Maeve Binchy - Tara Road

'But surely a lot of you are family cousins, we really do want to find her.'

'To thank her too,' Marilyn said.

'I know you do, aren't there droves of them coming at night. And even now there's two cars coming in asking after her, my brother's telling them we haven't a God clue where she is.'

'Was she sick, do you think?' Ria asked.

'She never said a word, Missus.'

'And no one else took over her… um… work or anything?' Marilyn wondered.

'No. Wouldn't they have had to have the gift?' said the boy with the nearly transparent face.

They went to a last dinner in Colm's. Sean and Annie held hands and ate an aubergine and red bean casserole. 'Sean doesn't eat dead animals now,' Annie said proudly.

'Sound man, Sean,' Colm said admiringly.

'Finola Dunne said she saw your sister in a hospital. Her friend is there,' Brian said.

Ria closed her eyes. Marilyn had told her the story. Brian was the last person in Ireland who should have learned it.

'Yes, that's right, she's been quite sick but getting a lot better now. Is Mrs. Dunne's friend getting better too?' Colm was ice-calm.

Ria flashed him a glance of huge gratitude.

'I think her friend's a drug addict, to be absolutely honest. But I suppose she could get better. They do, don't they?'

'Oh they do, Brian,' Colm said. 'They do all the time.'

Barney and Mona McCarthy came up to the table. 'I just wanted to welcome you home, Ria, and to wish you bon voyage , Marilyn.' Mona spoke with confidence these days.

'Mam's going to be cooking things for money now if you still know any rich people who'd buy them,' Brian said helpfully.

'We know a few,' Mona said. 'And we'll certainly be able to put the word around.'

Barney McCarthy was anxious to end the conversation. Colm ushered them to their table. You would never think from his manner that Barney had ever been at this restaurant with another woman. Or that his bills had remained unpaid until a solicitor had asked for any outstanding invoices to be presented.

The solicitor had been engaged by Mrs. and not Mr McCarthy.

'Do you want us to call so that you can say goodbye to Rosemary tonight?' Ria asked Marilyn.

Annie looked up.

'I think I'll just leave her a note,' Marilyn said.

'Sure, why not?' Ria was easy.

At that moment Colm asked Ria would she come into the kitchen. He wanted her to see the desserts that he had prepared for tonight so that they could discuss what she might dream up.

'Can I come into the kitchen?' Brian's eyes were excited.

'Only if you don't talk, Brian,' his mother said.

'Sean, would you ever go with them and clap your hand over his mouth if he says anything at all?' Annie begged.

Sean Maine was pleased to be seen as a hero and went willingly.

Annie and Marilyn looked at each other across the table. 'You don't like Rosemary,' Annie said.

'No I don't.'

'Why don't you like her?' Annie asked.

'I'm not sure. But it's not something I need to say to your mother, they're friends over many years. And you, Annie? Obviously you don't like her either. Why is that?'

'I couldn't explain.'

'I know. These things happen.'

The taxi was coming at ten thirty but Ria said Marilyn would not think she was getting away with leaving quietly. Colm was there with a gardening book for her, a very old one they had talked about; he had tracked it down in an antiquarian bookseller's. Nora had come to say goodbye too. Hilary came to show a photograph of Martin's old homestead. A bleak-looking place with great tall trees. 'There's a lovely sound in the evening when the rooks all come home,' Hilary said.

'We went to see Mrs. Connor. I was going to tell her about you and the trees but it turns out that she's gone away,' Ria told her sister.

'Well, her work is done,' said Hilary as if it was obvious.

Gertie came to say goodbye. 'You were a great pal while you were here, and honestly, Marilyn, I wouldn't expect you to understand our ways, being a foreigner and everything, but you understood as well as anyone that Jack loved me and did the best for me. His problem was that he thought nobody really appreciated him.'

'But they did,' Marilyn said. 'You only had to look at the crowds at his funeral to know that.' Then it was time to go. 'I could get a taxi, Ria,' she began to protest.

'I'm driving you to the airport. Don't argue.' The telephone rang. 'Who now?' Ria groaned.

But it wasn't for her. It was Greg Vine from California. He was changing planes and about to check in for New York. He would wait for Marilyn in Kennedy Airport. They would go back to Tudor Drive together.

'Yes, you too.' Marilyn ended the conversation.

'Did he say I love you?' Ria asked.

'Yes, as it happens,' Marilyn said.

'Lucky Marilyn.'

'You have the children,' Marilyn said.

And they held each other tight in a way they wouldn't be able to do at the airport.

Annie was coming to say goodbye, accompanied by Sean Maine and Brian. As they got into the car Clement came out to say goodbye. It took the form of a huge yawn and stretch but they all knew what it was.

'I'm sorry about letting him into your bedroom,' Marilyn said.

'No you're not, but it doesn't matter, we'll be somewhere new soon and he'll have to relearn all his good habits.'

Colm was in the back garden, he came out to wave them off.

'You are still working in that garden even though other people will get the benefit?'

'No, they won't get the benefit, I'm moving it all up to Jimmy and Frances Sullivan's garden, that's what I'm at.'

'Why don't you dig up that awful concrete behind your restaurant? You could plant there.'

'I'm hoping to build there,' he said. 'Build?'

'Yes, proper accommodation at last, not just a bachelor flat.' 'Great idea.' 'Well, you never know.' 'I hate to go,' Marilyn said.

'When you come back we'll welcome you somewhere new.'

'I don't suppose you could take anything live on the plane, could you, Marilyn?' Brian asked.

'Not really, except myself,' she said.

'Then it's no use giving you a guinea pig for Zach, is it?'

'We can't go beyond here,' Ria said at the passenger check-in.

'Aren't we magnificent?' Marilyn said.

'Yes, we really took a chance, didn't we,' Ria said.

'And how very well it worked out,' said Marilyn.

They were still unable to say the goodbye.

Annie flung herself into Marilyn's arms. 'I hate you going, I just hate it, you're quite different to anyone else, you know that. Will you come back so that I'll have someone to talk to?'

'You live in a place where there are plenty of people to talk to.'

Ria Lynch wondered were people speaking about her over her head, but she must be imagining it.

'And you'll keep an eye on things from over there,' Annie said.

'Yes, and you from here?' Marilyn begged.

'Sure.'

Sean Maine shook her hand gravely and Brian gave her an embarrassed hug. Marilyn Vine looked at Annie Lynch. The blonde, beautiful, nearly fifteen-year-old Annie walked up to her mother and put an arm around Ria's waist. 'We'll keep the world ticking over until you get back,' she said. 'Won't we, Mam?'

'Of course we will,' said Ria, realising that it might be possible after all.

Other Books by Maeve Binchy:

Light a Penny Candle

Echoes

London

Transports

Dublin

The Lilac Bus

Firefly Summer

Silver Wedding

Circle of Friends

The Copper Beech

The Glass Lake

Evening Class

Cross Lines (short stories)

Copyright © Maeve Binchy 1998 All rights reserved

The right of Maeve Binchy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.