House of Memories

by Taylor, Alice

  “What!” Nora gasped in horror.

  “Well, it’s the ideal place,” Rosie asserted.

  “But Jack’s cottage!” she protested angrily.

  “You think that Jack’s cottage is holy ground?” Rosie demanded.

  “Well, no, but I think that Jack wouldn’t like it,” she protested, feeling that Peter had let her down.

  “But how do you know?” Rosie demanded. “Peter loved Jack as well as you, and I think that meeting me in there is helping him. We don’t get up to anything very much.”

  “That doesn’t matter. I just do not like the idea of you two sneaking into Jack’s cottage,” Nora declared angrily.

  “We’re not sneaking,” Rosie protested.

  “I should have known that Peter was up to something,” Nora continued angrily. “He warned me after the dance not to be nosey, which meant that he had something up his sleeve. But I thought that you’d tell me if there was anything because we never have secrets.”

  “But Peter told me not to, and you know where he is concerned I’m not rational,” Rosie said unhappily, “and as well as that I’m half worried that if Kitty comes back and shakes her red mane at him he’ll bolt.”

  “In school she was always horrid to me,” Nora declared, beginning to feel less annoyed.

  “That’s past history now,” Rosie decided, “but Kitty is fairly tough competition for me.”

  “What makes you think that she fancies Peter?” she asked.

  “The night of the dance she had eyes for no one else,” Rosie declared, “only Rory upset the apple cart for her that night.”

  Nora felt that Kitty might well create another opportunity. The Kitty that she knew in school did not give up easily, and she was not a hundred per cent sure that you could depend on Peter to play fair. A bit like Mom, he went after what he wanted irrespective of the consequence. But at least he must be the cause of Rosie forgetting her singing ambitions for the time being, because she had settled down to study for her exam.

  “Aren’t you lucky that Danny fancies you alone?” Rosie broke into her thoughts.

  “I’m not so sure of that,” she answered, “and anyway, having anything to do with a Conway is too complicated for our family.”

  “Wouldn’t it be great if that applied all round?”

  “Well, Kitty is out of the running at the moment anyway,” Nora told her.

  “And I’m making hay while the sun shines,” Rosie smiled. “When this bloody exam is over, I am going to bring back the Vikings and have another youth club dance, and we’ll all celebrate a return to normal life with no damn studying hanging over our heads.”

  Nora was not very happy about Peter and Rosie in the cottage but decided to say no more about it. At least it was keeping Rosie in Kilmeen, and she knew that in the days ahead they would talk the whole thing to death anyway. That was the great thing about Rosie: you could discuss everything with her, and she was very honest and open. Maybe too much so at times! But now, as they walked along the road, she told her all about the new school and Rosie decided that it might not be such a bad thing to come back to Kilmeen after the exams and be part of all this exciting development.

  “You could do music in college,” Nora suggested.

  “And come home and teach it to the natives. Are you trying to bring me into your arty-farty world?” Rosie teased, and then gave her a jolt by by adding, “But I don’t have your fascination with a handsome uncle enticing me back.”

  “I do not,” she protested in confusion, but knew that she could not bluff Rosie.

  “For God’s sake, Nora, we were in baby infants together!” Rosie asserted. “I know how you tick. The difference is that while I spit everything out you bury it inside.”

  “But, Rosie, in all fairness I couldn’t tell anyone about that,” she protested.

  “I’m not just anyone, and anyway I’ve known for yonks. It’s no big deal and you’ll grow out of it because it’s only puppy love. Not like me with Peter,” Rosie assured her. “How is your Aunty Kate? My mother is real worried about her, she looks so bad. Jack’s death knocked her sideways.”

  “To be honest,” Nora admitted, “I have felt that since he died that she has kind of withdrawn from me.”

  “That’s because she can’t cope,” Rosie told her. “Do you call often?”

  “Not really,” Nora said.

