Chapters (40)
- Cover
- About the Author
- PENGUIN BOOKS
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- THE BEGINNING
Katherine suddenly started to cry and Lorrie lifted her up in that practised way Irene recognized, holding her like a koala bear against her chest and murmuring soothingly into her hair. Irene and Jem and Mary went into the kitchen together and took the cold, cooked chickens from the fridge, warmed the baguettes in the oven and put them in a large basket, washed lettuce leaves and chopped radishes and tomatoes. Mary made a salad dressing in a jam jar and Irene put the soft cheeses on a large plate.
They ate outside, sitting round the table with extra chairs and a stool dragged from the kitchen. Irene learnt that Mickey had two boys and was separated from his wife, who’d had an affair with his boss at the computer shop where he worked in Dublin. That Luke was a meteorologist at the university but soon was going to Boston to work. Mary was a PA, but she was going to give up when she had her baby and think about what she really wanted to do, maybe something with disturbed children. Lorrie used to work on food flavours for a multinational that she disapproved of and now she had retrained as a nurse and worked in a children’s ward. Neil owned a fish shop and supplied most of Dublin’s best restaurants with oysters, turbot, mackerel, salmon and cod. She learnt that on Sunday they were all setting off on holiday together, taking a boat along the Canal du Midi for a week – all except Mary, who wanted to go home to her husband and the house they were decorating, ready for the baby. Lorrie leant over and whispered something in Juliet’s ear. She looked across at Irene, shrugging.
‘What?’ asked Irene. ‘My ears are burning.’
‘I was just asking Juliet if you had any plans after this.’
‘Just – well, go home, I guess,’ said Irene. ‘I was only planning to be away a week or so.’
‘You can stay here as long as you want,’ said Jem. ‘You know that.’
‘You really, really don’t want me around when you’ve just got married. That’s not what honeymoons are supposed to be like – the bride, the groom and the groom’s elder sister.’
‘I don’t think we’ll be any different than we are now.’
‘It’s not that anyway,’ said Juliet. ‘I don’t think you’d want to be around, clearing up sick.’
‘I don’t mind sick,’ said Irene. ‘And I’d do anything to help, you know that. But you two should be alone and I need to get home.’