Page 11 of The Book of Irish Secrets (Magnolia Manor #5)

SEVEN

Rose smiled and held out her hand as she walked swiftly towards them. ‘Hi, Claire. Welcome to Kerry. I heard you just arrived yesterday and that you’re staying at the Madigans’ B&B.’

‘That’s right,’ Claire stammered, staring at the beautiful woman who was her third cousin.

But, of course, Rose had no idea. After a moment’s awkward silence, Claire shook Rose’s hand and said a quiet, ‘Hello.’ She wondered how on earth Rose knew so much about her already, but then this was Kerry and a very small community where everyone knew each other and any stranger would stick out.

Especially in low season. She had worried that taking the job with Karina might have been a mistake, but arriving alone, unattached to anyone in town, would have been more of a problem.

She looked at Rose and took in her bright blue eyes, her gleaming blonde hair that bounced around her face and her warm smile. ‘I believe we’ll be working together when there are big parties here,’ Claire said.

‘We will,’ Rose agreed.

‘And Claire is also a whiz at computers,’ Karina cut in.

‘Great,’ Rose said, looking impressed. ‘We could do with a techie person around here.’

‘I’m not sure—’ Claire was about to protest. She just happened to have had the same problem with her own laptop a while back. But she wanted to give the impression that she was perfect for the job. ‘Thank you,’ she replied finally. ‘This is a very interesting house.’

‘We’re very proud of it.’ Rose paused and checked her watch. ‘Look, I have to leave you to go and get my daughter from school and my little boy from his playgroup. Lovely to meet you, Claire. Give me a shout if you need anything. Karina will fill you in about our schedule for the next few weeks.’

‘Thanks, Rose,’ Claire said as the first rush of excitement died down. ‘Bye for now.’

‘Bye,’ Rose said and glided out of the room.

‘She’s lovely,’ Claire said when Rose had left. ‘So graceful and so very friendly.’

‘She rules the manor with a rod of steel,’ Karina said. ‘But she’s very nice looking and a wonderful mother. Her daughter, Sophie, is adorable and a real child prodigy when it comes to music.’

‘She is?’ Claire said, thinking about her own musical talent and how Auntie Rachel had said it was a Fleury trait.

‘She can play that tin whistle like a real musician,’ Karina said. ‘It’s a treat to listen to her. And her Irish dancing is amazing for a six-year-old. The Fleury children are all wonderful, I have to say. Funny and wise and very lively.’

‘How many of them are there?’ Claire asked, even though she knew from reading about them.

‘Six so far,’ Karina replied. ‘Lily has two, a girl and a boy, Rose the same and Vi and Jack’s little twins are eighteen months.

Their granny, Tricia, has her hands full.

The girls are so lucky to have their mum always ready to help out.

Tricia lives in the gardener’s cottage down by the little beach.

But she’s away right now with Cillian, her partner, who’s an archaeologist,’ Karina ended as she started to walk out of the room.

‘But come on, I’ll show you the dining room and library and then I think we’ll walk over to the orangery. ’

‘Brilliant.’ Claire followed Karina out of the ballroom, thinking how lucky those children were to grow up with their cousins. Her own family was scattered around the world, which made her feel a pang of loneliness.

They visited the dining room, where some of the smaller parties took place, and the library that had turned into a sitting room for the occupants of the senior apartments, where they could meet to watch TV, read books or just chat.

The huge bookcases crammed with books covered an entire wall and there were groups of easy chairs and little tables all around the big room.

The oriental carpets on the floor and the glowing embers in the period fireplace added to the cosy atmosphere despite its size.

‘The family use it for some of their parties too,’ Karina explained. ‘Then they use a booking system and the tenants have to stay away.’

‘I see.’ Claire spotted a door in the far wall. ‘What’s in there?’ she asked.

‘Oh, just the music room,’ Karina replied and opened the door to a smaller room where a grand piano took up most of the space.

The windows had no curtains and apart from the piano, a harp and violin on a small table beside a music stand, there was no other furniture.

‘The grand piano is a Steinway,’ Karina continued.

‘Does anyone play on it?’

‘Yes, both Naomi and Sophie have piano lessons here, so it’s tuned regularly,’ Karina said. ‘Do you play?’

‘Yes, but I’m a bit rusty,’ Claire said, not wanting to reveal her musical talent. She looked at the grand piano, longing to sit down and play. ‘I used to have lessons at my great-aunt’s house and I inherited her piano when she died.’

