The Women Who Ran Away - Sheila O'Flanagan Page 0,140

encounter with Charlie Mulholland – in fact she mentioned him only briefly and in passing. Instead she concentrated on Grace and her treasure hunt, which intrigued her friend.

‘The poor woman,’ said Tillie. ‘Losing her husband like that must have been devastating, and then for him to have left her this to do . . .’

‘Grace is so . . . so accepting as a person,’ Deira said. ‘She’s always calm and relaxed about things, as though nothing can shake her out of herself. Even when she was telling me the worst of it, she had herself totally under control.’

‘Doesn’t mean she actually was,’ Tillie pointed out.

‘I know. But sometimes her self-control made me feel completely inadequate. Like I wasn’t up to the task because I was far too emotional myself. I guess we just came at our problems a different way. Truth is, she’s been really supportive, and I hope I helped her too.’

‘I’m sure you did. Women can be so self-critical,’ added Tillie. ‘We judge ourselves for not being up to the task, even though we usually are. You especially.’

‘I guess it depends on the task.’ Deira looked thoughtful. ‘I mean, I’m a hopeless case personally right now, but I’m really confident I can do a great job for Arc Tech if the offer they put together is a good one.’

‘You’ll definitely move if it’s right?’

She nodded. ‘Originally I thought it would be like running away from Gavin and Solas, but it’s a potentially great move for me. And I’m better off in a new environment.’

‘I think so too. At least you won’t have to keep bumping into him every day and remembering that he offered to shag you and get you pregnant so that you’d piss off and leave him alone with his new girlfriend.’

‘Tillie!’

But suddenly, Deira smiled.

Because Tillie, as always, was right.

Chapter 37

Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland: 53.2932°N 6.2462°W

Two days later, Grace and Deira stood in the storage warehouse and looked at the small locker unit that Ken had hired to stash the treasure.

‘You finally made it,’ said Deira.

‘End of the line,’ agreed Grace. ‘When I think about it, he was nuts. Sending me all around France and Spain simply to bring me to the other side of Dublin. He could’ve left me the code for the locker from the start.’

‘Was there a clue for it?’ asked Deira.

‘Not really,’ replied Grace. ‘It’s the children’s birthdays. Which . . .’ she began pressing the keypad on the locker door, ‘is 3 for Aline, 9 for Fionn and 21 for Regan.’ As she finished speaking, the door swung open and the two women looked inside.

Facing them was a stack of old hardback books. Behind them was another stack of equally old paperbacks. On top of the hardback pile were four envelopes, propped up against a small plum-coloured jewellery box. Three were addressed to each of the children. One was addressed to Grace herself. She put the children’s envelopes in her bag and then opened the one addressed to her. There was a card inside. She took it out.

The image on the card was of a woman sitting in a garden, reading. Her long blonde hair hid her face, and she was totally absorbed in the book in front of her. The writing inside was shaky, but Grace recognised it as Ken’s. She read the message aloud.

‘I know I never converted you to the authors I liked,’ he’d written. ‘But I hope you’ll enjoy this hardback collection of the authors you do. Maybe one day they’ll be as lauded as the rest of the editions in this locker. Either way, I bought them for you to keep and enjoy. Oh, and there’s a little something in the box too. Love always, Ken.’

‘Books.’ Grace laughed. ‘I might have guessed he’d think of books as treasure.’

‘And a little something in the jewellery box,’ Deira reminded her. ‘Open it.’

Grace put the card in her bag, then opened the box. A ruby ring nestled against the purple velvet.

‘Oh my goodness, it’s an Adele Dahlia,’ gasped Deira as Grace slid it out of the box. ‘That’s a classic ruby ring. We showed it in one of our displays at Solas. We had a number of Irish jewellery-makers and I didn’t think we’d get anything from Warren’s because they’re so upmarket, but their owner loaned us pieces from their Dahlia, Snowdrop and Ice Dragon collections for the opening night. We had to have extra security and everything.’

Grace nodded slowly as she slipped it onto her finger. It fitted