House of Memories (16 page)

Kate could hardly believe what she was hearing, and when she looked across at David there was such a look of delight on his face that she got up and hugged Rodney.

“Your news is such a relief,” she told him. “We were so worried about the school when we heard of your plans for a hotel.”

“Guess I should have kept my mouth shut on that one, but I wanted to trickle it out slowly and get you all used to the idea of change,” he admitted.

“I’m afraid that I jumped to the wrong conclusions,” David admitted, “and thought that I would finish up with no school, but what you have in mind is just beyond all expectations. It’s any headmaster’s dream come true.”

“Well, you’re the best, David,” Rodney assured him, “and I know the best when I see it. But have a look at the plans. I got a top educational expert to do the design, but they are still open to suggestion. After all, you’re the one who will be running the show.”

The plans were handed around the table, but Kate found that she could not make head nor tail of the big sheet of paper covered with drawings. The rest of them, however, seemed to have no such problem, but she noticed that Fr Tim, having examined them carefully, looked across at Rodney with a
puzzled expression on his face and said, “This layout is pretty extensive. Where exactly is this school going to be?”

“Well, that is where I thought I would be guided by local knowledge,” Rodney told him. “Is there any suitable place available around the village?”

They all looked a bit perplexed, and Kate thought that it would be terrible if a suitable site could not be found. Fr Tim dismissed this possibility.

“There is bound to be a suitable place,” he declared. “Sure, aren’t we surrounded by farmland?” They were all reassured by this, but Kate, knowing the farming people and their attachment to their land better than the rest of them, was not so sure. But she decided that she would not be the one to dampen their enthusiasm, and it was great to see David so happy. The entire discussion centred around the school, and after some time Kate decided that someone should show interest in his hotel.

“Are you looking forward to transforming the school into a splendid hotel?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m very excited about it,” he declared. “It’s a wonderful old building and as you know the original family home and has huge potential to be tastefully developed into a top class hotel. This is where your sister-in-law Martha is coming in. She has refused to marry me, so I must settle for a business partnership, and I think that it will work out very well. You know, Kate, property is very cheap in Ireland right now, but all of that is going to change. Tourism is about to take off here, and Kilmeen must be ready.”

“You have always loved this place,” she smiled.

“My roots are here. It was my mother’s homeplace, and ever
since I came back here to visit my aunts I’ve loved it too. I’m not ashamed to admit that my mother married big money in the States, but she had class and my father’s people admired her greatly. The school for me is an opportunity to honour her memory. I can afford it, and I’ll make money out of the hotel and other projects. I may be sentimental about my mother, but I’m a businessman. But family is very important to me too, and, Kate, I just want to say how sad I was to hear about Jack, because I know what he meant to you.”

“Thanks, Rodney,” she whispered and was relieved that no tears came.

Everything was happening so fast, and she wanted to go out into the quiet of the garden to take it all in, but she had people to feed and a dinner that was fast deteriorating in the oven, so she turned to Rodney.

“Will you call this meeting to a halt,” she pleaded, “or the dinner will be burnt out of existence.”

She shepherded them all into the front room where they had a dinner that was far past its best, but there was such an intense discussion about the school around the table that she doubted if the dinner was even tasted. It did her heart good to watch David glance down at the folded plans on the table beside him, almost as if to reassure himself that they were real, and to hear him discuss the layout of the playing fields with Fr Tim. She could see delight flowing out of him. Rodney and Nora were deep in conversation about her proposed theatre, and Kate thought that even if it never materialised it was the stimulus that she needed just now after Jack’s death and to propel her through the exams.

When dinner was over, Rodney opted to take Nora back to
Mossgrove, and David and Fr Tim decided to take the plans up to the school to check out classroom measurements. Kate determinedly refused all offers of help, and after David and Rodney had dragged Rodney’s luggage up the stairs and the four of them had finally trooped out of the front door, she breathed a sigh of relief. She needed time to herself. As she cleared away the dinner table and stacked the ware in the sink, she reviewed the previous few hours. She sorted out her mind as she tidied up the table. When she finally folded up Nellie’s tablecloth, she held the smooth linen against her face. This family heirloom had been on the table in Mossgrove for her First Holy Communion breakfast, and grandfather had been there that day as well. Now she smiled up at him.

“This tablecloth has been used for every big occasion since then,” she told him, “and it’s become precious through its intermingling in my life.”

She carefully washed and dried Jack’s cutlery and placed it back in its wooden box. She knew that Jack had put a lot of thought and care into the buying of her wedding present, and a bit like himself, it had quality and durability. When all was to her satisfaction, she went out into the garden.

