Better Together (21 page)

‘Not you personally,’ Nina assured her. ‘Your paper, ex-paper, to some extent. But,’ she added, ‘that was displacement activity, wasn’t it? I wanted to blame the paper because that way I didn’t have to blame Sean.’

‘Do you blame him now?’ asked Sheridan. It occurred to her that listening to Nina was a good way of learning more about being Sarah, the agony aunt, although she told herself that as far as the other woman was concerned she should simply listen, not offer unasked-for advice.

Nina sighed. ‘I should blame him. But there’s a part of me that thinks he was just caught up in living his dream.’

‘Doesn’t mean he had to cheat on you.’ Sheridan was firm about this.

‘Men are weak about things like that.’

‘Well they shouldn’t be.’

‘Sometimes they can’t help falling for a pretty girl.’

Sheridan stared at Nina. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Just because a girl is pretty and just because the opportunity is there doesn’t mean a man should take it. Would you?’

‘Me?’

‘If you’d been living away from the guesthouse and a gorgeous guy came on to you – would you have cheated on Sean?’

‘It wouldn’t happen,’ said Nina. ‘Sean has a kind of magnetism, he really does. Women like him.’

Sheridan bit back a retort that Sean sounded like a sleazeball to her and that Nina was better off without him. It was a comment she might have made as an agony
aunt, but she certainly wasn’t going to come out with it face to face. She was afraid she’d antagonise Nina if she continued talking about Sean, and so she abruptly changed the subject and asked Nina to tell her about the guesthouse.

‘Do your brothers and sister come back often?’ asked Sheridan after Nina had given her a potted history.

‘Hardly ever,’ said Nina. ‘Bridie’s on her third marriage and doesn’t have time for flitting back here. She’s lived in New York, Boston and Chicago. She’d be a total fish out of water in Ardbawn now. Peadar comes back from time to time because it’s only a short hop from London, but his life is very different to mine. He works for an airline so he travels a lot. And Tom has only been back twice. We keep in touch a bit through Facebook and emails, but we were never all that close to begin with.’

‘My brothers both work for local government and coach Gaelic football,’ said Sheridan. ‘They’ve turned out just like my dad. We’re close but not in a meeting-up-very-often kind of way. They’re always madly busy.’

‘How are you liking Ardbawn?’

‘Adjusting,’ said Sheridan carefully.

Nina smiled. ‘I’m sure it seems as dull as ditchwater to you.’

‘No. But I’m having to get used to the whole small-town thing, and people saying hello all the time.’

‘Knowing people can be nice,’ Nina said. ‘There are loads of community initiatives; many of them are sporting ones, so that might keep you busy. There are reading groups, a musical society and a drama society too.’ Mentioning the drama society made her wince, though Sheridan didn’t notice;
she was too busy finishing up the floury roast potatoes that accompanied the chicken.

‘I don’t think I’ll be staying long enough to get involved in much other than work,’ she told Nina. ‘But it’s nice to be here tonight, thanks for asking me.’

‘Drop up any evening. You’re always welcome to use the Wi-Fi or watch the TV. The ones in the studios aren’t great for movies, the screens are too small.’

‘I’m not a big TV watcher at the best of times,’ said Sheridan. ‘Unless it’s a football match or something.’

Nina reached for her copy of the
Central News
with the TV listings. Sheridan saw that it had been left open on the horoscopes page. After she’d taken over the task the previous week, Myra had given her a tip on how to come up with them.

‘I allocate each sign to a person I know,’ Myra told her. ‘I try to think of what would be good in their lives and I make up the prediction based on that. For example, my mother-in-law is a Gemini. She’s a bit of a fusspot and tries to meddle far too much, so I generally tell her to keep her distance and not to get too close to things.’

Sheridan had burst into laughter at that, while Myra beamed and told her it was a foolproof system.

‘What’s your birth sign?’ she asked Nina suddenly.

‘Cancer,’ said Nina. ‘Why?’ She caught sight of the horoscopes. ‘Are you superstitious?’ she asked.

‘Only about sports,’ replied Sheridan. ‘When my brothers used to play competitively, I always used to bring my lucky scarf to their matches. Whenever I wore it, one or the other of them scored. I knew that realistically it was nothing to do with the scarf, but I did it all the same. I’m not one for
horoscopes, though.’ She couldn’t remember what had been predicted for Cancerians. She herself was a Leo. Myra had suggested that it was time for Leos to grab the tiger by the tail, which had amused Sheridan.

