When All Is Said(45)

‘I’ll gladly take you up on the offer of some lunch. But, if I promise to behave,’ I said, as charming as I was able, ‘would you allow me the honour of returning this personally to your uncle? It’s important to me.’

She looked at me, searching my face for evidence of trustworthiness. I smiled in return, hoping that whatever my lips were attempting, it was enough to convince her that here stood a man of his word; a man who would not upset the day of celebrations. She didn’t appear wholly satisfied but nevertheless turned to Sadie and Noreen, ushering them into the snug, telling them the menu as she went. But as I took my first step to enter the bar to begin my search, she was by my side again, whispering in my ear, laying an urgent grip on my arm.

‘Mr Hannigan, please, that coin has sent my uncle to hell and back. We have had enough torment in this family. If he knows who you are or if you start to taunt him then I’m not sure what he might do. Please, Mr Hannigan, just give it back to him and say nothing else.’

‘Who I am, Emily? What do you mean, “who I am”?’ I asked. Perhaps I hadn’t got away with it after all. Perhaps somehow she knew what I’d done with the coin all those years ago.

‘The land, the … You know what I mean. We don’t need to go over that now. Please, just don’t tell him who you are, just give him back the coin and be done with it.’

‘Ah, I see. The land. I’ll not antagonise him. It would seem there are too many women here that would never forgive me if I did. I’ll be good, you have my word.’

I patted her hand and then removed it from my arm, but held it not letting her go just yet.

‘One more thing though, Emily. What was that bit about your uncle “finding” the coin again?’

She looked at me and I knew from her that she was too tired and exhausted from everything to go into it there and then. And really I should have let her go. But I squeezed her hand, impressing my curiosity just a little bit harder. Her face relented into resignation. She looked around her, then whispered:

‘It’s not the original, not the one he lost, I mean. It’s one of the other six. He bought it about ten years ago. Before my father died. Used his second wife’s inheritance. She divorced him after, when she found out what he’d done. We were forced to borrow, to settle the law suit she’d threatened.’

‘Is that a fact?’

‘I don’t expect you to have any sympathy but he really isn’t well. He’s totally blocked out the truth of it all. Firmly believes the coin he has is Great-grandfather’s original. He’s created this make-believe world in which Great-grandfather was a gent and he, in turn, was the proud loyal son. We never speak of the disinheritance. Perhaps we’d have all done the same given … well.’

She stopped abruptly and closed her eyes on something she seemed unwilling to share. Her hand rubbed her brow.

‘So when I met you that first day,’ I said, calling her back to me, ‘and you told me about the debt, was that because of the loan? Was that why you needed the money?’

I couldn’t help but smile at the irony of it all. I may as well just have handed back the coin there and then and saved myself the bother of investing the cash. Emily studied me, her face becoming serious.

‘Why, would you have had second thoughts had you known it was all because of him and the coin?’ she asked.

I had no answer for her. Not then anyhow. Not even now, if I’m honest.

‘What’s done is done, I suppose,’ I said, ‘but you told me he still looks for the coin when he’s home. Why would he do that if he has one?’

‘I suppose he still lives in hope.’ She gave me a tight-lipped smile.

I nodded and patted her hand, not flinching for a second, and headed in search of Thomas. I simply followed the loud laugh and greying head of hair sticking up above the crowd. I took his elbow without a word, hauling him to one side, away from the man he was speaking to.

‘Dear God man, what in hell do you think you are at?’ he protested, as he stumbled to face me, spilling his wine in the process. His face was old. Up close, I could see a vulnerability, a weariness that caught me. I had expected to feel hate, not pity. His eyes squinted in suspicion, bringing me back to myself. I hardened my stare and raised the coin in front of his face.

‘Ah, at last! I thought for a moment there, I would have to call in the police. Only for young Emily, I would have, I’ll have you know.’

‘She’s not a lunatic or a mad woman.’

‘What? What are you going on about, man?’

‘Noreen, my sister-in-law. She’s not a lunatic or a mad woman and I’ll thank you not to call her that again.’

I concentrated my eyes on his, trying to pour as much hate into them as I possibly could. Tony had always told me no matter what happened, to always look him straight in the eye. I wondered, did he know me now. Did he recognise his handiwork in the scar on my face. Did he see the child turned man capable of tearing him limb from limb. He showed no sign.

‘I have no intention of ever meeting her again,’ he said looking down, trying to maintain some dignity. ‘If I have my way, she will not be permitted in our hotel again.’

There he was – the conceited bully of old.

‘Your hotel is it?’ The blood inside me boiled as I considered telling him just whose hotel it was but then I remembered my promise to Emily to go quietly. Instead, I told a different truth. ‘Yours? And not that of the sweat of your grand-niece. Holding this crumbling place together with luck and borrowed money. Where have you been for the last fifty years? Swanning around Europe, is it? Only for that young lassie and her father before her, this place would be long gone. Yours my arse.’