Joe took a sip of his drink. ‘I didn’t see Michael and Rosie, now you come to mention it. Michael spent most of his night with myself – I think maybe he thought he had to chaperone me, seeing as how I was a visitor. He didn’t need to do that, though, I had a great deal of company. In fact, now that I think about it, Rosie told me she was going back into the house to fetch a cardigan, but I don’t remember her coming back out again.’
‘Maybe she’s sad that Mary Kate didn’t come back home,’ said Daedio.
One of the peat bricks tumbled into the grate and sent a shower of sparks flying.
‘To think, Bee and Captain Bob too. The smile on Father Jerry’s face when Captain Bob announced they’re to be married. I’ll tell you all about their story tomorrow.’ Daedio slipped further down his bed, still staring into the fire, the heat stinging his eyes. Joe slipped his hand into his pocket and took out the emerald heart he had been wanting to show Daedio since the day he arrived. He slipped the gold chain through his fingers as the emerald swung and captured the flames.
‘Daedio, have you ever seen this before?’ he asked. Joe thought he caught the flash of a reflection of white hair and dark eyes. He blinked; it was gone and just as quickly Daedio was fast asleep.
He leant forward to take the mug and pull the cover over Daedio’s shoulders, and as he did so he felt a surge of affection for the old man as he smiled contentedly in his sleep.
*
It was the rocking of the chair that roused Daedio from his slumbers, and when he woke he instantly knew why.
‘Is that you, Annie?’ he whispered.
The flames had died, the light in Michael’s room was out and Joe had closed the door. The ashes still glowed red and he could make out the outline of the woman he had loved for all of his life sitting in the rocking chair.
‘It is, Daedio. I’ve come to take you over to the other side. It’s time now.’
Daedio’s eyes filled with tears. Despite all the times he’d thought he wanted to go, wanted to be with his Annie, he was scared, unready. ‘Will they just find me here when they come in in the morning?’ he asked.
There was a silence and then the chair rocked again before she spoke. ‘They will. And just think what they will say, that your last night was one of the best you ever had. I was dancing too, so I was. I tried to get you up on your legs.’
‘I felt it,’ he whispered. ‘I nearly made it. I nearly danced with you, Annie.’ He tried to smile, but he couldn’t, his throat felt tight. ‘Mary Kate, she isn’t home yet – can I not wait for her, Annie?’
He tried to move, but his legs felt like lead weights and his arms pressed heavy on his chest.
‘She isn’t coming home, Daedio. It will be a long time yet before Mary Kate returns to Tarabeg, and there is much that needs to happen before then. Mary Kate will have to make her way back to Tarabeg of her own free will. She’ll have pain of her own to face before that day comes. There is nothing we can do to help or change that.’
Panic washed over Daedio; he didn’t want his beloved Mary Kate to suffer. ‘Let me stay a while, Annie. Let me see her one more time, will you, please, and then I’ll come.’
But even as he asked the question, he understood. Annie had said it would be a long while, and he was already an old man; time was running out for him. ‘Please, Annie. Annie…’
But all he could hear was the rocking of the chair, back and forth.
Part three of the Tarabeg series,
The Seven Acres, is coming soon.
We hope you enjoyed this book.
Nadine Dorries’ next book is coming in 2019
Glossary of Irish terms
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The Tarabeg Series
The Lovely Lane Series
The Four Streets Trilogy
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Glossary of Irish terms
boreen
narrow country lane
boxty
bread made with grated potato and flour
colleen
girl or young woman
curragh
small wickerwork boat or coracle
Garda
the Irish police force
poteen
illegal home-brewed alcohol, made from potatoes
whin
gorse
About Nadine Dorries
NADINE DORRIES grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool. As a child, she spent a great deal of time in Mayo with her Irish grandmother and briefly attended school in a rural village close to the Atlantic coast. She trained as a nurse, then followed with a successful career in which she established and then sold her own business. She has been an MP since 2005 and has three daughters.
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The Tarabeg Series
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About The Lovely Lane Series
It is 1953 and five very different girls are arriving at the nurses’ home in Lovely Lane, Liverpool, to start their training at St Angelus Hospital.
Dana has escaped from her family farm on the west coast of Ireland. Victoria is running away from a debt-ridden aristocratic background. Beth is an army brat and throws in her lot with bitchy Celia Forsyth. And Pammy has come from quite the wrong side of the tracks in Liverpool.
Now they find themselves in a very different world. From formidable Matron, to terrifying Sister Antrobus. From kind housekeeper, Mrs Duffy, to Dessie, who rules the porter’s lads – not to mention the doctors, who range from crusty to glamorous. Everyone has their place at St Angelus and woe betide anyone who strays from it.
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About The Four Streets Trilogy
In the tight-knit Irish Catholic community of the Four Streets, two girls are growing up.
One is motherless – and hated by the cold woman who is determined to take her dead mother’s place. The other is hiding a dreadful secret which she dare not let slip to anyone, lest it rips the heart out of the community.
What can the people of the Four Streets do when a betrayal at the very heart of their world comes to light?
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First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Nadine Dorries, 2019
/> The moral right of Nadine Dorries to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB): 9781786697530
ISBN (XTPB): 9781786697547
ISBN (E): 9781786697523
Cover art: Rory Kee
Photographs: Gordon Crabb, Shutterstock
Author photo: Cassie Dorries
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Mary Kate Page 35
