Page 16 of Coming Home to Inishbeg Cove

Chapter 11

Penny

‘You wake, Mama?’

‘I am now,’ I said.

Lucy pulled my arm. ‘It’s morning time,’ she sang. ‘Let’s get up.’

With Mam’s words from the day before still ringing in my ears, I knew I couldn’t stay moping in bed like I had for the last few mornings. Instead, I pulled back the duvet, swung my feet onto the floor and got up. Mam was right – Lucy deserved better. I owed it to my daughter to be functional, even if all I wanted to do was to fall asleep and never wake up again.

I wrapped Lucy in her dressing gown so that she looked like a squidgy marshmallow, then we headed down to the kitchen, where Mam was cleaning the window.

‘Would you look at the dirt on that glass?’ she said as we came into the room. Slanted beams of sunlight shone into the kitchen and dust motes danced in the warm rays. Lucy ran over and hugged her grandmother straight away while I sat down at the kitchen table.

‘How’s my best girl?’ Mam said, lifting Lucy up. In the few weeks we had been here, an undeniably close bond had been forged between them. It was going to be very difficult for everyone when the time came for Lucy and me to go home.

‘Did you sleep okay?’ Mam asked.

‘Yes,’ I lied. She didn’t need to know that I had spent the night tossing and turning, overthinking everything Joe had ever said to me.

‘So, are you going to Tadgh’s today?’

‘Well, I’m not s—’

‘You’re going!’ Mam said, cutting across me.

‘I’m not eight years old, Mam. You can’t tell me who to play with.’ Ever since I had come back to stay, it was as if we had reverted to our mother–child roles. It annoyed me that Mam had forgotten that I was a fully grown woman, capable of making my own decisions.

She inhaled sharply and I knew that I was in for a tirade.

‘Penny,’ she began, ‘Tadgh has invited you to his restaurant – a restaurant that has won numerous awards and is held in very high esteem. I didn’t raise you to be so rude. It must be all that time you’ve spent in Dublin!’ She said ‘Dublin’ as if it was located on the far side of the moon.

‘Well, if it means that much to you, I’ll go then!’ I snapped.

‘Great.’ She smacked her lips together with satisfaction, paying no attention to my petulant tone. ‘And make sure you don’t wear that tracksuit you’ve been living in for the last week. You’ll feel much better if you put on a nice dress, and a bit of make-up wouldn’t go amiss...’

I groaned internally, then pushed back my chair and got up to begin making breakfast for everyone.

Later, as I stood in the shower washing my hair, I replayed our conversation. How dare Mam tell me what to wear! My marriage was on the rocks – so what if I had worn a tracksuit for the last week? That was the least of my worries. I wasn’t a child any more; I was capable of choosing my own clothes. This house wasn’t big enough for the two of us. I needed to decide what Lucy and I were going to do, and where we were going to live, before I said something I would regret.

When I returned to the kitchen, I saw that Mam had dressed Lucy in a pretty blue-and-white striped sundress. She had managed to tame her curls and had put pink clips in her hair to keep it back off her face. Although Lucy looked adorable, it irritated me that Mam was clearly pulling out all the stops for Tadgh.

‘You yook nice, Mama,’ Lucy said. Despite Mam’s fashion advice, I had decided to wear jeans and a simple, primrose-yellow blouse.

‘Thank you, Lucy Lu. So do you.’

‘There,’ Mam said, standing back to admire us both. ‘Aren’t you a fine pair? Now, you’d better get going. You don’t want to keep Tadgh waiting.’

‘Heaven forbid...’ I muttered.

Lucy and I set off along the cliff path. The path climbed higher until the sea twinkled silver beneath us, a rickety rail being the only thing separating us from a perilous drop. How many times had I walked along this path to visit Tadgh in the restaurant as a teenager? I wondered.

Soon we reached the cliff face into which the restaurant was set into a natural cavern in the stone. I tried to work out how long it had been since I was last there. It had probably been just after Tadgh’s parents had died. During that time, he had worked manically, trying his best to keep the business afloat in the haze of his grief.

I pushed the door and entered under the stone archway that led into the restaurant. As I looked around, I saw that a lot had changed since the last time I was there. I was surprised to see that the restaurant had a stylish modern interior that went well with the raw stone of the walls. Candlelight flickered softly, giving the space an intimate feel. There were a couple of other diners, but I didn’t recognise them as being from the village. I saw Tadgh standing behind the reception desk.

‘Ah, you came!’ he said, coming out to greet us. ‘Will we sit over here?’ He gestured to a nearby table.