She sat on the wooden seat that Jack had built into the old ditch beside the huge fern that he had brought in from Mossgrove. The evening sun slanted through the trees, softening the outline of the shrubs and filling the garden with long shadows. At this time of the evening, the shrubbery at the other side of the lawn was a mysterious corner. After a few minutes, a blackbird came out of there and began to explore the grass. She enjoyed watching him put his head sideways as if listening for underground movement and, with a quick dart,
come up with a tiny worm. Then he flew into the hedge where the hungry fledglings were waiting. Over her head a little grey bird was singing its heart out. Despite all Jack’s efforts, she did not know his name. He had known them all, and when she got annoyed with herself because she could not remember, he used to say, “Kate girlie, you don’t have to christen him to enjoy him.” But the little bird was giving her such pleasure that she she felt she owed him that. She did not have that problem with the robin who now perched on a stone beside her, so close that if she reached out she could touch him. She loved his brave, cheeky approach to life.

Overhead the crows were flying home in perfect formation. In flight they were beautiful, but as they perched on the treetops at the bottom of the garden, they wrangled and screeched at each other and turned into cranky bedraggled old ladies. Now across the garden a thrush ventured out shyly from underneath the beech hedge, and she held her breath in case of frightening her. She was glad that the blackbird was gone, because sometimes he hunted the thrush away. In the late evening the birds, gathering in for the night, called the garden their own. They were all early retirers except the robin, who always seem to have a few last minute jobs to do. As if remembering one of them, he darted into the bluebells on the ditch beside her and then he was on the tree above her singing goodnight.

She breathed in deeply the heavenly smell of the bluebells that filled the air. She thought back over all that had happened since morning. It had been a good day. The pain of the morning had eased.

A
NOTHER LETTER FROM
Rory. As soon as he saw it, Danny knew that it meant more trouble. The letter was brief and to the point. Rory wanted his money and he wanted it now. Otherwise he would come home and make them sell Furze Hill. Danny knew that he could not force them to sell, but he could cause big trouble. He also realised that if Rory saw the house now his buying-out price would go up and there would be no getting rid of him. They had all thought that there was only a wreck of an old house buried under the rusty roof in the grove of trees. Now things were different. Rory had to stay in England! All morning Danny’s mind went around in endless circles trying to find a solution. The letter put a time pressure on him. He knew that if Rory did not hear from him quickly, one morning he would walk in the gate, and then the real row would begin. When Bill and himself met for their midday break on the steps of the house, he showed him the letter.

Having read it Bill said grimly, “I’ve never even met this
fellow, but I’m beginning to like him less and less.”

“He’s like the old fellow,” Danny told him bleakly.

“You don’t want that to start all over again,” Bill said resolutely.

“To keep him in England is the answer,” Danny said desperately.

“There must be a way,” Bill declared. “There is always a way.”

“Well, if there is then I can’t see it,” Danny told him.

“Well, it might take a bit of time,” Bill comforted him.

“Time is one thing I don’t have,” Danny said.

“Well, boyeen, don’t lose heart now, because so far you’ve soldiered it well,” Bill praised.

They sat in silence and Danny was grateful for Bill’s comforting presence. Nothing seemed as bleak when Bill was around. Bill had never previously mentioned his wife, but now he said, “You know, Danny, I seldom talk about Lucy because her going cut deep. But she was a great woman and I learned a lot from her. Not a tidy woman,” he smiled, “a bit like her Tim in that way, but she had wonderful vision. It was her idea that we come back home and rear the children here. It was not an easy decision, because we were finally doing well over there after a few financial disasters. But Lucy always had a saying when I was facing a financial vacuum or a big decision. ‘Fortune favours the brave,’ she used to say. So this is your time to be brave, lad. We all think of the brave as the crowd who go out and fight, but more often than not they are the crowd who stay at home and survive.”

After his chat with Bill, even though he was no nearer to a solution, he felt a bit easier, and he went to work on the stone wall by the pillar. He loved working with stone and knew from
previous experience that it would soothe his distraught thoughts. Sure enough, after a while his mind stopped racing and he became totally engrossed in marrying the stones together. Stones had a will of their own and would not stand together unless they were well matched, and wall building was an exercise in finding the right combination. He loved searching for the right one, and if he got the match wrong the stone let him know. They would not stay together. Getting all the stones to blend in a harmony of size and colour was completely absorbing.

He had not noticed that the hours had flown by and that it was cow time until Bill called across the yard where he was working, “What about the cows, Danny? They have no way of knowing that stone-walling is so fascinating.”

“I think that I should have been a stonemason, Bill,” he called back. “Stones are smarter than us. They only work with the right partner.”

“I think that you are becoming a bit of a philosopher,” Bill laughed.

