The Hat Shop on the Corner (32 page)

             

Constance held her head high as her son Jack escorted her up the aisle of the Church of the Assumption on Booterstown Avenue, noting the admiring glances from her sister Una and brother Jim and a load of her women friends. The jade green dress with its jacket detail and unfussy bodice felt great, and the two contrasting shapes of her hat gave her a virtual lift, and unaccustomed height. For the first time in a very long while she felt graceful and elegant, a proud and confident mother of the bride!

Sally arrived twelve minutes late, looking radiant on Shay’s arm as he led her up the aisle to Chris, the anxious groom, whose face lit up the minute he saw his bride. Sally looked so beautiful, slim and blond, holding a bouquet of cream roses and baby’s breath and ivy, her gown trailing behind her, every little detail hand-sewn.

Constance steeled herself not to break down and cry and destroy all Sylvia’s good work as Shay, after handing over their daughter, stepped into the bench beside her. She could sense his nervousness and noticed the band of perspiration on his upper lip. They stood and sat and knelt down to pray like two statues, neither looking at or making eye contact with the other, as in front of them their daughter took her wedding vows. Father Luke was wonderful; obviously au fait with the embarrassing family situation, he was totally discreet in his words of wisdom to the happy couple.

‘Never go to sleep on your anger,’ he advised. ‘Stay up all night if you have to and sort it out. And remember, always be kind to one another.’

Constance could feel a tightness in her throat. Stealing a look at her husband, she wondered when had that kindness disappeared from their own marriage?

There were photos outside their parish church, then a forty-minute drive to the Wicklow countryside and the country house where the reception was being held. Guests checked in quickly and the staff welcomed them warmly as they congregated in the sunshine, giving a huge cheer when Sally and Chris arrived in a vintage Rolls-Royce.

Kildevin was the ideal location for the reception, as it provided the intimacy and welcome of an old Irish country house. From the warm comfort of the magnificent drawing room with its huge marble fireplace to the cosy library and the breakfast room set in the quaint glass orangery overlooking the herb garden, the house was a gracious home-from-home to all who visited. Cosy armchairs and snug couches were scattered around the place and outside Lutyens-inspired benches provided a resting spot for walkers. The huge ballroom was well capable of seating their one hundred and seventy guests as they dined watching the evening sun go down over the lake.

Sipping a glass of welcoming champagne in the sunshine on the lawn of Kildevin House, Constance could finally feel herself relax.

‘You look wonderful!’ Catriona said, paying her a genuine compliment. ‘The jacket and dress is gorgeous and your hat’s magnificent. I haven’t seen you look this well in years.’

‘Thanks,’ she laughed, ‘I must have looked like the wreck of the
Hesperus
!’

‘No, I don’t mean that,’ chided Catriona, almost reading her mind. ‘What I mean is you look different, so much younger, more stylish.’

‘Sure it’s not mutton dressed as lamb?’

‘No,’ protested Catriona, hugging her. ‘You should have heard what Tadhg said when he saw you coming into the church.’

Constance beamed. She wasn’t used to getting compliments and she just had to learn to accept them.

The compliments flew all day and she was almost in danger of levitating from the ground. Perhaps some of it was sympathy, as she knew everyone realized that her husband’s lover, Anne-Marie, was floating around the place. She had caught odd glimpses of her in a tight-fitting pink sheath of a dress, tottering around in what looked almost like stiletto heels, her thin thirty-year-old face defiant as Shay introduced her to their family friends. It was all so awfully public and humiliating. Constance, determined to give the pair of them a wide berth, steeled herself to remain composed and enjoy having so many friends and family members around her.

‘Hello, girls.’ She smiled, walking in the other direction as she spotted a few of Sally’s friends down near the abundant rose-beds, which were bursting with a myriad array in every shade of pink.

Emma, the bridesmaid, introduced her to everyone, Constance hoping she wasn’t interrupting anything.

