Cecelia Ahern - One Hundred Names

‘This man is an angel,’ Seamus said, his voice breaking again. ‘I love all my grandchildren, you know that,’ he looked out to the crowd, ‘but this man is my angel. We don’t see him enough, and he works too hard, but I love him and we appreciate everything he does for us.’ He grabbed him then into a tight hug and there was a collective appreciative sound from the crowd.

‘Happy birthday, Gramps,’ George said.

‘Thank you, son, thank you,’ Seamus said, battling with his tears again.

Kitty even spotted Nigel, appearing moved among a table of old people and children at the back of the room. Before Kitty had time to pick Eva’s brains, the bride and groom, who had been making their rounds of the tables, finally made their way to theirs.

‘Eva, thank you so much for our gift,’ George’s sister, Gemma, said with a catch in her voice. ‘It is the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given us.’

Eva seemed embarrassed. ‘I’m so glad you like it, but really, it’s not from me. It’s George’s gift to you.’

‘Oh, you can’t fool us. I love George with all my heart but I know he didn’t have the brains to pull that one off himself.’

‘Honestly, Eva, if you’re ever in North Carolina, please come and visit us. You are always welcome in our home. It was the kindest, most thoughtful gift we’ve ever received. No offence, you guys.’

There was none taken, as nobody else at the table had brought a gift, hadn’t even known they’d be attending a wedding. A few people mumbled a few incoherent embarrassed responses to that effect but it didn’t matter, the groom wasn’t listening. Tears had gathered in his eyes.

‘And we’re so glad Philipa is gone,’ Gemma added in a hushed voice.

Eva blushed.

‘My father and my grandfather, if they were still alive, would have been so proud,’ the groom said in his strong Carolina accent, nostrils flaring and lip quivering to beat the tears.

‘Oh, baby,’ Gemma said, kissing her husband on the lips.

‘Jesus, what did you get them?’ Mary-Rose asked as soon as they’d left the table, the groom rubbing his eyes roughly with a handkerchief.

‘I designed a new family crest for them. I took things from both sides of the family and also items representing their own life, all stemming from a grapevine because they’re a wine region family and live on a vineyard. He was so desperate to find out more about his family name but I couldn’t come up with anything so I designed a family crest and had it hand-stitched and printed onto some items: linen, stationery, that kind of thing,’ Eva said almost embarrassed. ‘I had been trying to find some family members for him but there was no one.’

‘That’s because there’s no such thing as the name O’Logan,’ Molly hissed quietly, and for the first time she saw Eva laugh, though she looked a little guilty for it.

‘Molly, stop.’

‘What? I don’t think it’s occurred to him that his great-

grandfather was a con artist who changed his name as soon as he landed in America, was probably running from the law and just made up some bullshit name to start his new life.’

Edward started laughing loudly.

Kitty thought it was the first time she’d seen his serious face soften so much.

George headed straight for Eva’s table, took her by the hand and led her out of the room, Eva’s cheeks flushing. Kitty contemplated following them but her phone lit up. It was on silent but it was as though it was screaming at her to be answered: Richie Daly, the slimeball, whom she’d helped get a publishing deal. She had to take this. She slipped away from the table and out the French doors to the garden, which overlooked the river.

Her heart was thumping in her throat as she answered.

‘Kitty,’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘I didn’t think you’d answer.’

‘I wasn’t going to.’

Silence.

‘Well, I called you to say,’ he sighed. ‘I don’t know where to start.’

‘Just get to the point, Richie.’

‘I want to say thank you, for what you did. For sending my book into the publishers. After what I did to you … well, I didn’t deserve your help and if you hadn’t done it well then I probably never would have. It’s been finished for a long time but I just didn’t have the confidence, I suppose, to send it to anyone. And, well, so thank you. I don’t know why you did it, but thank you.’

If only he knew why she’d really done it … She was seething.

‘But really why I’ve called is to apologise for what I did to you. It was despicable. No matter how much I try to dress it up and justify it, I can’t. It was really low, you were a college friend and I shouldn’t have done that to you. Hand on my heart, I’m truly, truly sorry for any harm I caused you, any upset or—’

‘You humiliated me, Richie,’ she interrupted.

‘I know. Well, I didn’t know that, but I can understand how you feel that you were—’

‘You humiliated me and used me and made me feel worse than I’ve ever felt in my whole life.’ She felt the emotion in her throat and she stopped before she cried. He would never hear any of her words if she cried.

‘I know. I’m so sorry. I want to make things right, really I do. I’ve spoken to my editor and I want to write a favourable article about you. He’s agreed to it, agreed to the whole thing, and I can write what I want. This time it will be anything you want me to say.’

‘What makes you think I’d ever want to speak to you again?’ she asked, shocked by his proposal. ‘I couldn’t give a crap what you write about me from now on, I never did, it was the fact you lied to me, slept with me and betrayed something very precious.’ Kitty was far from virginal but she did think some things were precious, and sleeping with someone for information was beyond the scummiest thing anyone could ever do. She expected him to snap and defend himself like he did the last time, a coward who couldn’t accept responsibility, but in fact the opposite happened.

‘I know you’re right, I’m sorry. I’ll never bother you again. I just wanted you to know that you did the nicest thing for me that anyone has ever done and I can’t understand why because I realise what I did to you was the worst and I have to live with that. Anyway, I won’t take up too much more of your time, I just wanted you to know that hand on heart, I’m sorry.’

‘Well … okay,’ she replied, not knowing what else to say, wanting to spout more words of hate at him but no longer feeling it was necessary. ‘Maybe you could give me a percentage of your royalties or something when the book is published,’ she joked.

‘Oh, yeah, there won’t be a book,’ he said.

‘What do you mean? I thought they liked it.’

‘They did but I had a meeting with the publisher this morning. When he found out who I was he decided not to publish me. I wrote a not-too-favourable article about a colleague of his a few years ago and, well, he definitely didn’t forget it.’

Kitty’s mouth dropped, she punched the air silently and didn’t care who could see her from the wedding reception. No wonder the little rascal was so sorry, his evil ways were coming back to haunt him. When she ended the call she did a little happy dance.

‘What’s that? A rain dance?’ a gentle voice behind her asked. ‘I wasn’t listening, I just saw you leave the table and wanted to make sure everything was okay.’

She turned round to see Steve a few steps away from her.

‘I think today is the happiest day of my life,’ she laughed.

‘What did you do now, tell me,’ he said, and the way he phrased it made Kitty laugh again. ‘What?’ he asked.

‘You make it sound like I’m always getting myself into trouble.’