‘Were you very close to her?’ Karina asked with great sympathy in her voice.

‘Yes,’ Claire said. ‘She was so lovely and kind. I miss her terribly.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Karina said softly. ‘It’s hard to lose someone you love, whatever age they were when they died. You know, I’m sure Sylvia wouldn’t mind if you played the piano here from time to time. You just have to ask her.’

‘That would be lovely,’ Claire said. ‘I might do that.’

‘You should.’ Karina walked back across the library. ‘Come with me and we’ll go outside. The view from the front steps will cheer us up.’

They walked out of the library and across the huge hall with its tiled floor and huge fireplace and out through the impressive double entrance doors to the steps where they stood for a moment enjoying the sight of the magnificent magnolia tree that already had buds that would be in bloom at the end of the month, and the sweeping view of the gardens and the ocean beyond.

Claire stood for a moment, mesmerised by the sheer beauty of it all and thought of the twin brothers posing for the photograph that had been taken on this very spot over a hundred years ago. She felt a sudden chill as she stood there and Karina looked at her curiously.

‘It’s very humbling, isn’t it?’ Karina said.

‘I mean, the house, the gardens, the view, the tree. Such a huge slice of history, so well preserved. I often imagine all the Fleurys of all the different generations coming and going, living through all kinds of difficult times. And then the house, still standing, still so beautiful, even if a little dented by time and weather.’

‘Yes,’ Claire breathed, still awestruck by it all. ‘It’s incredible to be here at last.’

Karina gave her a sideways glance. ‘At last? Oh, yes, you told me you had wanted to come here.’

Claire nodded. ‘Oh yes, all my life,’ she said without thinking. ‘I mean, ever since I read about the manor when… a while back. There was also a feature in a magazine about the manor and its history.’

‘About forty years ago?’ Karina asked. ‘That thing in The Irish Times weekend magazine? I do remember that. We were all so excited to read it. Lily and Rose were tiny tots then and Vi wasn’t even born.

Tricia and Fred had only been married a few years.

It was something to do with great houses of Ireland.

Sylvia and Liam hosted a party with a Victorian theme and we all came dressed in clothes from the period, or tried to, anyway.

Such fun,’ Karina said wistfully. ‘Years before the tragedy. I suppose you heard about that too?’

‘Yes,’ Claire said. ‘I did. It was in all the papers. So incredibly sad.’

‘We were all devastated.’ Karina looked suddenly upset. ‘The whole town was in mourning. Oh, it was a terrible time. I don’t like to think about it even now.’

‘I can imagine,’ Claire said, remembering how she had felt when she heard about it.

She had been devastated, too, in an odd way.

It had been as if the fairy-tale castle had crumbled and the whole fantasy of being part of that family one day had slowly faded.

But her determination to solve the mystery never died, it had been growing steadily until this day, and here she was at last, standing on the steps of the manor under that famous magnolia tree.

‘But that was so long ago and everyone has moved on,’ Karina said.

‘They have all settled into their adult lives and seem so happy, which is a true blessing.’ She started to walk down the steps.

‘Now, on to the conservatory where you will meet Lily. Sylvia will join us there and we’ll have a cup of tea.

Lily does everything in the café, down to making all kinds of jams and sauces that she sells here.

Those Fleury women are such powerhouses. ’

‘Gosh, yes,’ Claire agreed. ‘They seem to be good at everything. I’ve seen the café on the Magnolia website. It looks lovely.’

‘Even better in summer when we can sit outside under the trees,’ Karina said. ‘Lily used to close down for the winter, but this year she’s kept it open to see if it was viable. And it seems to have been a good decision. There’s a decent crowd here nearly every day.’

The short walk to the orangery took them down a gravel path and through an archway in an old wall that was the entrance to the Regency garden. The stone-fronted facade of the orangery could be glimpsed among the trees, the tall windows reflecting the late-afternoon sun.

‘What a lovely place.’ Claire looked around the garden with its shrubs, neatly tended flowerbed and the velvety green lawns.

She could hear birdsong and the quiet trickle of water from the fountain at the far end.

A smell of earth and grass and a faint tang of seaweed floated in the air. ‘It’s so peaceful here.’

‘A real haven.’ Karina led the way to the orangery and opened the door that had beautiful stained-glass panels. Tiny bells chimed as they walked into a bright room with round tables spread over the wide oak planks of the floor.