Redemption - Leon Uris [56]
“I don’t want to be around college teachers for the reasons previously stated. As for the students, each one reaches a level when he is certain he is infallible and doubly certain he knows more than his professor. No one is less wise and more stupid than a college student. No one is more strident in his beliefs. No one has better solutions. No, Caroline, I want fresh-faced young boys and to load them up with idealism before they have to make their first compromise with the devil.”
As Caroline dabbed her eyes they became fixed on the most unusual piece of ironwork she had ever seen, a half-dozen delicately curled deep leaves, each of which was a holder of a live flower. There were iron threads so thin that one could scarcely see them above the leaves, and these held wrought-iron bees and birds so that the slightest zephyr would cause them to move as though they were hovering over the flowers. Between two of the leaves was a spider web, so fine it could not possibly be of iron…but it was. The stand at the bottom was incredibly balanced. Caroline’s fingertips whispered about it.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Caroline said.
“A gift from one of Andrew’s students,” Enid said.
Andrew sipped his whiskey and appeared to be mesmerized by the multivase holder.
“One of your very prized students?”
“Aye,” he said.
The moment had a strange quality to it. Caroline knew, without saying or asking, that this magnificent piece of work had something to do with his entire situation. Andrew was uncomfortable, as though he didn’t want to share this with her.
“It’s the work of a master, isn’t it?” Caroline said.
“Yes,” Enid answered.
“Who might he be?”
“His name is Conor Larkin. He has a forge in the Bogside.”
Caroline was compelled by a surge of excitement. “You know how desperately I’ve wanted the great screen restored. Why haven’t you told me about this chap?”
“That’s not the way the system works, Caroline.”
“To hell, you say. I should have met him. Does he know about the screen?”
“He’s worked on it as a laborer for both your Italian and German masters. Caroline, he bid against Caw & Train and was burned out. His second home is in Celtic Hall, not your average manor house artisan.” Suddenly Andrew’s voice betrayed him and his words betrayed him further. “He’s searching for the Holy Grail.”
“And he is the reason you are leaving here. You feel you’ve betrayed him.”
“It would kill Andrew if you told him!” Enid cried.
“Oh no. I love you both so dearly, so very dearly,” Caroline assured. “It will never get past me.”
“ Strange how a little bloody lie takes on arms and legs and wings and heads. Anyway, Caroline, be very careful. I saw the fire flashing from your eyes,” warned Andrew.
“Caroline, Conor Larkin is innocent of all the deals that have been made around him,” Andrew continued. “He is fierce about what he believes of Ireland. I know you’ll see him now, but I warn you, the great screen in the Long Hall has been a symbol of oppression to the Catholics. It was used as a prison and almost five hundred women and children died of torture and hunger behind it.”
“That’s in the long past.”
“There is no long past in Ireland.”
“It’s a great work of art. Its creator never intended it to be a prison.”
“I’ll be brutally blunt, Caroline,” Andrew said. “You’re flirting with the one man in the world you can’t handle. You’d better know that going in.”
In that instant, Andrew knew he had said the exact opposite of what he wanted to say.
21
Hands on her hips, Caroline stood before the great screen in the Long Hall considering the enormity its meaning was taking on. Every time she thought of the Ingrams pending departure the ache renewed itself. Andrew was a kind of jewel of a man anywhere in the world one might find him. Few such passed the way through Londonderry. God, it was going to be so empty.
She came to realize that the failure of Andrew and Enid to confide in her was not due to a lack of trust, but for her own good. Caroline generally got what she wanted, but there was no keeping the Ingrams