BooksBarbecue
Back A Family Reunion
Chapters (66)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. PART TWO
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. PART THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  64. EPILOGUE
  65. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  66. About the Author

‘I hear you. And I will leave you alone. But drink this first.’ She handed the nun a round brandy goblet half full of amber gold liquid.

Brigid sniffed it disapprovingly and made to hand the goblet back. ‘I don’t want alcohol, thank you. I rarely drink it.’

‘Tonight, everything’s changed,’ Maura retorted. ‘Drink it! It will save you tossing and turning all night.’ The women stared at each other in the mellow glow of the lamplight. In that moment, they were no longer, employer and employee, religious and lay. A sisterhood, as old as time, bonded them together.

‘Drink it, Brigid, and don’t look back!’ Maura bent down and gave the elderly woman a kiss on the cheek and a quick hug, and slipped quietly out of the room, closing the door behind her.

The last thing she wanted to do was to look back. The past was the past, what good was it to rake it up, like Imelda had just done? It only brought resentment and sadness, Brigid thought bitterly, trying to ignore the memories that crowded in around her.

PART TWO

The past is a foreign country;

they do things differently there.

L.P. HARTLEY

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BRIGID AND IMELDA

1954

‘Tidy up that bedroom of yours, you pair. And then, Brigid, you wash the eggs. Imelda, you can start black-leading the range—’

‘That’s not fair! How come she always gets to wash the eggs?’ Imelda protested indignantly to her mother, who stood in the door of their bedroom with a vexed look on her face.

‘Because you’re too rough and you break them, miss,’ Elizabeth Dunne snapped. ‘We’re not made of money that we can afford breakages. And then I want you to bring the tay over to your father on the bog, Brigid. You go to the well and get the water, Imelda, then the pair of you can help me finish wallpapering the parlour.’ Elizabeth issued her instructions and hurried downstairs to pluck the chicken she’d left softening in a bucket of boiling water.

‘I wish this bloody Station was over. There’s so much work to do, on top of the usual,’ Imelda groused, pulling her check pinafore over her head. She loathed the pinafores that her granny made for her. She wanted to be wearing tricot blouses with black velveteen ties, and taffeta skirts that swirled around, just like June Allyson and Debbie Reynolds wore.