The Tour (30 page)

Corlene scrutinised the collection of garments that made up what Cynthia claimed was her favourite ensemble. Her assessment began at Cynthia’s feet, which were clad in a pair of wide, flat sandals that may at some time in the past have been a kind of khaki colour. It was hard to tell. Under the sandals, she wore purple woollen socks of the kind mainly favoured by hill walkers. The exposed expanse of white hairy legs between the end of her skirt and the top of her socks almost caused Corlene to convulse. Both the band of the denim encircling Cynthia’s waist and the hem of the skirt were embroidered with daisy-like flowers. The skirt itself seemed to billow around her like a sail, making her seem far wider than she actually was. The peach polyester blouse featuring floppy bow at the neck was, however, undoubtedly the worst aspect of this horrendous outfit. Combined with the bird’s nest of hair held together with an assortment of pins, it served to make Cynthia look mentally unhinged and possibly homeless.

‘Hmm,’ Corlene said, wearing the most inscrutable expression she could manage.

‘I wish I could be there for the transformation,’ Bert interjected, having overheard bits of their conversation. ‘If Corlene can teach you how to use make-up as well as she taught her son here, you’ll be in safe hands.’

Dylan laughed. ‘Seriously Cynthia, you should let her. She’s good at all that kinda stuff.’ Corlene blushed with pride. She had never heard Dylan say anything nice about her to anyone.

Cynthia was so excited at the prospect she began to giggle. ‘I never had many girlfriends you know. Tended to veer more towards the stables and the chaps I suppose. There was a dreadful old crone when we were at school…taught decorum or deportment or some other such useless nonsense…I never took too much notice. Patrick mentioned that there was going to be a dinner to celebrate the last night of the tour. How wonderful if I managed to look a bit more…well…a bit more glamorous,’ she seemed embarrassed.

Corlene had never experienced the joy of giving without a motive before. She was wondering what on earth had come over her when she heard herself say: ‘Don’t worry about a thing. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll look a million dollars.’

Cynthia looked doubtful.

‘It’s easy when you know how Cynthia. Not a word to Patrick promise? We want to
wow
him.’

Conor pulled a very miserable-looking Dylan aside: ‘You know we’re having a bit of a farewell dinner tomorrow night in the hotel. I was thinking why don’t you ask Laoise and her parents to come along too? It’s only about two hours to Ennis from Cork. I’ll organise rooms for them in the hotel.’

‘Are you serious? Oh Conor man…that would be…’

‘I know, I know
awesome
. I’m like totally…awesome!’ Conor chuckled, slapping Dylan on the back.

Dorothy hung back as the group boarded the coach and then took the only remaining single seat without a word. Patrick and Cynthia cuddled up on the back seat, Corlene sitting beside them chatting animatedly.

Ellen and Bert sitting side by side interjected every now and again in the various conversations going on around them. Is there anything as weird as the dynamics of group travel, Conor thought to himself, not for the first time. At this point, these people probably know more about each other than do their nearest and dearest back at home and, despite protestations to the contrary, only one or two of them will keep in touch once they leave.

Bert watched and listened, as he always did. The project had been decided. This was his favourite bit, he thought as he sat back with satisfaction. When he retired from his company, his family and friends were worried about him, thinking he would go crazy sitting around the house all day. None of them had a clue that he was embarking on a new, much more interesting career. None of them were aware that he had been involved in a small way for many years with another organisation that had nothing whatsoever to do with his construction business. Now that he was retired, he had the freedom to assume the role of coordinator of the organisation’s global operation involving people of many different races, cultures and religions, including people he had never, nor would ever meet in person. These people had only one thing in common: membership of JUTUS.

Chapter 32

The coach pulled into the now familiar grounds of the Dunshane Castle hotel.

‘Hey Conor, is it really only a week since we were here?

It seems like a year ago,’ Bert said.

‘Gee Conor, I hope all your tours aren’t as interesting as this one?’ Juliet piped up.

‘No indeed,’ Conor agreed ‘This is one I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Little did I realise when I picked you up at the airport that morning what dramas lay ahead.’

Everyone laughed.

‘Well Conor, if you’d known the trouble I was going to cause, you would have left me in the Arrivals Hall,’ Dorothy said with a rueful grin.

