“You’ve met my sisters: we’re not exactly sane either,” I said.
“Do your parents leave sex toys in the kitchen?”
“Only on a Tuesday.”
She laughed and gripped my t-shirt, pulling it out of my jeans, her hands on my skin in half a second.
There was a cough. “Maybe keep the PDA toned down while you’re in front of children,” Claire said. “As cute as it is.”
Ava didn’t move her hands. “It’s no worse than how you were molesting K before,” she said, then removed her hands and sat down. “Anyway. I need a plan of who to talk to when we get to the pub.”
Killian squinted in the sunlight. “Do you think you’ll be able to find a relative of this Mary Ada? Or her parents if she didn’t survive?” he said, looking from Ava to Claire. “Was the father a priest?”
Ava nodded. “He was still training. She had just started as a novice when they met. I found her diary a couple of weeks ago in the secret room.”
I frowned at her. “You didn’t say.”
Ava smiled. “I’ve been reading it in bits. Her first entries were about missing her family and how they were and her friends. She made lists of what life was like as a novice and her daily life. Then she wrote nothing for several months until there was a really long entry about James. She writes that he joined the priesthood as that was what was expected.”
“First to run the estate, next to join the priesthood. After that, it was the army,” Killian said. “Some children in big families, especially old families weren’t given the choice. My great-grandfather’s cousins were the same, so I was told. There were seven sons in total so I don’t think they had much choice in careers.”
“I get that,” Ava said. “Kathleen says that in her entries. There are several pages that are just about him. She also wrote that one of the nuns asked her about him – kindly, it seems.”
“I thought the Catholic church was really strict and disapproving and all that,” Claire said, applying sunscreen to Eliza who seemed more interested in eating it.
Killian nodded. “In some cases and that’s what’s portrayed in the media. But not in all cases. The church has done a lot of harm, but there was also good.”
“So what happened with Kathleen and James?” I said, my hand on the small of her back as she sat next to me.
“The inevitable. They fell in love and that was more powerful than their families and any calling they felt. She found out she was pregnant when one of the nuns asked her,” Ava said. “She was worried about being sent to the Magdalene Laundries and what she’d do as she knew her family wouldn’t have her back.”
“What happened?” Killian said. “Why did she end up here – or why do you think she ended up here?”
“According to her journal, her and James were married one evening in the church, then they stayed at the priory until the baby was born. The nun who helped, Sister Mary Ada, had an aunt who lived here in Enniskerry. She made arrangements for James and Kathleen to move to her. The aunt was a widow and her only son had died the year before from influenza. She owned farm land and had no one to work it,” Claire said, putting Eliza on her belly so she could wriggle round.
“So James went and farmed it,” Killian said.
Ava nodded. “Claire checked the title deeds for the property. The aunt, who was called Eilidh, died when she was in her eighties. From what we’ve worked out, Kathleen looked after her and James ran the farmland and cattle successfully. His own family had done well enough and he’d obviously picked up a lot.”
“And he and Kathleen became big parts of the church here. Along with their children,” Claire said. “We think Ada stayed here as an adult but we lost track with name changes and there were a few Adas. We want to check round the graveyard and see if we can find James and Kathleen’s grave and go and ask around at the pub.”
Killian nodded. “So they kept it a secret. I wonder if they ever told their families the truth.”
“Maybe we’ll find out,” Ava said. “It’s quite a story. I didn’t expect a happy ending if I’m honest. When I read the diary I was really surprised. I thought that the baby would’ve ended up adopted or in an orphanage.”
“I wonder why the nun secluded Kathleen?” I said. “That must’ve taken some guts.”
“Maybe she empathised with them. You never know, her head could’ve been turned,” Claire said. “Maybe she understood that human nature is far more complex than black and white and following a set of rules.”
“We’ll probably never know,” Killian said. “What I did know is that I’m itching for a beer and some food that isn’t pureed.” He stood up and looked down at his tiny daughter. “And I suspect we’ll need changing facilities.”
I inhaled a little too deeply and screwed up my nose. “I think you’re right. What the hell have you been feeding her?”
The local pub catered for locals and tourists and was full of the Irish lilt when we arrived. We found a table outside in the sunshine and left Ava and Claire to go to the bar so they could inspect any older people inside who they could harass for information.
Killian cuddled Eliza to him, rather than keeping her at arm’s length while she had smelled like Seph after a big night out. “Do you think they’ll have enough sense to not tell people why they’re looking for relatives of this Mary Ada? If her parents started a new life, this could open a whole skip full of maggots.”
“I’m not sure that’s the correct phrase,” I said. “And I think they’ll know to be discreet. Hopefully.”
