The kitchen was frantically busy. The four different menus were a novel idea but they created a lot of work. He’d already washed hundreds of plates and peeled what seemed like a truckload of potatoes. He was now working side by side with Bill, the other kitchen hand, preparing salad ingredients, hoping it wasn’t blatantly obvious he’d not been this close to a whole vegetable for a long time. After months of living on Tesco prepackaged meals, he’d been ready to believe vegetables came out of the ground ready-sliced.
“So you know Greg’s latest squeeze, do you, Joe?” Bill asked, not looking up as he deftly sliced cucumbers.
“Squeeze? Who? Niamh, you mean? The Irishwoman at the reception desk?”
“Yeah.”
So she was Greg’s girlfriend. He hadn’t been sure.
“No, I don’t know her at all. Why?”
Bill shrugged. “Oh, one of the waitresses said you were talking to her a lot. We thought maybe you knew her from London. You know she’s some famous sculptor and singer from Ireland, apparently? According to Greg she sings with Enya. And she’s done some sculpture for that singer from U2. Greg keeps boasting about her.”
“Yes, he told me all about her as well.” Bill seemed very up-to-date, Joseph thought. Maybe he’d know the answer to something about Niamh that had been puzzling him. “Why is she working here, do you know?”
Bill was indeed well informed. “Oh, she’s not officially working. Greg said she’s been commissioned to come up with some urban sculpture or something. I don’t know the right term, I don’t understand art-speak. She’s here to get inspiration.” He laughed. “Imagine a sculpture based on this place! A pile of dirty plates and four crappy menus.”
Joseph nodded. She was even more interesting than he’d thought.
Toward the end of his first shift, he had just piled a frying-pan precariously on the drainer when Eva came into the kitchen. To his surprise she picked up a tea-towel from beside him and started wiping up.
She noticed his reaction and laughed. “I can’t help it. My mother drummed it into me when I was a kid. She always used to say, if you see a dirty dish, wash and dry it and it’ll be done in the time you could have walked past it.”
“Thank you. No help turned down.”
Standing this close beside him, she noticed he had a crease in his cheek when he smiled.
“So which part of Ireland are you from?” he asked her, looking across as he scrubbed at another saucepan.
She was about to say Dublin when she remembered he was asking Niamh the question, not Eva. “Galway,” she said, after slightly too long a pause. “Have you ever been there?” She’d taken to asking people that, in case she met someone who knew more about the place than she did.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry to say I’ve never been to Ireland. But let me guess, you live in a castle in Galway filled with your own artwork, hordes of adoring crowds outside?”
She noticed that spark of laughter in his eyes again. “No, not quite. Actually, I don’t live in a castle. Or even a house. I live in a caravan.” Was that what she and Lainey had told Greg that night? She wished she’d written some of it down.
“Do you really? In a holiday camp? Or is it horse-drawn?”
“Oh no, it’s stationary. It’s in a field, just outside the city. By the sea.” She thought quickly. “I work with driftwood and stone and other objects I find on the beach, especially after a storm. That’s why I live where I do, to be close to all that wild coastline.”
He stopped joking. “You’re the real thing, Niamh, aren’t you?”
Uh oh. “The real thing?” she asked cautiously.
“A real artist. Living the simple life, away from the city scene. Staying close to your inspiration. Working the way you want to work.”
“I guess I am,” she said carefully.
“Is it a hard life?”
“Um, yes, it is sometimes.” It probably would be, she thought.
“But rewarding?”
“I suppose so. I mean, yes, it is. Very.”
Joseph stopped washing up and turned right toward her. “And what are your sculptures like? Could you describe one of them to me?”
Those dark eyes of his were quite something, she thought. She paused before she answered. She had no idea what her sculptures would be like. She’d only studied sculpture for a few months at art school. But then she pictured something in her mind’s eye. An elegant shape, like a wave caught in mid-movement. Or the long graceful neck of a seabird coming out of the water. She described it to him, knowing that she had his full interest. It felt good.
“And you did a sculpture for U2, someone here was telling me?”
