Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

'Fiona, none of this is true.'

'It is actually, Mr. Dunne, but you swore and promised you'd tell nobody.'

'This is nonsense, Fiona.'

'No it's not, it's utterly true. You can ask your wife when you home. She's the only person you can tell about it. But maybe better not bring it up at all. Barry doesn't know, and Grania or Brigid don't, no point in getting everyone upset about it.' She looked so straightforward with her huge glasses reflecting all the lights in the bar that Aidan believed her utterly.

'So why are you telling me if no one is to know and no one is to get upset about it?'

'Because… because I want you and Signora to be happy, I suppose. Mr. Dunne, I don't want you to think that you were the one to make the first move cheating on your wife. I suppose I wanted to say that the cheating had started and it was open season.' Fiona stopped abruptly.

'You're an amazing child,' he said. He paid the bill and they walked back to the Hotel Francobollo in total silence. In the hall he shook her hand formally. 'Amazing,' he said again.

And he went upstairs to the bedroom where Laddy had arranged all the items that would be blessed by the Pope tomorrow. The Papal audience in St Peter's. Aidan put his head in his hands. He had forgotten all about it. Laddy had six sets of Rosary Beads to be blessed by the Pope. He was sitting in the little anteroom sorting them out. He had already polished the shoes for the Buona Seras, who didn't know what to make of him. ' Domani mercoledì noi vedremo II Papa, ' he said happily.

Upstairs Lou had to admit to Suzi that he was full of desire for her but didn't think that the performance would live up to it. 'A bit too much drink,' he explained, as if this were an insight.

'Never mind, we need our energy to see the Pope tomorrow,' Suzi said.

'Oh God, I'd forgotten the damn Pope,' said Lou, and fell asleep suddenly.

Bill Burke and Lizzie had fallen asleep with their clothes on, lying on the bed. They woke frozen at five o'clock in the morning. 'Is today a quiet day, by any chance?' Bill asked.

'After the Papal Audience I think it is.' Lizzie had an inexplicable headache.

Barry fell over the chair and Fiona woke in alarm. 'I forgot where we were living,' he said.

'Oh Barry, it was a straight line from the pub and then you turn left.'

'No, I meant in the hotel. I kept opening the wrong people's doors.'

'You're so drunk,' Fiona said sympathetically. 'Was it a nice night?'

'Yesh, but there's a myshtery,' Barry said.

'I'm sure there is. Drink some water.'

'I'll be going to the loo all night.'

'Well go, you will anyway after all the beer.'

'How did you get home?' he asked suddenly.

'As I told you, it was only a straight line. Drink up.'

'Did you have a convershashun with anyone?'

'Only Mr. Dunne, I met him along the way.'

'He's in bed with Signora,' Barry reported proudly.

'He never is? How do you know?'

'I could hear them talking when I passed the door,' Barry explained.

'What was he saying?'

'It was about the temple of Mars the Avenger?'

'Like the lecture?'

'Just like that. I think he was giving her the lecture again.'

'God,' said Fiona. 'Isn't that weird?'

'I'll tell you something even more weird,' Barry said. 'All those fellows in the bar, they're not from here at all, they're from somewhere else…'

'What do you mean?'

'They're from a place called Messagne, way down at the bottom of Italy, near Brindisi where you get the boat from. Full of figs and olives, they say.' He sounded very troubled.

'What's wrong with that? We all have to be from somewhere.' Fiona gave him more water.

'This is their first time in Rome, they say, I couldn't have met them when I was here before.'

'But you were such friends.' Fiona was sad.

'I know .'

'Could it have been a different bar, honestly?'

'I don't know.' He was very glum.

'Maybe they forgot they'd been to Rome,' she said brightly. 'Yes, it's not the kind of thing you'd forget though, is it?'

'But they remembered you.'

'And ,' thought I remembered them.'

'Come on, go to bed. We have to be bright-eyed for the Pope,' Fiona said.

'Oh God, the Pope,' said Barry.

In their bedroom Connie had given her surprise to Signora. It was a full tape-recording of Aidan's speech. She had bought the tape recorder and got every word of it for her.

Signora was touched to the heart. 'I'll listen to it under my pillow here so that it won't disturb you,' she said, after they had tried some of it out.

'No, I'm happy to hear it again,' Connie said.

Signora looked at the other woman. Her eyes were bright and she seemed flushed. 'Is everything all right, Constanza?'

'What? Oh yes, absolutely, Signora.'

And they sat there, each of them having had an evening that might change their lives. Was Connie Kane in any real danger from the mentally disturbed Siobhan? And would Nora O'Donoghue go back to the small town in Sicily which had been the centre of her life for twenty-three years? Even though they had confided in each other a little, they both had a strong tradition of keeping troubles to themselves. Connie wondered what had kept Signora from Aidan's lecture, and indeed out so late on her own tonight. Signora longed to ask if Constanza had heard anything more from the person who had written the unpleasant letter.

They got into bed and discussed the time for the alarm.

'Tomorrow is the Papal Audience,' Signora said suddenly.

'Oh God, I'd forgotten,' Connie admitted.

'So had I, aren't we a disgrace?' said Signora with a giggle.

They loved seeing the Pope. He looked a little frail but in good spirits. They all thought he was looking directly at them. There were hundreds and hundreds of people in St Peter's Square, and yet it seemed very personal.

'I'm glad it wasn't a Private Audience,' Laddy said, as if such a thing could ever have been possible. 'This big one is better somehow. It shows you religion isn't dead, and what's more you wouldn't have to think of anything to say to him, yourself like.'

Lou and Bill Burke had three cold beers each before they went and when Barry saw them he joined in quickly. Suzi and Lizzie had two very cold ice creams each. They all took photographs. There was an optional lunch which everyone took. Most of them had been too hungover or upset to have thought of making sandwiches at breakfast time.

'I hope they'll all be in better shape for the party at Signor Garaldi's tomorrow,' Laddy said disapprovingly to Kathy and Fran.

Lou was passing by when he said it. 'God Almighty, the party,' he said holding his head.

'Signora?' Aidan spoke to her after lunch.

'That's a bit formal, Aidan, you used to call me Nora,' she said.

'Ah well.'

'Ah well what?'

'How was your meeting yesterday, Nora?'

• She paused for moment. 'It was interesting, and despite the fact that it was in a restaurant, I managed to stay sober, unlike almost everyone else in the group. I'm surprised the Holy Father wasn't lifted out of his chair with the fumes of alcohol from our group.'

He smiled. 'I went to a bar and drowned my sorrows.'

'What are these sorrows, now?'

He tried to keep it light. 'Well, the main one was that you weren't there for my talk.'

Her face lit up and she reached into her big handbag. 'But I was . Look what Constanza did for me. I've heard the whole thing. It was wonderful, Aidan, and they clapped so much at the end and they loved it. It was so clear, I could see it all. In fact, when we have little free time I'm going back there and I'll play the tape just for myself. It will be as if I got a special tour all for myself,'

'I'd give you a repeat, you know that.' His eyes were full of warmth, he was reaching out for her hand, but she pulled away.