Dublin 4 by Maeve Binchy Read Free Book Online

three years.’
    ‘Never!’
    ‘Apparently.’
    ‘Imagine at Christmas, and the year before and the year before … all the family party … and all the time … I don’t believe it.’
    ‘Do you think Grandmama knows?’
    ‘I’m certain she doesn’t. Poor Mother. How odd, I don’t know why I’m not all crying and thinking it’s the end of everything. I suppose I just haven’t accepted it.’
    ‘I don’t know why I told you.’ James looked worried. ‘It’s only making you sad, but it seemed a big secret to keep from you … we don’t have secrets.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘And you’re so practical, I thought you’d want to know about it in case there’s anything you wanted to do.’
    ‘Like what, frighten her off? Please leave my Daddy alone?’
    ‘No, but you do know her sister, don’t you, Deirdre?’
    ‘Yes, Deirdre O’Donnell, she was in college with me. God.’
    ‘So there we are.’
    ‘There we are all right. Are you shocked?’
    ‘I’m a bit stunned, like you. I can’t see my father-in-law in the role, but I think I’m mainly sorry for poor Grandmama. I thought that’s what you’d feel most.’
    ‘No. Mother will survive. She’s very rarely living in the real world anyway. She seems a bit stoned to me a lot of the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if that doctor has her on valium most of the time. That’s why he’s such a success with all that generation, he just prescribes it by the ton … takes the edge off life, that’s his motto.’
    ‘Yes, well, it looks as if your mother’s going to need her supply.’
    ‘Yes, but in a way why should she? I mean if it’s been going on for years, nothing’s going to change.’
    ‘I suppose not. Check the mileage, will you, I’m turning in here for petrol.’
    Anna got out the little leather covered book and wrote in 11,878 under mileage, Tralee under place, and then sat with her pencil poised until she could fill in the remaining two columns, gallons and price.
    *   *   *
     
    ‘I’m not going to spend a month going in and out playing cat and mouse with them. I’m not going to do it,’ Sheila said on Sunday evening. She had the dining-room table covered with books that she was marking for tomorrow’s class.
    ‘I suppose you could just be there, you know, if she needed you, that would be a help,’ said Martin. He was doing the crossword while Sheila corrected her exercises.
    ‘That’s not the point. It’s unforgiveable being drawn into other peoples’ rows and scenes and disasters. I’ll never forgive him for accosting me like that and forcing me to take sides and attitudes. People shouldn’t drag you into their unhappinesses, it’s not fair.’ She looked very cross and bit on the end of her pencil in annoyance.
    ‘No, stop being tolerant and forgiving, Martin. It’s a fact. We never drag people into our marriage, now do we?’
    ‘No,’ said Martin thoughtfully. ‘But then we’re very lucky we don’t have any problems in our marriage.’
    ‘No,’ said Sheila sharply, going back to the exercise books. She had resolved long ago that if she was going to be the breadwinner, she wasn’t going to complain and ruin it all by being a martyr. The only thing that made the whole bloody business worthwhile was that Martin had no idea how tiredshe was and how much she hated going in to that school each day. She thought of Carmel for a moment, and a great wave of impatience flooded over her. Carmel could get up at any time she liked, she had nothing more pressing in her day than to decide which clothes she should send to the St Vincent de Paul. Carmel’s children were married. Well, Bernadette was as good as married. They weren’t pounding home with huge appetites for meals which had to be prepared and shopped for. Sheila tried to give the appearance of being in charge of the kitchen so that Martin’s sons should not think him a sissy. They still said ‘Thanks, Mum’ when they found their clean clothes in their bedrooms, though