Scarlet Feather (9 page)

‘No, nothing as straightforward as that, and I think she likes the vodka a little too much when he goes abroad. So that’s the problem: no one quite knows where he is at present, and she’s been taken away to hospital for not knowing where she is herself.’

He was unfeeling about the situation, not judgemental but not involved. Perhaps that’s how you got to be a good lawyer.

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
Why
had she agreed to take those monstrous children into Waterview for three nights because of some vague marital disharmony in their home? There was marital disharmony in every home in the Western world at the beginning of January. And suppose their father had gone walkabout and their mother retreated back into a psychiatric home then why couldn’t their big brother Walter look after them? Why bother asking that question? Walter wouldn’t have known where to find their cornflakes in the morning, that was supposing he was ever home by breakfast. And Hannah had made it quite clear that her brother-in-law’s children were finding no substitute home at Oaklands.

They were pale, solemn-looking children, who asked disconcerting questions… 

‘Do you have a drinking problem, Cathy?’ Simon asked when they first came into the house.

‘Only problem is getting enough time to drink these days,’ Cathy said cheerfully. Then she remembered the danger of being ironic with children.

‘Why exactly did you wonder that?’ she asked, interested.

‘You seem kind of anxious,’ Simon explained.

‘And there’s a big bottle of brandy on the kitchen table,’ Maud added.

‘Oh! I see… No, that’s actually calvados, it’s for putting in Mrs Ryan’s apple strudels and then glazing across the top, that’s not for drinking. It’s too dear. And anxious because I’m buying a business. I don’t think it’s all drink-related. But what do I know?’

‘Why are you buying a business?’ asked Simon. ‘Doesn’t Neil give you enough money?’

‘Why don’t you stay at home and have children instead?’ Maud wondered.

Cathy paused and looked at them. With their pale, straight hair and pasty little faces they lacked their elder brother’s charm, but they also lacked his selfishness. They did genuinely seem interested in her predicament, and she must answer them truthfully.

‘Neil would give me half he has very willingly, therefore I’d like to have something of my own to share with him. So that’s why I want a business,’ she said.

They nodded. This seemed reasonable.

‘And Neil and I may well have children sometime, but not just now because I’ll have to be out so much and working such long hours. Maybe in a few years…’

‘Wouldn’t you be too old to have children then?’ Maud didn’t want any loopholes in the plan.

‘I don’t think so,’ Cathy said. ‘I did check, they say I’d be all right.’

‘Suppose they came earlier, by accident. Would you give them away?’ Simon frowned at the thought.

‘Or worse.’ Maud wasn’t a fool about such things.

‘We arranged that they won’t arrive until we’re ready for them.’ Cathy had the bright strained smile of a woman who has a hundred things to do that are more important than this conversation.

‘So you’d only mate about once a month, is that it?’ Maud suggested.

‘That’s about it,’ Cathy said.

Tom was sympathetic about the twins, but the day they were going to see the lawyers he became suddenly anxious.

‘I wonder can we leave them anywhere else today, Cathy. I know you take them most places, but honestly…”

‘Where, Tom, where? They’re barred from Oaklands, Walter won’t mind them. What can I do with them?’

‘Could Neil… ?’

‘No, he couldn’t. Could Marcella…?’

‘No, she couldn’t.’

‘Jesus, Tom, I can’t leave two defenceless children in a house on their own all day.’

‘Are you suggesting that they come and negotiate some of the finer points of the contract with the solicitor?’

‘Tom, stop picking on me. You’re nervous, I’m nervous, it’s too much money, it’s too much risk. Let’s take it easy.’

I’m not nervous, and you’re not nervous about it at all. The only thing that’s causing any grief is those two time bombs you’ve installed in the van.’

‘Where else can I take them?’

‘Take them to your mother and father’s.’

‘And have my dad take their pocket money to put on something with three legs?’

‘Tell them about your dad, warn them. Cathy, we
can’t
take them to the lawyer. He’s some posh friend of Neil’s, believe me, they would not expect or appreciate those two with their sticky fingers all over the corporate furniture.’

‘All
right
.’ Cathy gave in. ‘But remember, Tom, today is
your
tantrum for getting nervous; tomorrow or the day after is mine.’

‘It’s a deal,’ said Tom

.

‘How are you, Simon?’ Muttie gave a manly handshake.

