Under New Management (16 page)

His sigh of relief is cut short as he thinks she is going to hang up. “Wait, Mollie. I was hoping that you could meet with me about the Hall, this afternoon. I wanted to be upfront before I asked. I know it’s a big favour considering, but I have a list of questions as long as my arm and Lord John and his wife frankly have been next to useless in answering the majority of them. Apparently the only person who knows is you. I will of course pay you for your time; name your price.” He blurts out and waits for a response.

The wait is interrupted when he hears Jack’s voice as clear as day asking, “Molls, you coming to the pub or what?” Kieran sucks in a breath.
Bloody Jack! He is with her!

“Hang on, I’m on the phone,” she calls to him.

“Sorry about that,” she tells Kieran.

“That sounded like Jack. At least that explains where he’s been all night.” Kieran says with a rough edge to his voice.

Mollie ignores it.
Tough shit. He can think what he wants.

“Yes he’s here,” she says as she makes up her mind in that second. “I can’t come up to the Hall today, I’m off to spend the afternoon at the pub. I’ll come up after lunch tomorrow if you want. Oh and the charge will be fifty pound an hour. That’s a fair consultant’s rate, don’t you think?”

Kieran raises an eyebrow. OK, clearly flirtatious Mollie has left the building, but fair enough, he needs her input and he is prepared to pay. “That sounds fine. Shall we say two o’clock?” he says briskly.
Two can play at that game.

Mollie replies two o’clock will be fine. “I’ll see you then. Oh, and if you want to meet the locals, you are more than welcome to join us this afternoon at the Dog and Duck. But don’t bother if you intend to stay sober, I intend to have fun this afternoon you may find us all a little too boisterous if you’re not in the same boat. See you.” She puts the phone down abruptly and smiles to herself.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

She grabs the bag that her Mum had luckily rescued last night and heads to the kitchen to let the others know she is most definitely coming with them.

Kieran puts his phone back in his pocket.
Well, that went well!

Chapter 15

When Kieran walks into the Dog and Duck two hours later he wonders why he has bothered, but he hadn’t been able to help himself. Jack clearly wasn’t intending to make an appearance back at the Hall any time soon, so why was he worrying about it? They couldn’t have a constructive meeting without him. As usual he was trying to hold it together. No one cared about him and the way he felt so why shouldn’t he join Jack and Mollie at the local pub? Call it community relations. He wanted to mix in with the locals, didn’t he?

He had no idea why he had allowed Mollie’s challenge to goad him. Why had he decided that he would go out, enjoy himself and get completely wasted (well perhaps slightly tipsy)? Why had he persuaded Megan to give him a lift to the pub and sod the consequences? He had no idea. He had not been this out of control since the day the solicitor had explained the inheritance. But fuck it! Why should it always be him? Why did Jack always have all the fun? Why couldn’t he show just how much fun he could be? Mollie had said ‘don’t bother if you intend to stay sober’. She wanted to have fun. So be it, he could be fun. Jack wasn’t the only one in the family who knew how to enjoy himself.

Only problem was that Kieran hadn’t actually really enjoyed himself for a long time. He had refrained from letting himself go but he still had it. He would show her that he was more than a match for Jack and could indeed keep up with the Brownses. Sensible Kieran was of course shouting loudly from the sidelines, but he drowned him out. He didn’t want to be sensible. If you couldn’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, so join them he would. Jack wasn’t the only one who could have fun and he was going to prove it.

It hadn’t helped that Jack had clearly spent the night at Mollie’s. Had he spent it there with her? Kieran didn’t think so. Florrie had said that he had disappeared at one o’clock and Kieran had poked his head through Mollie’s door around two thirty in the morning. He had watched her snuggled up like a baby for possibly a little longer than was strictly necessary. He was intrigued though; he might not be in a position to go there but that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to. Neither did it mean that he wanted Jack to.
Oh no, he definitely didn’t want Jack to.

