‘Well, I grew up in Heartwell village planning to marry the lord of the castle .?.?.’ Kate crosses her legs dramatically in her platform boots.
‘.?.?. but he was nearly twenty years older than her so she hadto settle for me!’ Jimmy laughs and peels the silver paper off a warm mince pie.
‘We met in the Gaeltacht, Irish summer college, and we’ve been together since we were fifteen. Even though he’s not from Heartwell, he’s my lobster.’ Kate makes a heart shape with her hands.
‘More like her prawn!’ Jimmy laughs loudly, pulls a funny face. Kate laughs heartily.
‘But you really wanted to get married at the castle?’ I probe gently.
‘Oh, don’t even go there.’ Jimmy takes a massive bite from his pie, rolls his eyes.
‘I do. So badly, but like I said, we can’t afford it.’ Kate drops her chin in her hand.
‘It’s breaking her heart, so it’s breaking mine!’ Jimmy mumbles through the pastry. ‘She won’t be happy at the Moritz because she believes in this everlasting marriage shite.’ Jimmy wipes his mouth, drapes a long arm around Kate’s shoulders.
‘Watch your language! Because it’s true! You can’t be from Heartwell all your life and not marry at Castlemoon.’ Kate shrugs his arm off. ‘He just doesn’t get it! He’s from down the road in Little Green Valley. He’s a blow in.’ But she laughs again.
‘Kate .?.?.’ Jimmy sits back. ‘We don’t have to go through with this wedding. It’s so small, no one’s travelling from beyond the local villages. Your aunt would probably be glad! We have ten thousand euros saved for the wedding day, we can keep adding to that. All I care about is being with you.’ Jimmy shakes his head.
‘I’m sorry, that was so ungrateful of me. I-I love you Jimmy Murphy, I can’t wait to marry you and start our family, I will never mention Castlemoon again. Excuse me.’
Kate gets up to go to the bathroom.
‘I feel like such a failure,’ Jimmy abruptly tells me, leaninghis long body across the table. ‘The one thing she really wants I can’t give to her. She works so hard, she’s so good to everyone. It breaks my heart, don’t tell her that, but it does. And I pooh-pooh the folklore but she’s right, look at all the people we know whose marriages have seen them come through rocky times. Take Una and Harold, for example, their marriage hit a rough patch during the recession when Harold went bust, but Dan gave them a free weekend at the castle, they were pampered, they fell in love again. It has healing powers, just don’t tell Kate I believe that.’ He sits back quickly as Kate returns to the table.
‘I just needed to wash my hands and I was thinking as I was drying them, so you want to encourage your readers to get married at the castle?’ She sits.
‘Yeah, well we do suggest ultimate locations,’ I tell her.
‘Well just say this,’ she picks up her coffee cup, cradles it, ‘Castlemoon is the most romantic place on earth to be married in. When the going gets tough you can always come back and relive the best day of your life and know that it has the power to heal a relationship like nowhere else does.’
‘Why?’ I ask the million-dollar question.
‘Why? Because it was built on true love.’ Kate shuts her eyes for the briefest moment. ‘Show me another hotel in the world that you can say the same thing about.’
‘I get it now,’ I say and sit back. I have my article.
* * *
Dan gave them a free weekend. I’m still thinking of Jimmy’s words as I close my MacBook and arch my back. I only notice now that it’s dark outside. Slowly, I get up and pull the brass handle of my drawer and get out my loose white jeans and red sweater. My phone rings. I grab for it and at last I see Amanda’sname. I’ve been waiting for her to call me back to discuss Frederick’s demands!
‘Amanda!’ I cry. ‘I’ve been desperately trying to reach you.’
‘So I see, what’s wrong?’ She sounds fine, I’m relieved to hear.
‘Well, I’m not sure if Frederick has told you but he’s been pretty hard on me in regards to me photographing a registration slash guest book here,’ I tell her, sitting back on the bed.
‘Oh, okay. No, he didn’t say. Is that a problem?’
‘Well yeah, it feels a bit .?.?.weird?’ I say, really emphasising the word weird. ‘And he .?.?. well, he more or less threatened my job saying he’d send Salma over if I didn’t do it,’ I say with trepidation.
‘He’s a hot head. I’ll call him now. How’s the article? Nearly there?’ She is tap-tap-tapping on keys, not really engaging as I’d hoped.
‘I just finished it. I’m going to go get dinner now, stretch out my breaking back and I’ll have it over to you soon. I just need to proofread .?.?. although I know that will be someone else’s job now!’ I try to see if she’s actually listening, but all I can hear is the banging of keys.
‘Cool. Great. Be back to you. Ciao!’
The line goes dead.
