Page 57 of The Missing Sister

‘Christy’s at the pub, Fergus is scouting at the top in case of a raid, and Hannah is after having an early night. She’s to take the first train to Cork tomorrow to collect a dispatch from Dublin,’ said Daniel. ‘Any news?’ He put his book down on his lap and looked up at her.

‘Yes. I... well, I’ve been asked to stay on in a permanent position as nurse to Philip at the Big House.’ She saw the look that passed between her parents. ‘I wanted to ask you whether you thought ’twas a good idea. Oh, and’ – Nuala added what she hoped was the icing on the cake – ‘a big fancy car arrived today. A man called General Strickland was visiting Sir Reginald.’

‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’ Daniel exclaimed. ‘He’s the louser that runs the police force and all military operations up in Cork. He was there today?’

‘Yes,’ Nuala nodded.

‘Do you know why?’

‘I’ve not a clue, Daddy, but today I met Lady Fitzgerald. She spoke to me personally to offer me the position. And ’twas her who said about the general.’

‘Our girl’s infiltrating the heart of that family, Eileen,’ Daniel beamed.

‘And I’ve also an idea of how to see more.’

Nuala outlined her plan to persuade Philip downstairs and out into the garden.

There was a pause as her parents looked at each other again.

‘Sure, Nuala, ’tis worth sticking with the work for now. But in a week’s time, ’twill no longer be our decision what you do. You’ll have to visit your fiancé tomorrow and ask him,’ said Daniel.

‘I’d say he mightn’t be too pleased if his new wife is out until nine o’clock at night. Who will have his tea on the table when he comes home from the schoolroom?’

Nuala was fully prepared for this comment from her mother. ‘Finn rarely gets home until after six o’clock. I’d leave his tea ready for him, so all he has to do is take the lid off the bowl and eat it.’

‘I doubt he’ll be wanting cold stew or vegetables a few hours old,’ said Daniel, ‘but that’s for him to decide, not us, daughter. A wife’s place is by her husband’s side, and I’m sure he’ll not be wanting you cycling home in the dark and the rain when the nights draw in for winter.’

Nuala was reminded of the conversation she’d had with Philip earlier about the suffragettes.

‘I’ll be earning good money, which would help us,’ she persisted. ‘Finn’s wages don’t go far and we have no land to farm on to supplement it, so. Anyway, if he’s after agreeing, would you think it’s a good idea?’

‘I’ve said what I think, but ’tis not for me to decide,’ said Daniel. ‘Now, I’m for my bed. Leave a lamp burning in the window. We’ve new calves in the barn, which’ll be collected by dawn. Goodnight, daughter.’

‘Goodnight,’ she called as her parents made their way up the stairs to the bed that sometimes creaked in an odd way a while after they closed their bedroom door. She knew what the sound was, a sound that she herself would help make when she and Finn were wed... She blushed at the very thought of it.

Blowing out the candles, she left the oil lamp on the window ledge and went upstairs.

Only one more week of sleeping with my sister, she thought as she undressed, then crept in next to Hannah. They took turns to lie on the lumpy bit of the covered straw pallet because it was the worst place to sleep, but with Hannah up early to go to Cork City tomorrow, ’twas only fair that tonight she had the good side. Nuala shut her eyes and tried not to think about the ‘new calves’ in the barn. This was code for rifles that had been passed through many hands to reach them here in West Cork, and were currently lying in a dump in the woods behind the farmhouse. If they were found by the British before they were collected, the men in the family would be taken to Bandon Barracks to suffer the same fate as Tom and Pat. Comforting herself with the thought that Fergus was on watch up top, she did her best to go to sleep. After all, there had been ‘calves’ left here many times before...

‘What’s all this I hear about you carrying on working up at the Big House?’ demanded Hannah the next day when she was back from Cork City. Nuala was mucking out the pigsty and replacing the straw, a job they both hated. ‘What, I wonder, will Finn be thinking about that?’

‘I’ll be asking him, won’t I? Then I’ll tell you,’ Nuala shot back.

‘’Tis all right for some: finding yourself a good husband with a proper jobandworking up at the Big House. All of this down at your cosy new cottage in Clogagh. We’ll be calling you Lady Nuala soon enough, so we will. What about your volunteer work?’

‘I’ll take messages in the morning, and when I’m back at night, I swear. And I have Sundays off too. There.’ Nuala threw in the last batch of fresh straw and moved over to the water barrel to wash the stench of pig from her hands. She’d skip eating lunch and bathe in the stream on her way to the Big House, because she’d not want to arrive smelling of pig.

‘I’m sorry, Nuala,’ Hannah sighed, ‘I’m after turning into a grumpy old maid. I’m exhausted, I am. I had to cycle back the long way round from the station, as I saw a truck full of Tans.’

‘Where were they headed?’ Nuala asked as they walked towards the kitchen.

‘They stopped at the Clogagh crossroads and didn’t seem to know which way to turn. They were lost, since the volunteers took down the signposts,’ she said with a giggle.

‘I’ll cook the lunch before I go, so, no bother.’

‘Thanks.’ Hannah gave her a wan smile as they entered the kitchen and she went upstairs.

‘Did the calves leave the barn safely last night, Daddy?’ she asked as Daniel arrived from the front entrance of the cottage.