47

‘Sadhbh, Sadhbhy, hiya, can you talk?’

‘Oh God, yes please.’ She sounds so thankful on the phone. I thought she’d be up the walls with craic. Literally.

‘I need a favour. The biggest favour I’ve ever asked of you.’

‘Where are you?’

‘I’m outside Garbally. Can you come and get me?’

I tried to get in using the pass Mandy had given me but apparently it expired at midday. Sadhbh is my plan B.

‘I can try. Why aren’t you at Majella’s wedding?’

‘I’ll explain. Just come and get me. Use Don if you have to. Or get Emilia. She knows me, kind of.’

‘Okay, I’ll try.’

We sit at the gate for what seems like an eternity when suddenly there’s a buzz on the security guard’s radio and he listens, nods twice and then leans down to the car window. ‘In you go.’

I squeal as the gate opens and John moves slowly up the driveway towards the main entrance while Paul sits in the back looking completely baffled. Another security guard tells us to follow the ‘valet’ sign and we do, pulling up to a very familiar face: Eamon Filan, of Filan’s shop, garage and everything else in between.

‘Aisling, John, Paul,’ he says, as if seeing the three of us at this Hollywood wedding is the most natural thing in the world. ‘Fine evening for it.’

‘Wasn’t expecting to see you here, Eamon,’ I say.

‘Ah, I couldn’t tell anyone. Signed what they call in the business a non-disclosure agreement.’

Who didn’t? ‘Oh, I see.’

‘Hop out there now and I’ll park it for you.’

We do as we’re told and walk along a beautifully lit walkway towards the main entrance and my teeth start to chatter with nerves. What am I at? Walking into this … whatever it is I’m about to walk into. My relief when I see Sadhbh skipping towards the entrance is such that I have to grip John’s arm. Is she? Yes she is. She’s changed into cycling shorts and a blazer. And there was me fretting about the green dress.

‘What are you guys doing here? What’s going on?’ she demands after a quick hug.

‘There’s been a disaster with Majella’s band. The singer broke his wrist in a “Rock the Boat” accident.’ Sadhbh giggles and I don’t even take the time to shush her, even though we all know the dangers that come with ‘Rock the Boat’. I take a deep breath. ‘Do you think there’s any way The Peigs would be able to come down, even for an hour? I’m in such bad books with Majella – I’ll explain all that later. But is there any way do you think?’

Sadhbh looks behind her and shrugs. ‘Ordinarily I would have said no, but this wedding is so dull. Like, catastrophically dull. I was about to sneak out myself. I’m dying to give Maj a proper squeeze.’

‘Really?’ I say, craning my neck towards where I presume the action is happening. I can hear some tinkly piano music but that’s about it.

‘It’s just a weird mix of kinda stuffy movie execs and lots of really old people, friends of Emilia’s granny. They’ll all be in bed by eleven.’

‘But what about Emilia and Ben’s friends?’

‘Oh, they’re here. But the atmosphere isn’t. Everyone’s afraid to touch anything.’ She gestures towards an admittedly terrifying piece of sculpture made of glass and what appear to be spears near us in the lobby. ‘There’s just no craic.’

No craic at a wedding. The greatest of all insults. Just then another familiar face rounds the corner. Mikey Maguire. In a black shirt and trousers and a barman’s apron.

‘Ah, hello, Aisling.’

‘Mikey. Wasn’t expecting to see you here.’

‘Likewise.’

‘Are you working or …?’

‘Indeed and I am. My services were engaged for the weekend, in fact.’

‘I thought you were refurbishing the pub last night?’

‘Eh, no.’ He has the good grace to look ashamed. ‘We hosted a small party for young Miss Coburn and her friends.’

‘And let me guess, you signed an NDA?’

‘Months ago. I kept the biggest secret in Ballygobbard.’

I nod knowingly while Sadhbh whispers, ‘Let me go and find Don.’

‘Can I come in for a look?’ Paul asks with a small grin, and I swear it’s the first time I’ve seen him smile in weeks.

‘Why not?’ Sadhbh replies, and the pair speed walk off.

John and I stand there like spares, and what he said to me back at the grave is swirling around in my head, and so is him asking if James was looking after me when I saw him at Mammy’s that time. So I just go for it.

‘John?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Why did you and James fight at Pablo’s stag?’

He scuffs his shoes on the marble floor and says nothing.

‘You don’t have to tell me, but I just keep imagining awful things –’

‘It was the scarecrow.’

‘Sorry, what?’ I splutter.

‘The scarecrow. That your mother asked me to make.’

‘She asked James to make it, though.’

‘She asked me first. Then she came back to me and said James would do it instead. But I had it pretty much done at that stage so I …’ He looks ashamed. ‘I went ahead and put it up for her anyway.’

‘Oh, I see. And then James …’

‘Yep, he was making one too, so there was a row about it.’

I can kind of see why neither of them wanted to tell me about it. Fighting over a scarecrow is neither of their finest hours.

‘Is that what you were collecting that time I saw you at the house?’

‘Yep.’

‘And it’s James’s scarecrow that’s up there now?’

‘I guess so.’

I burst out laughing. I just can’t help it. All that over a scarecrow? James had a black eye! John looks at me suspiciously for a second and then he starts laughing and suddenly the two of us are creasing ourselves, our roars echoing around the foyer.

Why didn’t Mammy tell me? Did I make her feel so bad about the whole John and James situation that she felt she couldn’t? And her making up lies about William Foley worried John was stealing his farm job. What a silly mess. And yet my heart is warmed by both of them – James wanting to do something for Mammy and John refusing to give up his tie to her.

‘Well, thanks for making her that scarecrow,’ I say softly and he lifts his big kind eyes up to meet mine and for a second I think he’s going to –

‘Aisling!’ It’s Sadhbh, skidding back across the tiles in her high heels and Lycra with Paul hot on her heels, a bottle of champagne in each hand. ‘Head back to the Ard Rí. We’ll be right behind you.’