Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

'No, you've never said that.'

'It's just for lunch.'

'I told you, it's your right if you want to. Where are you going?'

'Quentin's.' She had to tell the truth. Fran would have to know sooner or later. She wished he hadn't picked somewhere quite as posh, somewhere so far from their ordinary world.

Fran managed to find the words of encouragement. 'Well, that will be nice, enjoy it. All of it.'

Kathy realised how little part in their lives Mam and Dad seemed to play these days, they were just there in the background. Had it always been like that and she just hadn't noticed? She told the duty teacher that she had a dentist's appointment.

'You have to show these in writing,' the teacher said.

'I know, but I was so frightened thinking about it I forgot to take the card. Can I bring it to you tomorrow?'

'All right, all right.'

Kathy realised that it had paid off to have been a good hardworking pupil all those years. She was not one of the school troublemakers. She could get away with anything now.

Naturally she told Harriet that she was skipping classes.

'Where are you going this time? To dress up as a nurse for him?' Harriet wanted to know.

'No, just to lunch in Quentin's,' she said proudly.

Harriet's jaw fell open. 'Now you are joking.'

'Not a bit of it, I'll bring you back the menu this afternoon.'

'You have the most exciting sex life of anyone I ever met,' Harriet said in envy.

It was dark and cool and very elegant.

A good looking woman in a dark suit came forward to meet her.

'Good afternoon, I'm Brenda Brennan and you're most welcome. Are you meeting somebody?'

Kathy wished she could be like this, she wished that Fran could. Confident and assured. Maybe her father's wife was like this. Something you had to be born to, not something that could be learned. Still, you could learn to pretend to be confident.

'I am meeting a Mr. Paul Malone. He said he'd book a table for one o'clock, I'm a little early.'

'Let me show you to Mr. Malone's table. A drink while you're waiting?'

Kathy ordered a Diet Coke. It came in a Waterford Crystal glass with ice and slices of lemon. She must remember every moment of it for Harriet.

He came in nodding to this table and smiling at that one. A man stood up to shake his hand. By the time he got to her he had greeted half the place.

'You look different, lovely,' he said.

'Well, at least I'm not wearing my friend's mother's jacket and a ton of make-up to get past reception,' she laughed.

'Should we order quickly? Do you have to rush back?'

'No, I'm at the dentist, it can take ages. Do you have to rush back?'

'No, not at all.'

They got the menus and Ms Brennan came to explain the dishes of the day. 'We have a nice insalata di mare ,' she began.

' Gamberi, calamari ?' Kathy asked before she could stop herself. Only last night they had been doing all the sea food… ' Gamheri , prawns, calamari , squid…'

Both Paul and Brenda Brennan looked at her in surprise.

'I'm showing off. I go to Italian evening classes.'

'I'd show off if I knew all that off the top of my head," Ms Brennan said. 'I had to learn them from my friend Nora who helps us write the menus when we have Italian dishes.' They seemed to look at her admiringly, or maybe she was just getting big-headed.

Paul had his usual, which was a glass of wine mixed with mineral water.

'You didn't have to bring me to somewhere as smart as this,' she said.

'I'm proud of you, I wanted to show you off.'

'Well, it's just Fran thinks… I suppose she's jealous that I can go to somewhere like this with you. I'd never go anywhere except Colonel Sanders or MacDonalds with her.'

'She'd understand. I just wanted to bring you somewhere nice to celebrate.'

'She says it's my right and she said I was to enjoy it all. That's what she said this morning, but I think in her heart she's a bit upset.'

'Does she have anyone else, any boyfriend or anything?' he asked. Kathy looked up surprised. 'What I'm trying to say… it's none of my business but I hope she has. I'd hoped she would have married and given you sisters and brothers. But if you don't want to tell me then don't, because as I say I don't have any right to ask.'

'There was Ken.'

'And was it serious?'

'You'd never know. Or at least I'd never know, because I see nothing, understand nothing. But they went out a lot, and she used to laugh when he came to the house in the car to collect her.'

'And where is he now?'

'He went to America,' Kathy said.

'Was she sorry, do you think?'

'Again I don't know. He writes from time to time. Not so much lately but he did a lot in the summer.'

'Could she have gone?'

'It's funny you should say that… she asked me once if I'd like to go and live in some small town in the backwoods of America. It's not New York City or anywhere. And I said Lord no, give me Dublin any day, at least it's a capital city.'

'Do you think she didn't go with Ken because of you?'

'I never thought of that. But then all that time I thought she was my sister. Perhaps that could have had something to do with it.' She looked troubled now and guilty.

'Stop worrying about it, if it's anyone's fault it's mine.' He had read her thoughts.

'I asked her to ring you but she won't.'

'Why? Did she give a reason?'

'She said because of the deal… she was going to keep her part of the bargain, you kept yours.'

'She was always straight as a die,' he said.

'So it looks as if you two will never talk.'

'We'll never get together and walk into the sunset, that's for sure, because we're both different people now. I love Marianne and she may or may not love Ken, or she'll love someone else. But we will talk, I'll see to that. Now you and I are going to have a real lunch as well as solving the problems of the world.'

He was right, there wasn't much more to be said. They talked of school and show business, and the marvellous Italian classes, and his two children who were seven and six.

As they paid the bill the woman at the cash desk looked at her with interest. 'Excuse me, but is that a Mountainview blazer you're wearing?' Kathy looked guilty. 'It's just that my husband teaches there, that's how I recognise it,' she continued.

'Oh really, what's his name?'

'Aidan Dunne.'

'Oh, Mr. Dunne's very nice, he teaches Latin and he set up the Italian classes,' she told Paul.

'And your name…?' the woman behind the desk asked.

'Will be for ever a mystery. Girls who take time off for lunch don't want tales brought back to their teachers.' Paul Malone's smile was charming but his voice was steely. Nell Dunne at the cash desk knew she was being criticised for taking too much interest. She just hoped that Ms Brennan hadn't overheard.

'Don't tell me about it,' Harriet yawned. 'You had oysters and caviar,'

'No. I had carciofi and lamb. Mr. Dunne's wife was on the cash desk, she recognised the blazer.'

'Now you're done for,' said Harriet with a smirk.

'Not a bit of it, I didn't tell her who I was.'

'She'll know. You'll be caught.'

'Stop saying that, you don't want me to be caught, you want me to go on having these adventures.'

'Kathy Clarke, I tell you if I had been burned at the stake I'd have said you were the last person on earth to have adventures.'

'That's the way it goes,' said Kathy cheerfully.

'Personal call for Miss Clarke on line three,' went the tannoy. Fran looked up in surprise. She moved into the surveillance room, a place where they could see shoppers without being seen themselves.

She pressed the button and got line three. 'Miss Clarke, Supervisor,' she said.

'Paul Malone,' said the voice.