Foreign Affairs (60 page)

‘The name’s Kieran. My door is always open if you have any problems or suggestions or just feel like a chat.’ Her new boss smiled broadly. ‘Welcome to
TransCon.’

Chapter Fifty-Four

‘Modulate your voice, Jennifer. Pitch it to the people at the end of the bus. Stop gabbling, please. You want your clients to be able to hear and understand the
information you are giving them. Do you understand?’ Jennifer nodded.

‘Yes, Miss Johnson,’ she murmured.

‘Good, now begin again.’ Jennifer could see Paula eyeing her sympathetically as she began once more to give her introductory speech to the rest of her colleagues, who were pretending
to be tourists on a foreign holiday.

It was six months since her fateful conversation with Paula on the sunny south coast of Spain. She’d been home two weeks, it was bitterly cold. Brenda and Grandpa Myles were getting on her
nerves. She missed Ronan badly and, as she listened to Miss Johnson rabbiting on, she wondered if she had made a terrible mistake.

‘I should have stayed where I was,’ she grumbled to Paula at break-time.

‘Don’t talk nonsense,’ her friend said briskly. ‘The training course only lasts three weeks, then it’s practically Christmas. We have a couple of months of office
work and after that you’ll be back in Spain before you know it. Easter won’t be long coming.’

‘She’s a real wagon, isn’t she?’ Jennifer remarked as she watched the personnel officer engage the office supervisor in animated conversation.

‘She’s as hard as nails, that one,’ Paula said. ‘You should hear the things Helen has to say about her. I’d love her job though. She can put the likes of us through
hell. She even gets to fly out to the resorts to check up on things, I’ve heard. Although someone usually sneaks a warning phone call from the office if they get the chance.’

‘I hope she’s never on a bus when I’m making a speech. I’d get stage fright. It’s very intimidating having her sitting there when you’re trying to be poised
and self-confident. At least we’re starting the make-up and grooming course this afternoon, that should be interesting,’ Jennifer said. ‘And I do like the uniform.’

‘Yeah, it’s very smart, isn’t it,’ Paula agreed. ‘Royal blue is such a fresh colour. It’s gorgeous with the tan and I love the culottes. I can’t wait to
get back to Spain and really start on the job properly.’

‘I hope none of my clients ever dies. Did you hear Miss Johnson telling us the procedure? One of the girls had someone drown on her last year,’ Jennifer said anxiously.

‘Don’t be worrying, Jenny, the agency will be there to help. It’s not as if we’ve no back-up. And our Spanish is fluent, some of the girls can only barely get by.
We’ll be fine,’ Paula declared. ‘Kieran is very impressed with us, Helen told me. We’re going to do well here, Jenny,’ she said confidently.

‘I like Kieran.’ Jennifer smiled. ‘He’s not a rip-off artist. He runs a good agency.’

‘I suppose it pays to,’ Paula mused. ‘People will come back again and again if they’re happy with their holidays. One of the reps was telling me about this travel company
she worked for, who used the cheapest of cheap accommodation, and she often had to go in after the maids had been and clean up after them, on hand-over day. The aggravation she had to put up with
from clients nearly gave her a nervous breakdown, although she sympathized with them. At least we won’t have that to put up with.’

‘I hope we get to Greece sometime. Since we speak Spanish, we might only be sent to Spain or the Canaries.’ Jennifer sipped her coffee and took a bite out of a chocolate
éclair.

‘Don’t worry, I have that under control,’ Paula assured her.’ I’ve arranged for us to do Greek lessons starting from next week. A Greek woman, who’s married
to an Irish man, gives them in her own home. Her name is Elena, she’s lovely. I got her name from the college I was at,’ Paula announced.

‘Good thinking.’ Jennifer was impressed.

‘Are you coming out for a drink tonight?’ Paula asked as they finished their coffee.

‘I might join you later. I’ve arranged to meet Rachel Stapleton, Ronan’s sister. He asked me would I organize something. He worries about her. The father is a real shit, he
keeps interfering when she tries to live her own life. She finds it hard to stand up to him,’ Jennifer explained.

‘Where are you going?’ Paula asked.

‘We’re going to meet at Clerys, after that I don’t know. We’ll probably go for something to eat. I’ll have to see what she wants to do.’

‘Beth and I are going to the Addison for a chat and a drink. Why don’t you bring Rachel?’ Paula invited.

‘I’ll see, Paula. She’s very shy. She might not want to. If you see me you see me. If you don’t you don’t. OK?’ Jennifer responded.

‘OK,’ Paula agreed.