Unfortunately for Kieran the others have a two hour start on him. Given the amount they had put away the evening before, topping up hadn’t taken very long at all. By the time he bounces into the pub determined to be the life and soul, he quickly sees that the job has been well and truly taken by a number of others. His senses are assaulted by the smell of alcohol, raucous laughter and loud music. Apparently the party started without him. He kicks himself. Of course it had started without him. He had been left dealing with the Hall while Jack got pissed and had fun. Kieran couldn’t leave until the Sedgwicks had been tearfully despatched, the barn had been emptied, toilets removed and the new cook settled. Story of his life he thinks as his eyes find the Browns and Jack ensconced at the bar. The women are perched on stools. They are all having a whale of a time by the looks of it; he is going to have his work cut out catching up. The pub is pretty full. He recognises a number of faces from last night. Clearly they were all in need of a hair of the dog. He hears the sounds of roaring from another room, which is clearly showing the football. Kieran wonders vaguely if Johnny’s team is playing.

As he makes his way over, Jim spots him and jumps forward to shake his hand.

“Kieran, isn’t it? Glad you could make it,” he tells him as he shakes Kieran’s hand hard. Kieran hadn’t spent any more time with them the previous evening after returning to the party. He had pretty much just mingled and spent the rest of the evening being introduced to various people.

“Yes, nice to see you again... em, Jim?” He says. He isn’t sure if the name is correct.

“Yep, Jim and this is my son, Dan, his wife Julie and my lovely wife Lindy. You obviously already know our Mollie.” Kieran shakes hands with the others one at a time and smiles uncertainly at Mollie who looks slightly pissed and gives him a lopsided grin.

Jack grabs Kieran and gives him a big slap on the back, “Alright cous! Where have you been? You’ve got some catching up to do, mate.”

Kieran seethes inwardly but now is not the time to have a go at Jack. He’ll have to wait. He is not going to let this lot know how fed up he is.

Smiling tightly at Jack he says, “No problem, mate, you know me; it won’t take me long if I put my mind to it.”

“Dude, now you’re talking. What you having? Lager?” Jack asks. He was slightly nervous when Kieran showed up. Jack isn’t stupid. He knows when he’s in trouble.
Kieran seems cool though so he’s not going to worry about it.
If Kieran has a good time he’ll forget to have a go later.

“Yea, lager please and I’d better have a whisky chaser.” Kieran tells him.

“I’m getting that,” says Jim as he moves to stand at the bar and catch the eye of the landlord.

Jack gives Kieran a look of admiration. It’s been a long time since he’d heard Kieran talk like that. He’d become pretty boring of late, always work and no play. Perhaps things were looking up.

Kieran gives Jack a look full of exasperation. He can’t understand how Jack manages to stay on top of his workload and keep up the party animal lifestyle. Jack has the enviable ability to do both. He doesn’t take life too seriously and seems to cruise through it all with very little stress. If any given situation so much as hints at stress, work or women, Jack simply removes himself from it. Responsible was not a word in Jack’s dictionary.

Mollie’s heart had skipped a beat as Kieran had walked into her eye line. She can’t believe that he has actually turned up. She had spent the last two hours on an emotional roller coaster, moving from confidence to uncertainty, to downright pissed off and then, eventually, pissed up.

Earlier she had been sure he would come - she could feel it in her water. She had taken her place at the bar awaiting his arrival. She had positioned herself carefully, suitably poised, back straight, shoulders back, hair swinging. Her makeup had been perfect, her perfume subtle but noticeable. Her intention had been to be alluring; seduce him with her gorgeousness when he walked in. She didn’t really know why, she had already had a stern word with herself about forgetting all about him. Told herself that he wasn’t interested, yet there was something there, she was sure. Yet again what the hell did she know? She had spent six years with a man who was into men. She wasn’t exactly the best judge.

When first entering the pub she had ordered wine, not her best drink but she felt it gave off an air of sophistication. As the time ticked by and the others got merrier she had eventually started to drink faster.

Now that he has eventually decided to grace them with his presence, she is aware that her back is not as straight, her shoulders slightly slouched, her hair isn’t quite as bouncy as it had been and her perfume nonexistent.
Christ, bloody typical.

