‘We have it’, he says, lifting the bottle to show the ladies.
‘What do you think of that?’ Maggie says, looking my way.
With my mouth open, my eyes jump from Helen to Maggie and back again.
‘Well…’ I really don’t have anything to say but they’re staring at me waiting for a disapproving response.
In the background, I hear the sound of gin gurgling over ice.
‘What do you think of what?’ Conor says, taking the glasses in his hand and walking towards the two women. Now their attention is on him.
‘Vicky Murphy. Apparently she was having an affair,’ Maggie says, reaching out to collect her prize. Conor hands the other glass to Helen.
‘Are we really going to go there?’ Conor says, walking away from his mother. Lifting another glass, he looks over at me. Gin and tonic is not on my list of things to do tonight – not in this company anyhow – so I shake my head.
‘Well… that’s the song of the whispers,’ Maggie says, the glass about to meet her lips.
‘And we all know how that tune goes,’ Conor says.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Maggie is annoyed by his response.
‘You know full well what I mean, let the girl rest in peace.’
Shuffling forward in her seat, Maggie turns her head and looks at Conor, her face older-looking without the smile. I’m bracing myself for a whole new experience. Maggie and Conor are going to disagree. This should be fun. They have never been anything but civil, over-the-top compliant with one another if you ask me. The prospect of some friction between them makes the whole intrusion tolerable. I’m almost sorry I don’t have a drink in my hand.
‘That was a completely different situation.’ Maggie says, a slight slur creeping into her delivery.
Conor ignores her. I’ve seen him like this before when people have tried to engage him in an argument. He’s calm, won’t be drawn into battle. But Maggie won’t give up.
‘Your father wasn’t killed, he had an accident.’
Still nothing from Conor. Eventually Maggie returns to her comfortable position to continue her discussion with Helen and myself, but a tiny whimper disturbs her plans. All heads turn to Shay who’s now crying in my arms.
‘I’ll change him,’ Conor says, the anxious expression leaving his face as he takes Shay from me and walks out of the room. The sound of Pat passing by the window steals our attention.
‘Are you okay with him living back there?’ Maggie says, her eyes staring at me above the near-empty glass. Shrugging my shoulders, I give her a half-hearted smile. I’m not comfortable enough to share my inner thoughts with this woman… yet. I hope in the future we can become close, that I can treat her like she’s my mother, not just Conor’s. I want to be able to share my concerns, plan big days for Shay with her, go shopping, share recipes. Things that I would love to do with my own mam but can’t. Maybe being close to Maggie would help fill that void.
‘I hated Pat living there,’ she says, looking over at Helen. ‘But Seamus wouldn’t get rid of him.’ Maggie drains the drops from the glass. ‘That’s why I left this house when Seamus died. Best thing I ever did. I’m delighted to have my own little space – no interruptions, no Pat walking into the kitchen whenever he likes.’
The drink has dissolved Maggie’s filters. I’ve never heard her talk like this. Conor told me his mother moved out of the house when his father died because she wanted a smaller place, that the old house was too big for her. He didn’t mention her dislike for Pat.
I need to turn the conversation back to Vicky. If she was having an affair, surely that changes things. A marriage at risk, the possibility of losing everything, the scandal. Whoever it is, he has to be a suspect. Such matters might not raise an eyebrow in the city but in a village like this… gold dust.
‘I wonder who Vicky was having the affair with?’ I say.
Both women look at me, their bodies drained of the energy they arrived with. Helen shakes her head.
‘No one knows. Or at least no one is saying.’
Someone has to know. The wife, maybe? A friend of Vicky’s? Someone knows. Will they tell the police? Have they told the police already? My mind flashes to the scene in the church when Olive refused Noel’s hand. Was Noel the one Vicky was having the affair