Scarlet Feather (25 page)

Cathy came out to the front room.

‘So will you forgive me?’

‘There was nothing to forgive, I
told
you that. There wasn’t even a row, Neil, none of this is necessary.’ She was so mortified she could hardly speak.

It
is
necessary. I promised something I didn’t deliver. Can I deliver a lunch instead?’

‘Go, Cathy. Go to one of the posher places and steal ideas,’ Tom urged. ‘See are there any exciting breads out there, ask to see the whole breadbasket and take one of everything, anything new, bring it back. Okay?’

She took off her Scarlet Feather overall, put on her jacket and got into the van.

‘Won’t we take the car, maybe?’ he suggested.

‘It’s pure advertising, Neil, we can park it somewhere down near the quays where everyone will see it. See you, Tom.’

They sat opposite each other in a very trendy place. They only got in because it was a Monday, and gradually she got over her annoyance. It wasn’t his fault. He really
did
feel badly about letting her down. She insisted that she had enjoyed her dinner with Geraldine.

‘And now I get to have lunch with you as well, so I won out as it happens,’ she said cheerfully.

‘What did Geraldine have to say?’ Neil asked.

‘Not a lot, we just rambled on about everything.’

Cathy wondered why she hadn’t told him about Geraldine’s extraordinary lifestyle. Normally she told Neil everything. She decided yet again that it had something to do with loyalty. She wondered did this mean she would be lying constantly from now on.

‘They’ve heard from the missing Uncle Kenneth.’

I don’t believe it, where is he?’

‘On the high seas coming home, apparently.’

‘And what about Aunt Kay in the funny farm?’

‘Getting stronger by the minute, I hear.’

There was a lump of lead in Cathy’s chest. It doesn’t mean they’ll be in any shape to take Maud and Simon back?’ she asked fearfully.

‘Well, not this very moment I’d say, but of course they will have to go back sometime Cathy.’

Cathy was aware of her very mixed feelings. It would be wonderful not to have to worry about Simon and Maud any more. Yet these people were not going to look after their children properly. She had taught them some manners, some fear of upsetting others, her Mam and Dad had taught them love and friendship. It seemed a terrible waste to see it all washed away when Kenneth and Kay came back for whatever time suited them. The return of the prodigal parents had always been something for which she had devoutly hoped. Now that it was beginning to be a reality, Cathy was not so sure.

‘They’re okay, the parents, do you think?’ she asked Neil.

‘As good as can be expected,’ he said. ‘Anyway.’ He was changing the subject. She looked at him. ‘Anyway, none of that is really important. You and I have to talk about the job,’ Neil said.

‘Tom, it’s Walter. Can I come in and have a word?’

Tom swallowed the sandwich he was eating and pressed the buzzer to let him in. The boy was basically harmless, Tom thought. No hard worker, a little over-swift to find his jacket at the end of a job rather than help carry the plates and glasses out to the van. A little snobby towards June and her pronunciation of words. Still, it suited them at the moment to employ him as a barman. He was reasonably personable, charming to the younger women and if he could only concentrate more, remembering who was drinking what, then he would have been fine. They had decided not to ask him to do the Hayes silver wedding. Instead they were going to try out a barman they had met, a red-headed boy called Con with a friendly smile, who managed to give the impression that he loved what he was doing.

‘Cathy not here?’ Walter looked around him, hand in pocket. Slightly quizzical, almost as if he had been let down. Tom remembered that he and Cathy had agreed in a whisper that Walter had this slightly annoying body language, as if he were conferring some kind of favour and wished the whole thing could be dealt with as quickly as possible.

‘No, but she’ll be back soon.’

‘That’s Neil’s car in the yard?’

‘Yes, he’ll be back soon too. Can I do anything for you in the meantime?’

‘This gig, this do… whatever… What time’s it at?’

‘I’m not with you,’ Tom said.

‘The big function on Wednesday. I want to know, is it dinner jacket for me to wear, and what time should I turn up?’

‘I don’t think we made any arrangement…’ Tom began.

‘It’s just that I was hoping you could give me something in advance now… Towards getting geared up and all.’

Cathy would
not
have booked her husband’s cousin without telling him. In fact, she had been more vehement against Walter than he had been. She had been quite outraged that he had called his wages a pittance. There had to have been a misunderstanding here. It was tempting to say that they should wait until Cathy came back to sort it out. But Tom knew he couldn’t do that.

