Are you all right? Am now worried. Where are you? Get thee to a fecking signal.
And, there was a text from Red.
Let me know if you are all right.
For a moment, here is West Cork, I’d been beguiled by its magic. The cherry tree, the Sheep’s Head, Finty’s ramshackle caravan... but real life and all its dramas was waiting for both of us back in Dublin. We had to return and deal withit all. I could see why people ran off to West Cork, there was a sense that reality was suspended. But ours had to be faced. We’d go back to Dublin tonight and work out what to do.
Eventually, Rosie waved the phone at me. ‘Dad wants to talk to you,’ she said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
‘I am so sorry.’ He sounded like he’d been crying. ‘I am so, so sorry. I don’t know what to say and I wishI could deny everything, but I can’t...’ He stopped suddenly. ‘Those feckers. This is what it was like for Diana, hunted by the paparazzi…’
‘Michael,’ I cut into to his ridiculousness. ‘It’s not the end of the world. We’ll just make sure that Rosie is all right. The rest we can sort out.’ I didn’t feel furious any longer, just irritated and exasperated. My marriage had ended not by a dignified,mutual parting. A grown-up shaking of the hand, but in a tabloid exposé. It was a mess.
But what would happen and where would Michael and Lucy live? Would we be like one of those happy blended families, all sitting around the Christmas table, laughing away, Celia gazing at us all fondly, allmater familias? Oh God, Celia. What would Celia say?
‘I just want to say how terrible I feel about this.I am so sorry. I have been such a coward and done it all so badly. I am sorry...’ He began to cry.
‘It’s all right.’
‘It’s such a terrible thing I’ve done, I mean, you must be so hurt and Rosie...’ He cried even more now at the thought of what he had done to his daughter. ‘I’ve been so awful…’
‘It’s fine, Michael. I’m pleased for you.’I’m free, I was thinking. I was now free to do anythingI wanted. Released from marriage to Michael. I should be thanking him. And Lucy.
‘But Tabitha, I want to say, I never meant to hurt you. I really didn’t.’
‘I know, Michael, and you haven’t hurt me.’
‘It’s such a betrayal, such an immoral thing to do…’ He almost sounded disappointed as though his sex scandal wasn’t quite as explosive as some other politician’s. If you were going to be embroiledwithin one, you may as well make it a good one, as his mentor Bill Clinton might or might not advise.
‘Michael, it’s Rosie who is important here. It doesn’t matter what you get up to…’
‘But my bill for standards in public life!’ he wailed. ‘It’s going to be voted next week. Europe is relying on me.’
‘Well, you should have thought about that before you started shagging Lucy.’
‘There!’ He soundedtriumphant. ‘Youareangry and hurt!’
‘No, I’m not,’ I insisted. ‘Just irritated that all you care about it the SIPL thing. You’re at the centre of a sex scandal. … What about Rosie? Have you given her one moment’s thought?’
‘Yes, yes, yes, of course,’ he said, dismissing me. ‘But you know the worst thing is …’
‘What? Pestilence, plague, a swarm of locusts?’
‘Well, I mean,oneof the worstthings’ he said. ‘I mean, up there with the worst things…’
‘Go on, what is it?’
‘There’s a misprint in the order of business for the parliament. It says that the bill on Monday, the one that the whole of the parliament will be voting on, well, it says it’s for… it’s for standards of pubic lice.’
I began to laugh.
‘It’s not funny,’ he said sulkily.
‘Are you coming home? We’re going to geton the road now.’
‘Yes, we’re taking the next flight home. I mean,Iam taking the first flight home.’
There was something about Michael I was going to miss, but I twisted off my wedding ring and massaged the deep indentation, eighteen years I’d worn that ring but I slipped it into my purse. Even my finger looked relieved.