  “Well, this evening while I’m having a maths grind with the love of your life,” Rosie teased, “you should call to Kate.”

  “All right,” Nora agreed reluctantly.

  When Nora opened the door into the kitchen that evening, Kate was sitting alone inside the window reading a book. She closed the book hurriedly and her face lit up in welcome.

  “Nora, I’m so happy to see you,” she cried in delight, coming across the kitchen to give her a hug. “Let’s go out in the garden for a chat.”

  Nora felt slightly uneasy. She was not sure if it was the result of the conversation with Rosie this morning or the fact that she had resented Kate for not being more supportive. Kate, however, was obviously totally unaware of any undercurrent and led the way out into the garden. As they walked along the path, with the evidence of Jack’s work all around her, everything else receded from her mind but the pain of his loss.

  “He loved it here, didn’t he?” she said quietly, tears filling her eyes. Kate put her arms around her and the two of them wept together.

  “Aren’t we two sad cases?” Kate smiled through her tears. “I know that you are going through a hard time, and I feel that I should be a bigger help to you, but to be honest I can only just handle myself at the moment.”

  Nora was tempted to say, “I’d noticed,” but she remembered Rosie.

  “It’s not easy,” she said, biting her lip, and then to change the subject, “but it’s great news about the school anyway.”

  “And Danny,” Kate added.

  “Was he delighted?” Nora asked in a strained voice.

  “Thrilled,” Kate told her. “Have you seen Furze Hill since it was opened up?”

  “How would I have seen it?” she demanded.

  “Will we run back there now?” Kate offered, and Nora felt a rush of affection for her aunt.

  “Oh, I’d love that,” she declared, all her annoyance evaporating. “Shiner is for ever talking about it, and it would be great to see it for myself.”

  She was delighted that Kate had made the suggestion, because she was dying to see Furze Hill, and she could not go across the river from home because Mom would be mad. Sometimes Mom could be a bit of a pain.

  They walked along beside a high stone wall and turned in an elegant gate that she had never even known was there, and the sight inside made her gasp in amazement. An ivy-clad house peeped out at them through the tendrils of two beautiful weeping willows.

  “Mother of God! Where did all this come from?”

  “It was buried for years,” Kate told her as they walked past the weeping willows and the house came into full view.

  “But it’s magnificent,” Nora breathed, taking in the limestone pillars and the stained glass fanlight above the door. “It was criminal to have a place like this locked up and buried. All that we could see from across the river for years was a thick grove of trees. I never knew that there was a house in there until Jack told me, but even when they began to slate it I had no idea that it was anything like this.”

  She was looking in wonder at the house. This was the place that Jack had wanted so much to have restored. It was easy to understand why!

  “Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it?” Kate agreed. “I think that Danny has never closed the windows since Bill got them to open, and any time I call the door is always open.”

  “I suppose he wants the house to breathe again after years of being stifled,” Nora smiled.

  “I wonder is Danny around or out the fields?” Just then Bill Brady came through the arch.

  “Hello, girls,” he called. “I thought that I heard a c
ar but never knew that we were going to have two lovely lassies calling to see us.” He called over his shoulder, “Danny boy, we have visitors.” Nora liked Bill Brady; he was easygoing and always had time to listen. She was surprised one day when she had met him in Kate’s to find herself telling him all about her plans for the future. He had been understanding and encouraging.

  Danny came though the arch, and his thin, sensitive face filled with delighted amazement when he saw them. Nora felt slightly embarrassed that he made a beeline in her direction and ignored Kate.

  “Nora, I can’t believe you’re here. Come in, come in, and I’ll show you Furze Hill,” he invited with pride in his voice. He led her up the steps and through the splendid door. She had not been prepared for the graciousness of the house. Despite all the cobwebs and dust, this was a far more splendid house than Mossgrove.

  “I can only imagine what this will be like when it’s done up,” she told him in an awed voice as they walked up the wide staircase.

  “That will have to wait, I’m afraid,” he told her.

