Maeve Binchy - Evening Class

'I wish my sister could see me now,' Laddy said suddenly.

'Would she have been pleased?' Signora was gentle.

'Well, she knew it would happen. We went to a fortune teller, you see, and she said she would be married and have a child, and die young, and that I would be great at sport and I would travel across the sea. So it wouldn't have been a surprise or anything, but it's a pity she didn't live to see it.'

Tt is indeed, but maybe she sees now.' Aidan wanted to be reassuring.

'I'm not at all sure that there are people in heaven, you know, Mr. Dunne,' said Laddy as they purred through Rome in the chauffeur-driven car.

'Aren't you, Laddy? I'm getting more sure of it every day,' said Aidan.

At the Catania everyone was singing 'Low Lie the Fields of Athenry'. The waiters stood in an admiring group and clapped mightily when it was over. Any other guests brave enough to dine in the Catania that night had been absorbed into the group, and as the threesome came in there was a huge shout of welcome. Alfredo ran to get the soup.

' Brodo ,' Laddy said.

'We'll go straight to the main course if you like,' Aidan said.

'Excuse me, Mr. Dunne. I'm in charge until relieved of it, and I say that Lorenzo is to have his brodo .' Luigi looked fiercer than he had ever looked. Aidan quailed and said of course it had been a mistake. 'That's all right, then,' Luigi said generously.

Fran explained to Signora that one of the younger waiters kept asking young Kathy to go out with him later and Fran was worried. Could Signora say that they all had to return together when the night was over.

'Certainly, Francesca,' Signora said. Wasn't it amazing, none of them asked what had happened to Laddy, they had just assumed that she and Aidan would rescue him in Rome.

'Lorenzo has had us all invited to a party on Thursday,' she said. Tn a magnificent house.'

' Giovedì ,' Laddy said, in case anyone should mistake the day. They seemed to take that for granted too. Signora finished her soup quickly. She looked around for Constanza and saw her, not animated like she normally was but looking absently into the distance. Something had happened, but she was such a private person and would not say what it was. Signora was that kind of person herself, she would not make any enquiries.

Alfredo said that there was going to be a surprise for the Irlandesi. There was going to be a cake in the Irish colours, they had arranged it because all the people had been so happy and they wanted to make it a memory for them. They knew the Irish colours since the World Cup.

'I can't thank you enough, Alfredo, for making the evening so special for us.'

'You can, Signora, can you come and talk with me tomorrow? Please?'

'Not tomorrow, Alfredo, Signor Dunne is giving his talk about the Forum.'

'You can hear Signor Dunne any time. I have only a few days to talk to you. Please, Signora, I am begging.'

'Perhaps he'll understand.' Signora looked over at Aidan. She hated letting him down, she knew how much he had put into this lecture. He was determined that everyone would see Rome as it was when chariots raced through it. But the boy did look very anxious, as if he had something to tell her. For the sake of the past and of everyone, she must listen.

Signora managed to get Caterina back to the hotel and out of the clutches of the waiter very easily; she just told Alfredo that the boy was to be called off immediately. So the soulful Roman eyes had beseeched Caterina for another evening and he had given her a red rose and a kiss on the hand.

The mystery of the message had not been sorted out by Connie. Signora Buona Sera said she had delivered to Signora Kane. Neither she nor her husband knew whether it was a man or a woman who had left it. It would always be a mystery, Signora Buona Sera said. But during the night Connie Kane lay awake and worried. She wondered why some things should always be mysterious. She longed to tell Signora, but didn't want to intrude on the quiet woman who lived such a private life.

'No, of course, if you have business of your own. Business to do with Sicily,' Aidan said next day.

'I am so sorry, Aidan, I was looking forward to it.'

'Yes.' He turned away shortly so she wouldn't see the naked hurt and disappointment in his face, but it was too late. Signora had seen it.

'We don't have to go to this lecture,' Lou said, pulling Suzi back to bed.

'I want to go.' She struggled to get up.

'Latin, Roman gods and old temples… of course you don't.'

'Mr. Dunne's been getting it ready for weeks, and anyway Signora'd like us to be there.'

'She's not going to be there herself.' Lou spoke knowledgeably

'How on earth do you know that?'

'I heard her telling him last night,' Lou said. 'He was sour as a lemon.'

'That's not like her.'

'Well, now we don't have to go,' Lou said, snuggling back into the bed.

'No, now it's more important that we go to support him.' Suzi was out of bed and into her dressing gown before he could protest. ' She was halfway down the corridor to the bathroom before he could reach out and catch her.

:

Lizzie and Bill were making their sandwiches carefully. 'Isn't it a great idea?' Bill said eagerly, hoping that it was something that might be extended to their own life at home. The idea of saving money by any means at all was something that he prayed would catch on in Lizzie's mind. She had been very good on this visit and not even looked at a shoeshop. She had noted the cost of Italian ice cream in lire, translated it and said it wasn't a good idea.

'Oh, Bill, don't be an idiot. If we were to buy ham and eggs and great chunks of bread like this to make sandwiches it would be dearer than having a bowl of soup in a pub like we do already.'

'Maybe.'

'But when you're an international banker out here, then we might consider it. Will we be living in a hotel do you think, or having our own villa?'

'A villa, I imagine,' Bill said glumly. It all seemed so unlikely and far from reality.

'Have you made any enquiries yet?'

'About villas?' Bill looked at her wildly.

'No, about opportunities in banking, remember that's why we are learning Italian.' Lizzie was prim.

'It was, in the first place,' Bill admitted, 'but now I'm only learning it because I enjoy it.'

'Are you trying to tell me we'll never be rich?' Lizzie's huge beautiful eyes were troubled.

'No, no, I'm not trying to tell you that. We will be rich. This very day I'll go into banks and ask relevant words. Believe me, I will.'

'I believe you. Now I have all these done and wrapped, we can eat them in the Forum after the lecture, and we might send our postcards too.'

'This time you'll be able to send one to your Dad,' Bill Burke said, always seeing the silver lining.

'You got on well with him, didn't you?'

They had had a brief visit to Galway and a reasonably successful attempt to reunite Lizzie's parents. At least they were speaking to each other and on visiting terms now.

'Yes, I liked him, he was very comical.' Bill thought this was a masterly way to describe a man who had almost crushed Bill's whole hand in his, and who had borrowed a ten-pound note from him within minutes of their meeting.

'It's such a relief that you like my family,' Lizzie said.

'And you mine,' Bill agreed.

His own parents were warming more to Lizzie's ways. She wore longer skirts and higher necklines. She asked questions of his father about cutting bacon, and the difference between smoked and green bacon. She played noughts and crosses endlessly with Olive, letting her win about half the time, which gave the games an air of frenzied excitement. The wedding wouldn't be nearly as fraught as Bill had once thought it would be.