‘And miss all that excitement and courtroom drama? Not for all the tea in China,’ Conor chuckled.

‘Dorothy, you’ll be the highlight of the trip when I tell the story to my buddies,’ Patrick joked.

Everyone sat on the edge of their seats, holding their breath in anticipation of Dorothy’s response. They had all witnessed her remarkable transformation, but wariness still prevailed.

‘Well I’d better be good looking in the re-telling, Officer O’Neill,’ she said good humouredly, as the group guffawed in unison.

Conor hopped off the coach and headed for Reception to get the rooming list. As he waited, he scanned the lobby for signs of Sinead and young Conor. He felt uncharacteristically nervy, anxious to get the group settled into their rooms, so that he could deal with this monumental milestone in his life.

Returning to the coach, he took the microphone. ‘Righty-ho everyone. Tonight you’re free to eat out or eat in the hotel. Maybe take in a bit of traditional music in the pubs in Ennis. I’ll give you a list of some of the really good spots. On the other hand, some of you may just need to rest after all the excitement of the past few days,’ he said, surveying the exhausted faces of Patrick, Ellen and Bert.

‘I know from experience the quality of the room service is very good. So, I can certainly recommend that option if you’d rather eat in your rooms,’ he said, as several heads nodded in agreement.

‘Tomorrow we visit Bunratty Castle and the Folk Park, which I know you’ll enjoy, and you’ll also get a chance to do a bit of last-minute gift shopping. Tomorrow night we have a very special dinner planned in a private dining room here in Dunshane Castle, so make sure you don’t eat too much for lunch tomorrow. By the way, Dylan’s friend Laoise and her parents Siobhán and Diarmuid will be joining us also. They are wonderful musicians so you’d all better prepare a party piece.’

Corlene mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ to Conor as he continued. ‘Now folks, for the last time on this completely amazing tour, let me give you your room keys…’

After they had all departed, he took a few minutes to tidy up the coach. As he threw newspapers and empty water bottles into a refuse sack, he heard a tap on the window. He pressed the button to release the door.

‘Ah Anastasia,’ he said, giving her a hug. ‘How’s everything? How’s your mam?’

‘She’s much better. I think maybe she will come back from hospital in few more days. She must take it easy now but she will stay with my brother and his family for some weeks until she is again strong so I am glad.’

‘That’s fantastic news. I’m delighted.’

He deliberated about mentioning their awkward phone call and then decided it was better to take the bull by the horns. ‘Listen Anastasia,’ he began, ‘I hope you didn’t think I was being rude the other day on the phone. It’s just that I’m not much for chatting on those yokes, it’s much more for your generation I think…’ he added with a rueful grin.

‘I’m not so much younger than you, you know,’ she said looking serious. ‘Always you say I am young, but I look younger than I am. I am twenty-nine and you forty six, not so much. Only seventeen years.’

Conor grinned, ‘Ah yes, Anastasia my darling, but a lifetime can happen in seventeen years.’

‘Oh God, there is Mr Manner!’ she squeaked. The manager was peering out the door, scanning the car park. ‘I supposed to be working. I just come to say welcome home to you. I better go,’ she said before dashing into the hotel through the service entrance.

Conor walked into the hotel with trepidation. As he approached Reception, Katherine O’Brien came out from behind the desk to meet him, something he had never seen her do before.

‘Conor, can I have a word?’ she said, indicating to the manager’s office. She closed the door behind them.

‘Is everything alright Katherine?’

‘I don’t know Conor,’ she replied, without a trace of her customary frostiness.

‘It’s none of my business, but I just wanted to tell you that a woman checked in today, with a boy, and she asked…she said she was…well the words she used …well I’m paraphrasing Conor…she said she was with you. Now, you never said anything to us about it, so I wasn’t sure what we should do. I gave her the room adjoining yours. I hope that was the right thing to do.’

Conor sat down and sighed heavily.

‘Is anything the matter Conor?’ Katherine asked with genuine concern.

‘Have you a spare ten minutes Katherine? I could do with a bit of advice.’

‘Of course,’ she said, as she too sat down.

‘Well…you know I’m not like the other fellas, different women every night of the week, so I’m a bit clueless when it comes to this stuff. That woman, Sinead, is an old friend of mine. One time, almost twenty years ago, I’d hoped that maybe she’d be my girlfriend or whatever but anyway she left Ireland with my brother, and that lad with her is my nephew.