“You’ve heard that too?” The Enya story had been bad enough, but why had Lainey thrown in the U2 story as well?
He nodded. “You’re the talk of the kitchen.”
“Am I?” Oh hell, what could she do except keep making things up? “Well, yes, I did do one. For Bono’s garden. Just a little one,” she said, desperately hoping they could change the subject soon. “Tiny, really.” She moved her thumb and forefinger until there was only about an inch of space between them.
He looked across. “An inch-high sculpture?”
She nodded. They were both gazing at her hand. Joseph spoke first. “It must have been very delicate work, being so small.”
She just nodded again.
Then she was saved by the sound of the bell at reception. “Excuse me,” she said thankfully.
CHAPTER 21
Lainey’s answering machine was flashing when Eva arrived home from Four Quarters that night. She pressed the replay button. The caller sounded like a middle-aged woman.
“Miss Byrne, Patricia here from Dr. Reynolds’ surgery. We’ve had a cancellation and now have a vacancy for the operation we discussed at your last visit. It would be during one of our night clinics on the fourteenth. Can you please ring me back as soon as possible to confirm that you still want to go ahead with it.”
Eva was shocked. Lainey needed an operation? What was wrong with her? She certainly hadn’t mentioned anything. Should she ring her in Brisbane and let her know? It could be important. She dialed Lainey’s Brisbane number and waited anxiously.
Lainey sounded very bright. “Evie, what a lovely surprise. What’s up, can’t you find the sugar or something? It’s in the cupboard to the left of the stove.”
“No, I managed to find the sugar, thanks.”
Lainey kept talking. “And how is my little Rexie? I hope you’re still feeding him, are you?”
“Of course.” She’d been feeding him every day, choosing from the plentiful supply of cans labeled “Prestige Food for Prestige Kittens.” What was in them? Eva wondered. Lobster? Smoked salmon? Pheasant? Other rare delicacies?
As if on cue, Rex sauntered out from Lainey’s bedroom and headed in the direction of the kitchen. Eva glanced over at him, by his feeding bowl, licking something off his paws. Probably pureed white rhino, Eva thought. “He’s dining like a king,” she added.
“And how are you managing with the kitty litter tray?”
Eva’s stomach heaved slightly at the thought of the kitty litter tray. She was managing to deal with it. Just. But only if she wore two pairs of heavy-duty kitchen gloves and a scarf over her mouth and nose, to ward off even the faintest suggestion of unpleasant cat toilet odor. She’d even contemplated wearing Lainey’s swimming goggles. “Just fine,” she lied. “But Lainey, the reason I’m ringing is you’ve just had a message on your machine. From Dr. Reynolds’ surgery. The woman said they have had a sudden cancellation and you could have your operation on the night of the 14th. And honestly, don’t worry, you don’t have to explain it to me if you don’t want to…”
Lainey’s roar of laughter stopped her mid-sentence. “It’s not for me, you eejit. It’s for Rex. Dr. Reynolds is a vet. I really didn’t expect that appointment to come up until I was back. Evie, I know this is a lot to ask, but would you be able to take him?”
&nb
sp; “Take him? Actually pick Rex up and carry him somewhere?”
“You’ll have to drive, in fact. The vet’s about ten minutes away. But don’t worry, I’ve got one of those proper cat carrying baskets. It’s a bit old but it’s fine. You’ll just need to coax him into that and the vet will do the rest.”
“What will be occurring,” Eva chose her words carefully, “at this said visit?”
Lainey whispered into the phone. “He’s being neutered.”
“Neutered? Oh Rex, did you hear that? Do you know what the word neutered means? Do you know what your cruel and heartless owner has got planned for you? Oh Lainey, you daughter of Satan.”
“Eva, don’t be awful. Poor little kitten, but I’ve no choice, it’s the best thing to do for an indoor cat. You will take him, won’t you?”
Rex looked at Eva. Eva looked at Rex.
“Eva?”
She relented. “Of course I’ll take him. I’ll ring the vet right now.”
