Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

But they could not hide it.

'You have to tell me what it is,' she said to Gus and Maggie. 'You cannot leave this room without telling me what's happening. I only have weeks left of my life, you won't let me spend them in torment, trying to work out what is. Letting me imagine it even worse than it is.'

'What would be the worst thing that you might think it is?' Maggie asked.

That there's something wrong with one of the children?' They shook their heads 'Or with either of you? Or Laddy? Some illness?' Again they said no. 'Well, we can face anything else,' she said, her thin face smiling and her eyes burning brightly out at them.

They told her the story. How it was in the papers that the assets were gone. There was nothing left in the funds to meet the calls that were being made. Then the plausible man Harry Kane had said on television that nobody would lose their investment, the banks would rescue them, but people still feared they would. Nothing was clear.

Tears poured down Rose's face. Gypsy Ella had never told her this. She cursed herself for believing the fortune teller in the beginning. She cursed Harry Kane and all belonging to him for his greed and theft. They had never seen her so angry.

'I knew we shouldn't have told you,' Gus said dismally.

'No, of course you had to tell me. And swear you'll tell me every single thing that happens from now on. If you tell me that it's fine and it isn't, I'll know, and I'll never forgive you.'

'I'll show you every page of the paperwork, Mam,' he said.

'And if he doesn't, I will,' Maggie promised.

'And Mam, suppose it does go down you know, and we have to get another job, you know we'll take Laddy with us.'

'Of course she knows that,' said Maggie scornfully.

And as the days passed they brought her letters from the bank. And there did seem to be a rescue package. Their investment had been shaken but not lost. She read the small print carefully to make sure there was nothing she had missed.

'Does Laddy understand how near we came to losing everything?' she asked.

'He understands at a level of his own,' said Maggie, and with a great rush of relief Rose realised that whatever happened when she was gone, Laddy would be in safe, understanding hands.

She died peacefully.

She never knew that a woman called Siobhan Casey would call to the hotel and explain that a substantial reinvestment would now be called for, to make up for the hotel having been rescued. Miss Casey pointed out that in similar circumstances when a limited company had failed investors had not been recompensed, and that the money payable to the Neils for their hotel had come from the personal finances of Kane, who was now being supported in his new venture by all those whose businesses he had saved.

There was an element of secrecy about it which was called confidentiality. The paperwork looked impressive but it was requested that it should not be put through the books in the normal way. It was a gentleman's agreement, nothing for the accountants to be involved in.

At first the amount suggested was not large, but then it increased. Gus and Maggie worried about it. But they had been pulled out of the fire when they assumed everything was gone. Perhaps in the swings and roundabouts of business this was accepted practice. Miss Casey spoke of her associates in a slightly respectful tone as if these were people of immense power, people it might be foolish to cross.

Gus knew that if his mother were alive she would be against it. This made him worry about why he was being so naive as to go ahead with it. They told Laddy nothing. They just made economies. They couldn't get a new boiler when they needed one, and they didn't replace the hall carpet, they bought a cheap rug instead to cover the worn bit. But Laddy realised that something was wrong and it worried him. It couldn't be that they didn't have enough business, the customers were coming in thick and fast. But the Hearty Irish Breakfasts weren't as hearty as they used to be, and Maggie said there was no need for Laddy to go to the market for fresh flowers any more, they were too dear. And when one of the waitresses left she wasn't replaced.

They were getting a fair few Italians now, and Paolo who worked in the chip shop was worn out coming to translate. 'One of you should learn to speak the language,' he said to Gus. I mean, we're all Europeans, but none of you are even trying.'

'I had hoped the girls might be interested in languages,' Gus had apologised. But it hadn't happened.

An Italian businessman, his wife and two sons came to stay in the hotel. The man was holed up in offices with the Irish Trade Board all day, his wife was in the shops fingering soft Irish tweed and examining jewellery. Their two teenage sons were bored and discontented. Laddy offered to take them to play snooker. Not in a hall where there would be smoking and drinking and gambling but in a Catholic Boys' Club where they would come to no harm. And he completely transformed their holiday.

From Paolo he got a written list… tavola da biliardo, sala da biliardo, stecca da biliardo . The boys responded by learning the words in English: billiard table, cue.

They were a wealthy family. They lived in Roma, that was all Laddy could get from them. When they were leaving they had their photograph taken with him outside the hotel. Then they got into their taxi and went to the airport. On the footpath when the taxi pulled away Laddy saw the roll of notes. Irish bank notes tightly wrapped together with a rubber band. He looked up to see the taxi disappearing. They would never know where they had dropped it. They might not notice it until they got home. They were wealthy people, they wouldn't miss it. The woman had spent a fortune in Grafton Street every time she had got near the place.

They wouldn't need this money.

Not like Maggie and Gus, who badly needed some things. Nice new menu holders, for example. Theirs had become very stained and tattered. They needed a new sign over the door. He thought along these lines for about four minutes, then he sighed, and got the bus out to the airport to give them back the money they had lost.

He found them checking in all their lovely expensive soft leather luggage. For a moment he wavered again but then he thrust out his big hand before he could change his mind.

The Italian family all hugged him. They shouted out to everyone around about the generosity and the marvellousness of the Irish. Never had they met such good people in their lives. Some notes were peeled off and put into Laddy's pocket. That wasn't important.

' Può venire alla. casa. La casa a Roma ,' they begged him.

'They're asking you to go to Rome to stay with them,' translated people in the queue, pleased to hear such enthusiasm for one of their own.

'I know,' said Laddy, his eyes shining. 'And what's more I'll go. I had my fortune told years ago, and she said I'd go abroad across the water.' He beamed at everyone. The Italians all kissed him again and he went back on the bus. He could hardly wait to tell them his good news.

Gus and Maggie talked about it that night.

'Maybe he'll forget it in a few days,' Gus said.

'Why couldn't they just have given him the tip and left it?' Maggie wondered. Because they knew in their hearts that Laddy would think he was invited to stay with these people in Rome and that he would prepare for it and then his heart would break.

'I'll need to get a passport, you know,' Laddy said next day.

'Won't you need to learn to speak Italian first?' Maggie said with a stroke of genius.

If they could delay the whole expedition for some time, Laddy might be persuaded that the trip to Rome was only a dream.

In his snooker club Laddy asked around about Italian lessons.