Page 17 of The Book of Irish Secrets (Magnolia Manor #5)

ELEVEN

The evening with Rose and her husband and children turned out to be more than just a family affair.

A surprise guest rang the doorbell just after Claire had arrived.

Noel, Rose’s husband, was helping Claire off with her jacket when the new arrival appeared in the doorway.

She turned around and discovered Pierce standing behind her with a bottle of wine in one hand and a bunch of flowers in the other.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Fancy seeing you here. What a very pleasant surprise.’

‘Well, yeah…’ Claire was suddenly tongue-tied. ‘I didn’t know you’d be here.’

‘Noel invited me when we ran into each other in the bank,’ Pierce said.

‘And Rose invited me when I went to Magnolia Manor to look at the little flat,’ Claire said.

‘And neither of us knew about the other’s invitation,’ Noel filled in. He hung Claire’s jacket on a peg on the hallstand. He was a tall man with a shock of light blond hair. He exuded warmth and kindness and Claire had liked him the minute he had opened the door to her when she rang the doorbell.

‘So it’s a surprise party,’ Rose said with a laugh from the door to the living room. ‘Welcome, Claire and Pierce. The kids are in their jammies and we’re just going through the pizza delivery menu. They both want margheritas and Noel will want the mushroom one and I’ll go for pepperoni.’

‘These are for you.’ Pierce handed the bunch of flowers to Rose.

‘You really shouldn’t have, Pierce,’ Rose said. ‘They’re lovely. Thank you so much. But come in and take look at the brochure and then tell us what you want so I can phone the pizzeria and place our order.’

They followed Rose into the bright, welcoming living room where the fire was lit and the blue curtains were drawn against the wet and windy evening outside. The carpet was strewn with toys and a cartoon played on the TV in the corner.

‘Hello, Sophie and Freddie,’ Pierce said as he walked towards the sofa where two children were looking at a brochure from the pizzeria.

‘Hi, Uncle Pierce,’ the little girl said. ‘Is that your new girlfriend?’

‘No,’ Rose said. ‘This is Claire and she is working for Uncle Pierce’s sister, Karina.’

‘Cooking?’ Sophie said, looking at Claire with her huge blue eyes. She was the image of her mother with the same dark blonde hair and dimples in her cheeks.

‘No, just in the office,’ Claire said and sat down beside the little girl. ‘Hello, you must be Sophie. I’ve heard a lot about you.’

‘What have you heard?’ Sophie asked, staring at Claire.

‘That you’re very good at the tin whistle and Irish dancing,’ Claire said as the little boy pulled at her arm. She turned to smile at him. ‘Hi, there. What’s your name?’

‘Freddie,’ he said and stuck his thumb in his mouth.

‘How old are you?’ Claire asked. She couldn’t help smiling at the little boy. With his huge blue eyes, dark eyelashes and tousled blond hair, he was a beautiful child.

Freddie took his thumb out of his mouth. ‘Two and a half. Can I sit on your lap?’

‘Of course,’ Claire said and lifted the little boy onto her lap. ‘So what are you doing tonight?’

He looked up at her for a moment. ‘We’re having pizza.’

‘I know.’ Claire put her arms around the warm little body. ‘I love pizza.’

‘Which kind?’ Sophie asked, inching closer to Claire and Freddie. She pushed the brochure at Claire. ‘It’s all in here, so pick one.’

Claire took the brochure and looked at the list. ‘Okay, well my favourite is pizza Vesuvio which is very spicy, with anchovies. I see they have that here, so that’s what I’m having.’

‘How strange.’ Pierce joined them on the sofa. ‘That’s my favourite too.’

‘Great.’ Rose picked up her phone from the coffee table.

‘Now that I know what everyone wants, I’ll phone through our order.

They’ll be here in about half an hour or so.

We can have a drink in the meantime. What will you have, Claire?

White or red wine, a Guinness or beer? Or a soft drink if you’re driving. ’

‘I walked here,’ Claire said. ‘Despite the weather. It’s only ten minutes from the B&B anyway. A glass of red would be nice, thanks.’

‘I’ll have the same, as I brought a bottle of red I want to taste,’ Pierce said. ‘I’ll go into the kitchen and open it if you show me where the glasses are, Noel.’

The men went into what Claire assumed was the kitchen while Rose sat down in an easy chair opposite the sofa and rang the pizzeria. She placed the order and then hung up and smiled at Claire. ‘We’ll let the men do the work and we can just sit here and chat and the children can watch the cartoons.’

‘I want to chat too,’ Sophie said. ‘What will we chat about?’

Claire smiled at the little girl. ‘Anything you like. Maybe you want to ask me a question?’

Sophie nodded. ‘I do.’ She studied Claire for a moment. ‘You have a lot of freckles. Have you counted them?’