‘What’s your name?’ Simon was suspicious.

‘Muttie.’

‘Right how ‘ya, Muttie,’ Simon said.

‘Or even Mr Scarlet, possibly,’ Tom suggested.

‘Muttie’s fine,’ said Cathy’s father.

Simon looked triumphant.

‘And this is Maud. You’re very welcome, child.’

‘All right, what are we going to do today?’ Maud asked ungraciously.

Cathy thought to intervene but left it. It wouldn’t be for long.

‘I thought we’d take a little walk the three of us,’ Muttie began. ‘You see, I have one or two things to do, and maybe I could persuade you…’

‘No, Da,’ Cathy cried. ‘And kids, remember what I told you, hey?’

‘I know he’s an addict,’ Simon said.

Cathy closed her eyes.

‘A what?’ Muttie asked.

Simon was clear on his instructions. ‘You can’t help it, it’s like being a drug addict. You think if someone has a pound you need it to put on a horse, and Cathy says we have to buy magazines or sweets as quick as we can if you suggest it.’

‘Thanks, Cathy,’ her father said.

‘You know I didn’t put it quite like that, Da.’

‘Exactly like that, Muttie,’ grinned Tom, who had always called him Mr Scarlet before but wasn’t going to be outdone by young Simon.

‘But on the other hand, if you think of anything lucky for
me
today, the day we sign the contract, then can you put this on his nose?’ He handed Cathy’s father a ten-pound note.

‘You’re a gentleman, Tom Feather, I always said it.’ Muttie shook his hand warmly.

As they left for the lawyer’s office Cathy heard Simon asking her father casually, ‘Do you have an addiction to drink too, Muttie? My mother has, she can’t help it, you see.’

Cathy leaped into the white van. ‘I want to be out of here before we hear him inviting the twins down to a good pub on the docks to start the outing with a pint.’

‘On balance, that would be better than having them in the solicitor’s office.’ Tom had reversed the van and they were speeding along to their appointment.

‘Better for whom?’ Cathy wondered.

It went so smoothly at the lawyer’s that Tom and Cathy were worried. There should have been some hold-up, something unacceptable.

‘The other side are being remarkably accommodating; they have given specific instructions for a quick sale, and so of course we need to do a very intensive search in case there’s something to conceal.’

‘Of course,’ Cathy and Tom agreed through gritted teeth. Why couldn’t barristers or solicitors ever believe that people might just be telling the truth, that these Maguires were so anxious for their money, and to forget their old life, that they wanted to sell? But they knew it had to be done by the book no matter how slow and laborious. There was one message each on their mobile phones when they got back to the van. Cathy was to ring her aunt Geraldine. Urgently. Tom was to ring his father. They stood at either end of the van, talking. They finished and came back to sit down, both in good humour.

‘Well, you first,
was
it a crisis?’ he asked.

‘Absolutely not. It was great news, she knows a restaurant selling up a rake of kitchen equipment, cookers as good as new, an enormous chest freezer. We can go over there after we’ve visited
your
Dad and look at them today.’

Tom said nothing.

‘And you?’ Cathy asked.

His father had agreed to do the building job but it involved putting someone else on hold. If Tom went round to sort that out and kept the name of Feather looking good, then it was a deal.

‘He’s around at the premises already, with two lads. There’s an authorisation in from the Maguires; they want their equipment moved out and sold, so Da and the others are clearing the place. You can go there, can you?’

‘Sure.’ Cathy hoped they wouldn’t mind talking to a girl about it.

‘He thinks talking to me about building is
worse
than talking to a girl,’ Tom said ruefully.

‘But he needs you to do something more important?’

‘Yes; talk nice to some architect and persuade him that my father and the team aren’t a pack of cowboys.’

‘What will you say?’ Cathy was interested.

‘I’ll tell them the truth. It’s amazing how often that works; tell them that the young Feather has a chance to do well. Might even pick up a bit of business for us – you never know.’ He had such an engaging grin, Cathy knew it would work out.

JT Feather was a man very anxious that things should be done right. That no short cuts be taken, that the authorities never be offended in any way.

Cathy parked the van and noted with pleasure the way the place was being cleared out. The men had been working hard.

‘You know it’s very irregular, doing all this before the contract is signed.’

‘You have their fax, Mr Feather. They want it this way.’

