The South by Colm Tóibín Read Free Book Online

here,” he said as he came to a stop. Several sheepdogs came running down from the house, barking loudly as he carried a box of groceries toward the small, whitewashed farmhouse.
    Now she was trapped here. They might pass Tom on the road. She imagined their eyes meeting, Tom indicating to the delivery man to stop and she having to get out as though she were a prisoner, to go back to the house as though nothing had happened.
    She waited. The delivery man came out with a middle-aged woman wearing an apron who stood shading her eyes from the sun while the delivery man came over to the car.
    “She has the tea on the table now,” he said.
    “Sorry?”
    “The tea is hot now and the table is set,” he said. “And she won’t take no for an answer.” The woman at the door of the farmhouse looked towards them.
    “I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake coming with you, my husband will be waiting for me. Perhaps I should have explained,” Katherine spoke evenly. He still stood beside the car. She said again: “Could you tell the woman that I don’t have time, thank you?”
    The delivery man didn’t say anything until they were near the town. “I’d say it’ll be an open and shut case, ma’am.”
    “Could you leave me near the hotel, perhaps at the bridge, would that be all right?”
    “You’re not going up to the court?” He seemed disappointed. He drove across the bridge and left her at the door of the hotel.
    She waited in the entrance hall of the hotel until she felt that he had gone. She ventured out then into Templesh-cannon and up past the bacon factory towards the railway station. Her mind focussed sharply on the possibilities. She would wait here for the next train to Dublin. She would wait for hours if she had to. Tom would never think of coming here to look for her. She could go south to Rosslare. But she didn’t know if the ferry still ran, or at what time, and she didn’t want to ask in the station. It would be simpler to buy a ticket to Dublin. It was one o’clock; the court would close for lunch, she imagined, and Tom would drive home and find her gone and he might then notice the money missing.
    The sign in the station said there would be a train to Dublin at twenty minutes to three. She checked to see if there were any other notices with the times of ferries to England, but there was nothing. She would have to leave it to chance.
    The sky was darkening over the river. Katherine went into the waiting room and sat there, wishing the next twenty-four hours away. She imagined them already over, as if by magic. She thought back over the previous twenty-four hours, thought about how long they seemed. She looked at her watch. Only five minutes had passed. She walked out and stood on the platform until a porter came with a trolley of parcels from the office.
    She was in time for the train that would take her to theDun Laoghaire ferry, he told her. She would be in London in the early morning.
    The sea was calm that night, the boat half empty. On the train across England she tried to sleep but she had nowhere to rest her head, and each time she dropped off she woke with a start. She could not wait for the night to be over.
    She rang her mother’s number from a call box at Euston station. The phone was answered immediately, despite the early hour, and the voice was sprightly and alert.
    “In London? Wonderful, do come and see me.”
    “I was hoping to come now.”
    “Come when you please. I’d be delighted to see you,” her mother sounded less than eager. She did not invite her to stay, but rather spoke as though Katherine wanted only to come and have tea with her. In the long nights and in the anxiety of the previous weeks, she had never thought how her mother would receive the news of her arrival.
    She caught a taxi to her mother’s house. She was no longer tired, but she needed a change of clothes and a bath. The streets were clear in the grey morning, the city was still asleep. Her mother came to the