‘I never declared myself at the time, but I think …in fact I’m fairly certain she knew how I felt about her. When she and my brother left, it tore the heart out of me. I swear, I thought I’d never get over it. I never thought I’d see her again, but then she wrote to me. That was the letter you gave me last week. In it she said she’d been trying to track me down for ages. Anyway here she is, and I just don’t know what to do. She’s sick, she has cancer, and I don’t know maybe she’s come home to die or something. But the thing is she’s been talking like we’re getting together. Like it’s a given. I was absolutely mad about her back then. I’d have done anything to have her, but I think now maybe it’s too late.’

‘She has cancer? That’s strange you should mention that because I overheard her talking to another guest while she was waiting to check in. The complimentary newspapers were on the desk and the front page story on
The Irish Times
was about that poor woman in Roscommon whose breast cancer was misdiagnosed. She died as a result and her husband and children got a big settlement in court yesterday. Anyway, this other guest said to your friend how awful that was, and she replied that she’d had a brush with cancer last year, but after she finished her radiotherapy treatment, she’d been given the all clear. I wonder why she would have said that if she still had cancer?’ Katherine asked pointedly.

‘I don’t know. Maybe it’s come back? It all seems so overwhelming Katherine. I did love her, maybe I still do, I don’t know. It could be that I’ll meet her and it’ll be just like old times.’ Noting the sceptical look on Katherine’s face, he added: ‘I suppose you think I’m a right clown to even consider it. Sure maybe I’m reading it all wrong. If she didn’t want me years ago, she surely wouldn’t want me now. Look at me, hiding in here instead of going up to face her. I’m a right eejit I know.’

‘Oh Conor, I think you
are
reading it right. I’m not claiming to know
her
, but I do know
you
. I think she definitely does want you. But do you want
her
? This is something you’ll never hear me repeat again, so listen carefully. You are a lovely, charming and, dare I say it, handsome man. You have a big heart and you deserve to be happy. Tread very carefully Conor. That boy is not your responsibility and neither is his mother. Don’t do anything foolish,’ she said, getting up from the chair.

‘I’ve discussed this with Anastasia too and she didn’t seem to think it was such a good idea, but then she doesn’t know Sinead either.’

‘You get on well with Anastasia don’t you?’

‘Ah sure, she’s a lovely girl. She was a bit upset last week actually, boyfriend trouble I think. Is she going out with someone from here? I don’t like to ask her, in case she thinks I’m prying into her business. But I hate to see her so down and I know you know everything that goes on in this hotel.’

Katherine gave Conor a funny look. ‘No Conor, she’s not going out with anyone, not from here or from anywhere else. She’s in love with a man, but he can’t see it. If he doesn’t wake up soon though, I’d say she’ll be going back to the Ukraine.’

Conor stood up. ‘Well I’d better go and face my fate whatever it’s to be. I suppose I’ll just know when I meet her…whether we still have feelings for each other. I think when it comes to stuff like that, you kind of know instinctively, don’t you?’

Katherine suppressed a smile. ‘Oh yes Conor, I’d say you are a very perceptive man. Just be careful alright?’

Conor decided to get a coffee in the bar and call Sinead from there. She had given him her mobile number in her last email. The hotel bar was a beautiful old room and Conor noticed with relief it wasn’t busy. He would ask her to come down. He wanted to meet her on neutral ground. Maybe in a public place he wouldn’t make such an eejit of himself. He took a seat at the bar. As he was about to ring her mobile, he spotted Anastasia taking an order from someone in the corner.

He could hear a brash American accent saying: ‘Oh for heaven’s sake! All I want is a Colombian roast coffee with almond milk. This is supposed to be a five-star hotel. Even my local Starbucks has that. Are you sure you understand right? Maybe you could send someone who speaks better English?’

Anastasia spotted Conor rolling his eyes to heaven in solidarity with her plight in having to deal with this nightmare of a woman.

‘Madam, I know exactly what it is that you want but I am sorry, we don’t have almond milk here. Can I get you regular latte? Or a latte with soya milk? Low-fat milk? Also we have cappuccino, espresso, Americano.’