‘Sally looks amazing!’ gushed Chloë Higgins, the wild tomboy schoolgirl who over the subsequent years had become a trainee barrister. ‘You must be so happy for her.’

‘Yeah, you look stunning too, Mrs O’Kelly,’ added Niamh, ‘and your hat is a wow!’

Sally’s friends were a great bunch of girls.

‘And you lot would give the supermodels a run for their money!’

‘Yeah, it’s great to have a chance to get all dressed up to see your best friend walk down that aisle,’ confessed Emma, ‘though it’ll be years before I do it!’

Constance laughed and left them to their champagne and an approaching group of young men in tuxedos, who were friends of Chris’s.

During the wedding meal, Chris’s father, Paddy, was an entertaining dinner partner on the top table and regaled her with accounts of his work all over the world on major engineering projects.

‘When the children were young, Maggie and I would pack up and take them everywhere with us – Egypt, Nigeria, the Pacific, the Emirates and even South America – but once they hit secondary school we had to put down some roots here. We bought the house in Clontarf and Maggie kept the home fires burning while I worked.’

‘Didn’t you mind being away from home so much?’ Constance probed.

‘I suppose it was rough on the family but it was what I was used to. Now they’re all grown up and Maggie and I can think of ourselves. I’m retired and we’ve bought a small place in Cyprus and a little boat. We’ve always had the ambition to sail.’

Constance cast an envious glance over at the tall grey-haired woman trying to make conversation with Shay. She could tell by the way he was buttering his bread that he wasn’t even listening. She suppressed her irritation with him as Paddy Donnelly invited her to visit their Cyprus home any time with Sally and Chris or even on her own.

‘We have plenty of space and only use it a few months of the year.’

‘That would be lovely,’ she said, realizing the idea of a short sojourn on a sunshine island far from Dublin was very appealing. ‘I might take you up on that.’

Sally and Chris were so happy and wrapped up in each other that it reminded her of her own wedding day. She glanced over at Shay, wondering did he remember. She could see he was nervous as the coffee was being served, and then the best man called for the father of the bride to say a customary few words.

For the first time since they got married she had absolutely no idea what he was going to say, and she could sense a similar nervousness about her daughter as Shay rose to speak. Anne-Marie stood up at the back momentarily to take a photograph of him. Constance held her breath as he began. His speech was short and polite. He was charming and polished as usual, thanking everyone for coming and complimenting all involved in the wedding’s organization before talking about their daughter.

‘I remember when Sally was seven,’ he went on, ‘finding her wearing her communion dress and one of the net curtains tied on to her head. She was madly kissing her teddy bear, Oscar. When I asked her what she was doing she told me she was getting married to the bear. Hopefully the experience will prove useful for my new son-in-law, Chris, who I can assure everyone is not a bear!’

Sally blushed and Constance laughed despite herself, remembering poor old Oscar. At the end of his speech Shay congratulated Sally and their new son-in-law and to her surprise he graciously thanked her for helping to raise such a wonderful daughter. Everyone clapped and Constance took a big gulp of wine as they all drank a toast. She looked up the table and said a silent ‘thank you’ to Shay, as Paddy stood up slowly and in his warm welcoming speech outlined what a great addition to the Donnelly family Sally was.

‘She’s a girl after my own heart,’ he smiled, ‘and if Chris and herself are even half as happy as Maggie and I have been over the years, they will have a wonderful life together!’

Constance gave a silent prayer of thanks that Sally’s new in-laws were so nice and that she wouldn’t have to struggle with cold, distant people like the O’Kelly family that she had married into.

Almost as soon as the speeches and the cutting of the wedding cake were finished the tables were pushed slightly back and the band appeared. She watched proudly as Chris and Sally took to the floor. As the first tune ended Chris asked her to dance, while Sally managed to grab her father and get him away from his tête-à-tête in the corner with his girlfriend. Chris was the perfect gentleman and managed to steer her almost to the opposite end of the floor. Constance chatted easily to him and then did a few twirls round the floor with Paddy, a big ballroom-dancing fan, before Jack did the decent thing and asked his poor old mother up to dance. Brendan good-naturedly also took a turn round the floor with her.

