‘I see. You didn’t say anything about inviting him to the funeral?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t invite him. He turned up at the church.’
‘Does he … I’m sorry for asking, but what exactly is your relationship with him?’
‘He’s a friend. He’s an accountant at Mervyn Park, the meat-processing plant.’
‘Are you sure he doesn’t want to be more than a friend?’
‘Oh yes, I’ve told him it’s out of the question. Because of sex and intimacy and all that. Besides, he says he fancies my friend Anubha. They work together but he’s her boss so it’s a bit tricky.’
‘Sally, he asked me a lot of questions about you, about when you were young, about what Jean had said about your time in captivity. It was strange and, I have to say, inappropriate at my husband’s funeral.’
‘I’m sorry. But I always like it a bit when other people are inappropriate.’ I laughed. Aunt Christine didn’t.
‘What’s his last name?’
‘Butler.’
‘Do you trust him?’
‘Yes. Tina says I should be more trusting of people and not assume that everyone is a predator.’
‘Don’t you think it strange that he would turn up to a funeral uninvited?’
‘Well, I invited him back to the house.’
‘But not to the church?’
‘No, he heard about it from Anubha. He said he looked up the details online. He didn’t want me to be on my own. He knows how difficult I find strangers.’
‘Mark Butler.’ She wrote down his name. ‘Accountant. And where did he live before he came to Carricksheedy?’
‘Dublin, I think?’
‘You don’t know what part?’
‘No. Why are you asking me these questions?’
She brightened then and smiled at me. ‘It’s probably nothing. Maybe he likes you more than you think he does?’
I wondered about that.
‘By the way, Sally,’ she said, ‘your piano playing was wonderful, everyone was moved. You play beautifully, and without any sheet music!’
‘It calms me.’
‘It calmed us, Lorraine and me, yesterday. It was thoughtful of you.’
‘I was sort of doing it for me?’
‘Accept a compliment,’ she said. ‘Donald would have played ragtime if he’d been here.’
‘I expect you would have preferred him to be playing rather than me.’
Her eyes filled with tears. I moved awkwardly to hug her as Tina had suggested. She squeezed me tight before letting me go. I didn’t mind.
I couldn’t wait to tell Tina that I had passed this social test with flying colours.
