Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [75]
“Isn’t that disgraceful!” Muttie was outraged. “Aren’t they very greedy, these people?”
“It’s the system,” Declan said wearily.
“It shouldn’t be allowed.” Muttie shook his head in disapproval.
“But you’ll go, won’t you? Tell me you’ll go?”
“I’ll go because you can’t get me out of it. But it’s very highhanded of you, Declan. But if he suggests some mad, expensive treatment, he’s not getting another cent out of me!” Muttie vowed.
“No, it’s just to know the treatment that he would advise. One visit …”
“All right then,” Muttie grumbled.
“You never asked me one single thing about the whole business,” Declan said. “I mean, there are a lot of options: chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery …”
Muttie looked at him with the air of a man who has seen it all and heard it all. “Won’t I hear all about it from the fellow whose Rolls-Royce I’m paying for? No point in thinking about it until I have to. Okay?”
“Okay,” agreed Declan, who was beginning to wonder would this day ever end.
By the time that Moira called at Chestnut Court, things had settled down a lot.
Noel had agreed not to drink today. Malachy had taken him to an AA meeting, where nobody had blamed him but everyone had congratulated him on turning up that day.
Halfway through the meeting, Noel remembered that he had not let them know in Hall’s that he wouldn’t be in today.
“Declan did that ages ago,” Malachy said.
“What did he say?”
“That he was your doctor and you weren’t able to go in. That he was telephoning from your flat.”
“I wonder how Mr. Hall took that?” Noel was full of anxiety.
“Oh, Declan would have reassured him. You’d believe anything he said. Anyway, it was all true. You weren’t able to go in and he was at your flat.”
“He looked very put out about everything,” Noel said. “I hope he won’t turn against me.”
“No, I think he was put out about something else.” Malachy knew when there was a time to be very firm and a time to be more generous.
Moira viewed the presence of Malachy in the house with no great pleasure.
“Are you a babysitter?” she asked.
“No, Ms. Tierney, I am from Alcoholics Anonymous. That’s how I know Noel.”
“Oh, really …” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Any reason for the visit?”
“We were at a meeting together up the road and I came back for some tea with Noel. That’s permitted, isn’t it?”
“Of course—you mustn’t make me into some kind of a monster. I’m merely here for Frankie’s sake. It’s just that we had a full and frank exchange of views yesterday and I suppose, well, when I saw you here, I thought that you might … that Noel could possibly … that all was not well.”
“And so now you are reassured?” Malachy asked silkily.
“Frankie will be coming back shortly. We want to get things ready for her … unless there’s anything else?” Noel spoke politely.
Moira left.
Malachy turned to Noel. “One ball-breaker,” he said, and for the first time that day Noel smiled.
Everyone had been planning a Christmas party for Frankie and Johnny. Balloons and paper decorations had been discussed at length and in detail. It was going to be held in Chestnut Court: the apartment block had a big communal room that could be rented for such occasions. Lisa and Noel had reserved it weeks back. Was it to go ahead or was Noel too frail to be part of it?
“We’ve got to go for it,” Lisa encouraged him. “Otherwise when she looks back on her album she’ll wonder why there was no celebration for her first Christmas.”
“She won’t be looking back on any album with us,” Noel said grimly.
“What do you mean?”
“They’ll take her from me, and rightly so. Who would leave a child with me?”
“Well, thank you very much from the rest of us who are doing our best to make a home for her,” Lisa said tartly. “We are not going to give up so easily. Get her into the pram, Noel, and we’ll head off and look at this room.”
Just then the phone rang.
“Noel, it’s Declan. Can we leave Johnny with you for an hour or so—it would be a great help.” This was the first time since Noel’s drinking incident that Johnny