‘No.’ Claire laughed. ‘Maybe I should?’

Sophie stood on her knees on the sofa and looked closely at Claire’s face. ‘There’s an awful lot of them so it would take all night to count them. But how did they get there?’

‘Sophie,’ Rose chided, ‘it’s not polite to comment on the way people look. They might not like it.’

‘But freckles are nice,’ Sophie said. ‘I wish I had some. Just a little sprinkle on my nose would be cute. How could I get some?’

‘They just appear,’ Claire said. ‘I couldn’t do anything about it.’

‘Oh.’ Sophie looked disappointed. ‘But maybe I could paint some on? With a marker?’

‘I can paint your face,’ Freddie offered.

‘No thanks,’ Sophie said. ‘I can do it myself.’

‘I want to watch the cartoons.’ Freddie wriggled down from Claire’s lap and sat on the floor in front of the large TV in the corner.

Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t watch that baby stuff. I’ll go and see if Daddy and Uncle Pierce are laying the table in the kitchen. I can hear them laughing, so maybe they’re just having fun.’ She jumped down from the sofa and went through the door to the kitchen.

Rose smiled and shook her head. ‘She is such an old lady sometimes.’

‘Ah, she’s lovely,’ Claire said. ‘They both are. You’re very lucky.’

‘I know.’ Rose reached out and stroked Freddie’s blond hair. ‘They are the best things in my life.’ She looked at Claire awkwardly.

‘When my husband and I were first married we talked about having a family,’ Claire explained, as she guessed what Rose was thinking. ‘But then we drifted apart and our marriage slowly failed. I felt that I didn’t want children with him. I have never really had that yearning to be a mother, anyway.’

‘Some women never feel that,’ Rose said, looking more at ease after Claire’s explanation. ‘That’s not unusual. You shouldn’t feel bad.’

‘I don’t, actually,’ Claire said after a moment’s reflection.

‘I like children, really. It’s just that I never wanted my own.

My sister, Marian, has two children and I spent a lot of time with them when they were small.

But then they moved to Australia, which felt sad.

Her husband is Australian and he wanted to go back there after many years living in Ireland.

I keep in touch with them through FaceTime and emails and so on, but it’s not the same.

I’m hoping they’ll come for a visit in the summer, though. I miss Marian terribly.’

‘Of course you do,’ Rose said. ‘I couldn’t bear it if any of my sisters moved so far away. Even if Lily and I have ding-dong arguments from time to time,’ she added with a wry smile.

Claire nodded as she remembered how lonely she had felt when Marian had left to live in Australia.

It had meant that she had no family in Ireland and that her close relationship with her sister was gone forever.

‘Oh yes, Marian and I often argued. But we always knew we would support each other if we needed it.’

‘Must be hard to have lost that feeling,’ Rose said kindly.

They were interrupted by Sophie running into the room.

‘The pizzas are here!’ she shouted. ‘I looked out the window and saw the van. And Daddy says he’s sorry they didn’t come in with your drinks but now we have to go and sit down and eat pizza and you can have the drinks at the kitchen table.

’ She drew breath and then ran to the hall as the doorbell rang.

Rose got to her feet. ‘We’d better go and get the pizzas and then do as we’re told. Hey, Freddie, the pizzas are here.’

Freddie shot up from the floor shouting, ‘Yay!’

They all went into the large bright kitchen where a big round table was set for six and Noel was pouring wine.

Rose and Pierce got the pizzas and carried them to the table then proceeded to cut them up, passing plates around the table while Claire sat down between Sophie and Freddie and helped them cut up their slices into smaller ones suitable for their little hands.

The evening went on to be really enjoyable and once the children had been put to bed, the grown-ups finished the pizzas and had more wine and chatted late into the night. Pierce moved to sit beside Claire which made her feel oddly flattered, even if he didn’t pay her any special attention.

When they both got up to leave, Pierce helped Claire with her coat, saying he’d walk her home as the B&B was only a short distance from Karina’s house. ‘I couldn’t let a lady walk home alone in the dark,’ he said as they waved goodnight at Noel and Rose and thanked them for a wonderful evening.

‘That’s very chivalrous of you,’ Claire said. ‘But I’m sure I wouldn’t come to much harm around here, all the same.’

‘Of course not,’ Pierce said as they started to walk into the chilly night. The rain had stopped and the wind eased and the stars were clearly visible in the dark sky. ‘But I enjoy your company and I’m going the same way. Great evening, wasn’t it?’

‘Lovely,’ Claire agreed as she fell into step with Pierce. ‘They’re a very nice family.’

‘They are,’ Pierce said. ‘Noel is one of my best friends. We went to school together. He was a few years below me but we played on the same football team.’