“What is it about working with the earth and stone, Bill, that makes us feel good?” he asked as he walked across to admire Bill’s digging out of the curved bed along by the drive.

“One of life’s wonderful mysteries,” Bill replied, leaning on his spade, “and it would be a tragedy if we lost touch with it.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, Bill,” he said as he went out under the arch, “because you will probably be gone when I bring home the cows.”

After the milking, he came back to the steps intending to reread Nana Molly’s diary, but just as he was going in the front door, Shiner appeared through the archway.

“How’s the slave?” Shiner asked cheerily. “You were started
this morning before we begin across the river and you’re still at it.”

“I’ve a lot of catching up to do,” Danny told him.

“Did you have any supper?” Shiner demanded.

“Well, no,” he admitted, realising that he had forgotten all about it.

“Will you for the love of Mike come over to the poke and we’ll hobble something together. You’re like the handle of a bloody shovel,” Shiner said as they walked across the yard into the small kitchen where, after the bright light outside, he blinked in the semi-darkness. Shiner already had the kettle on over the fire, and now he opened a paper bag and produced brown bread and a lump of cooked meat.

“You must be bloody starving,” he asserted.

“Your mother is great,” Danny told him appreciatively, “but Bill and myself always have a good spread in the middle of the day.”

“But you know, Danny boy, that Bill has a proper dinner in the evening, whereas you’re floating around on a wing and a prayer,” Shiner proclaimed from what Danny knew was an extract from a sermon that he had got from his mother. Ellen Shine was into good eating, and Shiner’s solid frame was evidence of it.

“Any news?” he asked to distract Shiner from his eating crusade.

“Oh boy, but there are big things about to happen in Kilmeen,” Shiner declared excitedly.

“Like what?” Danny asked, scalding the teapot and shooting the rinsing out the door.

“If you ever get into that big house,” Shiner told him, viewing
the stream of water out the door, “you will have to improve your kitchen manners.”

“That day is getting farther and farther away,” Danny told him, thinking of the letter, “but let’s have your news first.”

“Well, we had the Yank for supper across the river the other night, and guess what? He is turning the school into a hotel for the Queen Bee to manage,” Shiner told him with relish.

“Martha Phelan?”

“The one and only.”

“And what about the school?” Danny asked.

“New school!” Shiner announced with glee. “The power of money works miracles.”

“Who’re you telling?” Danny said sourly.

“What’s wrong with you this evening?” Shiner demanded.

“Bloody Rory,” he told him, fishing the letter out of his pocket. Shiner scanned it quickly.

“He’s some bastard,” he declared, but Danny wanted to find out about the school.

“Tell me more about the plans of the Yank.”

“Well, apparently he’s looking for a site for this big scheme which will incorporate playing fields for both boys and girls, and if our Nora will have her way even a small theatre.”

“By God, but that’s going to be a huge layout,” Danny declared. He wondered if Jack could be right when he said that worries were sometimes overcome by events. An idea was germinating at the back of his mind. He tried to control his rising excitement as he asked, “Where is all this going to be?”

“No site yet,” Shiner told him, “but the Yank have the big guns on the lookout for him.”

“That’s Fr Tim, David and Kate?” Danny qualified, wanting
to know exactly where things stood.

“Who else?” Shiner assured him. He felt his little glow of hope grow stronger, but he was almost afraid to articulate it in case that if he put it into words it would dissolve.

“What are you hatching?” Shiner demanded, frowning at him across the table. “You look like a fellow who has got a peep into heaven and is afraid that he might have the gate banged in his face.”

“Exactly,” Danny told him, amazed that Shiner had hit the nail so accurately on the head.

“Do you want to spit it out?” Shiner wanted to know.

“This idea that I have could solve this,” he told Shiner, tapping Rory’s letter on the table.

“How the hell?” Shiner asked in a perplexed voice.

“If the Yank bought my two fields outside the village,” Danny told him slowly.

A look of amazement flooded Shiner’s face, and for once he was speechless as Danny continued, “My problem is that I don’t have the title to those fields to sell them. Fr Tim has already tried to crack that and failed because we had no cash to buy out Rory. But now if the Yank came up trumps, we might be able to get out of that corner.”

“You’re on a winner, Danny boy! You’re out of the trap!” Shiner declared, throwing his cap in the air and thumping the table with his fist. “That’s the ideal site. It’s perfect! When you think about it, there is nowhere else better around the village.”

“Do you think so?” Danny asked desperately.

“No doubt about it,” Shiner told him delightedly, “and what you got to remember now, Danny, is to ask enough because you are holding all the aces. There is nowhere else as good as your
two fields. So ask enough.”

“What about the title?” Danny wondered.