As she stood shivering under Clerys clock, Jennifer thought nostalgically of the balmy breezes of the Costa, so different from foggy, damp, freezing cold Dublin. It was the middle of the evening
rush hour. Hundreds of people hurried along O’Connell Street. Bumper-to-bumper traffic spewed out vile polluted fumes. Jennifer buried her face in her thick woollen scarf. Of Rachel, there
was no sign.

She shuffled from one foot to the other to try and keep warm. No doubt the other girl had got caught in the atrocious traffic. Jennifer thought longingly of the blazing fire that her mother
would have in the kitchen at home. She’d far prefer to be sitting down to a plate of corned beef, cabbage, creamed potatoes and parsley sauce at home, than be standing here waiting for
Ronan’s shy sister to arrive. But what could she do? Ronan wanted her to be friends with his sister. He’d given Jennifer the home phone number and, when she’d phoned one Friday
night, a man’s voice had answered. Jennifer assumed it was the father. She’d asked to speak to Rachel.

‘Who is calling?’ His cold imperious tone chilled her at the other end of the phone. She felt like saying, ‘None of your business,’ but just said politely,
‘Jennifer Myles.’ Jennifer felt he didn’t recognize the name. Of course it was more than two and a half years since his wife’s funeral. He’d hardly acknowledged her
condolences. Rachel came to the phone.

‘Hello,’ she said shyly.

‘Hi, Rachel, this is Jennifer, Ronan’s girlfriend. I’m home from Spain for a few months. I thought maybe we could meet for coffee or a drink or something,’ Jennifer
suggested cheerfully. There was a silence at the other end. ‘Of course, if you’re up to your eyes or anything, I understand,’ she said hastily, not wanting the other girl to feel
she had to do something she’d rather not do.

‘I’d like that,’ Jennifer heard Rachel say in a low voice. ‘Ronan’s told me a lot about you in his letters.’ She probably had to keep her voice down because
Mr Stapleton was earwigging. They arranged to meet under Clery’s clock and then Rachel said a quick goodbye and hung up.

Maybe she’d changed her mind, Jennifer thought glumly as she watched a 19A bus disgorge its passengers. If it had been going in the opposite direction she’d have been very tempted to
get on it and go home.

‘Hello, is it Jennifer?’ she heard a shy voice ask. She turned to see a thin girl with fair curly hair and big blue eyes, hidden behind thick-lensed glasses. She gave a vulnerable
waif-like impression and had none of Ronan’s ruddy vitality. Jennifer, soft-hearted to the core, felt like putting her arms around her and giving her a great big hug.

‘Hi,’ she said warmly. ‘I’m very glad you came. I was hoping you would. Ronan will be delighted we’ve met at last. I know I met you at the funeral,’ she said
gently, ‘but you were in no state to talk to anyone.’

‘No,’ Rachel said sadly. ‘I wasn’t.’

‘Are you hungry? Will we go for something to eat? Or would you just like to go for a drink?’

‘I don’t mind,’ Rachel said shyly. ‘Whatever you want.’

‘I’m starving,’ Jennifer laughed. ‘I’m doing this training course and all the concentration has me ravenous. I could murder bacon, egg and chips. There’s a
little café further up, we could go there.’

‘OK,’ Rachel agreed. Jennifer gave a little inward sigh. Rachel was a woman of few words, she certainly didn’t take after her more exuberant brother.

Gradually, as the other girl started to relax in Jennifer’s company, she became more talkative. She asked Jennifer about being a courier and what the job entailed. She seemed fascinated by
Jennifer’s tales of her life in Spain, and said enviously, ‘You’ve done so much with your life. You’ve seen so much. Mine is so dull and boring in comparison.’

‘Why don’t you do something about it? Why don’t you go over to Ronan when you’re qualified?’ Jennifer asked gently.

Rachel gave a mirthless laugh. ‘You’re looking at the greatest coward going, Jennifer. I keep telling myself I’m going to do something drastic with my life. But I never do
anything.’

‘The longer you leave it, the harder it gets,’ Jennifer said.

‘I know, it’s . . . it’s just . . . well after Mam died, and then Ronan had the row with my father and left for America . . . I lost all my confidence. I felt very much alone.
Home in Rathbarry is the only place I don’t feel scared. Isn’t that daft?’ A bright pink suffused her cheeks and she looked away, as if embarrassed at having revealed so much of
herself in her little outburst.

‘That’s very understandable, Rachel,’ Jennifer said, feeling very sorry for the young woman in front of her. ‘Someday the time will be right for you to get out there and
do whatever you want.’

‘I’d like to have my own place in Dublin, someday,’ Rachel confided.

