Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

"Young love, first love, is filled with deep emotion."

Eventually someone heard them and the door opened.

Aidan and Fonsie were in first. "Whose car is nearest?" Fonsie asked.

"Jack's. It's outside the door. "I'll drive it. I know the road better."

"Should we move her?" Aidan asked. "If we don't she'll bleed to death in front of our eyes." Bill Dunne was great at keeping everyone back out of the kitchen. Only Jack, Fonsie and of course Tom, the medical student, in case he knew something the rest of them didn't, were allowed in. Everyone else should stay where they were, the place was too crowded already.

They had opened the back door. The car was only a few yards away.

Clodagh had brought a rug and clean towels from Eve's bedroom.

They wrapped the towel around the arm with the huge, gaping wound.

"Are we pushing the glass further in?" Fonsie asked. "At least we're keeping the blood in," Aidan said. They looked at each other in admiration. Jokers yes, but when it came to the crunch, they were the ones in charge.

Benny sat motionless in the sitting room, her arm around Heather.

"It's going to be all right," she kept saying, over and over.

"Everything's going to be all right."

Before he got into the car Aidan came over to Eve. "Don't let anyone go," he warned. "I'll be back very soon."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't let them crawl away because they think it's expected. Give them something to eat."

"I can't.

"Then get someone else. They need food anyway."

"Aidan!"

"I mean it. Everyone's had too much to drink. For God's sake feed them. We've no idea who'll be in on top of us now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if she dies, we'll have the guards."

"Die! She can't die."

"Feed them, Eve."

"I didn't . . . she fell."

"I know, you fool."

Then the car, with Jack, Fonsie, Aidan and a still hysterical Nan, left.

Eve straightened herself up.

"I think it's ludicrous myself, but Aidan Lynch says we should all have something to eat, so could you clear a little space and I'll bring it in," she said.

Stricken, they obeyed her. Even though they would never have suggested it, it was exactly the right thing to do.

Dr. Johnson looked at the arm and phoned the hospital.

"We're bringing someone in, severed arteries," he said crisply.

The three white faces of the boys looked at him as he hung up.

"I'll drive her," he said. "Just one of you. Which one?" Fonsie and Aidan stood back, and Jack stepped forward. Maurice Johnson looked at him. His face was familiar. A junior rugby player, he had been in Knockglen before. In fact Dr. Johnson had a feeling that he was meant to be Benny Hogan's boyfriend. There had been talk that she was walking out with a spectacularly handsome young man.

He wasted no time speculating. He nodded to Fonsie and Aidan and drove out of his gate.

It was an endless Sunday. The whole of Knockglen had heard that there had been a terrible accident and an unfortunate girl from Dublin had slipped and fallen, cutting herself on a glass door.

Dr. Johnson had been quick to say that there wasn't any horseplay and everyone seemed to him to be stone cold sober. In fact he had no idea whether this was true or not, but he couldn't bear the tongues to wag, and Eve Malone to get further criticism for things that were beyond her control.

Dr. Johnson also told everyone in sight that the girl would recover.

And recover she did. Nan Mahon was out of danger on the Sunday night.

She had received several blood transfusions and there had been a time when her heartbeat had slowed down, causing alarm.

But she was young and healthy. It was wonderful, the recuperative powers of the young.

Some time on the Monday night, she miscarried. But the hospital was very discreet. After all, she wasn't a married woman.

Chapter 19

It was summer before Jack Foley and Nan Mahon had the conversation they knew that they would have to have. After her stay in the hospital in Ballylee she had gone back to Dublin.

That was at her insistence. She had seemed so agitated that Dr. Johnson agreed.

Jack still worked in his uncle's office, but he studied for his first-year examination as well. There was, unspoken, the thought that he might return and do his degree in Civil Law. Aidan kept the notes from lectures.

Aidan and Jack met a lot, but they never talked about what was uppermost in their minds. Somehow it was easier to chat and be friends if they didn't mention that.

Brian Mahon wanted to sue. He said that by God people were always suing his customers for harmless jackass incidents. Why shouldn't they get a few quid out of it? That girl had to have some kind of insurance, surely?

Nan was very weak but her wound was healing, the livid red scar would fade in time.

Since she had never said aloud to her family that she was pregnant she did not have to report that this was no longer the case. She lay long hours in the bed where she had lain full of dreams.

She would not let Jack Foley come to see her. "Later," she had told him. "Later, when we are able to talk." He had been relieved. She could see that in his eyes. She could also see he wished it to be finished, over, so that he could get on with his life.

But she wasn't ready yet. And she had had terrible injuries. He owed her all the time she needed to think about things.

"There's no sign of your fiance," Nasey said to her. "It's all right."

"Da says that if he leaves you now because of your injuries, we can sue him for breach of promise," Nasey said.

She closed her eyes wearily.

Heather told over and over the story about the fall and the blood. She knew she would never have such an audience again. They hung on her every word. Heather aged twelve had been at a grown-ups" party wearing a chef's hat, and had seen all the blood. Nobody had taken her home or said she wasn't to look. She didn't tell them that she had felt dizzy and had cried into Benny's chest most of the time. She didn't tell them that Eve had sat white-faced, saying nothing for hours.

Eve took a long time to get over the night. She told only three people about having had the carving knife in her hand.

She told Benny, and Kit and Aidan. They had all said the same thing.

They told her she hadn't touched Nan, she was only gripping it. They told her that she wouldn't have, that she would have stopped before she got near her.

Benny said that you couldn't be someone's best friend for ten years and not know that about them.

Kit said she wouldn't have anyone living in the house unless she knew what they were like. Eve would shout and rage. She wouldn't knife someone.

Aiden said the whole thing was nonsense. She had been gripping that knife all evening. Hadn't he asked her to put it down himself? He said the future mother of his eight children had many irritating qualities, but she was not a potential murderess.

Gradually she began to believe it.

Little by little she could go into her kitchen and not see in her mind's eye all that blood and broken glass.

Soon the strained look began to leave her face.

Annabel Hogan said to Peggy Pine that they would never know the full story of the night above in the cottage, no matter how much they asked.

Peggy said that it was probably better not to ask any more. To think on more positive things like Patsy's wedding, like whether she should sell Lisbeg and move in over the shop. Once people heard that it might be for sale there were some very positive enquiries, and figures that would make poor Eddie Hogan turn in his grave.

"He'd turn with pleasure," Peggy Pine said. "He always wanted the best for the pair of you."

It was the right thing to say. Annabel Hogan began to look at the offers seriously.