Helen and Paddy were just getting ready to sit down to eat when Dan and Amy arrived. Amy had phoned them, all excited, the night before, saying they had found the perfect wedding venue and that they would call around to talk to them about it.
‘Come for Sunday dinner, then,’ Helen had insisted. ‘You can tell us all about it then.’
She’d a leg of lamb roasting in the oven, alongside a vegetable roast she had copied from a recipe book for Ciara.
Amy’s eyes were shining, and she was almost jumping around the living room with excitement as she told them about Castle Gregory.
‘Mum, wait till you see the place,’ she enthused. ‘It’s just stunning. Imagine getting married in a castle! It’s so gorgeous and romantic, and we can have fireworks if we want!’
‘All the footballers and pop stars get married in castles,’ nodded Sheila, who came to Helen and Paddy’s almost every Sunday. ‘I see the photos in Hello and VIP magazine when I’m in the hair-dresser’s.’
‘Exactly,’ murmured Paddy under his breath, ‘because it’s so bloody expensive.’
‘Gran, it’s not that type of wedding or that type of castle,’ Amy tried to explain patiently. ‘It’s a much smaller castle, but it has such spectacular views, and it’s the most perfect place for a wedding ever!’
‘What do you think, Dan?’ asked Paddy, leaning forward to look at the brochure and price list.
‘The castle isn’t as big as Dromoland or Ashford, but it’s still amazing, Paddy, and something a bit different from a run-of-the-mill hotel, I guess,’ said Dan enthusiastically. ‘We can hire the place for the night, and have it all to ourselves, which would be great. There’s a church only a few minutes away, which if we get permission to use would make everything so easy.’
‘I think it looks fabulous!’ Helen enthused, equally excited at the thought of having a big summer wedding in a castle. ‘It’s really lovely.’
‘But wouldn’t hiring a place like that be outrageously expensive?’ said Paddy, frowning as he began to study the price list.
‘It is expensive,’ admitted Dan, ‘but the total cost also includes the use of twenty bedrooms, which if you factor it in is quite a lot. Also their menu comes in at quite a few euros less than most of the big places that we have looked at.’
‘Well, I’m glad to hear that,’ said Paddy, somewhat sarcastically, reading the figures. ‘This bloody castle costs a small fortune to rent.’
‘Amy and I want to pay some of the costs, Paddy,’ offered Dan. ‘We couldn’t possibly expect you and Helen to take it all on.’
Paddy reddened and buried himself in the brochures.
‘Please, Dad, will you and Mammy just go and look at it?’ begged Amy, refusing to listen to her father’s negative comments. ‘We could all go down again next Saturday, and maybe we could see if the little church was open so we could have a look at it, too.’
‘That sounds grand, pet,’ smiled Helen, wishing that Paddy wouldn’t always be such a wet blanket. He was the one who had said he would always pay for his daughter’s wedding, and already he was beginning to gripe about it. Honestly, men!
Slipping away into the kitchen, she could see the roast was ready, and called everyone to the table. Ronan, with his usual good timing where mealtimes were concerned, had arrived unexpectedly with Krista, the two of them sitting down to eat at the kitchen table, too.
‘There’s enough for everyone.’ Helen laughed as Paddy carved.
Ciara’s dish was a mush of brown vegetables, and Helen hoped that it tasted better than it looked. She heaped an extra roast potato on to Ciara’s plate.
‘Delicious!’ praised Paddy. ‘That’s a fine piece of lamb.’
Helen watched as her mother and Ronan, Paddy, Dan, Krista and Amy all tucked into the meat with gusto. Poor Ciara squished her vegetables around the plate.
‘Is it all right, Ciara?’
‘It’ll do,’ Ciara said grimly, reaching for a helping of carrots and some more golden roast potatoes.
‘Your mother has enough to be doing cooking a big meal for everyone, without having to do a separate one for you,’ remarked Paddy, looking at her.
‘Eating lamb is barbaric,’ insisted Ciara.
‘We are not discussing it at the table,’ insisted Helen. ‘Anyway, I don’t mind trying out some vegetarian dishes. I just need to find a better cookbook.’
Paddy, a confirmed meat-eater, harrumphed, but nobody else said anything.
‘Why don’t you two tell us more about this castle,’ Helen encouraged. She and Paddy had promised to go and see it the following weekend.