The Matchmaker by Marita Conlon-Mckenna Read Free Book Online Page A

and junk, into a modern mews which could be let out to provide an additional income to supplement the benefit from Leo’s insurance policy and her widow’s pension. How she hated that word ‘widow’. She’d never imagined herself having to face life alone. At times she cursed Leo for leaving her so unprepared for life without him, and turning their plans for his retirement into silly dreams. Her husband’s death had been totally unexpected. Leo had suffered a minor heart attack following a round of golf and had been admitted to hospital for tests. There he had undergone emergency heart surgery; a triple bypass which he had actually managed to come through, only to die a few days later from a simple blood clot in his lungs. How she had survived those initial awful black dark days, she didn’t know. She had wanted to hide away and stay in bed, refuse to face what had happened, but Grace and Anna and Sarah and her young granddaughter had needed her. Somehow they had got through the funeral, supported by family and good friends. The days had turned to weeks, the weeks to months and now years – and she found it hard to believe that it was just over four years and ten months since Leo had left her.
    The building renovation project had taken almost a year. When the small three-bedroomed mews with its modern kitchen, large windows, French doors and paved terrace overlooking part of the garden was finally completed she had sat down and cried, knowing that it was a job well done and that Leo would be proud of her. At first it would be let out to provide extra income and in the future she could either sell it or move into it herself. So the mews had been rented and apart from a few small hitches had provided a nice additional bit of money.
    Once the nurses had left, her Polish home help Irina had helped Maggie to clean and polish the mews from top to bottom. She had bought some bright new cushions from Habitat and complete sets of white cotton bed linen, which freshened the place, and a fancy new microwave. Jotting down the names and numbers and email addresses she began to return calls to set up appointments for potential new tenants to see the mews.
    This afternoon she was showing the place to the first people. Fingers crossed that one of them would be suitable.
    There was a couple who seemed good on paper; three single girls, which rang a kind of alarm bell; two single guys who only wanted a six-month let as they were waiting on an apartment they’d bought; a young Scottish businessman who had recently moved to Dublin; and a single girl. Grabbing the keys and her phone she walked down the garden path. She found this very hard. Leo had been a good judge of character but she knew she was a sucker for hard-luck stories. She determined that after showing each of them around she would take her time and check their references before making her mind up who should be her new tenant.
    The couple arrived bang on time and Maggie was surprised by their age difference.
    ‘I’m not sure that I like that old stonework,’ complained the young blond woman as Maggie showed her around the ground floor. ‘And the fridge is rather small.’
    The good-looking older man with her said little, but jotted things down on a notepad as Maggie led them upstairs. She noticed that he wore a wedding ring, while his much younger partner with her pouting lips and narrow hips didn’t, and he reddened with embarrassment as his girlfriend bounced on the double bed and cajoled him to join her.
    ‘I want a plasma TV in here too, Michael. For the nights when you’re not here.’
    Maggie tried not to be judgemental but in the end could not help deciding there and then that over her dead body was she going to provide a hideaway love nest for the couple, which his wife would have no clue about.
    The three young girls were up from Cork and were in first year in UCD. Nurses were one thing but students without accommodation a few months into the term another. God