Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Ciara stared at her mother. ‘What do you mean – missing?’
‘The door to the living room was open,’ Maureen said, wringing her hands. ‘I think he’s been kidnapped.’
Ciara looked at her phone as Ronan’s words still resonated in her mind.
‘Kidnapped?’ she said as she turned off her mobile.
‘Why would anyone want to do that? And how did they get him to come with them? He never leaves the house. He knows he has to mind it. It would take a lot of persuading for him to go anywhere with anyone.’
‘They might have dangled a steak in front of him,’ Maureen suggested as they walked together up the stairs. ‘You know how he can’t resist a bit of meat.’
‘Yes, that’s true. But come on, Ma, you’re letting your imagination run away with you. He probably just got bored and wandered off.’
When they arrived on the upstairs landing, Ciara noticed that the door they had left closed was indeed open.
But there was no sign of anything else suspicious.
‘How did he get out?’ she asked, looking around the room where Brian’s cushion still had the indent of his body.
Apart from that, everything was as they had left it.
‘Someone has a key,’ Maureen said. ‘Remember how you said the books in the shop had been tidied up? The same person must have taken Brian.’
‘I don’t think that’s what happened. But he must have got out somehow,’ Ciara said, feeling a stab of desperation. ‘Brian is so precious to me. I can’t bear the thought of losing him.’ Especially now that Ronan has been set free and is hooking up with his ex-girlfriend, she thought.
‘Neither can I,’ Maureen confessed. ‘I didn’t like the idea of you having such an enormous dog, but now that I’ve got to know him, I’m getting more and more fond of that animal.’
‘He’s so lovable,’ Ciara said with tears in her eyes.
‘He’s a darling,’ Maureen agreed, putting her arms around Ciara. ‘Come on, don’t give up. We will find him.’
‘How?’ Ciara asked against her mother’s shoulder.
‘He might have gone into the woods or maybe up to the tower,’ Maureen said. ‘Where is his lead?’
‘I hung it up on the hook in the kitchen,’ Ciara said, breaking away from her mother’s embrace. ‘I’ll have a look.’
The lead was missing and also the bag of dog treats that had been on the kitchen counter. ‘He must have taken the treats and then gone somewhere to eat them,’ Maureen remarked. ‘I think I know where he might have gone.’
‘Where?’ Ciara asked, feeling a ray of hope.
‘To Liz,’ Maureen said. ‘She’s besotted with that dog and spoils him rotten when she sees him. She thinks he’s magical.’
‘Oisín said Liz believes in the fairies,’ Ciara remembered.
‘She said she thought Brian belonged in the tower because her ancestors kept wolfhounds,’ Maureen filled in.
‘She might be at the tower with him now,’ Ciara said, moving towards the door. ‘I haven’t spent much time with him lately, so he could be looking for company. Come on, we’ll go up there in the van.’
‘Are you sure?’ Maureen asked, looking doubtful. ‘That lane is very rough and full of potholes. Maybe we should walk?’
‘It’s a sturdy van with strong tyres,’ Ciara argued, taking the keys from the hook.
‘I don’t fancy having to walk up that lane in the dark.
Come on, Ma. Let’s go and find Brian.’ As they walked down the stairs, they found that the back door was open, a sure sign that the dog had been able to get out easily.
Minutes later, they were in the van and bumping up the rough track of the lane leading to O’Toole’s Castle. ‘What was that you said about the old lady you were talking to at the vicarage?’ Maureen asked. ‘And what did Ronan want?’
‘So many different things to tell you,’ Ciara muttered. ‘I don’t know where to start.’
‘Start with the old lady,’ Maureen suggested. ‘She looked very interesting.’
‘She was.’ Ciara cleared her throat and stopped the van, then turned to look at her mother. ‘That old lady happens to be none other than Sister Assumpta. Or used to be, actually.’
‘Sister…’ Maureen started, looking shocked. ‘You mean…?’
Ciara nodded. ‘Yes. The young nun who was present at my father’s birth.
She is over a hundred years old now, but still sharp as a tack.
Dad would have been eighty-three now, and she’s about twenty-one years older, so that fits.
She was very young when she entered the convent, you see.
She had just made her vows when she looked after Madge, hiding her from view to avoid gossip.
Dad was a strong, healthy baby, she said. ’
‘Incredible,’ Maureen said when she had recovered from the shock. ‘I wish Frank had met her.’
‘That would have been fantastic,’ Ciara agreed.
Ciara started the van again and drove slowly through the woods. ‘It was amazing to meet this old woman. She lives opposite us in that little white house with the dormer windows. I’m going to visit her soon and then you can come too.’
‘I’d love that,’ Maureen said. ‘So what about Ronan, then? You looked a little shaken when you came in.’
‘Well, he told me that Elaine has had some kind of brainwave and is now looking for a carer,’ Ciara started before she told Maureen what Ronan had said. ‘She wants Ronan to move out, or at least stop feeling guilty. All because of what you said to her, I’m sure. Well done, Ma.’
‘That’s fantastic,’ Maureen exclaimed. ‘And I thought I had overstepped the mark completely. But it obviously made her think.’ She turned to Ciara. ‘But why don’t you look happy? I thought you’d be over the moon about Ronan being free.’
‘Free to connect with his old girlfriend,’ Ciara remarked bitterly. ‘That’s what he said he wanted to do anyway.’
‘Oh.’ Maureen’s face fell. ‘I didn’t think of that. He seemed so taken with you. So delighted to be in your company.’
