Page 16 of Family Secrets in Inishbeg Cove

Faith laughed as she linked her older sister’s arm. ‘I don’t know … maybe it will be good for us all to spend some time together. I’m looking forward to having her around –and knowing that she won’t be distracted by her job. It’s been a long time since the three of us were together like this. Even when we spent Christmas together, Mum snuck off to work on her laptop. It will be like it used to be when we were young.’

‘I guess…’

‘It was awkward when she asked about Kyle. You still haven’t told her yet then?’ Faith said tentatively.

‘Not yet. I haven’t really had a chance. Besides, I could do without her opinions and her “advice”.’

Faith nodded. ‘Well, look, it’s been a tough few days for all of us. Did you call him yet to let him know that Nanna passed away?’

Lucy shook her head. ‘I’m not ready to talk to him yet.’

‘You should really have let him know. He would have wanted to come to the funeral to pay his respects to Elizabeth; they always got on well together.’

‘I’m not ready to deal with him on top of everything else that’s going on.’

‘Well, you’re going to have to sit down with him sooner or later. You can’t keep putting it off forever,’ Faith warned. ‘Either way, you have to make a decision about your future.’

‘I know…’ Lucy sighed, knowing that she was going to have to face up to the mess that was her marriage.

The sisters stuck their heads around the living-room door when they returned from the village and saw that the book they had given their mother remained discarded on the floor, but she had managed to find her laptop.

‘I was just thinking, Faith,’ Madeleine said, as they carried the groceries into the house, ‘now that I have all this time on my hands, I could help you with your CV.’ She looked brighter at the prospect of having something to do. ‘I’m sure you’re ready to start job-hunting – you’ll need to start filling your days again. I can update my own while I’m at it.’ she added grimly.

Faith shook her head. ‘I’m not in any rush. I’m going to give myself a little time out from the nine-to-five grind.’

‘Oh, Faith, but if you leave it too long, you might struggle to find a job.’

‘I’m not worried, honestly, Mum. It’ll all work itself out. I trust that it will all unfold as it’s meant to.’ Faith shrugged. ’Everything happens for a reason.’

‘That’s nonsense! How can you believe in that silly mumbo-jumbo? I thought I raised you better than that. What reason could there be for Howard O’Brien’s books to get stuck in customs, which caused me – through no fault of my own, I might add – to lose my job and then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, to collapse outside the church, making me an invalid for the next six weeks? Sometimes bad things just happen for no reason at all.’

‘You’re not an invalid; you’re able to get around,’ Lucy retorted.

‘Well, I’d like to see how well you’d manage being stuck on these godawful things, cooped up in the middle of nowhere, miles away from home…’ she replied petulantly.

‘Stop being so dramatic. Feeling sorry for yourself won’t help,’ Lucy bit back harshly.

‘But maybe, Mum,’ Faith suggested in a softer tone, ‘there is a reason for what happened to you. It might be the universe’s way of telling you to slow down.’

‘If they’re the kind of fairy tales you tell yourself to get through life, I despair,’ Madeleine snapped, tossing her head.

Faith looked crestfallen by her mother’s dismissive attitude.

‘You don’t have to be so mean to her,’ Lucy defended her younger sister.

‘What did I do?’ Madeleine cried incredulously. ‘I won’t listen to my daughter talking about “the universe” this and “the universe” that; she needs a good slap of reality. Sometimes I wonder if you are even my child!’

Faith looked as though she had been slapped. Tears filled her eyes.

Lucy felt her shoulders tense. ‘Mum, there’s no need to be so mean,’ she scolded. Her mother always knew how to push her buttons; it was as if she took a perverse pleasure in saying the most insensitive things.

‘What did I say?’ Madeleine asked, clearly miffed, as though she was the injured party. ‘You two are always ganging up on me.’

Between her mother and the situation with Kyle, this was going to be a very long six weeks.

Faith turned to Lucy. ‘Let’s put all these groceries away and then I’ll make us all a cuppa.’ Faith, ever the peacemaker, suggested.

Lucy followed her sister into the kitchen. She was only too glad to escape their mother and her tirade of abuse.