought the birds and the cheeky squirrel, and dusk the fox and the hedgehog and the small creatures that preferred the dark.

Bailey was asleep at her feet in his basket. She’d better feed him and, now the rain had finally stopped, let him out into the garden. She went downstairs to the kitchen, surprised to see that Tom was home and reading the papers.

‘When did you get back?’

‘About an hour and a half ago.’

‘How was the golf?’

‘The golf was great yesterday and I stayed on and had lunch with Frank today. The rain was so bad I decided there was no point rushing back.’

Nina didn’t know what to say or do. Should she say about meeting Frank last night – confront him and have a massive row? Why would Tom lie to her? What reason could he possibly have to try and pretend he was somewhere he was obviously not?

‘How’s Brenda?’

‘Well I didn’t see her, but she’s fine,’ he said before burying himself in the business section of the
Sunday Times
. She felt like snatching it out of his hands and smacking him round the head with it.

There was definitely something up, and she had no idea what it was. Tom was normally as honest and straightforward as they come; there never had been deceits and lies in their relationship over all the years.

‘Tom, is everything okay?’ she asked, hovering over the table opposite him.

‘It was an awful drive back,’ he said, putting the paper down for a second, ‘so a nice cup of coffee wouldn’t go amiss.’

Honestly, she’d strangle him, she thought, as she put on the kettle. If something was going on with her husband she was determined to find it out.

ERIN WANTED TO
put kate flanagan out of her mind, forget about her, just the way Kate had blanked her from her mind. But she just couldn’t forget about her, however much she tried. It was eating away at her no matter what she did.

She had talked to Marian and to Sheila about it. Marian had made it very clear that, while Kate regretted what she had done in standing her up, she was adamant that she didn’t want to meet her or have any further contact with her.

‘Can’t you get her to change her mind?’ Erin pleaded.

‘I’m sorry, but we have to respect your birth mother’s wishes,’ Marian had said firmly, closing the door to any further discussion about the matter.

‘It’s very hard for you to listen to what she is saying, but you have to learn to accept it,’ advised Sheila when Erin met with her.

To Erin it seemed like her natural mother had given her away for a second time, deliberately walked away from her again. Maybe she should take everyone’s advice and just forget about her and be satisfied with the information she had. But
somehow
she couldn’t accept it. She wasn’t a three-week-old baby, a child, any more and she wasn’t going to give up.