‘As a friend, I suppose. Nothing much else.’ Ciara swerved to avoid a boulder on the track. She sighed deeply, staring ahead. ‘I understand that he’d want to go out there and meet people now that he’s free. But I didn’t think one of them would be Angela.’
‘That’s her name?’ Maureen asked.
‘Yeah,’ Ciara replied in a flat voice. ‘Maybe they will rekindle their love, or whatever it’s called.’
‘After eight years of silence?’ Maureen asked. ‘Would she not have moved on?’
‘Maybe they’ve been in touch during that time,’ Ciara suggested.
‘They might get back together now that Elaine has decided she can cope on her own.’ Ciara felt immensely sad at the thought of Ronan and this Angela finding a way back to each other again.
But what can I do? she thought. If he’s still in love with her, what hope is there for me?
‘After all, we only just met,’ she said out loud.
‘So I shouldn’t feel there was anything important going on between us. ’
Maureen put her hand on Ciara’s arm and gave it a squeeze. ‘I know you felt very attracted to him. But maybe it wasn’t meant to be.’
‘No. Probably not,’ Ciara said with a sad little sigh. ‘But now we have to concentrate on getting Brian back. I have a feeling Liz might think I’ve been neglecting Brian. She looks so fragile, but I’d say she has a will of iron. Those kinds of girls often do.’
‘I thought she was sweet,’ Maureen said. ‘Maybe a little airy-fairy but not in any way calculating or shifty.’
‘Or the kind who would take someone’s dog?’ Ciara asked. ‘Just because she wanted to help out in some weird way, I mean.’
‘No. But you never know. Still waters and all that,’ Maureen commented.
‘You know,’ she continued, ‘I was more in favour of Oisín earlier. But now that I’ve met Ronan and seen what a kind and caring person he is, I realise how wrong I was.
I was a little blinded by Oisín’s good looks and charm and his free spirit, I have to admit. ’
‘And that he was an O’Toole with a castle and all?’ Ciara teased.
‘That too,’ Maureen admitted. ‘It seemed so romantic. But I was wrong. Ronan is more your type.’
‘Hmm, yes. Pity he’s not available. But now we have to find Brian. Never mind about anything else.’ Ciara changed gears as they drove up the last steep slope towards the tower. Then she pulled up and turned off the engine. ‘I think we should stop here and walk the rest of the way.’
They got out of the car and started to walk up the rest of the way.
The clouds obscured the evening sunshine and the wind had dropped.
There was an eerie silence here, apart from the occasional twitter from a bird.
The air smelled of grass mingled with woodsmoke and pine from the tall trees rising above them.
Ciara noticed that her mother had slowed down and was talking to someone on her phone.
Then Maureen pushed the phone into the pocket of her jacket and caught up with Ciara. ‘Let’s see if Brian can hear us,’ she said. ‘Do that special whistle you use sometimes.’
‘Okay.’ Ciara let out a shrill whistle and then called Brian’s name a few times without any result.
‘Maybe he’s not here,’ Maureen said as they walked to the door of the tower. ‘In fact, the place seems deserted.’
Ciara climbed the steps to the massive entrance door of the tower and banged on it with her fists. ‘Liz, have you seen Brian?’ she shouted. There was no answer and she stood there feeling hopeless and desperate. ‘Where is he?’ she moaned. ‘Where is my darling dog?’
‘I think I was wrong,’ Maureen said, looking around her nervously. ‘He’s not with Liz. Let’s go back. The wind is getting worse.’
‘But we have to look around, though,’ Ciara protested and ran down the steps and around to the back to the tower, calling and whistling until she stopped at the bottom of the little hill beside the shed that housed Oisín’s studio.
‘Maybe he’s in here,’ she said and wrenched the door open.
She stepped inside and looked around but there was no sign of either Brian or Oisín.
‘He was here,’ Maureen said as she walked into the studio.
‘What? Where?’ Ciara twirled around.
‘There. Look,’ Maureen whispered, pointing at the painting on the easel in the middle of the room.
‘Oh.’ Ciara suddenly noticed the painting. It was not finished but she could see the outline of an Irish wolfhound sitting on the top of a hill. ‘It’s Brian,’ she said, staring at the painting. ‘But it looks like it was painted some time ago.’
‘From this,’ Maureen said, holding up a photo she had just found on a nearby table. ‘Oisín must have taken it when we were here that first time.’
Ciara peered at the photo of Brian. ‘Yes. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, just like that day when we came for dinner.’ She heaved a deep sigh.
‘Brian isn’t here. But where is he? Where is my beautiful dog?
’ She sank down on a rickety stool and started to cry.
‘Maybe he’s dead?’ she sobbed. ‘I’ll never see him again.
Oh, Ma, what am I going to do without him? ’
Everything seemed hopeless. The challenge of doing up the bookshop and the fun it might have been disappeared in a sea of despair.
Her dog was gone – maybe dead, and the man she had begun to feel so close to was getting back with his ex-girlfriend.
There was no longer any joy in Ciara’s life.
She might as well give up and go back to her dreary job.
‘It’s over,’ she said, looking at Maureen with a feeling of hopelessness.
‘What’s over?’ Maureen asked.
‘My life,’ Ciara said. ‘I mean, all the things I was looking forward to.’
‘I think it has only just begun,’ Maureen said with a steely look in her eyes. ‘Because we are not giving up, Ciara.’