Tara Road by Maeve Binchy Read Free Book Online Page B

mid-forties, like her husband. Could Barney really have a fancy woman called Polly Callaghan? Ria wondered. A settled married man with this comfortable home and grown-up children? It seemed unlikely. Yet Gertie had been very definite about it. Ria tried to imagine what Polly Callaghan looked like, what age she was.
    Just at that moment Mona McCarthy came up to her. 'I understand you work at Polly's,' she said pleasantly.
    Ria suddenly felt an insane urge to deny it and say she had never heard of Polly. She told Barney McCarthy's wife that it was a most interesting job and that she and Gertie loved getting involved in all the dramas of the people who came in and out.
    'Will you continue working after you've had the baby?' Mona asked.
    'Oh yes, we need the money and we thought we'd give a foreign student one of the bedsitters and she could look after the baby.'
    Mona frowned. 'You don't need the money surely?'
    'Well, Mrs McCarthy, your husband has been most generous to Danny but we have a huge house to keep up.'
    'When Barney was starting out I went out to work. It was to make money to keep Barney's builder's van on the road. I always regret it. The children grew up without me. You can't have that time back again.'
    'I'm sure you're right, we'll certainly talk about it. Maybe the moment I see the baby I won't want to go out to work ever again.'
    'I didn't certainly, but I went out after six weeks.'
    'Was he very grateful, Mr McCarthy? Did he know how hard it was for you?'
    'Grateful? No, I don't think so. Things were different then. We were so anxious to make a go of it, you know, we just did what had to be done.'
    She was nice, this woman. No airs and graces, and they must have been a little like herself and Danny years ago. How sad that now when they were old he fancied someone else.
    She looked across the room. Danny was at the centre of a little circle telling them some funny story.
    Danny's parents could never have been guests in a house like this. Barney McCarthy when he was growing up would not have been in places of this grandeur. Perhaps he saw in Danny some of the same push and drive that he had in his youth, and that was why he was encouraging him. In years to come they might be entertaining at Tara Road and everyone would know that Danny had another lady somewhere.
    She gave a little shiver. Nobody knew what the future had in store.
    'What does she look like, this Polly?' Ria asked Gertie.
    'Mid-thirties, I imagine. Red hair, very smart, keeps herself well.
    She comes in about once a month. You'll like her, she's really nice.'
    'I don't think I will like her. I liked the wife.'
    'But she's old the wife, isn't she, I mean really old?'
    'I suppose she's about the same age as her husband. She went out to work, you know, so that he could afford a van.'
    Gertie shrugged. 'That's life,' she said. 'It's hard on old Polly too at Christmas-time and Sunday lunches, he doing the family man bit. I suppose I should be congratulating myself that at least my Jack is single. He may not be much else but single he is.'
    Gertie was back with Jack again. He was meant to be seriously off the drink this time but nobody was holding their breath.
    Barney McCarthy was looking at some land in Galway and he needed Danny to go with him. Barney drove fast and they crossed the country quickly.
    A table had been booked in advance and waiting for them was an attractive woman in a cream-coloured suit.
    'This is Polly Callaghan.' Barney gave her a kiss on the cheek and introduced her to Danny.
    Danny swallowed. He had heard about her from Ria. He hadn't expected her to be so glamorous.
    'How do you do,' he said.
    'The boy wonder, I'm told,' she smiled at him.
    'No, just born lucky.'
    'Was it Napoleon who said he wanted generals that were lucky?' she asked.
    'He was bloody right if that's what he said. Now, what drinks?'
    'Diet Coke, please,' Danny said.
    'No vices at all?' she asked.
    'I want to keep a clear head if I'm to work out how much