She needs to take a trip to the Ladies to make some running repairs before he gets too close to her. Easing herself down out of the large swinging bar chair, she takes advantage of Kieran now chatting with Jack and Dan, to make a run for it. Unfortunately she is rather tipsy. Drinking in the afternoon has never been her strong point. As she decides to dart through the others with her bag in hand, she hasn’t noticed that the shoulder strap is still caught over the high back of the bar chair. As she moves away from the chair at speed, the shoulder strap tightens; the chair swings round and catches her sharply on her side. This causes her to fall forwards into Dan, who is chatting away merrily with his pint in his hand. Without warning, Dan is pushed, causing a good amount of the contents of his glass to lurch forward through the air coming to rest down Kieran’s chest.

“Christ our Molls! What are you playin’ at?” Dan turns to his sister who is trying to right herself.

Kieran jumps back pulling his soaking shirt away from his chest in horror. Jack, never one to stand on ceremony, howls with laughter.

Jim grabs a bar towel and chucks it at Kieran, his lips twitching, “Do you still want these mate?” he says as he gestures to the drinks that have just been poured. “Only it looks like you’ve already had one.” Jim snorts at his own joke and then joins Jack and now Dan and they roar heartily.

Mollie is horrified; the women are all horrified, but as the shock wears off and the alcohol resurfaces they can’t help it. One by one they join the others and start laughing.

Kieran gamely wipes at the wet shirt as he tries hard to control the urge to storm out.

Mollie is trying hard not to laugh. She feels bad, but at least she isn’t worried about not looking her best anymore. “Sorry”, she manages to choke out.

When Kieran glares at her with a peeved look on his face she says, “Well if you were pissed you would think it was funny too.”

This causes even more hilarity and they all fall about laughing uproariously. Kieran’s initial frustration recedes as it is replaced with humour. He joins in with the laughter and moves to the bar to pick up his pint. Taking a deep breath, he does something that he hasn’t done in years. He downs it in four large gulps, slams down the glass and necks the whisky in one shot. This results in cheers of admiration from the others. He is officially accepted. Mollie shoots him a look of appreciation.
Fair play, she couldn’t argue with that.

Chapter 16

The following morning Mollie wakes at eight thirty. She opens her eyes carefully and is surprised to find that she doesn’t feel too bad at all. Rolling over in her bed she pulls the duvet up around her shoulders and snuggles down, determined to have a lie in. The room is still gloomy and she closes her eyes hoping to get in another hour. Distant thoughts are roaming through her mind and they seem to be pushing sleep away.
How annoying.

She goes with the thoughts and her mind drifts back to yesterday. She can’t seem to remember getting home. Come to think of it, how did she get home? What can she remember? The pub, having a lovely time, a lot of laugher and singing. She cringes as she remembers singing badly on the karaoke. All of this had been early on though. She remembers John, the landlord, being annoyed at them all for keeping on about putting the karaoke on. He had obviously given in at some point. She frowns: what time had that been? A little light goes on in her head and flickers slightly. Five she remembers now, mainly because John had kept on about it being too early for karaoke. If memory served, it had turned into a bit of a party. He must have made a few quid, she thinks.
Don’t know what all the fuss was about.

A memory of Kieran singing ‘The Wonder of You’ flashes brightly. He had been really rather good. Jack too had sung a Green Day song and he hadn’t been bad either. Mollie smiles as the memories become brighter and she moves into fully alert mode. No point in staying in bed now; she may as well go and get a cup of tea. Her mouth feels like something has died in it.

Smacking her lips she gets up and realises she is still in yesterday’s clothes.
Bloody hell! This is becoming a habit.
She drags off her day wear and pulls on a t-shirt and shorts before shrugging into her dressing gown. She stops in her tracks as she notices brown, oily marks on the front of her new top.
What the hell is that?

Kebab. She had a kebab last night. How on earth did she manage to get it all down her top? She leaves her room shaking her head and wanders into the bathroom.