There wasn’t sight nor sound of Rob the next day and Anna had to admit she was disappointed. Maybe she was reading the signals wrong and, as suspected, he already had a girlfriend or wife stashed away somewhere. Annoyed, she returned to her papers, spending the day immersing herself in the work of Augusta, Lady Gregory, Yeats’s patron and supporter.
If Rob O’Neill wasn’t interested in her that was fine; he was a nice guy but certainly not the type she normally fancied. The truth was that though they got on well and were easy with each other, he was totally different from any man she had ever gone out with before. They had nothing in common. Her mother maintained opposites attract, but sheer logic dictated that there was no point getting involved with someone who was your polar opposite!
She had worked till two a.m., delighted with her progress, her mobile switched off. Tomorrow, if there were no distractions, she should probably have the rest of the chapter done.
She set to work on the laptop after breakfast and took a break for a bowl of soup and some brown bread at lunchtime. Needing to clear her head she pulled on a light fleece and headed across the lane and down towards the strand. The beach was once again empty and she walked near the water’s edge where the waves slapped against the sand. There were dark clouds in the distance and the forecast had mentioned rain. She was standing daydreaming when she noticed the small yappy dog approach her.
‘Tippy?’ she said hesitantly. The dog jumped enthusiastically on her legs.
‘Heel! Heel!’ called Rob uselessly as the dog did a lap around Anna’s feet. ‘Sorry, but she won’t do a thing I tell her!’
Anna laughed aloud as the dog cocked one ear at her.
‘I called by the house and saw the car was there and the windows were open so I guessed you’d gone for a walk.’
‘I needed a bit of fresh air,’ she admitted. ‘I was going screwy-eyed from the computer.’
‘Take a break then,’ he suggested. ‘I’m going down to Corry’s old lighthouse. I just wondered if you might be interested in coming along for the ride?’
She studied him for a minute. He was wearing old jeans, a shirt and a knitted navy sweater, his skin tanned, his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses honest and steadfast. He seemed completely unaware of how attractive he was.
‘We could see its light from here when I was a kid,’ she remembered. ‘I used to pretend when I was lying in the dark that someone was sending me a secret message in code.’
‘Anna, come on, leave the work,’ he urged, his face serious.
She had to admit she was tempted, as it was years since she’d been down near the lighthouse. Besides, there was no comparison between spending an afternoon in his company or in that of Lady Gregory.
‘OK! OK!’ she agreed.
Corry’s lighthouse was perched on a rocky promontory overlooking the Atlantic. For a hundred years it had warned sailors of the rocks and treacherous conditions that lay hidden beneath the waves.
‘It was sold four months ago,’ he explained as they drew up as near as they could, parking his Land Rover on the muddy path. ‘There’s three acres of land with it.’
Anna studied the shabby tower of the lighthouse. It looked so decrepit now its beacon of light was gone. It saddened her to think of its yellow beam no longer illuminating this wild part of the coastline.
‘What will happen to it?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ he shrugged. ‘I haven’t quite decided yet.’
‘You haven’t decided!’
‘I bought it from the fisheries department,’ he admitted, pulling a set of keys from his pocket, looking like a kid who has just won a big prize. ‘I couldn’t bear to see it falling down. Maybe it’s a bit of a mad project but restoring a lighthouse, that’s got to be something!’
Anna could see the enthusiasm written all over his face.
‘Do you want to see inside it?’
Anna nodded, holding her breath as the heavy wooden door opened. There was a musty smell inside and the ground-floor windows were covered in grime and dirt and spiders’ webs. They raced around the building like two kids, Tippy following them as they climbed the big spiral staircase. Up and up, a sitting room and small kitchen, two bedrooms, a storage room; the views were magnificent and Anna gasped when she stumbled into the lamp room. The huge central lamp stood like a giant eye in the middle of the room.
‘Does it work?’ she enquired.
‘Unfortunately no,’ he admitted. ‘It went out of service about ten years ago; the last lighthouse keeper left here in 1989.’
‘Can you get it working again?’
‘I’m not sure but I intend giving it a good try. I heard there’s a man living over near Spiddal who knows how to repair these things.’
‘Rob, it’s beautiful,’ she said, standing at the windows overlooking the shore and the rugged Connemara countryside.
‘Thanks.’
They explored the lighthouse and Rob told her his plans: a curving window on each floor that hugged the tower yet gave a view. He intended to put in new lighting, bathroom, kitchen, and a wooden balcony deck that ringed the top viewing area.
‘It sounds amazing Rob,’ she enthused as they wandered around together.
‘I know it sounds grand but I just want it to be comfortable and to make sure that the accommodation lives up to the fantastic setting.’
‘How did you get into this?’ she asked, curious, leaning against the window sill.
‘I told you I was crap at school. In the end I chucked it in when I was sixteen and began working for Johnny Foley the builder, did my apprenticeship with him. He’s Rose’s husband and a cousin of my mother’s.’ He laughed. ‘There wasn’t the building boom there is now and most of the work was local attic conversions and kitchen extensions, along with a few houses. I moved to Dublin for a while, then London. I worked in Ealing and Ipswich on big building sites, then one of my brothers, Gary, moved to Manchester and I followed him. It was construction work, but mostly restoration. Old buildings! It’s easy to knock them and start over but it was bringing them back and adding something fresh to them that got me hooked: barns, factories, warehouses, a station, a firehouse, an old mill. You learn a lot from old buildings. I’m not afraid of hard work and getting stuck in. I signed up for some fancy night course in the local college. It was my first time sitting behind a desk for years. Project Management’s what they call it and I guess it means that when I start something I stick to it right through until it gets finished. I’m not like a contractor who comes on site, does his bit and goes off site. I get to see it from start to finish.’
