Page 39 of The Widow’s Irish Secret (Magnolia Manor #4)

‘It’s not a heart attack,’ Lily replied. ‘It was a panic attack. Quite frightening but not dangerous.’

‘Ooooh.’ Tricia felt weak with relief. ‘Thank God in heaven.’ She turned to Cillian, who had pulled up beside the road. ‘It was just a panic attack. Sylvia’s okay.’

‘Phew,’ Cillian said and relaxed some of the tension in his hands as they gripped the steering wheel.

Tricia turned on the speaker. ‘How is Sylvia now? She must have been very frightened by that. I’ve heard panic attacks feel like a real heart attack, so it can be traumatising.’

‘They gave her a sedative and she’s asleep,’ Lily said. ‘They’re keeping her in for a day or two to do some tests. Could be that her blood pressure is up and given her age, they want to make sure she’s okay before they release her.’

‘Very sensible,’ Cillian said.

Lily let out a giggle. ‘You should have seen Granny when she had recovered and the doctor started talking about her age. It appears she has been telling fibs for years. She’s actually a whole two years older than she’s let on and she was so annoyed when they told us.

She said it was confidential and how dare they give such personal details to all and sundry like that.

Then, when they said she had to stay in, she started getting out of bed and demanded they give her back her clothes and asked for a taxi to take her home. ’

‘Typical of Sylvia,’ Tricia remarked, still wobbly after the scare.

‘I know,’ Lily said, still laughing. ‘But they told her they wouldn’t be responsible for what happened if she left.

So she got back into bed and asked for a cup of tea.

Earl Grey, of course, which they didn’t have.

Then they gave her a sedative and she fell asleep.

So now we’re going home but it would be great if you could go and see her tomorrow morning.

We’re all a little tired after all the drama, to be honest.’

‘Of course you are.’ Tricia thought for a moment. ‘What brought on the panic attack? Ilse called and babbled something about a row to do with Vi’s wedding dress. She hung up before I could ask her to explain.’

‘Yeah, well…’ Lily paused. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you right now but you should know what it was about.

We were all in the kitchen having just finished dinner.

Noel and Dominic left to take the kids home as it was getting late.

Ilse was there, too, and she started talking about Vi’s wedding and how lovely it was that she was going to wear Granny’s wedding dress.

But Vi said she wasn’t and she was having your dress altered so she could wear that.

And then Granny got upset and Ilse suggested Vi was being unkind to her grandmother.

Rose agreed and said Vi should consider Granny’s feelings.

I said Rose should consider Vi’s feelings and that it was her big day.

Then I’m afraid we had a bit of a row and Vi burst into tears and Ilse kept going on and then… ’ Lily paused and emitted a sob.

‘What happened then?’ Tricia asked, feeling a dart of guilt.

She had meant to take up the whole issue about the wedding dress with Sylvia but had been distracted by her outing with Cillian, and also the whole mess about the will.

And now, because it hadn’t been resolved, there had been this argument that landed Sylvia in hospital.

‘Well, there was a bit of shouting,’ Lily continued, ‘and then Granny suddenly clutched her chest and said she couldn’t breathe and she was in pain.

She looked as if she was having a heart attack so we called an ambulance.

It arrived very quickly, thank goodness.

The ambulance men were amazing and put an oxygen mask on Granny and carried her out on a stretcher.

Oh, Mum, I thought we were going to lose her.

We all did.’ Lily stopped and blew her nose.

‘But you didn’t,’ Cillian cut in. ‘It must have been very frightening but now all is well.’ He glanced at Tricia. ‘So we can continue our little outing and we’ll see you soon.’

‘I’ll go and see Sylvia tomorrow,’ Tricia promised her daughter. ‘Bye for now and try to have good rest.’

Lily said goodbye and then Cillian started the van. But instead of driving towards Kerry, he turned the van around and began to drive back the way they had come.

‘What are you doing?’ Tricia asked. ‘You have to drive me home so I can go and see Sylvia tomorrow. I promised Lily I would.’

‘Sylvia is fine,’ Cillian said. ‘All is well and she’s resting. Tomorrow is Sunday and she will have to stay in the hospital until at least Monday, I’d say. You can see her then.’

‘But…’ Tricia protested. ‘She’ll be so upset.’

Cillian pulled in at the roadside and stared at Tricia in the dim light.

‘Tricia, this was supposed to be our special weekend. A day or two to get to know each other and to sort out where we’re going.

Then you got that phone call and we thought Sylvia was in real trouble.

But now we’ve found out it was a false alarm and we can all relax.

