The Girl from Donegal by Carmel Harrington

Author:Carmel Harrington [Harrington, Carmel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2023-02-13T17:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Saoirse

Present day

Palm Tree Cottage, Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda

Saoirse awoke with a start. With a sense of déjà-vu, she sat upright in bed and looked around in confusion. Heart racing, she took several deep breaths to calm herself down. She’d been dreaming about Riley, about the last time she’d seen him. Esme’s words from last night, suggesting she confront her hidden pain, must have penetrated her subconscious. Saoirse swung her legs down from the bed, feeling the dull ache of a headache begin to make itself known.

What was it about this place that brought back so much she thought she’d already dealt with? Was it the location, and the fact that her first marriage had finally ended right here? Or was it more than that?

Saoirse decided to leave those questions for now and made her way towards the kitchen. She found Esme and Kate at the dining-room table, eating breakfast.

‘You look how I feel,’ Esme commented, two bloodshot eyes peering at Saoirse as she sat beside her.

‘Rehydrate,’ Kate advised, nodding towards the teapot.

‘I blame the calypso music. We were ready to go home after our second drink, but before I knew it, we’d ordered another round.’ Esme shook her head sorrowfully.

‘And another! I don’t remember coming home,’ Saoirse admitted. ‘Those swizzles really got to me.’

‘You wanted to ring Finn when we got home. I had to wrestle the phone off you! You were quite insistent. But I thought it best not to disturb him,’ Esme said.

Saoirse felt a flood of warmth move from the pit of her stomach up to her body and on to her face. What an idiot she was.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered. Something nagged her, a buried memory of the night before, that she couldn’t quite hold on to. She had been so drunk, worse than she could ever remember being.

‘Was I limbo-dancing?’ Saoirse asked, not sure if she could trust that flash that had just popped into her mind.

‘Oh yeah. How low can you go? Very!’ Esme cackled laughter. ‘Did you sleep well? I was out as soon as I hit the pillow.’

‘Weird dreams. I’ve had better nights,’ Saoirse admitted.

‘Must have been the night for them. I had a restless night, my mind was racing with many things,’ Kate said. Her forehead creased in a frown, and she shook her head as if trying to dislodge her thoughts.

‘You were tossing and turning when I got in,’ Esme said.

Kate nodded. ‘I can’t seem to switch off memories. It’s as if I’ve opened a floodgate, and now I’m awash with unbidden thoughts.’

Saoirse nodded in sympathy. This was how she felt right now. Riley was her past, yet she was struggling to leave him there. But this wasn’t about her. ‘Anything you want to talk about, Aunt Kate?’

‘Maybe. But not right now. What I will tell you is that I was adopted when I was five years old. And I was lucky that when my parents died, I gained a new set almost immediately, who could not have loved me more had I been born into their arms.

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