A Week in Winter(18)

‘No, Chicky. You don’t know what they’re like.’

‘I do know what they are like. I’ve known the Hickeys all my life. I’m not saying they’ll be pleased, but it beats the hell out of getting the Guards to find you in England or asking the Salvation Army to trace you.’

‘Married? Here in Stoneybridge?’

‘If that’s what you want then yes. I think you’re both too young. You could get married much later, but if you want it now then leave Father Johnson to me.’

‘It won’t work.’

‘It will if you say absolutely nothing and just get that house done. You have to have it ready to show to the Hickeys the day you tell them that Carmel is pregnant.’

‘Chicky, be reasonable. If it were going to work, we can’t do all this in three weeks or a month.’

‘If I tell the builders that Stone Cottage is the priority then we can. And you can take some of the furniture we have stored here.’

He looked at her with some hope in his eyes. ‘Do you really think . . .?’

‘We haven’t a minute to waste, and don’t tell your mother either. Not yet.’

‘Oh God, she’s going to go mad too. More bad news.’

‘Not when she hears it as a package. Not when she hears that you have a house, a proper job and a bride. Where’s the bad news there? Aren’t these the things she always hoped for, for you?’

Carmel Hickey proved to be amazingly practical. She swore she would focus entirely on her exams while saying that she wanted to learn bookkeeping and commercial studies as a career. She insisted that Rigger spend every waking hour getting Stone Cottage up and running. She seemed vastly relieved that they were not going to catch the emigrant ship and live on nothing in England.

Carmel had every confidence in Chicky, even to the point of keeping Father Johnson on side.

And Carmel was right to be confident. By the time the Leaving Certificate exams were over, Father Johnson had been convinced that a good Christian marriage to be solemnised between two admittedly very young and very slightly pregnant people was a good thing rather than a bad thing.

And when the Hickeys began to wail and protest, Father Johnson was reproving and reminding them not to stand in God’s way.

The Hickeys were somewhat mollified after their first tour of Stone Cottage, and the evidence that Rigger appeared to be his own boss rather than just Chicky’s handyman. They had to admit that the place was very comfortable and what they called ‘well appointed’.

Gloria had decided to come and dress the set. She sat washing herself by the small range, giving the place an air of domesticity. Old lamps that the Miss Sheedys had once loved had been taken out and polished, rugs had been made by cutting out the better bits of old carpets and everything was brightly painted.

The wedding would be small and quiet. They didn’t want any show.

Nuala wrote one short letter and made one brief telephone call to wish them well but to say that she wouldn’t be able to come to the wedding.

‘Ah Mam, I’d love you to be here to meet Carmel and to see our home.’ Rigger hadn’t believed that she would refuse to come.

‘I’m not able to, Rigger. It wouldn’t work. I send you both my good wishes and my hopes for the future. I’m sure I will come one day and visit you another time.’

‘But I’ll only have one wedding day, Mam.’

‘That’s one more than I had,’ Nuala said.

‘But why are you still against me, Mam? I did what you and Nasey said I should do. I made a life here. I worked hard. I gave up all that stupid way of going on. Why won’t you come and see us getting married?’

‘I failed you, Rigger. I gave you no upbringing. I couldn’t look after you or guide you. I let you make a mess of your life. I have no part of what you have become. You did all that without me.’

‘Don’t talk like that. I’d be nothing if it weren’t for you. I was the eejit who wouldn’t listen. Please come, Mam.’

‘Not this time, Rigger. But maybe one day.’

‘And about the baby . . . if it’s a girl, we were going to call her Nuala.’

‘Don’t! Please don’t do that. I know you think it would please me but truly I don’t want it.’

‘Why, Mam? Why do you say that?’

‘Because I’m not worth it. When did I ever do anything properly for you, Rigger? Anything that worked? I ask myself that over and over and I can’t find an answer.’

She sent a wedding gift of an expensive glass vase with a card saying she was so sorry not to be able to be there in person.

Carmel understood.

‘We should let her wait until she’s ready. When the baby is born she’ll be here like a flash and then we’ll show her what a good job she made of you.’

The wedding day itself went better than they might have hoped. Nasey came from Dublin with Rigger’s cousin Dingo.

Nasey smoothed things over with the Hickeys. Rigger’s mother would definitely have been here if she could, but sadly she had not felt strong enough to travel. She sent everyone her good wishes.

Privately he told Chicky that his sister was retreating further and further.

No need to upset the boy by telling him this, but she seemed to have disengaged with her son entirely.