Chapter 5
FIVE
Claire linked arms with Marian and they walked together down the street to a café that had a small garden at the front with two round tables, one of which was occupied by a tall man with fair hair dressed in a bright green Kerry football T-shirt and blue shorts.
He was reading a book but shot up from his chair as they approached.
‘Marian,’ he said, holding out his hand, ‘we meet at last.’
Marian shook hands with Pierce, noticing his very blue eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses, and his warm smile. ‘Hi, Pierce, I’ve been dying to meet the man who’s captured my sister’s heart.’
‘And she captured mine,’ he said and pulled out a chair. ‘But sit down so we can get to know each other. Not that there’s much I haven’t heard from Claire. She’s been telling me all about you for weeks.’
‘She’s been talking about you ever since you met,’ Marian said as she sat down.
‘There you go,’ Claire said and sat down on Pierce’s other side. ‘Now we can talk about other things except yourselves. I saved you the trouble.’
‘I ordered coffee and a Danish for us all,’ Pierce said. ‘We’re both addicted to a good Danish, you see,’ he explained.
‘But it’s only allowed on Sundays,’ Claire filled in.
‘She keeps an eye on my figure,’ Pierce hissed in Marian’s ear.
Claire patted Pierce on his slight paunch. ‘Yes, I do, or your waist would increase so much your stylish wardrobe would have to be replaced.’
‘She’s always teasing me about my clothes,’ Pierce said. ‘Could you tell her to stop, Marian? You’re the older sister after all.’
‘Stop teasing Pierce about his clothes, Claire,’ Marian said.
‘I’ll try,’ Claire said and kissed Pierce on the cheek. ‘Sorry, darling.’
‘You’re forgiven,’ Pierce said, taking Claire’s hand and kissing it.
Marian noticed how Pierce held Claire’s hand whenever he had a chance and how they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.
They looked very much like a couple deeply in love.
Just like Theo and me when we were first married, Marian thought, feeling a dart of pain.
What happened to us? When did we lose all that?
Pierce turned to Marian. ‘So, how does it feel to be here?’
‘Wonderful and strange,’ Marian said. ‘I can’t believe I’m really in Kerry at last.’ She turned to look down the hill at the harbour where an array of boats swayed on the glittering waves, and then further out, where the sea met the horizon.
‘And the fantastic views everywhere take my breath away. It’s so stunning, especially on a lovely summer’s day like today. ’
‘It’s a grand morning,’ Pierce agreed as a waitress appeared from the door of the café with a tray. ‘And here’s our coffee and pastries now.’ He got up to take the tray and thanked the waitress in a charming way. Then he put the tray on the table and told them to dig in.
They continued to chat as they ate the pastries and drank the coffee, Marian telling Pierce how strange it was that she felt so at home here already, even though she had only just arrived.
‘That’s wonderful,’ Pierce said and wiped his mouth on a paper napkin. ‘I was going to ask you, though, what you’re going to do while you’re here.’
‘I’m not sure yet,’ Marian said. ‘Obviously, helping Claire with the wedding preparations is going to take up a lot of my time, but after that, I might look for a job nearby.’
‘Are you planning to stay long enough to need a job?’ Claire asked, looking surprised.
‘Yes,’ Marian replied. ‘I’m thinking I might stay until the end of the summer at least. So I’d love to have some kind of job.’
‘Doing what?’ Pierce asked. ‘I’m curious because Claire said you studied marketing and business before you were married.’
‘Yes, but I never finished my degree,’ Marian said. ‘So I don’t think any firm would take me on doing something like that. In any case, college was over thirty years ago so anything I learned then would not be valid today with all the digital marketing and the Internet and stuff.’
‘You might get a job in a shop,’ Claire suggested, draining her cup. ‘You have great experience selling surfboards and sports equipment.’
Marian nodded. ‘Yes, I might look into that. There are plenty of such shops in Tralee.’
Pierce looked at Marian thoughtfully while he chewed on the last bite of his Danish.
‘Or you might get a job with me,’ he said.
‘I need someone to take over some of the secretarial tasks in my office in Karina’s house.
I’m getting more jobs marketing and publicising new books after Karina’s book launch last year.
Could be good training in modern marketing for you.
So if you think you might be interested in that, give me a shout. ’
‘That’s a great idea, darling,’ Claire exclaimed.
‘I know you need help to keep the office tidy and Marian is the queen of organisation. If it wasn’t for her, I would have sunk under a mountain of clothes and mess when we were growing up.
She taught me everything when it comes to being clean and tidy, and everything to do with paperwork and bank accounts. ’
Pierce raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? But you’re so good at that now. Karina couldn’t do without your organisation skills. And your sister taught you all that?’ He turned to Marian. ‘You sound like the perfect candidate for the job. Would you be interested?’
‘Well…’ Marian hesitated. She wasn’t sure she wanted a secretarial job.
Working in a shop seemed easier. In any case, she wasn’t sure yet how long she was going to stay in Ireland.
But the thought of going back to Australia filled her with panic.
She knew she couldn’t go back there, even if Theo begged her. ‘What would I be doing?’ she asked.
‘Just about everything,’ Pierce said with a broad smile.
‘Filing, typing, helping me pick photos for publicity campaigns, talking to book bloggers and journalists, not to mention sharing any marketing ideas, which I’m sure you could come up with.
You’d also have to read some of the books I market.
So if you’re into reading, that would be an added bonus. ’
‘I love reading,’ Marian said. ‘I always had my nose in a book when I was younger.’
‘That’s true,’ Claire chipped in. ‘And you used to make up stories for me when I was little. I always thought you’d be an author one day.’
‘Well, that was a bit of a pipedream,’ Marian said. ‘But I read a lot now, too, whenever I have the chance. There’s nothing like getting lost in a story to escape reality.’
‘So true,’ Pierce agreed. ‘Except sometimes you get pulled in by a story and can’t stop. Like this one,’ he said, holding up a paperback.
Claire took the book from him. ‘Wow, this is the same one Tricia was reading at the beach. By this new author, John Peters. She said it’s a thriller.’
‘Not quite,’ Pierce said. ‘It’s actually literary fiction but it has a little bit of a thriller aspect, that’s true.
Someone in the family is a spy, but we don’t know who yet.
The hero is trying to figure it out.’ He turned the book and showed them the back.
‘Amazing writer. Self-published too. He’s extremely successful all on his own. Don’t know how he did it.’
‘Must be good at creating that word-of-mouth thing that sells,’ Marian said and glanced at the photo, again feeling that jab of recognition.
Yes, it really was the man from the plane.
How amazing. And how worrying, she thought.
She tried to remember exactly what she had revealed.
But it was a blur of a rambling conversation that didn’t seem to make sense like this, in retrospect.
She hoped he would have forgotten it too.
Suddenly, Marian was pulled out of her trance. ‘You sound perfect for the job. When can you start?’ Pierce asked.