‘I like the
Central News
horoscopes,’ said Nina. ‘They can be uncannily accurate sometimes. My latest says that painful events should be coming to a conclusion.’

‘That’s nice to know.’ Sheridan wondered who Myra’s Cancerian subject was, and what painful events were in her life. ‘We have a great psychic,’ she added, crossing her fingers at the blatant lie.

‘Do you really?’ Nina’s eyes grew larger. ‘Who is she?’

‘I can’t possibly tell you that,’ Sheridan said. ‘They’d kill me.’

‘You’ve a good agony aunt, too,’ added Nina. ‘Sarah’s very down-to-earth.’

‘I know,’ said Sheridan. ‘I don’t know how she keeps on top of the troubles people have.’

‘I felt like writing to her myself,’ said Nina. ‘After Sean went. But everyone would’ve known it was me. There can’t be too many people in Ardbawn who’d be saying that their husband was shacking up with a TV star.’

‘Can you guess who sends in the problems?’ asked Sheridan.

‘I try sometimes,’ Nina admitted. ‘Though maybe I’m completely wrong.’

‘At first I thought they were made up,’ confessed Sheridan. ‘But they’re not. They come from lots of places, though, not just Ardbawn.’ She repeated what Myra had told her about readers from all over the country and beyond.

‘Amazing how so many of us have things we need help with and nobody we can turn to,’ said Nina.

‘Didn’t you have anyone to talk to when the whole thing with Sean broke?’

‘Of course. I have plenty of friends in Ardbawn,’ said Nina. ‘But I’m not much good at having that type of conversation. Besides, I always felt Sean and I seemed to have it worked out. We’ve had our ups and downs and come through them OK.’

‘I’m sure your friends would have been supportive,’ said Sheridan. ‘It’s always nice to know that you can rely on people.’

‘Oh, I know. And they
are
very supportive. But I still feel so let down by him. Humiliated. Embarrassed, too.’

‘I was embarrassed about being made redundant,’ said Sheridan. ‘And when my friend who hadn’t lost her job was offered another one, I felt even worse. I was jealous of her. I hate having to say that, but I was. Getting the job here and coming to Ardbawn was kind of humiliating for me.’

‘But the
Central News
is great,’ protested Nina. ‘DJ is a lovely man.’

‘He’s a character,’ agreed Sheridan.

‘He does a lot of good work in the community,’ said Nina. ‘The
Central News
supports local businesses.’

‘Mostly Paudie O’Malley’s.’ Sheridan thought this would be an excellent opportunity to gossip about him. Gossip was, after all, far more interesting than hard news, and a good way to get the sort of information that wasn’t currently public.

‘That’s because he has so many businesses in the area. He employs people locally as well as nationally. He’s very well respected in the town.’ Nina’s voice was suddenly clipped.

‘Hard to believe that anyone can be as successful as him and not walk on a few toes,’ Sheridan said.

‘Of course.’

‘D’you know him?’ asked Sheridan.

‘I’ve met him.’

‘Is he as abrasive as everyone says? Or is he simply reclusive?’

‘I haven’t seen or talked to him in a long time,’ replied Nina.

‘There was that incident with his wife . . .’

‘Such a terrible tragedy.’ Nina started to clear away the dishes and stack them in the dishwasher. ‘But it was years ago.’

‘She fell out of a window? Or off a balcony or something?’

‘Out of a full-length upstairs window,’ Nina clarified as she took an apple tart from the Aga and began to slice it.

‘And there was an investigation.’

‘Yes. It was inevitable under the circumstances.’

‘But it was all just a tragic accident?’

Nina turned around to Sheridan, the knife still in her hand.

‘Of course it was an accident. What are you implying?’

‘Nothing.’ Sheridan was surprised by the sudden tension in Nina’s voice. She couldn’t help thinking that nice as the guesthouse owner was being tonight, she was a very volatile character. She wished Nina would put down the knife. It was disconcerting to have her holding it like that when she seemed upset.

‘The police investigated it thoroughly.’ Nina spoke calmly again as she slid the slices of apple tart on to plates. ‘There was no reason to suspect anything of anybody. Elva fell.’

‘Did some people think she was pushed?’ asked Sheridan. ‘I read something . . .’

‘Such rubbish!’ exclaimed Nina. ‘Of course she wasn’t pushed.’

‘Anyway, Paudie seems to have moved on,’ said Sheridan, startled by the vehemence in Nina’s voice. ‘He’s done amazingly well.’