Sylvia is being taken care of by the excellent nursing staff in the hospital in Tralee.

I’m sure she’d be happy to see you but she doesn’t actually need you to be there.

It’s no longer a case of life or death.’

‘I know, but I think she needs my support all the same,’ Tricia argued. ‘I feel it’s partly my fault that they had that row that upset Sylvia so. I want to make sure she’s okay. We can do this next weekend or any time after your press conference and I have heard from Noel about…’ She stopped.

‘From Noel about – what?’ Cillian looked confused.

‘Oh, nothing much. Just something to do with a legal problem. I can’t discuss this right now.’

Cillian looked at her for a moment in the light of the dashboard without speaking. ‘I have a feeling you’re hiding something from me,’ he said.

Tricia bristled. ‘Oh, yeah, and you’re not hiding anything?

You told me some story about your job in Dingle that I now feel wasn’t really true.

You asked me to keep it quiet, which I did.

But now I suspect it was all a ruse to lead me down a false trail.

The real story is something different altogether, isn’t it? ’

Cillian gripped the steering wheel, staring straight ahead. ‘We’re both hiding secrets,’ he mumbled. ‘If we can’t trust each other, then what are we doing here together?’

‘I’m beginning to wonder that too,’ Tricia countered with a horrible feeling deep down that their so-called romance was doomed to fail. She gritted her teeth and tried her best not to burst into tears. ‘I think we should take a break from all this.’

‘Yes, maybe we should,’ Cillian said, looking as miserable as she felt. ‘Do you want me to take you back to Magnolia? It’s only about an hour and a half away.’

‘If you’re not too tired, yes,’ Tricia said quietly. ‘I want to go and see Sylvia as soon as I can tomorrow morning.’

‘Well, I can see that I’m not at the top of your list of priorities, which tells me where we’re heading.’ Cillian started up the van and they rumbled down the road south.

Tricia felt the atmosphere become close to hostile.

Gone was the resolve to tell him about her legal problem.

He would probably think the worse of her if he knew.

She stroked Paddy absent-mindedly, feeling the return journey was taking days instead of just a little over an hour.

When the van finally pulled up outside the cottage, she gathered up her things and climbed down, relieved to be home at last.

Cillian stepped down from the driver’s seat while Tricia fumbled with her keys at the front door. ‘Will you be okay?’ he asked.

‘Of course I will. Don’t worry.’

He took her hand when she had opened the door. ‘I’m sorry it turned out like this. But it doesn’t mean the end, does it?’ He pushed his hand through his hair. ‘We rushed things a bit maybe and I need time to think.’

‘Yes, me too.’ She hesitated. She wanted to tell him everything but it would be too rushed and he seemed in a bad mood. ‘I was going to tell you something important, but it feels too much to talk about right now. I will tell you everything when I can.’

‘It seems very serious,’ he said, looking at her with concern.

‘Yes it is,’ Tricia admitted. ‘But please believe me when I say that it has nothing to do with you and that I just can’t talk about it right now.’

Cillian let out a resigned sigh. ‘Okay. I understand where you’re coming from.

And I also see that there is, as you said, a lack of trust between us.

You didn’t trust me with your secret and I didn’t trust you with mine.

But in my case it was more to protect you.

I didn’t want to burden you with a secret that might result in a lot of problems and accusations. ’

‘I see.’ Tricia suddenly felt a wave of fatigue wash over her. ‘I know what you’re saying about trust. But right now, I’m so tired I think I’m going to go to collapse right here on my own doorstep. I need to sleep and so do you. Park the van here and stay the night. You’re just as tired as I am.’

Cillian shot Tricia a pale smile. ‘Thanks, but I’ll trundle over to Orla’s. She’ll be over the moon to see the van outside her house again.’

Tricia returned his smile and briefly touched his cheek.

‘Okay. Sleep well. We both have stuff to deal with. But I did have a lovely time before that phone call about Sylvia. I’m sorry we couldn’t work it out.

Goodnight, Cillian.’ Then she opened the door and went inside, closing it gently behind her while her heart broke into a thousand pieces.

She had failed to tell Cillian the truth, but she didn’t want to keep anything else from Sylvia.

She’d been too scared to confront her about Vi’s wedding dress, and it had resulted in a horrible altercation that had landed Sylvia in hospital.

Tricia knew she should tell Sylvia about her legal problem and all the horrible rumours that had been spread.

But was this the right time to reveal all?

And when she did, would Sylvia be so shocked she would ask Tricia to leave Magnolia and her lovely cottage?