“Thanks a million, Evie, I owe you one. The number’s on a card on the fridge. Now, how is your sightseeing going? I did tell you about the fashion-clearance shops down the road, didn’t I? And that lovely cafe with the cheese room just down from there? And which tram to get if you want to go into town?”
Eva laughed. “Yes, Lainey. You told me all of it.”
“Oh good. See, born to be a tourist guide. Listen, I’d better go. Talk to you later. Thanks again about the vet. And give Rex a pat from me, won’t you?”
“Of course.” What with? A glove on the end of a long stick? Hanging up, Eva noticed Rex, just a few meters away, sitting watching her. He almost looked like he had a half-smile on his little kitten face.
She laughed, despite herself. “How are you coping with Lainey, Rex? At least I knew what to expect when I came to visit her. You poor thing, you wouldn’t have had any idea, would you? Taken from your mother at such an early age, given a weird name like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Treated like a child, not an animal. What else is she planning for you, Rexie? School? Piano lessons? Cat scouts?”
Rex just flicked up his tail and sauntered back into the kitchen. As she watched, he put one back leg up behind his head and started licking his—
She grimaced. “Rex, please. If you don’t get some manners I’m telling the vet you don’t need any anesthetic.”
Later that night, Eva was in bed fast asleep when something woke her, all of a sudden. She looked at the clock. Three a.m. She turned on the bedside lamp and jumped in fright.
Rex was curled up asleep at the end of her bed. He must have crept out of his basket in the middle of the night, hopping up on her bed and curling himself around her feet. She’d never had a hot water bottle with four legs and a tail before.
She sat up quickly now, creating a ripple with the quilt that sent the kitten sliding gently onto the floor. He just yawned, then sauntered out of the room, his tail flicking. She listened again. Surely it hadn’t been Rex’s cat snores that had woken her? No, it was a voice coming from the living room. Someone, a young woman, was sobbing.
Eva sat still, rigid with fear as the tearful voice floated down the hallway. In her half-awake state, she started to think the worst. Was the apartment haunted? Lainey certainly hadn’t mentioned it…
Then Eva realized that the voice was her cousin Meg’s. And it was coming from the answering machine. She leaped out of bed in a bound and had just started running down the hallway when she stopped and gave a sudden scream. Rex had been lying in wait for her and had made a lunge for her feet as she ran past.
“Rex, you brat!” Eva roared, hopping on one foot. She could still hear Meg’s voice, weirdly amplified through the speaker on the answering machine. “Sorry, Evie, I hope I haven’t ruined everything, I don’t even know what time it is there, but I had to talk to you before Ambrose did, anyway, so, um…” Another sob.
Eva limped the last few meters and snatched up the phone. “Meg, I’m here, don’t hang up, it’s me, Evie. What on earth is wrong? Are you okay?”
It took Meg a few tries to speak again. “There was an accident at the shop this morning,” she finally managed to say. “I’ve only just got home. We’ve been trying to clean up all day.”
“What? Meg, for God’s sake, what’s happened? Is Ambrose all right?”
“He’s fine. No one was hurt. Just the back of the shop.” Meg was in tears again. “And it was all my fault, Evie.”
Eva coaxed the whole story out of her. It seemed Meg had helped Ambrose tidy the storeroom several days previously, getting completely dirty in the process. Ambrose had suggested she tidy herself up in the spare bathroom upstairs above the back of the shop. So she had, filling up the basin and washing the dirt off as best she could. Then she’d heard Ambrose’s call for help with a sudden rush of customers and had hurried back downstairs. “And that’s when it started, Evie.” She was in tears again.
“What started, Meg?”
“I mustn’t have turned the bathroom tap off properly. Or taken the plug out. And I just forgot all about it.”
Eva shut her eyes. Oh God. She knew that Ambrose only ever used the front stairs to his flat. He wouldn’t have noticed the water. There was a staff washroom downstairs too, so Meg wouldn’t have needed to go upstairs again either. Which meant…
Meg’s next words confirmed her thoughts. “So the tap just kept on dripping and the basin overflowed and then the floor flooded and the water ran into the ceiling, the plumber thinks. For days. Until it all got too waterlogged and a whole section of it just collapsed.”