‘Where’s Miriam?’

‘She’s trying to get Max to settle down and sleep. She’s in the room with him still. I think he’s acting up a bit, probably exhausted after such a long day.’

‘The poor wee man. Listen, Brendan, I’ll go and see how he’s doing,’ she offered. ‘I don’t mind putting my feet up for a few minutes. What’s your room number?’

‘Number 105. They put us on the ground floor so we’d be close by. It’s very near reception and they promised to listen in to the baby alarm.’

‘I’ll send Miriam out,’ she promised.

The door was slightly open and she knocked and went inside, where Max was lying stretched out rosy-cheeked on top of the double bed.

‘Granny,’ he called the minute he spotted her.

‘How are you, pet?’ she asked, sitting down beside him.

‘We’ve played games, been to the bathroom umpteen times, drunk gallons of juice and read at least five stories,’ smiled Miriam, ‘and, as you can see, we are still bright as a button even though we are exhausted. We won’t give in!’

Constance suppressed a laugh, for Brendan had been the exact same as a child.

‘Max, would you like Granny to sit here for a while and play and read you some stories?’

He nodded slowly.

‘Then we can let poor Mummy go and see Daddy while we have a good time!’

‘Don’t go, Mummy,’ he protested.

‘Poor Daddy’s down there all on his own,’ Constance added, ‘and I need to put my poor sore feet up after all that dancing, so what about I stay with you?’

Yawning, the three-year-old agreed as Miriam slipped out of the bedroom.

‘Now, Max, it’s just you and me, so what are we going to do?’

At the bottom of the bed his plastic collection of dinosaurs lay abandoned. Constance sifted through them, trying to find his favourite. They were all shapes and sizes, from Tyrannosaurus Rex to Brontosaurus and Pterodactyl.

‘What about a dinosaur story?’ She racked her brain trying to think of one that would work, opting for a new version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, which involved dinosaurs and a boy called Max. Soon the dinosaurs were up and down the bed, wondering who had eaten their porridge and sat in their big big chairs and lain down in their enormous squashy beds. Max held the Brontosaurus to his chest as it laid down its long neck to sleep in its bed. His eyes gently closed as he relaxed against her and slept.

The night was warm and once his breathing was regular and deep she walked out of the open patio doors to the terrace, listening to the sounds of the distant music and the croak of frogs from the lake. There was someone outside; she could hear them talking on the phone. Perhaps they were in the next-door room or were simply standing a few feet away. It was impossible for her not to overhear the conversation.

‘She’s a hell of a lot younger than he let on and you should see the outfit. She must have spent a fortune. Designer all the way though she’s not the one paying.’

Constance’s heart sank. She should have shut the door and stayed inside beside her sleeping grandson but, fascinated by the speaker, she was riveted to the spot.

‘They put me down the back of the room like I was a naughty schoolgirl, but you know me, I don’t give a toss! Shay wanted me here and that’s all that matters. I’m the new lady in his life and his kids and brothers and sisters and aunts and friends better get used to it.’

Constance couldn’t believe it. Anne-Marie was on the phone somewhere out there in the darkness, talking about the wedding. She couldn’t help herself: holding her breath, she listened.

‘What that snobby wife of his thinks doesn’t matter any more! Shay wants her out of that house and his life as soon as possible.’

Constance could feel herself shaking. Though sorely tempted to respond, she stayed silent as the voice moved away, then closed the glass door to the darkness. She seriously considered climbing into bed beside Max and hiding away for the rest of the night, but anger got the better of her and, fixing her make-up in the bathroom mirror, she decided to rejoin the wedding party. No woman like Anne-Marie was going to stop her enjoying her daughter’s wedding.