One Summer by Roisin Meaney

Author:Roisin Meaney [Meaney, Roisin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781444725629
Publisher: Hachette Ireland
Published: 2012-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Hugh Fitzpatrick sliced lemons, using a little wooden platform he’d constructed to accommodate his shorter arm. ‘Business OK?’

Nell nodded, her mouth full. Since moving into the little room upstairs she’d taken to bringing a sandwich into the bar in the evenings. ‘I can’t eat my dinner up there,’ she’d told Hugh. ‘It’s like I’m in a bedsit.’

‘Feel free,’ he’d replied, glad of any excuse that brought her in. Full of chat whenever you met her, always seeing the positive side of things.

Apart from now. Bit subdued this evening.

‘John Silver getting on all right with James?’ he asked.

She drank some of her cider. ‘Yeah, he’s fine. Andy has taken him over, apparently. James is going to look for a pup for him when I take John Silver back.’

‘The Clarkes’ dog is expecting pups. Johnny was saying the other day.’

‘Good. Tell James.’

Hugh swept the lemon slices into a bowl and nodded at her glass. ‘Another of those?’

‘Go on then.’ She picked a piece of turkey from her sandwich.

Hugh remembered how thrilled she’d been when she and Tim had become an item. ‘He’s the one, Hugh,’ she’d told him happily. ‘My search is over.’ When they’d got engaged she’d called to Hugh’s house the following day to show him the ring, the delight flowing out of her. ‘I don’t know how we’re going to manage it,’ she’d said, ‘with him in Dublin and me down here, but we’ll find a way. There’s always a way, isn’t there?’

‘Of course there is,’ Hugh had told her – and sure enough, she’d announced not long afterwards that Tim would be moving to Roone once they were married.

‘He’ll go freelance, or do contract jobs or something,’ she’d said. ‘He’ll be based here anyway. He’ll be here much more than he is now.’

And all had seemed well. Hugh had been kept up to date with developments: he’d heard about the dress and the honeymoon plans; he’d sampled all of Nell’s test cakes. He’d particularly liked the coffee one with the walnuts.

And if Tim wasn’t the only Baker brother in love with her, that was nobody’s fault. James’s dilemma was, he thought, not obvious to anyone else, but Hugh had been long aware of it. He had no idea how the knowledge had come to him, but one day it was there, lodged firmly in his head.

Some kind of sixth sense, maybe. Compensation for his missing lower arm, perhaps. Fair enough exchange, he supposed.

The subject had never come up between the two men. James, he was sure, had no idea that Hugh knew of his feelings for Nell. He imagined how tough it must be to fall in love with someone who was about to marry someone else, particularly if that someone else was your own brother.

Particularly if you’d been friendly with her first, if you’d been the one to introduce them. Poor old James.

Nell poured cider from the new bottle into her glass. ‘I was wondering,’ she said, ‘if you’d like a singer for Friday night.’

Hugh finished off a pint of Guinness and set it in front of Willie Buckley, three stools away.

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