  “But what about the field money?” she asked.

  “Most of that will go to pay off Rory.”

  “But at least get it cleaned up,” she insisted.

  “Can’t afford it.”

  “But, sure, the women around here would do that for nothing. Aren’t they always doing it for each other for the stations?”

  “We were never part of all that,” he said grimly.

  “Well, it’s time you were,” she decided firmly. “We’ll ask Kate. She knows everyone who can do anything around here.”

  When they went into one bedroom which had an old picture hanging in the corner, Nora went over and stood in front it. At first she thought that she was looking at Kitty but then realised that this was a still more beautiful girl. It was a faded black and white photograph, but knowing Kitty she could visualise the colour of that wonderful hair.

  “Uncle Mark would paint a super picture of her,” she declared thoughtfully.

  “Mark charges big prices,” he told her ruefully.

  “Uncle Mark would do it for nothing for a neighbour,” she said.

  “I suppose we were reared with a very low opinion of the neighbours,” he confessed.

  “Time to change.”

  When they came downstairs, Bill had gone back to work and Kate was sitting on the doorstep. Nora went straight to the point.

  “Aunty Kate, wouldn’t Ellen and Sarah and the other women clean up this house for Danny?”

  “Well, I suppose they would,” Kate answered in surprise. “I could get a few of the village women to help as well.”

  “That’s settled then,” Nora said decisively.

  Kate surprised her by saying, “On Saturday evening I’m thinking of going into Ross to a old furniture place. Danny, would you like to come along?” When he looked dubious, she added quickly, “Just to have a look.”

  “Kate, I can’t afford furniture,” Danny told her firmly, and Nora felt that it was not the first time that they had had this conversation. “It will take most of the field money to pay off Rory.”

  “What about a bank loan now that you will have the deeds?” she suggested.

  “No way,” he told her forcefully. “I went down that road when I had no choice. It wasn’t very fruitful, and I swore that I’d never put myself through that again.”

  “Now it would be different,” she suggested.

  “Different or not,” he declared, “bank loans bring bad luck to this place.”

  “I can understand how you feel,” she agreed sympathetically, “but it costs nothing to look at furniture. Nora, will you come too?”

  It amused her that she was being thrown in as bait, but she could stay at Kate’s on Friday night to avoid conflict with Mom, who was allergic to the Conways. It was agreed that they would pick up Danny and travel to Ross on Saturday evening.

  On Saturday they set out for a place in Ross that Nora had never heard of but that Kate obviously knew well. She looked around, askance at what she considered to be a load of old rubbish, but Kate went determinedly into the shadowed depths of the long cavern of a room and started to look around with what Nora recognised as a well-practised eye.

  “She’s like a cattle jobber looking for a good animal at the fair,” Danny grinned at Nora.

  Kate called them to drag culled items out of her way, and when Nora was beginning to think that it was all a complete waste of time, Kate breathed, “Aha,” and got Danny to lift a heavy chair and make a passage for her to something that she had spotted inside a bed and partly hidden behind a wardrobe. To Nora it looked beyond recovery, but Kate shouted, “Tom, where are you? We need help.”

  A man in a greasy brown shop coat appeared, whom Nora decided could not lift a chair, but he burrowed in, and after a lot of grunting and cursing and Kate’s directing, he finally arrived at the spied object. Incredibly he got under it and piggybacked it carefully over the intervening articles, and Kate instructed him to carry it out into the light. It was a long narrow table, and even Nora’s inexperienced eye could see its possibilities. Kate had Tom turn it upside down, and she pulled open the long drawer as she searched every inch of it for woodworm and finally demanded, “How much?”

  Tom, who in the light of day looked far bigger and stronger, began to extol the virtues of the table, but Kate dismissed all his sales talk and demanded a price. When she finally extracted it from him, she haggled for so long that Nora began to feel sorry for the poor man. She whispered to Danny, “I’d come to his rescue, but Kate would throttle me afterwards.”

