Chapter Eighteen
As they drove across the causeway, Nick looked at the beach in surprise.
‘Tides always catch me out. This was all water when I arrived, now it’s covered with dog walkers and children playing. It’s very rugged though, isn’t it?’
‘I like it. Reminds me of Cornwall,’ said Gabe fondly.
‘I was thinking that!’ exclaimed Nick. ‘My sister lives in Cornwall and it looks identical.’
‘Does she live on an island?’
Nick smiled; she could imagine Paddy as a princess in a castle on an island. ‘Not at all but she does live by the sea.’
Gabe paused, distracted by a roundabout, then continued talking. ‘So, what do you do?’
Nick scowled. Talk about a pertinent question . She really wanted to get away from questions about her life right now. She was finally beginning to relax and was enjoying the sensation of having run away from her problems.
‘Sorry, I forgot Ohana was a leaving present, wasn’t she? Okay then, what’s next for you?’
Nick thought about it. Ohana wasn’t exactly a leaving present unless Daisy was actually going to resign but the whole thing was too messy to try to explain. Besides which, she was having fun and didn’t want to spoil it.
‘I’m here to do some family research. Da was from around these parts so I thought I would have a look at the family tree. See if I can discover anything. What about you? ’
‘Family business as well, as it happens. My father has asked me to check in on a competitor. Or rather my brother did on his behalf. It’s not very edifying, is it? Running around snooping after a total stranger. But how do you say no to family?’
‘I think sometimes people forget how important family is. I’d do anything for mine.’ Nick thought about how she and her sisters were all working for the same goal, using their own particular talents. They had always pulled together; the inheritance had just given them more things to do. The goal was still the same. Family first. ‘So, are you all in the family firm? That must be nice?’
Gabe frowned and shook his head.
‘Not a bit of it. I’m a barrister and Rafe, my brother, is a property developer.’
Gabe had expected Nick to be interested – even hopefully a little impressed; he was proud of his brother’s accomplishments – instead, she scowled and looked out the window. Given that she had just left her job, maybe it had been under tricky circumstances. He wanted to clarify that Rafe wasn’t the same brother as Paul but looking at her face he didn’t think now was the time to try to explain the Harrington dynasty. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour he changed the subject and tasked her with tuning in to a local radio station.
‘I don’t like the look of those clouds.’
Nick looked up at the sky. How did people do that? Know what different clouds meant . So far as she knew if they were dark it was going to rain, and those were very dark clouds.
‘Thug clouds. ’
Gabe laughed making Nick smile. She liked his laugh, it was easy and it made his face glow. She liked the way a dimple on one cheek showed when he smiled but the dimple on the other appeared only when he laughed. Which he was doing now.
‘Loitering with intent.’
Heading to Cork they made up silly charges for various weather phenomena. Hail got GBH, rainbows were clearly conmen, wind obviously was charged with gross indecency. Then Gabe entertained Nick with tales of his grandmother who said that children who broke wind at the dinner table would be forced to eat all their sprouts. ‘Which always made the situation worse!’
‘Oh my God, I always wanted a granny but not one that made you eat Brussels sprouts!’
‘She had far worse punishments than that, she used to pinch us. Hard enough to leave a bruise and if we complained she made our father spank us.’
‘Bloody hell. That’s child abuse.’
‘No. Just “eccentric” behaviour. We used to hate visiting her, but happily when he divorced Mum, we weren’t as welcome anymore.’
‘Did you still get to see your dad? Or did he kick you all out?’
‘After all that investment in our education? Not a chance. As I said from time to time he still calls in the odd favour. Honestly, it’s like being in The Godfather .’
‘Do you mind? What if you had wanted to do something else?’
‘Like be a train driver? ’
‘You wanted to be a train driver?’
‘Doesn’t every five-year-old?’
‘No.’
‘Well, what did you want to be when you were five?’
‘I wanted to not be a twin.’
‘Oh, well now, that I can understand. Are you identical?’
‘No, but Paddy wished we were so she would copy everything I did and wore.’
‘Oh, that’s tough, I’m a twin as well. We’re identical but Mum encouraged us to dress differently and always allowed us to choose our own hairstyles.’
Nick started laughing. She loved finding out people were twins as it was an immediate shorthand to a familiar upbringing. No matter what walk of life you came from or how dissimilar you seemed, the minute you mentioned you were a twin, the other party immediately understood you.
‘We both used to have really long wavy hair; mine was almost black, hers was red. If I put it in a ponytail, she begged Mum for the same, if I undid a plait, Paddy would copy me immediately. It drove me insane.’
‘So what did you do?’ asked Gabe, despite paying attention to the traffic. They were heading towards the edge of the city and the roads were filling up.
‘Who says I did anything?’
‘Well, you strike me as the sort of person that sees a problem and fixes it.’
‘Is that how you see me?’ asked Nick, relieved. ‘I thought after my appalling dog-in-lost-bag routine, you might think I was a total airhead? ’
‘It was a convincing performance,’ nodded Nick. He kept his eyes on the road, but she could see he was smiling, teasing her. ‘Although, prior to that, I thought you were actually away with the fairies.’
‘What?’ She wondered what on earth she had done to give anyone that impression of herself. It seemed an alien concept.
‘Well, you kept talking to yourself.’
‘But I was talking to Ohana,’ Nick protested.
‘Yes, because naturally when you see someone anxiously muttering to themselves, you instantly assume they are in fact talking to a dog in a bag.’
‘Oh God, I wonder if anyone else thought I was deranged?’
Gabe paused and appeared to think about it.
‘How long had you been chatting to Ohana?’
‘Since London.’
‘Well then, I imagine that only a few thousand people saw you, and assumed that you had been at the sherry. Frankly, in London, you probably blended in.’
‘Probably as credible as talking to the fairies here then.’ Nick paused and groaned. ‘God, I must have looked totally unhinged.’
‘Sorry. I shouldn’t wind you up. I doubt anyone even noticed. I just like people watching. But we’ve become diverted. Tell me how you stopped your sister copying your hairstyle.’
Nick explained how she got her mother’s fabric scissors and hacked at her own hair until it lay in strands around her feet. Paddy had instantly copied her .
‘And then she cried for about a week because it turns out she loved her long hair a lot more than looking like her twin.’
‘And has your hair been short ever since?’
‘Pretty much, although I fancy a change. I’m trying to grow it out but it’s driving me wild. Any minute now I may take the razor to it.’
Gabe grinned at the idea of taking home a skinhead to meet his grandmother and then realised he quite liked the idea of taking Letta anywhere.
‘Rapunzel or Sinéad O’Connor. You’re an all-or-nothing sort of girl, aren’t you?’
‘I’m a woman who knows what she wants.’
‘Very well – and what is it you want right now?’
‘Dog food. And lots of it.’
Laughing, the two continued to drive into Cork and headed straight for Clonty’s where it turned out that Mrs Devaney had rung ahead, and they were waiting with lots of suggestions suitable for dachshunds.