‘We didn’t book you for Wednesday,’ he said, much more confidently than he felt.

‘What?’

‘Just that. We didn’t book you, Walter, so there’s no question of any advance, I’m afraid. I’m sorry if you got the wrong end of the stick.’

‘Don’t talk to me about wrong ends of sticks, you told me all about it, you spoke about it in front of me – what was I meant to think?’

‘What are
we
meant to think, Walter? You describe the wages we give you as a pittance, you don’t enjoy the work. How were we meant to be inspired with the idea that you want to work at the Hayes silver wedding?’

‘Oh, this is what it’s all about. It was a joke, it’s what people do, they make jokes. They don’t expect people to take a light-hearted remark seriously. But now I see it’s a matter of bowing down to the ground and thanking you from the bottom of my heart for the privilege of being allowed to work with you.’

Tom thought that Cathy had been gone for an age, how long could one lunch take? Was she ever coming back?

In the restaurant, Cathy looked at Neil across the table.

‘The job? The one they were going to offer you abroad?’

‘Yes, and still are. You and I sort of got started on it the wrong way. I wanted to tell you what it’s all about.’

‘Do,’ she said.

‘No, not if you’re going to put on that clipped tone with me.’

‘Neil, I said tell me about it.’

‘Please don’t let’s begin by being so hostile about it.’

‘I have no idea how to ask you to tell me about this job without apparently insulting you or offending you, so why don’t you just please
tell
me all about it?’

Just then, of course, they had to order. Neil was uncaring about what he ate, but Cathy wanted to taste different things, so she spent time making the choices.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said when the waitress asked if they would like a cocktail.

‘I’d love one of those silvery things over there with the frosting on the glass,’ Cathy said.

‘Why do you want that?’ Neil was amazed.

‘We’re doing this silver wedding. You know, I told you all about it. This drink might be just the thing,’ she said.

And she waited while he told her about the chance to change the whole thrust of immigration law. It was new and exciting, and it would be so great to be in on the ground floor when it was happening, and it mattered so much. And when all came to all there was only so much individuals could do on the ground in their own countries. What was needed was a proper policy up and running in the international institutions, not something that was controlled by politicians whose own interests could change, but by lawyers and social workers who cared. Cathy listened. Too often countries with perfectly good records on civil liberties looked the other way when there was oil involved, or if they were selling arms to the area, or if they were conscious of votes at home depending on the number of foreigners you let into your country. This agency would be above all that, it would be international, it would change the thinking of the world.

‘Where from?’ Cathy asked.

‘Initially The Hague,’ he said.

‘You want us to live in Holland?’

‘There will be travel, of course, and you can come with me, that’s all agreed. You’ll see places, Cathy, places that you never dreamed of.’

‘What will you do every day, Neil? Try to give me a picture of how the day would break down.’ Her voice felt disembodied; she needed to buy time to think about this. He really and truly did want to go, and expected that she would drop everything and go with him. She didn’t listen as he struggled to paint a picture of how he saw their days shaping out. She wondered instead if anyone truly knew anyone else. This man opposite her who had defied his parents with icy indifference to their arguments when they had objected to his marrying her, now wanted to uproot her from the business she had slaved to form and take her away to be some kind of diplomat’s wife. She heard words somewhere around her in the air as she tasted the bread which was ordinary and the tomato butter which was over the top. The silvery cocktail was a disaster -they would not even suggest it for the Hayes celebration.

‘You’re very quiet,’ Neil said eventually.

I’m thinking about it, letting it all sink in.’

‘I knew you would, if we had time. Back in Waterview you had boxing gloves up in the air in confrontation, your-job-my-job sort of thing. It’s not about that, it’s about our life.’

‘Yes, yes.’ She spoke almost dreamily.

‘What do you mean, Cathy?’

‘Well, you’re right, it is about life. Would you go without me, on your own, to live your life out there, just suppose I couldn’t go?’

‘But that’s not what we’re talking about. You can go if you want to,’ he was bewildered.

I’m trying to work out how you see your life. Would you go alone?’

‘No, I wouldn’t do that. You know that, don’t you?’

I’m just asking. So you’d stay here and go on with the way things are?’ she insisted.

‘Yes, but, well… Yes, I suppose.’

‘I see.’

