Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [101]
Coming fresh as she did from visiting the wreckage that was her own childhood, Moira was now determined that she would ease Frankie Lynch’s path into a secure home.
It would be the only thing that might make any sense of Moira’s own loss—if she could make it right for someone else. All she had to do was to get through this endless weekend until all the cast eventually came back from their travels and reassembled and she could get things going.
Lisa was actually back in Dublin, even though Moira didn’t know it. There had been some crossed wires in London. Lisa had thought that it was a matter of visiting restaurants and talking to various patrons. April had thought it was a PR exercise and had arranged several interviews for Anton.
“They don’t have a bank holiday in England this weekend, so it will be work as usual,” April had chirruped to them.
“Not much work at a weekend, though.” Lisa had tried hard to be casual.
“No, but Monday is an ordinary day in London and we can rehearse on Sunday.” April’s face was glowing with achievement and success. It would have been churlish and petty for Lisa not to enthuse. So she had appeared delighted with it all; she decided to get out with her pride.
She had loads to see to back in Dublin, she said casually, and saw, to her pleasure, that Anton seemed genuinely sorry to see her go. And now she was back in Dublin with nothing to do and nobody to meet.
As she let herself in to Chestnut Court she thought she saw Moira in the courtyard talking to some of the neighbors. But it couldn’t be. Noel and the baby were off in this place Rossmore; Moira, herself, was meant to have gone to the country to see her family. Lisa decided she was imagining things.
But she looked over the wall on the corridor leading to their apartment and saw that it was indeed Moira. She couldn’t hear the conversation, but she didn’t like the look of it. Moira knew nobody in this apartment block except them. She was here to spy.
Lisa turned and crossed the courtyard.
“Well, hello, Moira,” she said, showing great surprise. The two middle-aged women whom Moira had been interrogating shuffled with embarrassment. Lisa knew them both by sight. She nodded at them briefly.
“Oh, Lisa … I thought you were away?”
“Well, yes, I was,” Lisa agreed, “but I came back. And you? You were going away too?”
“I came back too,” Moira said. “And did Noel and Frankie come back as well?”
“I don’t think so. I haven’t been in to the apartment yet. Why don’t you come up and see with me?” The women neighbors were busy making their excuses and looking to escape.
“No, no, it wouldn’t be appropriate,” Moira said. “You’ve only just got back from London.”
“Moira is our social worker,” Lisa explained to the fast-retreating neighbors. “She’s absolutely great. She drops in at the least expected times in case Noel and I are battering Frankie to death or starving her in a cage or something. So far she hasn’t caught us out in anything, but of course time will tell.”
“You completely misunderstand my role, Lisa. I am there for Frankie.”
“We’re all bloody there for Frankie,” Lisa said, “which is something you’d realize if you saw us walking her up and down at night when she can’t sleep. If you saw us changing her nappy, trying to spoon food into her when she keeps turning her head away.”
“Exactly,” Moira cried. “It’s too hard for you both. It’s my role to see whether she would be better placed with a more conventional family … people with the maturity to look after a child.”
“But she’s Noel’s daughter!” Lisa said, unaware that the other women who had been about to leave were standing there, openmouthed. “I thought you people were all meant to be keeping the family together and that sort of thing.”
“Yes, but you are not family, Lisa. You’re just a roommate, and Noel, as a father, is unreliable. We have to admit that.”
“I do not have to admit that!” Lisa knew she looked like a fishwife with her hands on her hips, but really this