Chapter 14
Faith and Lucy strolled down the winding boreen that would take them into the village.
It was a beautiful, crisp day and the sea glistened like a sapphire in the distance as the December sun sat low on the horizon.
A strip of soggy moss grew along the middle of the road and tangles of brambles filled the hedgerows.
They were running low on essentials in the cottage and needed to restock the cupboards, but instead of driving to the shop they had decided to walk as they both needed the fresh air.
The atmosphere in the house was tense, to say the least. Since their mother had come home from hospital, the girls felt as though they were walking on eggshells around her.
Madeleine had only been home a day and was already cracking up – the woman did not like being idle.
They knew the loss of her job was hitting her hard, but it was making her unbearable to be around.
She kept trying to get up and do things, like cooking or cleaning, and the girls had ordered her to sit down before she did any more damage.
They had hidden her laptop because they didn’t want her to get too stressed and had instead given her a book to read, hoping it would occupy her until they got back, but Madeleine had tossed it aside, grumbling something beneath her breath.
‘Mum isn’t coping too well with being laid up,’ Faith remarked as they walked. ‘It’s going to be a lonnnng few weeks.’
‘I can’t believe she thought she could head back to Dublin and take care of herself. She is certifiably crazy.’ Lucy snorted. ‘Does she honestly think she could manage on her own?’
‘She’s always been fiercely independent,’ Faith agreed.
‘Independence is one thing, but the woman is deluded.’
‘She has never spent this long in Inishbeg Cove. Six weeks being laid up and not being able to get out and about is going to be hard on her.’
‘It’ll be harder on us,’ Lucy quipped.
Faith laughed as she linked her older sister’s arm.
‘I don’t know … maybe it will be good for us all to spend some time together.
I’m looking forward to having her around –and knowing that she won’t be distracted by her job.
It’s been a long time since the three of us were together like this.
Even when we spent Christmas together, Mum snuck off to work on her laptop.
It will be like it used to be when we were young. ’
‘I guess…’
‘It was awkward when she asked about Kyle. You still haven’t told her yet then?’ Faith said tentatively.
‘Not yet. I haven’t really had a chance. Besides, I could do without her opinions and her “advice”.’
Faith nodded. ‘Well, look, it’s been a tough few days for all of us. Did you call him yet to let him know that Nanna passed away?’
Lucy shook her head. ‘I’m not ready to talk to him yet.’
‘You should really have let him know. He would have wanted to come to the funeral to pay his respects to Elizabeth; they always got on well together.’
‘I’m not ready to deal with him on top of everything else that’s going on.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to sit down with him sooner or later. You can’t keep putting it off forever,’ Faith warned. ‘Either way, you have to make a decision about your future.’
‘I know…’ Lucy sighed, knowing that she was going to have to face up to the mess that was her marriage.
The sisters stuck their heads around the living-room door when they returned from the village and saw that the book they had given their mother remained discarded on the floor, but she had managed to find her laptop.
‘I was just thinking, Faith,’ Madeleine said, as they carried the groceries into the house, ‘now that I have all this time on my hands, I could help you with your CV.’ She looked brighter at the prospect of having something to do.
‘I’m sure you’re ready to start job-hunting – you’ll need to start filling your days again.
I can update my own while I’m at it.’ she added grimly.
Faith shook her head. ‘I’m not in any rush. I’m going to give myself a little time out from the nine-to-five grind.’
‘Oh, Faith, but if you leave it too long, you might struggle to find a job.’
‘I’m not worried, honestly, Mum. It’ll all work itself out. I trust that it will all unfold as it’s meant to.’ Faith shrugged. ’Everything happens for a reason.’
‘That’s nonsense! How can you believe in that silly mumbo-jumbo?
I thought I raised you better than that.
What reason could there be for Howard O’Brien’s books to get stuck in customs, which caused me – through no fault of my own, I might add – to lose my job and then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, to collapse outside the church, making me an invalid for the next six weeks?
Sometimes bad things just happen for no reason at all. ’
‘You’re not an invalid; you’re able to get around,’ Lucy retorted.
‘Well, I’d like to see how well you’d manage being stuck on these godawful things, cooped up in the middle of nowhere, miles away from home…’ she replied petulantly.
‘Stop being so dramatic. Feeling sorry for yourself won’t help,’ Lucy bit back harshly.
‘But maybe, Mum,’ Faith suggested in a softer tone, ‘there is a reason for what happened to you. It might be the universe’s way of telling you to slow down.’
‘If they’re the kind of fairy tales you tell yourself to get through life, I despair,’ Madeleine snapped, tossing her head.
Faith looked crestfallen by her mother’s dismissive attitude.
‘You don’t have to be so mean to her,’ Lucy defended her younger sister.
‘What did I do?’ Madeleine cried incredulously. ‘I won’t listen to my daughter talking about “the universe” this and “the universe” that; she needs a good slap of reality. Sometimes I wonder if you are even my child!’
Faith looked as though she had been slapped. Tears filled her eyes.
Lucy felt her shoulders tense. ‘Mum, there’s no need to be so mean,’ she scolded. Her mother always knew how to push her buttons; it was as if she took a perverse pleasure in saying the most insensitive things.
‘What did I say?’ Madeleine asked, clearly miffed, as though she was the injured party. ‘You two are always ganging up on me.’
Between her mother and the situation with Kyle, this was going to be a very long six weeks.
Faith turned to Lucy. ‘Let’s put all these groceries away and then I’ll make us all a cuppa.’ Faith, ever the peacemaker, suggested.
Lucy followed her sister into the kitchen. She was only too glad to escape their mother and her tirade of abuse.
‘She is driving me mad,’ Lucy hissed when they were alone together.
‘I know.’ Faith sighed over her shoulder as she began unpacking the groceries.
‘She’s sitting in there feeling sorry for herself, like she’s the only person who has problems or is going through a hard time. I don’t know why I’m surprised by her behaviour. She’s never going to change.’
‘She’s really struggling,’ Faith replied, sounding sympathetic. ‘She told me earlier that everybody in the industry has heard about what happened and her name is blacklisted.’
‘Things must be bad,’ Lucy said, putting the milk they had bought into the fridge.
‘I thought she might consider taking some time out for herself, maybe even retiring,’ Faith went on. ‘She’s almost sixty and she is financially very comfortable so she could afford to take a break if she wanted.’
‘Mum will never retire. I feel like I’m going to explode if I stay in the same room as her.’
Suddenly Faith had an idea. ‘I know what we should do today. Why don’t we go get the Christmas tree?’ she suggested, clapping her hands together excitedly. ‘Christmas is only two weeks away. Mum needs to get out of the house, and we could all use some Christmas cheer.’
‘But Mum would never manage to get around the muddy farm on crutches.’
Faith giggled mischievously. ‘I have thought of that and have a plan…’
‘Go on,’ Lucy prompted.
‘Well, we could put her in Nanna’s wheelchair.’
They still had the wheelchair they had used to take Elizabeth to her hospital appointments when she had grown weaker in her final few weeks.
Lucy laughed. ‘She’ll never agree to that.’
‘We won’t give her a choice. We’ll just tell her we’re going for a drive, and when we get there she can choose to sit in the car or get in the wheelchair.’
‘Right, let’s do it then.’