The Four Streets Saga by Nadine Dorries

Author:Nadine Dorries [Dorries, Nadine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784979874
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd.

17

KITTY AND NELLIE stood anxiously waiting, just inside the open front door, excited and holding hands, sheltering from the midges. The light was fading fast when they spotted the lights of the farm van trundling down the Ballymara road.

As it passed, it illuminated the rhododendrons on the opposite side of the road. Kitty wondered if her mother would be as taken with their size and wildness as she had been.

Liam’s younger brother, Patrick, who was driving, teased both girls, slowing down just outside the front gate, then grinning and waving through the window, before speeding onwards towards the McMahons’ farm to turn the van round.

Kitty ran to wait at the gate. Patrick and Kathleen had been to Dublin to collect Maura and had left long before the girls had woken.

Kitty could scarcely contain her excitement. Now she and Maura hugged and held onto each other tightly, before walking down the path and in through the front door.

The fire had been stacked high and the flames made the kitchen brighter and warmer than usual. The smells of burning peat and freshly baked bread competed with each other. Maeve, who was moving the dishes of food around the table to make space for the salmon, quickly removed her apron. Glancing in the mirror hanging above the sink, she pushed the stray strands of auburn hair behind her ears and, licking the top of both index fingers, ran them quickly across her wayward eyebrows.

Both of the dogs were fast asleep, stretched out on their sides in front of the fire, paws covered in the softly drifting peat ash. Their legs were twitching in a dream world, chasing rabbits.

‘At last,’ beamed Maeve, scooping Maura into a hug.

Maeve would never betray the fact that she had been more than a little worried about Maura’s arrival. For Maura lived in Liverpool. A city of sophistication. With bright lights and modern ways. With music and culture and fancy clothes. Liverpool had everything Mayo didn’t. Maeve had heard there was a clothes store called C&A, stocking every fashion you could find in the magazines, and a Woolworth’s bigger than any building Maeve had ever seen. The doctor’s wife also came from Liverpool and she had proudly shown Maeve the china she had bought in a store called Lewis’s.

But one look at Maura told Maeve she had nothing to fear.

‘Bernadette’s lovely friend. I have heard so much about ye,’ said Maeve, linking her arm through Maura’s.

A look of sadness crossed Nellie’s face. Then came that familiar ache in her diaphragm. The deep loneliness she could never explain. The longing for a mother she never knew. She wanted to plead with Maeve, Say her name again. Please, say it like you used to say it to her.

‘The child has been pacing around all the day, looking up the road waiting for ye, so she has.’

Maeve grinned at Kitty, who nuzzled in and tightened her arms round her mother’s waist, sheepishly burying her face in Maura’s shoulder.

Kitty inhaled deeply the scent of her mother, the familiar mixture of Nelson Street and cigarette smoke.

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