Foreign Affairs
Authors: Patricia Scanlan
Patricia Scanlan was born in Dublin, where she still lives. Her books have sold worldwide and have been translated into many languages. Patricia is the series editor and a
contributing author to the
Open Door
series. She also teaches creative writing to second-level students and is involved in Adult Literacy.
Find out more by visiting Patricia Scanlan on Facebook.
Also by Patricia Scanlan
Apartment 3B
Finishing Touches
Foreign Affairs
Promises, Promises
Mirror Mirror
Francesca’s Party
Two for Joy
Double Wedding
Divided Loyalties
Coming Home
Trilogies
City Girl
City Lives
City Woman
Forgive and Forget
Happy Ever After
Love and Marriage
With All My Love
A Time for Friends
First published in Ireland by Poolbeg Press, 1995
This paperback edition published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Patricia Scanlan 1995
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Patricia Scanlan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988.
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB
Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
PB ISBN: 978-1-47114-119-5
TPB ISBN: 978-1-47115-297-9
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-47114-120-1
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Acknowledgements
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
I give the Lord my thanks.
To Francesca, Tony, Garry, Larry, Jenny, and Mark, my Bantam family who’ve made me feel so welcome.
To Sarah Lutyens and Felicity Rubenstein – who’ve become like sisters to me.
To Feile and Cliona Morris, Ger Conlon, Helen McCartney and Alil O’Shaughnessy. Thanks for all the info.
To Kieran Connolly – a man in a million. Thanks for putting up with all the phone calls and listening to all the moans. May you get the Harley of your dreams!
To Chris Green – for all the larks . . . and the ones to come.
To Anne Shulman – who knows that it’s like.
To Sally and the gang in O’Connell Street and to Ruth, Paula, Gary and the gang in ‘The Green’ for all the kindness and support.
To Audrey, Brenda and Olive in Mac’s Gym – the nicest sadists I know.
And to my godmother, Maureen Halligan who provided a wonderful haven when I needed it most. Thanks for that great week in April.
Dedication
I dedicate this book to the very special people who have supported and encouraged and gone out of their way to help me in the writing of this and my other books.
To my lovely supportive family and especially to Ma, Da, Mary, Henry, and Yvonne who looked after me when I was really under pressure.
To Breda Purdue, who combines motherhood, wifehood, and career superbly and still has time to be a great friend. I admire her enormously. Thanks Breda for being there from the
start, it wouldn’t be half as much fun without you.
To Margaret Daly, whose wisdom and friendship I greatly cherish.
And finally and especially I dedicate this book to Deirdre Purcell – a truly kind and caring friend who in an act of unselfish generosity set in motion a chain of
wonderful events that can only enhance my writing career. Thank you, Deirdre, I owe you one.
Oh, the gladness of a woman when she’s glad! Oh, the sadness of a woman when she’s sad! But the gladness of her gladness And the sadness of her sadness Are as nothing to her badness, when she’s bad. Anon |
Contents
Prologue
‘Flight 507 will depart at twenty-three hundred hours. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the delay.’ The calm voice of the announcer floated over the
Tannoy system. A collective groan came from the passengers assembled at gate twenty.
‘For heaven’s sake!’ Brenda Hanley fumed. ‘You’d think TransCon Travel would use a
reliable
airline.’
Paula Matthews shot her a daggers look. It went against the grain to hear anyone, let alone Brenda Hanley criticizing the travel company she worked for.
‘Give it a rest, Brenda,’ Jennifer Myles said evenly. She was Brenda’s sister and she was heartily sick of her moans.
‘I don’t mind at all.’ Rachel Stapleton giggled. It was her first foreign holiday, she was tipsy, and she hadn’t a care in the world.
The four women sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts.
She never felt less like going on holiday in her life, Paula reflected as she stared out on to the concourse and watched their jet refuelling. She and Jenny had been away
together and had worked abroad for several years. Paula had always loved the excitement of packing and going to the airport and treating herself in the duty-free. But not this time, she thought
unhappily. Her life was a shambles. Not professionally. She was an extremely successful career woman. But she had made such a mess of her private life. Whoever said ‘love hurts’
didn’t know the half of it.
She could hear Brenda grumbling away and she felt a surge of irritation bubble. The thought of being in Brenda’s company for the next ten days did not make Paula ecstatically happy. She
had known Brenda and Jenny a long time now and it still amazed her that the two sisters could be so totally different. If she managed to get through this holiday without flying off the handle at
Brenda, it would be a miracle, Paula thought glumly. She was suffering from a broken heart but Brenda would be suffering from a broken neck if she didn’t shut up. Paula scowled, opened her
copy of
Vanity Fair
and tried to concentrate.
Brenda sat silently raging. She’d seen the filthy look Madame Matthews had thrown her, just because Brenda had criticized her precious TransCon. Paula thought she was the
absolute bee’s knees in her Lacoste sweater and her dark dramatic Ray-Bans. And so she might look like a film star,
she
didn’t have three kids and a husband dragging out of her
like Brenda had.
Well Paula or no Paula, she was going to enjoy this holiday. Ten days of no cooking, washing, cleaning, ironing and all the thousand and one things a busy housewife had to do, were not going to
be spoiled by the Prima Donna on her right. What Jenny saw in the girl, Brenda could not fathom. But Paula and Jenny were more than best friends. They were as close as sisters. Closer than she and
Jenny. The familiar flame of jealousy flared. Why couldn’t Jenny and she have that closeness? Paula Matthews was just a user and the sooner her sister realized it, the better.
Brenda took out her nail file and began to shape her nails. She hadn’t had a chance to beautify herself, she’d been so busy getting the kids organized. She cast a surreptitious
glance at Paula’s perfectly manicured varnished nails. Easy knowing she never did a tap of housework, Brenda sniffed as she filed with a vengeance.
Maybe she might go and phone home, Jennifer thought. Just to see if he was all right. But then, maybe he wasn’t home yet. She sighed. She was missing her husband like
crazy already and she’d only kissed him goodbye an hour ago. This delay was a drag. Jennifer glanced at Brenda who was filing her nails as if her life depended on it. She had a face on her
that would stop a clock. Paula had her head stuck in a magazine. Keeping the pair of them from having an all-out humdinger of a row was going to be hard work. Keeping
herself
from having a
humdinger of a row with Brenda wasn’t going to be easy either if her sister kept up her nonsense.
She and Brenda had never been on holidays together before. Although they’d grown up together and shared a bedroom for years, Jennifer had to admit that Brenda was not an easy person to get
on with. The trouble with Brenda was she couldn’t be thankful for what she had. She didn’t know how lucky she was, Jennifer thought sadly, as pain darkened her eyes.