Maeve Binchy - Tara Road

She was full of concern. 'But you can't be, Danny. None of this is your fault, and you are going to be able to give her half the proceeds of that house which is very big nowadays.'

'Yes, true.'

'And she knows all this; she doesn't have any expectations of anything else.'

'No,' said Danny Lynch. 'No, I don't suppose that she can have any expectations of anything else.'

'Brian, will you go and play with Dekko and Myles this morning? Your dad is coming here and we need to talk on our own.'

'Is it just me that you don't want to be here?' Brian wanted it clarified.

'No, Brian, it's not just you. Marilyn's going down to that craft shop, Annie's showing Sean the rest of Dublin. It's everyone.'

'You won't fight, will you?'

'We don't now, remember? So will you go to Dekko and Myles for a bit?'

'Would you think it was okay if I went to see Finola Dunne? I bought her a present when I was in America.'

'Yes, of course, that's a great idea.' She laughed at his anxiety.

'That's not just me being awful and doing the wrong thing, is it?'

'You're wonderful, Brian,' his mother said.

'But a bit different?' This was too much praise, he wanted it tempered.

'Very different, that's for sure,' said Ria.

He came at ten o'clock, and rang on the front door.

'Haven't you got your keys?' she asked.

'I turned them in to Mrs. Jackboot,' he said.

'Don't call her that, Danny. What would she have done with them, do you think?'

'Search me, Ria. Cemented them to a stone maybe?'

'No, here they are, on the key-holder at the back of the hall. Shall I give them back to you?'

'What for?'

'For you to show people around, Danny. Please let's not make it more difficult than it is.'

He saw the sense in that. 'Sure,' he said and held his hands up as a sign of peace.

'Right, I have some coffee in a percolator up here in the front room, will we sit in there and if you'll forgive the expression… make a list?'

She had two lined pads ready on the round table and two pens. She brought the coffee over to them and waited expectantly.

'Look, I don't think that this is going to work,' he began.

'But it has to work. I mean, you said we'd have to be well out of here by Christmas. I made sure that the children and Marilyn were out so that we could get started.'

'She hasn't gone home yet?'

'Tomorrow.'

'Oh.'

'So who will we sell it through?'

'What?'

'The house, Danny? We can't use McCarthy and Lynch because they don't exist any more. Which agency will we ask?'

'There will be a line of them waiting to dance on my grave,' Danny said glumly.

'No, that's not the situation. Stop being so dramatic, there will be a line of people waiting to sell it so that they can get two per cent of the price. That's all. Which one will we choose?'

'You've been out of the business for a long time. It's not two per cent any more, it's cutthroat nowadays, all of them trying to shave off a bit here and there.'

'How do you mean?'

'It will be what they call the Beauty Parade, they all come in one by one, each one hoping to be chosen. This one says he'll take one point seven per cent, this one will do it for one point two five. Then there's going to be some so desperate for the commission they'll say a flat fee.'

'That's the way it is?'

'That's the way it is. Believe me I've been in it, may even be in it again one day, who knows?'

'So who, then?'

'Ria, I'm going to suggest something to you. These guys hate me, a lot of them. I've cut right across their deals, stolen their clients. You must sell it on your own, and give me half.'

'I can't do that.'

'I've thought about it, it's the only way, and we must pretend to be fighting as if I'm giving you nothing, and your only hope is to screw as much out of this as possible.'

'No, Danny.'

'It's for us, for the children. Do it, Ria.'

'I can't possibly hold a Beauty Parade, as you call it, of auctioneers here on my own.'

'Get someone to help you.'

'Well, I suppose Rosemary could come in and sit with me, she's a businesswoman.' Ria thought about it.

'Not Rosemary.' He was firm.

'Why not, Danny? You like her, she really does have a head for figures; look at her own company.'

'No, they'd walk over two women.'

'Come on. What do you think it is? People don't walk over women in business any more.'

'Get a man to help you, Ria, it's good advice.'

'Who, what man? I don't know any man.'

'You've got friends.'

'Colm?' she suggested.

He thought about it. 'Yes, why not? He's got valuable property himself, more or less by accident but he's sitting on it. They'd respect him.'

'All right.'

'So when should I start?'

'I suppose as soon as possible. And tell these guys that you'll be in the market to buy a house too. They'll be even more helpful if they think there are going to be two bites of the cherry.'

'The furniture and everything?' He shrugged. 'Well, what will we do with it?'

'If you buy somewhere that suits it then of course you must take it,' he said.

'But suppose you find somewhere that suits it?' she asked.

'I don't think we will, it will be small, and anyway… you know?'

'I know,' Ria said. 'Bernadette would prefer to start life with you having her own furniture.'

'I don't think she'd even notice what furniture was in the room,' he said. He sounded very sad.

She touched one of the balloon-backed chairs that they had found in the old presbytery, covered then with a rough and torn horsehair. Everything here had been searched for and found with such love. And now, less than two decades later, two people were shrugging about what would happen to it.

She didn't really trust herself to speak.

'So, it's not easy but we'll do it.'

'I’ll do it apparently.' She hoped it didn't sound too bitter.

'You understand why?'

'Yes I do. And will you say I could have got more, or I shouldn't have chosen this or that one?'

'No, believe me I won't say anything like that.'

She believed him. 'Well, I'll ask Colm today. I'm anxious to get it done and start trying to work for a living.'

'You always worked hard,' he said appreciatively and annoyingly.

Ria found that this made her eyes water a little. 'And will you be able to get work?' she asked.

'Not as easily as I thought. In fact I was sort of advised to look into some other sector. Not too many estate agencies opening their doors, arms or books to me, I'm afraid. Still there's always something.'

'Like what?'

'Like PR for the building industry or property companies. Like buying furniture from dealers—there are still houses throwing out beautiful stuff and filling themselves up with pine and chrome.'

He was talking more cheerfully than he felt. Only someone who knew Danny Lynch would realise that. Ria gave no sign that she saw anything at all.

It was late in the afternoon when they went out to the halting site. Horses were tethered to fences, children played on the steps of caravans. Young boys hung around hopefully as cars drew up.

'Mrs. Connor?' Ria asked.

'She went away,' said a red-haired boy with paper-white skin.

'Do you know where she went?' Marilyn asked.

'No, she just went overnight.'

'But you might have some idea where she went.' Ria made a move as if to open her handbag and look for a wallet.

'No, really, Missus, if we knew we'd tell you. There's people coming here all the time looking for her, but we can't say what we don't know.'

'And does she have any relations here?' Ria looked around the caravans that housed this particular travelling community.

'No, not to speak of.'