Minding Frankie - Maeve Binchy [78]
· · ·
Fiona knew there was something wrong the moment he came in the door.
“Declan, you’re white as a sheet! What happened? Was it Noel?”
“I love you, Fiona, and I love Johnny,” he said, head in his hands.
“Ah, God, Declan, what is it?”
“It’s Muttie.”
“What’s happened to him? Declan, tell me in the name of God.…”
“He has just a few months,” Declan said.
“Never!” She was so shocked she had to sit down.
“Yes. I was at the specialist this morning with him.”
“I thought you were taking him to the bank.”
“I did, so that he could get the money for a specialist.”
“Muttie went private? God, he must have been worried,” Fiona said.
“I hijacked him into it, but the specialist waived the fee.”
“Why on earth did he do that?”
“Because Muttie is Muttie,” Declan said.
“He’ll have to tell Lizzie,” Fiona said.
“It’s done. I was there.” Declan looked stricken.
“And?”
“It was as bad as you’d think. Worse. Lizzie said she still had so many things to do with Muttie. She had been planning to take him to the Grand National in Liverpool. You know, Fiona, Muttie’s never going to make it to Aintree.”
And then he sobbed like a child.
Maud and Simon, who had grown up with Muttie and Lizzie and hardly remembered any former life, were heartbroken.
“It’s not as if he were really old,” Maud said.
“Sixty is meant to be only middle-aged nowadays,” Simon agreed.
“Remember the cake we made for his birthday?”
“ ‘Sixty Glorious Years.’ ”
“We’ll have to put off going to America,” Maud said.
“We can’t do that. What if they won’t keep the job for us?” Simon was very anxious.
“There will be other jobs. Later, you know, afterwards.” Maud didn’t want them to go.
But Simon wasn’t willing to let it go easily. “It’s such a chance, Maud. He’d want us to have it. We’ll be earning a big salary. We could send him money.”
“When was Muttie ever interested in money?”
“I know … you’re right. I was just trying to think of excuses, really,” Simon admitted.
“So let’s try to get shifts in good Dublin restaurants.”
“They’d never take us on. We don’t have enough experience.”
“Oh, come on, Simon, don’t be such a defeatist. We have terrific recommendations and references from all the people we did catering for. I bet they’ll take us on.”
“Where will we start?”
“I think we should invest a little money first, have dinner somewhere like Quentins, Colm’s or Anton’s. You know, top places. And we’d regard it as research, keep our eyes open and then go back and ask for a job.”
“It seems a heartless sort of thing to be doing when poor Muttie is in such bad shape.”
“It’s better than going to the other side of the earth,” Maud said.
They would start with Colm’s up in Tara Road. They chose the cheapest items on the menu, but took notes on everything: the way the waiters served, how they offered the wine for tasting, the way the cheeses were brought to the table and how they were sliced according to the customers’ wishes, with some advice from the waiter.
“We had better learn our cheeses before trying here,” Maud whispered.
“That’s the head guy there.” Simon pointed out Colm, the owner.
He came to their table. “Nice to see a younger set coming in,” he said, welcoming them.
“We’re in the catering business ourselves,” Maud said suddenly.
“Really?”
Simon was annoyed. They hadn’t planned to blurt it out so quickly. Now they had exposed themselves as spies and not real diners.
“We have terrific recommendations and I was wondering if we could leave you our business card. Just in case you were short-staffed.”
“Thank you. Of course I’ll keep it. Here, are you any relation of Cathy Mitchell of Scarlet Feather?”
“Yes, she trained us,” Maud said proudly.
“She was married to a cousin of ours, Neil Mitchell.” Simon saw no need to explain the situation any further.
“Well, well, if Cathy trained you, you must be great! But I won’t have anything just for the moment. My partner’s daughter Annie—that’s her over there—she’s just started here, so we’re fairly well covered at the moment. Still, I’ll put your names in the book.” Then he retired