‘Yes, he has,’ Nina told her. ‘He’s a strong man.’

‘Behind every strong man there’s a woman,’ said Sheridan. ‘Is there a woman in Paudie’s life?’

‘Not that I know of.’

‘So he lives all alone?’

‘More or less,’ said Nina. ‘His children stay with him from time to time, but they’re adults now. They all have their own lives and their own homes.’

‘There were three – no, four children?’

‘Have you researched him?’ Nina looked curiously at Sheridan.

‘A bit.’ Sheridan shrugged slightly. ‘He’s Ardbawn’s claim to fame, after all, as well as my employer.’

Nina didn’t say anything.

‘It must have been hard for him, bringing up the children on his own after Elva died,’ added Sheridan.

‘Yes.’ Nina’s eyes darkened. ‘Yes, it must have been. Of course JJ was sixteen or seventeen when the accident happened, not exactly a child any more, and he was always old for his years. The youngest is Cushla. She was about ten at the time. I remember her in the graveyard, all dressed in black with a red rose pinned to her coat, God love her.’ Nina’s voice cracked and then she recovered. ‘Still, she’s doing well now, she’s an auctioneer – art and jewellery and
stuff like that. Peter – the boy who was closest to her in age – is a motorbike racer.’

‘I read that.’

‘I supposed you must have, it’s a sport, isn’t it? I don’t think he’s won any races, but he’s happy and so are we because better he’s racing on a track over there than speeding through the town here, which is what he used to do. A total tearaway, particularly after his mother died. But a good boy behind it all.’

‘There was another daughter, wasn’t there? Married? And JJ works in the family business, doesn’t he?’

‘JJ’s the sensible one, always has been,’ said Nina. ‘Paudie wanted his kids to be involved, but JJ is the only one who was interested. He spends a lot of his time in Dublin, though. Sinead’s the only one still in Ardbawn. Mike, her husband, is a nice guy, but I’m sure things aren’t always easy for her.’

‘Oh, why not?’ Sheridan was interested in what sounded like a decent bit of gossip at last.

‘Mike’s an engineer. He works on oil pipelines, which often keeps him away for weeks at a time. That’s difficult when you’ve got a small kid. Also, he’s a real outdoor-adventure sort of guy. Loves mountaineering and rock-climbing, all that sort of thing. Last year he was injured when some rocks fell on him. Broke an arm, concussed, had to be airlifted off the mountain. It was touch and go for a while.’

‘I’m surprised that wasn’t in the papers too,’ said Sheridan.

‘Paudie does his best to keep his family private,’ Nina said. ‘He struggled after Elva’s death to keep some of the more ghoulish stories away from the kids’ eyes. Bloody newspapers, you really are vultures.’

‘You can’t have it both ways, Nina,’ said Sheridan. ‘The
Central News
is a paper too. You can’t say DJ treats everyone sensitively and then call all the others vultures.’

‘I think it was because of some of the more sensationalist coverage all those years ago that Paudie developed an interest in the media himself,’ said Nina. ‘He couldn’t bear the way tragedy was turned into sales.’

Sheridan nodded. She couldn’t deny that some newspapers did very well out of other people’s grief and suffering.

‘Anyway, he’s doing incredibly well now.’ Nina sounded relieved. ‘Everyone in Ardbawn thinks he deserves his success.’

‘And how about his personal life?’ asked Sheridan. ‘It seems odd that he hasn’t met someone else.’

‘Elva was the love of his life. He dated a few times after the accident. But nobody will ever replace Elva for him. Ever.’

Sheridan wondered how well Nina Fallon knew Paudie O’Malley. Would she be able to swing an interview for her? If she swore to Nina that her motives were pure and that she only wanted to write a quality piece about the town’s most famous businessman, would she agree to ask him? Although that’s not strictly true, she acknowledged to herself. I want to write something controversial about him. Because I don’t believe he’s all sweetness and light like Nina wants to make out, and because I’m sure that the tragedy with his wife changed his attitude too.

‘Where does he live?’ she asked Nina. ‘He’s not a tax exile only dropping in from time to time, is he?’

‘His house is another few kilometres up the road,’ Nina told her. ‘He lives there, although he’s got a place overseas too. I can’t remember where. March Manor is the most gorgeous house. He did a big renovation job on it a few
years ago. Invited everyone in the town along to a party afterwards.’

‘Nice of him.’

‘It was a great evening, I believe. The
Central News
said it was like something out of the movies. He picked a summer’s night and there were lights all over the garden and along the driveway.’