she is, eating cake. Don’t worry, Cara, plenty more where that came from.’
Another pause to let laughter fill the room.
Cara burnt. She hadn’t even been eating, but that cruel old bastard knew exactly how to wound. In addition, she didn’t want Ed on alert as to how bad things were with the food. Although only yesterday he’d interrupted her when she was desperately trying to swallow the remains of a packet of biscuits and he hadn’t noticed a thing. She was lucky that he was a man with no real interest in day-to-day detail.
Canice had moved on to Liam. ‘Liam thought he’d be the next Usain Bolt. Run a race? Shur, that eejit couldn’t run a bath! And would he listen when I warned him he’d need a profession to fall back on? Indeed’n he did not! Do you know what he does with his time now? He cycles. Where was it you cycled that time, Liam? Istanbul, that’s right. Took him thirty-one days.’ He paused for a breath. ‘You can fly there in four hours.’ Howls of laughter erupted. Canice beamed benignly around the room. ‘Ah, I’m only having a bit of craic. But seriously, folks.’ He reached for his wife’s hand. ‘Rose, what would I have done without you? Fifty years married. I’ve been a lucky, lucky man. Ladies and gentlemen, please charge your glasses for Rose Casey!’
People were dabbing tears from their eyes as they stood up. ‘To Rose Casey.’
FIFTY-ONE
Nell was sketching at the kitchen table when the knocker began banging madly: the others were back from the dinner.
Laughing and talking loudly, Liam lurched into the hall, followed by Ferdia, Sammie and Barty.
‘I didn’t expect to see any of you until the sun came up.’ Nell was worried by how drunk they seemed. She’d get feck-all done now.
‘We got kicked out at midnight.’ Ferdia followed her into the kitchen. ‘They closed the bar. Can you believe it?’
A bottle of red wine had already appeared on the table and Barty was pouring.
‘How’re you getting on?’ Liam asked. He went in for the snog, but he was so drunk that she slid away easily.
‘Grand.’ She started gathering up her pencils and sketches.
‘Nell?’ Barty asked. ‘Glass?’
‘No, thanks.’
Ferdia, Sammie, Barty and Liam settled themselves around the table and were already drinking enthusiastically.
‘Have a glass of wine,’ Liam said to Nell.
‘I’m good.’
‘Ah, go on, you’re no craic.’ Liam had picked up Dilly’s tube of bubbles. He blew out a stream of them. They rose upwards and popped at the ceiling. ‘Have a drink.’
‘Not tonight.’
‘You’re no fun.’
‘Nope. Night all, see you in the –’
‘Is anyone having another drink?’ Liam locked eyes with Sammie, sitting beside him.
‘Sure.’ She shrugged.
‘Good girl.’
His tone was a worry, Nell thought. He sounded a bit creepy …
Liam picked up the tube of bubbles again. ‘Good girl,’ he repeated, in that same crooning voice, then gently blew a steady stream of pretty little bubbles into Sammie’s pretty little face.
Frozen to the spot, Nell stared, as the bubbles burst like rainbow-shot exclamation marks against Sammie’s eyelashes.
Barty gave a strangled laugh, then abruptly shut up. A shocked silence seized the room.
Sammie swallowed, went pink, then became steadily more and more red.
Liam, grinning, was balanced on the two back legs of his chair.
Shock had wiped Nell blank. What Liam had just done was so … wrong that she didn’t have any response available. Then her hand reached out and whacked the back of his chair so that all four legs clattered down against the floor. Such rage was in her.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Ferdia bit the words out.
‘Say what?’ Liam tipped his chair back again, looking the picture of innocence.
‘Blowing bubbles at my girlfriend?’
‘They’re bubbles!’
‘That was a fucking come-on.’ Ferdia got up and stood behind Sammie’s chair. ‘It’s – it’s predatory, what you just did to Sammie. And you’ve insulted your wife.’
‘It’s just bubbles.’ Liam was insistent.
He was nothing like as calm as he was pretending to be: Nell knew him too well.
Liam laughed at Ferdia. ‘Look at you, the big man protecting his girl.’
‘You’re a fucking asshole.’
‘No, you’re a fucking asshole. Getting all up in my grille about a few fucking bubbles. Calm the fuck down, would you?’
Liam was very, very angry, Nell realized. Had been ever since she’d told him about the call from Ship of Fools. She wanted to leave this room, leave this house, park this fucked-up shit with her husband until some faraway time in a very different future. But Sammie was only a kid.