Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

"Perhaps.." Kit looked uncertain. "Can't I go and let you two talk?"

"No, no, no you've not finished yet, I have. And this is Eve's home and mine. We have years to talk. You'll be going away soon."

Eve brought out the heaped plate of bacon and floury potatoes with a white sauce. She placed it on the table and saw the sad tired face of the older woman watching her.

"Sister Imelda's always trying to fatten me up, but it's no use.

When you've got my kind of way of going on it just burns up food."

Mrs. Hegarty, nodded.

"I expect you re the same," Eve said. She felt almost light headed with relief. She was only making small talk until the lunch was over, until she could run up the road to tell Benny the news, until she could talk to Mother Francis alone when this sad woman went away.

"Yes, I am the same," Kit Hegarty said. "I never rest, hardly ever sleep. I think about everything too much."

"You've had a lot to think about," Eve said sympath] etically.

"Not always. Frank used to say to me that I couldn't sit down, that my eyes were never still."

"People say that to me, too," Eve said, surprised. They looked at each other with a new interest, the twot who had been competing for Mother Francis's time and attention. They didn't think it odd that she hadn't come back to them. They didn't notice that Sister Imelda never came in to take away their plates. As the grey clouds that raced along behind the big banks of convent trees turned black, as the short winter afternoon turned into evening, they talked on.

Their stories fell into place, like pieces of a jigsaw. Eve Malone needed somewhere to live, a place where she could earn her keep. Kit Hegarty needed someone to help her with her guest house. She had no heart to stay in it all day now that Frank, the reason for all the work, had gone. They both could see the solution and yet were afraid to voice it.

It was Eve who spoke first. In the convent which had been her home, Eve softened her voice to ask. Eve, who could never ask for a favour, who hadn't been able to form words of thanks for the œ400 in her cardigan pocket, was able to ask Kit Hegarty could she come and live with her. And Kit Hegarty leaned across the table and took Eve's hands in hers.

"We'll make some kind of a life out of it," she promised. "We'll make a great life out of it," Eve assured her. Then they went to tell Mother Francis, who seemed very surprised and thought it must be the direct intervention of God.

CHAPTER 7

Brian Mahon had been drinking now for several days. Not a real batter, nothing that had involved any violence or brawl as it sometimes did, but steady drinking. Emily knew that things were shaping up for a fight. And this time it was going to be about Nan's bedroom.

Nan had decided that from now on she would study there in the evenings.

She had said it was not possible to study downstairs with the radio on and the family coming and going all the time.

Nasey had fixed her up a simple desk and Paul had put a plug on an electric fire. This was where she would work from now on.

Emily sighed. She knew that Brian would object as soon as it was brought to his notice. Why had he not been consulted? Who was going to pay for the electricity? Who did Nan think she was? The answer to the last part was that Nan thought she was a lot too good for Brian Mahon and Maple Gardens. Her mother had ensured that over the years.

As she brushed her daughter's golden hair, Emily had always made the girl believe that there would be a better and a different life. Nan had never doubted it. She felt no need to conform to the lifestyle of a house ruled by an often drunken father.

Nan Mahon was not afraid of her father because she knew with a certainty which her mother had helped to create that her future didn't lie in her father's kind of world. She knew without arrogance that her beauty would be her means of escape. Emily wished that there was some way that she could take Brian aside and talk to him in a way that he would listen. Really listen and understand. She could say to him that life was short and there was no point in crossing Nan. Let her work up in the bedroom if that's what she wanted. Be nice - be pleasant about it, then she'd come down and sit with them afterwards. But Brian didn't listen to Emily these days. If he had ever listened to her.

She sighed to herself as she opened up the new delivery of Belleek china, and put the packing neatly into a big container under the counter. She arranged the little jugs and plates on a shelf so that they would best catch the eye and began to write out price tags in her meticulous handwriting. Emily Mahon sighed again. It was so easy to run a hotel shop, and so hard to run a family.

People didn't realise how often she'd like to make her bed in the corner of this little world, amongst those nice car rugs and cushions with Celtic designs on them. It would be simpler by far than going back to Maple Gardens.

She had been quite right of course. The row had well begun when Emily Mahon let herself into the family home. "Do you know anything about all this?" Brian roared. Emily had decided to try and play it lightly. "Well, I must say that's a great greeting to one of the workers of the world," she said, looking from her husband's hot, red face to Nan's cool and unruffled expression.

"Aw, shut up with that workers of the world crap, will you? We all know there isn't a reason in the world for you to be going out to work.

Only because you took some figario. If you'd stayed at home and minded your business we wouldn't have all this trouble now. "What trouble?" Emily was weary.

"Well might you ask what trouble.,Sure you don't know what's going on in your own house.

"Why are you picking on Em?" Nan asked. "She's only in the door, she hasn't her coat off, or her shopping put down.

Her father's face was working. "Don't call your mother by her Christian name, you young pup."

"I'm not." Nan was bored with this argument. "I'm calling her M, short for Mother, Mama, Mater."

"You're dismantling that contraption you have upstairs, and coming back down here to where we have the house heated. You'll study your books in this room like a normal human being."

"Excuse me," Nan asked. "Excuse my mentioning it, but what kind of study could anyone get in a room like this with people bellowing and shouting."

"Listen to me, you impertinent young rossie .. you'll feel the weight of my hand on you if there's any more of this."

"Ah, Dad, don't hit her.." Nasey had stood up. "Get out of my way..

Nan didn't move. Not an inch did she stir from where she stood, proud, young, confident in her fresh green and white blouse and her dark green skirt. She had her books under her arm, and she could have been a model picture for student fashion.

"Am I breaking my back for you to speak to me like that in front of the family? Am I working to make you into a bad-mannered tinker?"

"I haven't said anything bad-mannered at all, Dad, only that I'm going up to work, to get a bit of peace. So that I'll get my degree eventually, so that you'll be prouder of me than ever.

The words were inoffensive, but Brian Mahon found the tone of his daughter almost more than he could bear.

"Get up there out of my sight then, we don't want to see hair or hide of you this evening."

Nan smiled. "If you want me to give you a hand, Em, just call me," she said, and they heard her light step going up the stairs.

The three students in Mrs. Hegarty's digs were delighted to hear of Eve's arrival. They had felt awkward and unsure of themselves in a place where the son of the house had been killed so tragically. Now at least an attempt was being made to return to normality.

They liked Eve too, when she appeared. Small, attractive in a wiry kind of way and prepared to put up with no nonsense from the very start.