excerpt
‘Glenfiddich is an acceptable second choice,’ said Ian. ‘Thank you, Clifford.’
‘As I was saying,’ Clifford began again, ‘this is the time to be in the building trade in Belfast. Almost sixty thousand houses destroyed in the blitz. A couple of hundred thousand refugees. They’ll be building houses in Belfast for years yet. And now all those ardent young soldiers back home to claim and marry the girls they left behind. You’ve got it made, Ian. You’ll be a millionaire before you’re forty.’
Fiona wished that Clifford had not made that reference to young soldiers and the girls they left behind. She was quick to notice the bleak sadness that flitted briefly across Nora’s expressive face.
Nora hid her momentary sadness behind her glass, then said to Ian, ‘So it’s houses you’re building?’
‘At the moment, yes. And probably for a long time to come. I’ve bought land on the edge of Belfast between the Lisburn and the Falls Roads. I’ve started there.’
‘Don’t go too near the Falls, Ian,’ John advised. ‘The big bad Fenians will get you. They’ll steep your Protestant hide in holy water.’
‘John!’ Susan bawled out. ‘You’re becoming unbearable.’
‘Did I offend anyone?’ John asked, looking around with wide eyes and a feigned expression of injured innocence.
Clifford had given a tray of empty glasses to a waiter. He returned to the table and sat down. ‘What have you been saying now, John Simpson?
‘He’s being his usual boorish self,’ said Susan.
Everyone took a drink in silence. Janet glanced at Nora and then again at the clock. Fiona looked at John and then at Susan. She frowned but said nothing. Clifford replaced his glass on the table. He had a premonition that his splendid day was coming to a not too splendid end. Too much drink can do that.
‘I know what we should do,’ he said in a belated attempt to revive the earlier conviviality. ‘Drink up and go round to the cottage for something to eat.’
‘I don’t think there’s anything to eat in the cottage,’ Fiona argued, caught off guard.
‘Oh I don’t mean another supper,’ said Clifford. ‘Tea and biscuits round the fire. And a quiet chat.’
‘Count us out, Dad,’ said Julian. ‘Catriona and I are driving back to the big city. We’re returning to Edinburgh tomorrow.’
Libros Libertad 