O'Mara's by Michelle Vernal

Author:Michelle Vernal [Vernal, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michelle Vernal
Published: 2018-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Aisling pushed the door open of the guesthouse, holding her breath in anticipation of Marcus being sat in reception. The nervous tension must be coming off her in waves, would he be there, or wouldn’t he? She was almost disappointed to see that the sofa was empty. Young Evie was looking even younger than her eighteen years with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and no makeup save for a slick of gloss was checking a couple in. Their clothing was somewhat eccentric. The woman was in a voluminous tie-dyed dress with a long floaty cardigan overtop, a scarf draped around her neck and he, with his silver beard and wispy long hair reminded Aisling of a wizard. Merlin sprang to mind.

Evie glanced up from the computer and caught Aisling’s eye, looking as though she wanted to say something. Whatever it was would have to wait until the new arrivals had been shown to their room. Their guests always came first and with that in mind Aisling gathered herself, pushing thoughts of her ex aside as she came to stand alongside the bohemian pair.

‘Good afternoon.’ She held her hand out in greeting. It was given a warm shake in return by the gentleman. ‘I’m Aisling O’Mara. Welcome to O’Mara’s,’ she smiled and shook his wife’s hand as the gentleman introduced them both as Branok and Emblyn Nancarrow.

It was Emblyn who began to chat. She had a singsong accent and the way in which she rolled her ‘r’s’, made Aisling pick them as hailing from Britain’s West Country. She was right, Emblyn told her they were from Falmouth in Cornwall. Privately Aisling couldn’t help but think that the Cornish had even stranger sounding names than the Irish. Emblyn and Branok? They sounded like something from King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. To be fair, he looked like something from the old Arthurian legend and he was supposed to have been born in their neck of the woods.

‘And what brings you to Dublin? If you don’t mind my asking?’

‘Oh I don’t mind at all dear. We’re both artists we own a gallery at home. Branok and I spent time in Dublin when we were young free spirits. Branok got it in his head that he wanted to relive his youth for a few days. We’re going to visit our old haunts so,’ she smiled, ‘here we are.’

‘It’s a lot busier than I remember it,’ Branok said picking up their case and Aisling was sure she heard him mumble, and expensive.

‘When were you last here?’ Aisling asked.

‘Oh, sometime in the late sixties. I had even longer hair then and so did she. We spent a lot of time sitting in a semicircle in St Stephen’s Green with other long haired young people talking about the meaning of life.’ He made a peace sign and Aisling and Evie laughed. ‘Remember how we crashed on the floor of that communal flat at night, Emblyn?’

‘I do. We’d never get up again if we did that now.

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