‘But it’s not like that, Cathy. You can go, and believe me, I know you’ll love it. They want you to come out with me for a week. Very soon, just to see first-hand where we’d be living and the kind of work that’s involved. Cathy, you
love
a challenge, it’s written all over you…’

‘We need a lot more discussion about this. A lot more,’ she said, her voice still sounding unreal in her own ears.

‘Of course we do.’ He patted her hand.

Neil seemed to think the conversation had gone well. He called for the bill and they left. Cathy had parked the van precariously on a corner. She saw a traffic warden looking in its direction, and raced her to the vehicle.

‘I won,’ she laughed, clambering into the driving seat.

‘What’s Scarlet Feather… is it a mattress?’ the traffic warden asked.[_ _

__]

‘It’s the best catering company in Ireland,’ Cathy said, and got the van into gear and away from there at speed.

To their surprise, Walter was installed at the premises and Cathy noticed that Tom was looking hassled.

‘Hey, are you better?’ Neil asked Walter.

‘Yeah, I’m okay,’ Walter said, shrugging.

‘What was wrong?’ Cathy asked.

‘He had a fall and hurt his back,’ Neil explained. ‘Dad was telling me this morning. He’s been out of the office a week.’

Tom and Cathy looked at each other. They knew there had been no fall, but they said nothing. At that moment the phone rang. It was Mrs Hayes. They had decided they wanted two waiters for Wednesday. One to stay entirely behind the bar, the other to go round and refresh drinks. Would that be any problem?

‘No problem at all, Mrs Hayes, it will be done straight away.’ Tom hung up. He turned round to look at Walter. ‘Usual pittance Wednesday, Walter, turn up here at six-thirty to help stack the van, no money up front, no need to hire a dinner jacket, you already have one. Okay?’

‘Okay,’ Walter said smiling. ‘I knew you really meant me to work.’

‘No we didn’t, the situation just changed. We have Con, who is our waiter for Wednesday, you’re just the back-up. That’s if your own back will be all right by then?’

‘Are you going back to the Four Courts?’ Walter asked his cousin Neil. ‘If you are, I’d love a lift.’

‘Are you back at work then?’ Neil was confused.

‘No, but I have to see someone down that area.’

Tom was relieved that Walter was going to go. ‘Did you two have a good lunch?’ he asked.

‘No. Breads we tried, and boy did we try them… Weren’t anything compared to yours, Tom,’ Cathy said cheerfully. And Neil muttered agreement.

‘Great news.’ Tom was pleased. ‘The show can stay on the road for another few weeks, then.’

When they were gone Cathy sat down and looked at him. ‘Sorry, Tom.’

‘About what? We know Walter’s a little shit, but they
want
two…’

‘Not about that, about lying to you, about saying Neil
was
at the opera when he wasn’t.’

‘Oh, that…’ Tom appeared to have forgotten it totally.

But she went on. It was stupid, but you knew how much I was looking forward to it and I suppose I just… didn’t want you to think he’d let me down.’

Tom seemed to think she was making heavy weather of it all. ‘Poor Neil couldn’t face all the screeching when it came to it, was it? Can’t say I blame him.’

Muttie had planned the surprise for weeks. And he wanted as many people to witness it as possible. So he asked Cathy and Neil if they could drop in about six o’clock on Tuesday, and Geraldine. It didn’t really suit anyone, but they all made an effort. The little black Labrador puppy was going to be in the house already hidden on newspapers up in the bedroom. And then the conversation would be brought around gradually to dogs. Maud and Simon would say yet again how much they’d love a puppy, and Muttie would say excuse me, I think we
do
have one for you. Lizzie would say that it’s nonsense, there couldn’t possibly be a dog in the house without her knowing, and then Muttie would produce the little fellow…

It didn’t suit Cathy because she and Tom had to collect their dishes from the Riordan ladies’ lunch in order to use them again for the Hayes silver wedding. Sometime they would have enough china and ovenproof dishes not to have to call everything in, but not yet. It didn’t suit Geraldine because Freddie Flynn said he might be able to call round to the Glenstar apartment for an hour or two after work. But there was something magical about the thought of Muttie and this pedigree dog which had cost him over a hundred pounds. So they all tried to fit it in. Lizzie would hurry back from her last cleaning job of the day. Geraldine told Freddie that she’d be a little delayed but would be back at the apartment by 6.45. Neil said he’d try to be there, but he’d have to be out of St Jarlath’s Crescent by 6.30, just so long as everyone knew. Cathy said that she and Tom could call there for a while before they went to pick up the dishes at Mrs Riordan’s.