A Woman Unknown Page 0,5
happens when I’m on stage.’
‘Tell me about your travels.’
Over drinks, Joe obliged her request. He spoke of pyramids, the River Nile that flowed from south to north, the dhows, of men in turbans, coffee that made your hair curl, tired donkeys, bolts of silk, and perfumes fit for Cleopatra, until she felt half dizzy with wonder.
Half an hour later, warmed by gin and the heat of the afternoon seeping into the attic room, Deirdre stood by the large oval window, looking down at the street. A tram glided to a halt. The conductor helped a tiny old woman up the high step.
Joe tapped on the door and entered. ‘I’ve done the deed and signed the hotel register.’
He was looking at her. It was that look. She placed the folded navy blouse in the drawer, setting its ties neatly, and then sat down on the straight-back chair.
‘There’s something you should be clear about.’
‘Oh?’ He sat on the bed and gazed at her solemnly.
‘Mr Barnard, we’re here for one reason, to provide your wife with the evidence she needs to divorce you, no less than that and certainly no more. So I’ll say this sooner rather than later. I find it a good idea to have a bolster between us …’
He opened his mouth to speak. She raised her hand. This being her third time, there would be no difficulty about putting him straight. ‘Two nights here will be sufficient, and physical …’
‘You’ve done this before?’
‘Yes, but I’ll say nothing about the previous gentlemen, just as I’ll say nothing about you. Physical intimacy is not necessary or desirable. All that is needed is for you to have the Mr and Mrs hotel bill, and the added assurance of the chambermaid’s willingness to testify.’
Having said her piece, she stood and looked down at him, drawing back her shoulders and taking a breath.
He looked up at her in a way that was disconcerting. ‘I see.’
Bloody man. Just because he was a singer on the stage. Just because over one beer and one gin he had tried to spellbind her with tall tales. Well he could get this through his doh-re-mi skull. ‘I’m a married woman, Joe. I’m Catholic. I have never committed adultery.’
Those big dark eyes looked into her heart and soul.
She did not say, I have never committed adultery because I have never committed anything. I could teach the mermaids a thing or two.
He smiled. ‘I’m sorry. I must have had half a tale. Those legal chaps are all the same.’
And suddenly he was not like the double-jointed creature leaning over the bridge, or the boaster in the lounge bar, but solemn and straight as an elm as he came to his feet. He touched the crown of her head with his lips, more blessing than kiss. Hand on his heart, his face a mixture of adoration and doziness meant to pass as love, he burst into the old song Uncle Jimmy murdered at every party: ‘The Ring My Mother Wore’.
‘The earth holds many treasures rare in gems and golden ore;
My heart holds one more precious far – the ring my mother wore.
I saw it first when I, a child, was playing by her side;
She told me then ’twas father’s gift when she became his bride.’
When he began she thought of Uncle Jimmy and wanted to laugh. But Joe sang with such feeling that by the time the last note trembled into the faded wallpaper, she was wiping the back of her hand across her cheek.
He reached into his pocket and produced a large white hanky. ‘Was I that bad?’
‘You were grand. What a marvellous thing to be an opera singer.’
‘I’m sure it must be,’ he smiled, did a little dance, twisting his legs as if they were of India rubber, and executing a deep bow.
And she thought, Why should I live like a mermaid? I am sick of being as I am. This man is not like the others.
When she handed back his hanky, their fingers touched.
As a parting gift, Joseph Barnard had given Deirdre Fitzpatrick complimentary tickets for the Grand Theatre.
She and Fitz sat in the third row of the front stalls, middle seats. Fitz had swallowed the story that the theatre tickets came to her from her aunt, given by a workmate whose son painted scenery.
Fitz shuffled in his seat. He brought his brown sleeve to his nose as he sneezed, not quick enough to pull out his hanky. He wanted her to look at him and worry that he