He removed his gaze from the pepper pot and studied her face. There were no tears, no emotions telling their own tale in her eyes. She moved on a long time ago. How long had she held on? Six years? She waited for him for six years! What kind of a love was that? What kind of devotion? What kind of a love was that to lose? The thought unsettled the food in his stomach.

‘I am sorry, Bernadette. I never knew. I wish, now more than anything, you’d spoken to me. I wish I had possessed your courage, but I was a coward then and I’m a coward now; a frightened little boy who never quite learned to grow up. For what it’s worth, the girl with the long legs was my nanny for six years. She used to pick Annie up for me and bring her to meet me at the end of the court day.’

The clock behind her head told him it was 5:45.

‘I’m meeting Harry at the hotel in fifteen minutes, but I’m not ready to leave you yet.’

She paid Sheena and kissed her on the cheek.

‘Peter is not expecting me just yet, so if you don’t mind waiting here for ten minutes with Sheena, I’ll pop across, get the car and give you a lift. I wouldn’t mind a wee chat with my brother-in-law. Besides, you’ll never make it in ten minutes with that limp.’

She looked at Sheena.

‘Will you look after this one for a wee minute while I go and get my car?’

Sheena took his arm and winked at Bernadette.

‘Take as long as you like, love. I’ll look after him alright!’

He missed her the moment she closed the door.

27

Bernadette’s knowledge of Dublin was significantly superior to Harry’s and they arrived at the Burlington with minutes to spare. The hotel car park was bulging and she let him out at the front door whilst she drove out to the street to leave the car.

His foot was feeling a little better as he hobbled to where he was certain he would find his friend. The disinterested John Travolta look-a-like behind the bar told him to look next door. No customers had been in the bar since the commencement of the wedding reception. He shuffled across the marble hall and glimpsed Harry propping up the bar. He appeared to be engaged in a heated conversation with the father of the bride or groom. The band at the far end of the crowded room was performing a very impressive rendition of ‘The First Cut is the Deepest.’

As he approached the door of the banqueting hall, Harry was up off his seat and dragging him urgently across to the round man in the uncomfortable looking penguin suit.

‘Here’s the very man to settle this one, Dermot!’

Cormac looked at Dermot, whose cheeks looked like they were still storing the wedding banquet he’d just eaten on behalf of the rest of the guests. His angry red snout suggested the pint of Guinness he swigged and placed on the bar in order to extend his hand to Cormac would clearly not be his last of the day. Harry was tugging at his jacket.