  “She surely would,” he agreed. “Better to keep your head down and your mouth shut.”

  Anticipating a purchase, Kate had brought Bill’s red van and they loaded up the table, but she made no comment as to where she intended to take it.

  As Kate drove into Furze Hill, Nora wished that she could see Danny’s face, but he was in the back of the van with the table. Without consultation, Kate directed them into the front hall and told them exactly where to put the table. Danny’s face was inscrutable and he said nothing. The table was perfect. Even in its dusty state it still looked good.

  “It blends in with the cobwebs,” Nora smiled.

  “That table was made for this house,” Kate declared. Turning to a silent Danny, she told him, “It’s a Phelan gift for Furze Hill. The first step. This house must be furnished slowly and the right pieces picked up carefully over the years. Mary can do the auction rooms along the quays in Dublin. They always have great stuff.”

  When Kate got going it was hard to put a stop to her gallop, and Nora looked at her in admiration. But Danny was not going to be swept along by her.

  “Kate, I can’t afford furniture, and the house will have to wait,” he told her firmly.

  “It costs nothing to be on the lookout,” she informed him.

  Danny walked with them to the car and handed Kate a small grubby book.

  “What’s that?” she asked curiously.

  “Nana Molly’s diary,” he told her.

  “Did she keep a diary?” Nora asked in surprise.

  “Jack was the only one I ever heard mention the diaries,” Kate told her. “He said that Molly kept one all her life but that when she died Rory burnt the most of them. This must be an earlier one that she had hidden away.”

  “God, Jack knew everything,” Nora sighed.

  “But why are you giving it to me?” Kate asked Danny.

  “You’ll know when you read it,” he said evenly, walking back to the house.

  “Let’s go to Jack’s cottage and read it,” Nora said excitedly as they got into the car.

  “I suppose we could,” Kate said slowly.

  As they drove along, Nora remembered that she had not been into Jack’s since he died, and she did not like the prospect of going in now either.

  “Kate,” she began hesitantly, “I haven’t been back to the cottage since, you know …”

  “Well, m
aybe this is as good a time as any,” Kate told her gently.

  Toby went mad with delight when he saw them. Nora grabbed him up and hugged him, and then he jumped out of her arms and ran ahead of them in the path.

  “He’s welcoming us in,” Kate smiled.

  When they opened the door of the cottage, the fire was lighting and everything was just as Jack had left it. If I closed my eyes, Nora thought, I could almost convince myself that he is gone out to close the hens. She had to fight back the tears at the thought that he would never again be here. Toby settled himself by the fire, and when she sat in Jack’s chair, he jumped on to her lap. Kate sat in the rocking chair and they were both silent, looking into the fire.

  “He always said that he could think best looking into the fire,” Kate said quietly.

  “It’s fierce hard without him,” Nora said grimly, “and the cottage is like a dead place.”

  “How would you feel about someone else living here?” Kate asked tentatively.

  “Like who?” Nora demanded in alarm, wondering what Kate was up to now.

  “Bill Brady.”

  It would be hard to get used to someone else in Jack’s cottage, but if there had to be somebody Bill Brady would be the best, and it would put an end to Rosie and Peter using it.

  “Well, he’d be fine,” she said in a relieved voice, “and he’d be very good to Toby.”

  “That was one of the reasons that I decided on him,” Kate admitted

  “Well, Jack would have considered that a good enough reason,” Nora agreed.

  As they sat in silence, she became aware that there was something different about the sounds of the cottage: the clock was not ticking.

  “Jack never forgot to wind the clock.”

  “Jack kept letters in there,” Kate said to her surprise.

  “What a strange place to put them.”

  “Will we read this now?” Kate said, taking the little book out of her pocket and looking at it nervously. “Let’s go over to the table and look at it together.”

  As they sat at the table with the book between them, Kate was reluctant to open it. She stroked it with her hand. Nora felt that she was almost afraid of the diary.