‘You will too,’ Jennifer said supportively.

They chatted away for ages, but Rachel refused Jennifer’s invitation to go for a drink, saying she had an essay to finish. They promised to meet again.

‘You didn’t bring Rachel with you?’ Paula asked, several hours later when Jennifer joined her and Beth for a drink in the Addison.

‘She wouldn’t come. I tried to persuade her, but she said she had to get home. It’s awful. That father of hers should be shot. He rules her like a dictator,’ Jennifer
exclaimed. ‘Ronan is right to be worried about her. She’s only young like us and she’s like a middle-aged woman. She was wearing a sort of calf-length woollen skirt and a cardigan
fastened up to the neck like an ould wan. And you should see the glasses! And you know,’ Jennifer paused to have a sip of her gin and tonic, ‘she has the most beautiful eyes.
They’re very blue. I’d love to get my hands on her and get her hair styled and put her in fashionable clothes, and get her to wear contact lenses.’

‘She sounds a pretty miserable sort,’ Beth remarked.

‘She is!’ Jennifer agreed. ‘And I don’t think she’s in any fit state to do anything about it. She’s still in bits over her mother, God help her. I’ll
just have to see what I can do about her. I’m going to meet her next week as well. Maybe I could get her to come out of her shell a bit. It’s a pity I’m not in Spain, she could
have come over for a holiday. It would do her all the good in the world to get away from that old yoke of a father of hers.’ Now that she’d really met her future sister-in-law at last,
Jennifer decided she wasn’t going to let Rachel Stapleton bury herself away in Rathbarry for ever.

‘Did you hear about Eilis McNally?’ Beth interjected, grinning broadly.

‘No . . . What?’ the other pair queried in unison.

‘She’s given up the job in the Department of Social Welfare and joined the Hare Krishnas.’

‘I don’t believe it!’ giggled Jennifer.

‘God help them! She should have taken a job as a photographer for the gutter press. She has enough experience after her carry-on with me and Barry,’ snorted Paula, who had never
forgiven Eilis for her dastardly deed. The other two guffawed.

‘And wait until you hear about Cynthia Jones . . .’ Jennifer and Paula settled down to hear Beth’s news and enjoy a good juicy gossip.

‘The wandrin’ minstrel returns. What hour of the night is this for ya to be coming in?’ Grandpa Myles declared, several hours later, as Jennifer closed the front door behind
her. ‘You should hear the giving out of yer woman upstairs.’ He jerked his thumb upwards in the direction of Brenda’s room. Jennifer sighed.

‘What’s the matter with her?’

‘Ah, she was givin’ out that you didn’t ask her to go for a drink with ye. Ye know the way she carries on. Come on and I’ll make ye a cup of cocoa and we’ll have a
chat in the kitchen an’ she’ll be asleep before you go to bed,’ he suggested. ‘Your ma an’ da are already gone. I was waiting up for ya,’ he said, leading the
way to the kitchen. Jennifer stifled a yawn. All she wanted to do was to go to bed. But her grandfather was dying for a chat. He was so pleased that she was home. It was touching. The only thing
was, he’d keep her up until all hours. Still, it was probably better to sit listening to him for a half an hour than go up and get an ear-bashing from Brenda.

She made her way upstairs an hour later. She was banjaxed. Grandpa Myles would talk the hind legs off a donkey, she thought tiredly. All she wanted to do was to get into bed and sleep her brains
out. The light was out, she noted with relief. Brenda was asleep. She’d undress in the dark so as not to disturb her. She stole quietly into the bedroom and began to undress.

‘Where were you?’ Brenda demanded, switching on the light. Jennifer’s heart sank at the sulky tone in her sister’s voice.

‘I went for a drink with the girls,’ she said lightly.

‘Lucky girls,’ Brenda said sarcastically. ‘They see more of you than I do. I was really looking forward to you coming home. I was looking forward to having a few nights on the
town with you,’ she moaned.

‘We will have a few nights out. I’m only back a wet week.’ Jennifer tried to keep the irritation out of her voice. Brenda could be so childish sometimes.

‘You think more of that pair than you do of your own sister,’ Brenda sulked.

‘How about if we go out tomorrow night for a drink?’ Jennifer said placatingly.

‘We could go to Tamango’s.’ Brenda perked up and sat up in bed all ready for a chat.

‘Sure,’ Jennifer agreed glumly. She didn’t want to traipse off to a nightclub tomorrow night. All she wanted to do was to come home, relax, have a bath and a chat with her
mother and flop. But if she said that to Brenda, her sister would go into a mega-huff.