Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [108]
And, of course, the wedding was splendid. Emily was pleased to see her friend in comfortable shoes wearing a newly adorned dress. Betsy’s brother had put on a very elegant spread, and her mother-in-law had been like charm personified.
Betsy cried with happiness; Eric cried and said that this was the best day of his whole life; Emily cried because it was all so marvelous; and the best man cried because his own marriage was on the rocks and he envied people just starting out.
When all the relations went home and the best man had gone to make one more ineffectual stab at repairing his own marriage, the bride and groom set off with the maid of honor for Chinatown and had a feast. There would be no honeymoon, but a holiday in Ireland would certainly be in the cards before the end of the year.
Emily told them about some of the people they would meet. Eric and Betsy said they could hardly wait. It all sounded so intriguing. They wanted to go right out to Kennedy Airport and fly to Ireland at once.
To: Emily
From: Lisa
I know we agreed only to e-mail about Frankie and there’s no crisis—I just felt like talking to you. She is very well and sleeping much better.
Moira didn’t seem to pick up on what I had said about Frankie being a lot of work, so with any luck that’s all been forgotten.
Frankie seems to enjoy going to Dr. Hat. He sings little sea shanties to her. He got her some jars of apple puree and spoons them into her all the time—she can’t get enough of them!
Maud and Marco from Ennio’s restaurant are a definite number—they’ve been seen at the cinema together. Nice for Maud because things are sad in that house, but I think Simon is feeling a bit left out.
Noel went out on a date last week. I set him up with a friend of Katie’s called Sophie, but it just didn’t take. When he told her about Frankie, she asked, “And when do you give her back to her mother?” Noel told her that Stella was dead and suddenly this girl Sophie wanted to be miles away. A man with a child! Beware! Beware!
Poor Muttie looks awful. Declan doesn’t say anything, but I think it’s not sounding too good.
Life is very good otherwise.
Everything going well. Anton’s picture was in the paper today and April has blotted her copybook, I am delighted to say.
How was the wedding?
Love,
Lisa
There were a lot of questions when Emily read the e-mails to Betsy and Eric, so Emily explained who was who. Moira was considered the enemy and April was considered a love rival of Lisa’s; the twins were teenagers in the catering business; Muttie was their grandfather or uncle or guardian, no one quite knew. And Anton? The nonavailable object of Lisa’s adoration …
From: Emily
To: Lisa
Thanks for the news. The wedding was fabulous—will show you pictures.
What did April do? How did she make a mess of things?
Love,
Emily
To: Emily
From: Lisa
April told everyone that a group of food critics were coming to Anton’s on Tuesday last, and amazingly they never turned up: someone had told them it had been canceled. Anton was SO furious with her. He and I had a dinner together in the restaurant to cheer him up.…
Eric and Betsy, by now an established married couple, saw Emily off at the airport. They waved long after she had disappeared in the crush of people heading into Terminal 4. They would miss her, but they knew that soon she would be sitting on that Aer Lingus flight, resetting her mind and orienting herself towards Dublin again.
It sounded like an insane place and it had certainly changed Emily. Normally so reserved and quiet, she seemed to have been entirely seduced by a cast of characters who sounded as if they should be on an old Broadway variety show.…
Emily didn’t sleep, like so many of the other passengers did. She sat making comparisons between this journey and the one she had made across the Atlantic when coming to Ireland for the very first time. Then she had been looking