‘But all my life I’ve worked on the principle that you don’t touch a place until it is legally yours.’ He frowned a lot.

‘We’re getting equipment this week; we have to have somewhere to plug it in.’

‘Ah, not this week, Cathy, be reasonable. The floors have to be done, the walls hacked out and made good, there has to be a full paint job… There are a hundred details that have to be sorted out.’

‘We’ll talk about the details later. Tom told you, Mr Feather, we have to be up and running at the end of the month.’

‘That boy was always a dreamer, will you look at the notions he had about this and that. You’re never taking his timetable seriously, a sensible girl like you?’

‘Oh, believe me, it’s my timetable too, and we have a reception planned for the last Friday in January.’

‘There’s no rush, girl, the job must be properly done.’

‘No, there isn’t
time
to have it properly done. Three more catering firms will have opened and taken the business unless we get in there quick.’

‘But the regulations, Cathy…’ He was pale with anxiety.

Was this better or worse than her own reckless father, who would have put the deeds of the house on the next race if her mother hadn’t kept them well hidden?

‘I won’t delay you, Mr Feather, I have to take some measurements for equipment that I’m going to buy today.’

‘Today?’ She could hear him gasp but she took no notice. Instead, she took out her metal measuring tape and moved past him into the room, which was looking emptier by the minute as the bulky machinery was being moved out into trailers. Cathy knelt down to see how much room there was for the freezer. Geraldine had said it was enormous but hadn’t been specific. She was busy writing the measurements into her notebook when she saw Tom’s father coming in, opening the top button of his shirt so that he could breathe more easily.

‘Tell me they’re not coming today.’

‘Oh, not at all. I’m only going to
see
them today. The auction is tomorrow, they’ll come at the end of the week. I’ll have the details about where we’ll need sockets before the day is over. Can you have the electrician here as early as he can make it tomorrow morning, do you think?’

‘The world has changed totally,’ said Tom’s father.

‘Tell me about it, Mr Feather,’ said Cathy, and was gone.

Tom called.  I daren’t ask, but how are things going?’

‘Not too bad. And your end?’

I bought the time, told them we were wonderful and that we’d send them a brochure. Just give me the address again of that place with the freezers and cookers and I’ll meet you there.’

Her friend June rang to know would they go to a wine bar.

I may never go to a wine bar again for the rest of my life,’ Cathy said, crawling out from behind a particularly complicated measuring job.

‘Great load of fun
you’re
going to be when you’re a businesswoman,’ June said sourly, and hung up.

Neil rang. ‘How did it go with the lawmen?’

She told him there seemed to be no hitches or problems. ‘There are always hitches and problems with the law. That’s what most of them get paid for,’ he countered.

‘Well not so far.’ She was anxious to believe that it might, for once in life, be plain sailing.

‘Well, you’re with the best people,’ he said.

‘What time will you be home?’ she asked.

‘Lord, I don’t know. Why?’

‘No reason. It’s just with the kids…’

‘Oh, God, I’d forgotten about them. Where are they now?’

In St Jarlath’s,’ she said.

‘You never left them with your parents!’ He seemed astonished.

I had to leave them
somewhere
, Neil. I couldn’t take them with me to the solicitor’s, could I? Or here, which is like a builder’s yard full of rubble, and on to inspect appliances at an auction which is where
I’m
going now.’

‘But Cathy…’ he began.

‘But what?’

‘Nothing… nothing. See you later.’

There were very few people looking at the kitchen equipment. It was almost exactly what they wanted.

‘Isn’t it kind of sad?’ Cathy said in a whisper.

I know,’ Tom agreed.  I was just thinking that. Someone else’s dreams gone up in smoke.’

‘It won’t happen to us.’ She sounded braver than she felt.

And all day their mobile phones kept ringing. Something else the lawyers needed, some further problem JT Feather had unearthed, Marcella wondering would they all go to an early film, James Byrne looking for another detail. At none of the places they visited was there ever any proper parking. Nobody they called was ever at a desk or could be located. At four o’clock they were very hungry but there was no time to stop, so Tom got them two bars of chocolate and a banana each. Somehow they got through the day, and Cathy realised guiltily as she drove to St Jarlath’s Crescent that she had left those children there for far too long, and that she hadn’t bought anything for them to eat that night. They would pick up a takeaway on the way home. Fine way for a caterer to behave, she thought.