Anna found herself suddenly filled with admiration. Rob was a country guy, down to earth and honest. He didn’t care about poetry and language and words, his world was timber, stone, earth and water, and buildings that came from another generation. Imagine, he actually owned a lighthouse! It was mad!
‘Dan Regan was the last lighthouse keeper to live here,’ explained Rob, looking through a pile of old charts and newspapers. ‘His grandfather Tim Corry had kept it for years and after that his uncle Liam. The Corrys were raised here, which must have been hard for them as it was actually against the regulations to have a family here. An old cottage up the field was provided for Tim’s wife and children. The place didn’t survive the winter gales and storms so his family moved in here.’
‘I’d imagine it must have been fun for the kids living in a lighthouse!’
‘Lighthouse-keeping is a fierce lonely job,’ he said slowly. ‘Men go mad without women and company. Dan never married. I suppose it’s hard to find a bride to live out in the wilds in a place like this.’
‘It has its attractions,’ she said, staring out across the rugged bare landscape and ocean. She could feel his eyes on her and turned towards him.
‘Loneliness is an awful thing,’ he said fiercely. ‘You can be lonely in the middle of a city, in a small town, surrounded by people you know even. Some people don’t need lighthouses!’
She caught his eye, struck by his intensity and drawn by his honesty. Without thinking she reached up and kissed his cheek, smiling as he ran his fingers over the curve of her cheekbones and face and kissed her lightly on the lips.
They drew apart, both surprised by the mutual sense of attraction between them.
‘Anna,’ he whispered softly, his breath on her hair as he took her hand. They kissed long and slow, again and again, as the seabirds wheeled around the old lighthouse and the sea breeze clipped the ocean.
‘We should go,’ he said a long while later.
She followed him out, watching as he locked the heavy door, Tippy racing ahead of them towards his Land Rover.
‘There’s a great little pub about five miles down the road if you fancy something to eat,’ he suggested. ‘Best seafood and steak outside Roundstone.’
She laughed. ‘That sounds good.’
O’Flaherty’s was quiet, with only two families and about five other people eating, and a few locals sitting up on barstools chatting. They found a table near the fireplace; a log and turf fire smouldered in the grate.
Anna suddenly realized how hungry she was when she read the menu: prawns, crab, lobster, scallops, served with baked or gratin potato. She opted for the prawns tossed in lemon butter and baked potato and salad, while Rob ordered a plate of fish cakes. She had a glass of wine while he ordered a pint.
‘The lighthouse is amazing, Rob, thanks for letting me see inside it.’
‘When the place is done up it will be pretty special,’ he admitted. ‘I’m hoping to rent it out to holidaymakers, the kind of people who just want to come to the West and get away from it all, be close to nature. I’ve also applied for permission to build two or three small coastguard cottages on the other side of the field.’
‘That’s great.’
‘It’s funny,’ he mused. ‘When I was younger I couldn’t wait to get away from Connemara, away from the place and the parish and all the neighbours who know me and my cousins and relations. I didn’t think the place had anything to offer.’
‘The back of beyond.’
‘But since I’ve come back I’ve put down roots here and I couldn’t imagine myself living anywhere else. I can see how it has a hold on people.’
‘My granny said “the West” put a spell on her,’ remembered Anna.
The food was good, O’Flaherty’s deserved its fine reputation. Rob ordered a brown-bread ice cream for dessert and Anna managed to steal a spoonful of it.
They sat and chatted for an hour or two, deciding to move when the bar got crowded and people were standing waiting for tables.
The road was dark as they drove through winding country lanes, Anna stealing a glance at Rob’s expression, Tippy half-asleep on her lap. As they came near the town he slowed down.
‘The schoolhouse or the cottage?’ he asked softly.
Anna looked across at him. He was kind and old-fashioned and good and every ounce of instinct in her soul was saying ‘Follow him’. It made no sense but she knew in her heart that she didn’t want to waste any more time, not one more day of being apart, not one more night of not being with him.
‘Your place,’ she said, reaching for his hand.
From that night on Anna spent the vast part of her time with Rob, both of them equally surprised by the intensity of their feelings. Anna had never known anything like this before and had nothing to compare it with. Rob was so different from any other guy she had been with before and made her feel like she belonged here with him. How could she go back to Dublin, leave this place, the sea, the beach, the dog (who followed her like a shadow) and Rob?
‘You know I have to get back to work,’ she said, curled up beside Rob on the couch. ‘My students have exams and I have to set papers – I can do marking and corrections up here later but I’ve got to be in Dublin for a while.’
‘It’s OK, Anna,’ he teased, ruffling her hair which had gone beyond curly. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be here, OK?’
She took a breath. It was almost like a dream, a mirage, to have Rob waiting for her. She felt taut and nervous inside that something would go wrong, something would happen to ruin it but Rob reassured her, pulling her across on to his lap and holding her close, kissing the fear away.