“And Ambrose’s flat? How badly was it damaged?”
Meg sobbed. “That’s okay, they think. It’s the bathroom and the back of the shop that are completely ruined.”
Eva soothed her as well as she could from this distance, her mind working furiously even as she spoke lots of calming words. Oh, poor Ambrose. This would be the last thing he needed. There was nothing else for it. She’d have to cut short her trip and go home and help him clean up.
“Listen, Meggie, don’t worry about it. It was an accident, do you hear me? I’m sure Ambrose understands that. I’ll give him a ring now and see how things are with him. All right now? Don’t worry, I mean it, I’ll sort it all out with him.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll come back and give you a hand clearing up, of course. And don’t worry, I’ve had a great holiday already, I don’t mind a bit.”
There was a long sniff from Meg. Eva guessed that was exactly what Meg had hoped she’d say. The poor thing, she was only a baby really. And Ambrose could sometimes seem much scarier than he was.
“Go on, Meggie, go and make yourself a cup of tea, and I’ll ring Ambrose at home now and talk to him about it. And I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“Okay,” Meg answered in a small voice.
Eva made herself a strong cup of coffee to wake herself up completely before she rang Ambrose. Her thoughts were tumbling. Did she mind about going back to Dublin so quickly?
She realized she did. She wasn’t ready to go home yet. She liked what was happening here. Seeing Lainey. The fun of being Niamh. Being at Four Quarters. Meeting Greg. Meeting Joe. She didn’t want to leave Melbourne yet, but she couldn’t leave Ambrose to clean up a mess like that himself. She’d have to go back.
Trying to ignore Rex, who was prancing around on the top of the sofa and making little forays up and down the curtains, she picked up the phone again and rang Ambrose’s number.
“Come back to Dublin? Cut short your holiday? Are you mad, Eva?”
“But Ambrose, you can’t do all that cleaning up on your own. I can’t just leave you like that.”
“Of course you can. What are you going to help me with here? Hammering nails and replacing rotten floorboards and ceilings? Eva, there won’t be work for any of us. The place will be crawling with plumbers and builders instead of customers for the next few weeks anyway.”
“But Meg made it sound as though the whole shop was in ruins.”
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Ambrose actually laughed. “Yes, well, Meg can be a little excitable at times. Excellent worker, but really, what an imagination. It’s not half as bad as she thinks, but she couldn’t be told. She’s too busy blaming herself to see that it isn’t the end of the world.”
“So it’s not that bad?”
“It’s not that bad. Just a section of the back ceiling and a few broken pipes. Everything’s very wet, too, but nothing that can’t be dried or replaced. And I’m insured, of course.”
Eva’s spirits started to lift again. “So you really don’t want me to come back?”
“No. Really. But I know you would, Evie, and I’m very touched. And you know that if I really did need you here, I’d say as much. But truth be told, stay right where you are. In fact, stay right where you are for even longer. Take another week off, if you can change your ticket again at this short notice.”
“What?”
“I’m serious. There’s no point rushing back here, the shop will be shut. Take some more time off. Enjoy yourself. You might come back with even more ideas for the shop.”
“So your offer still stands?” She’d hardly dared to ask.
Ambrose was relaxed. “Of course. I hope you’ve had a chance to think about it, have you? Though I suppose you’ve been busy enough with Lainey and all that sunshine and sightseeing. It’s just with the rebuilding that we’ll need to do out the back, well, if you had any major ideas, now could be the time to…” He trailed off at the silence from Eva’s end. He had a sudden feeling that she was going to tell him she didn’t want to work in the shop at all anymore. Or that she had decided to emigrate to Australia. So he was astonished at her next words.
“Ambrose, I have been thinking about what you said. About your offer. Actually, I’ve been thinking about it all the time.”
He settled back in his chair. “And?”
She sounded tentative. “I’ve had an idea. You said that I could think about changing it, doing something different?”
“And I meant it, Eva.”
Upside Down Inside Out Page 15
