Born & Bred Read Online Free PDF Page B

now.”
    By the time Jerry got home she had worked herself into a right state.
    ***
    Danny also knew that he had literally fallen into the world, expelled by his mother in a fit of rage.
    He had heard the story often, whispered by grown-ups who overlooked his small presence, like he was too young to understand.
    The story went that his mother had lifted a heavy skillet to rap his father across the head and the strain of it was too much and she expelled Danny, just seven and a half months after the wedding.
    They said he didn’t seem to mind and for the first few months he slept for most of the day.
    His granny said it was because he never enjoyed a moment of peace inside of his mother as she was the type of woman that could never be at ease. Even when she was sleeping she fretted and twitched over every little slight, real or imagined. Even carrying Danny, while other women had a glow about them, Jacinta had a scowl.
    Danny had also overheard that it wasn’t a planned pregnancy, that it was more of an unfortunate accident in a lane behind the dance hall. He had heard whisperings that his mother had been drunk and eager and his father had been drunk and thoughtless. He had no idea what any of it meant but apparently, “they had been eyeing each other for a few weeks.” He heard that his father thought she was a fine-looking thing and his mother knew that he came from a few “bob”—Danny’s grandfather was a minister in the government at the time, and a veteran of the War of Independence.
    His granny said it was what was to be expected. She often said that she knew that Jeremiah was lost the day he came home drunk, at eighteen, with his Confirmation Pledge in tatters around him.
    That he should fall prey to Lust was inevitable, and when the news reached her, she chided him for a while and then arranged for a nice, respectable wedding while her future daughter-in-law could still be squeezed into a white dress.
    **
    “I have had a quiet word with Father Brennan,” she had announced as cordially as she could manage.
    She had brought Jerry and Jacinta together over tea at Bewley’s, in a booth where they could keep their business to themselves. “He can fit you in on the third Saturday in May.”
    Jerry stirred his tea without looking up while Jacinta devoured sticky buns. Neither of them even offered a word of thanks but Granny Boyle didn’t care. The holy mother of God would grant her all the thanks she needed. “And then you can have a nice weekend on the Isle of Man.”
    Jerry lit another Woodbine as Jacinta stared at the empty plate. “Are there any more of those sticky buns?”
    Granny Boyle forced a smile as she beckoned a waitress. This was going to take all of her patience so she turned her gaze on her son. “Your father is going to have a word with someone in the Public Works Department, too.”
    Jerry looked at her for a moment and shrugged. “I was going to reapply,” he protested softly.
    “There’s no time for that anymore,” Granny cut him off. It was still an open sore between them. He had failed in his first year at UCD much to the consternation of his father, causing the poor man to turn purple. “He’s a thundering disgrace to us all,” he had bellowed when he heard about Jerry and Jacinta. “First he drinks himself out of college and now he takes up with the daughter of some common laborer from God-knows-where. We should send the pair of them off to England and be rid of them.”
    “Now Bart,” Granny had soothed. “He’s made his bed and we’re not going to turn him out over that.” She folded her arms to let him know the matter was decided and he better just get used to it.
    “Very well but don’t expect me to pay for the wedding.”
    “You won’t have to,” she reminded him. She had her own means. Her father had left her money when he sold up the old place. She had always kept it separate and apart.
    The wedding went well and the weather was fine. Bart behaved himself and