“Fr Tim and Kate will sort that out with the Yank for you. It’s all about knowing the right people,” Shiner told him in an elated voice. “As well as the aces, Danny boy, you have the jokers as well. Now don’t breathe a word about this sale to anyone, because when you are buying or selling land it’s best to keep your mind to yourself. God, wouldn’t Jack be thrilled with this?”

“He used to say that worries are sometimes overcome by events,” Danny told him.

“He could be bloody right,” Shiner declared.

The following morning when Fr Tim opened his front door, Danny was outside.

“Good God, Danny! What has you here so early?” Fr Tim asked in amazement. “Come in, come in.” He led the way into the kitchen where the smell of fresh toast told Danny that he was preparing his breakfast. He put a second cup on the table and put on more toast, saying, “You must have something big on your mind to drag you away from your cows before milking.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Danny told him breathlessly, his chest tight with excitement. If this came off, he was out of the trap, as Shiner had said. He told Fr Tim slowly about his plan and watched with growing confidence as the priest’s face lit up with enthusiasm.

“That’s the answer to all our problems,” Fr Tim declared.

“What about the title?” he asked worriedly.

“Kate and I will tackle Rodney Jackson on that one, and I can’t see any difficulty. It’s the perfect site, so it’s to his advantage to acquire it. Only means paying earlier rather than later, and that should be no problem to him,” Fr Tim said positively. “As
soon as we have news, I’ll be back to you. Does Dad know?”

“Not yet. It was late last night that Shiner told me about the school, and that put me thinking.”

“That was good thinking,” Fr Tim smiled and asked, “and you don’t mind parting with the two fields?”

“Not with those two,” he told him, “because they are not actually part of the main farm. More like an outside farm that’s too small, and working them is a bit awkward. They are the two that my grandfather bought instead of paying back old man Phelan. They were the start of all the trouble.”

“Well, maybe they’ll put an end to it now,” Fr Tim smiled.

All day he watched the gate waiting for Fr Tim’s car to whirl in, but nothing happened. Bill assured him that it might take a few days to run down Rodney Jackson, but Danny knew that he was trying to ease his worry. Fr Tim was not one to hang around and would get it sorted out pretty fast. That evening after the cows he wanted to be close at hand, so he began to clean the front steps. A little later he was relieved when he heard a car stop at the gate, and then through the draping tendrils of the weeping willows he could see Fr Tim and Kate come along the drive. He held his breath, wondering if the news was good, and Kate, sensing his apprehension, called out to him, “Rodney will advance you the money to pay off Rory first.”

He felt unrestrained joy sweep over him and high-jumped around in sheer abandonment and danced with uncontrolled exuberance up and down the steps.

“Light at the end of the tunnel,” he shouted, and to Fr Tim’s and Kate’s amusement was off again, dancing up and down the steps shouting, “Isn’t this great! Isn’t this great!”

Finally he ran out of steam and collapsed on the steps
gasping.

“Now I’ll be able to get rid of Rory. Oh, the relief of that, and if there is anything extra I will buy a tractor. I need one badly to reclaim the farm.”

“What about the house?” Kate asked.

“Kate, the last time that things went wrong here, my grandfather let the farm run down and then the house was sacrificed, so I don’t want history to repeat itself,” he told her. “But once I have the land signed over, I’ll feel safe and then things will gradually sort themselves out.”

“You deserve it, Danny, because you have swum against the tide long enough. Now the tide is turning.”

“It began to turn the day you said that Jack would help me,” he told her appreciatively, “and, Fr Tim, your father has turned this place around.”

“It’s beginning to look great,” Kate said, looking down at the cleared garden and the delicate iron tracery of the entrance gate. “That’s a beautiful gate.”

“Bill spent hours of grinding and cleaning to get it swinging smoothly and closing properly. Now it fits perfectly,” he said proudly.

“My father is in his element here,” Fr Tim smiled, “bringing the place back to life.”

“He is doing the same for me,” Danny told him quietly.

They chatted for a long time and then toured the house. It was Kate’s first time seeing it, and he was delighted with her reaction. Every time he walked around the house now he felt a glow of pride. Before leaving they told him that Rodney Jackson would be with him early in the morning to go to the bank and the solicitor.

That night he filled the old tin bath with water and had a good scrub-down in front of the fire. As he towel-dried his hair, he viewed himself in the cracked mirror behind the door. His hair was like the rusty roof of the barn, and he tried to comb it as flat as possible. He had inherited Nana Molly’s mop, and now he saw images of her in the mirror. His father had always hated his Barry features. He opened a press by the fire and took out the jumper that Mary had given him for Christmas. It was dark green handwoven, and he had never worn it, feeling that it was a bit too good. But tomorrow he would need to look well.