My Mother's Secret Read Online Free PDF Page A

grown-up.’
    ‘I remember thinking that about my grandmother too.’ Jenny nodded. ‘We’re clearly very alike.’
    ‘You always say I’m like Dad.’
    ‘In appearance you are,’ agreed Jenny. ‘Dark hair, dark eyes. You and Davey both.’
    ‘And Steffie is more like you,’ said Roisin.
    Jenny nodded.
    ‘Although you when you were younger and more of a hippy,’ added Roisin. ‘Now you’re sort of cool and elegant.’
    Jenny chuckled. ‘I’m not cool. I’m turning into a puddle here. Daisy was right, it’s getting very hot. And sultry. We could do with that thunderstorm to clear the air.’
    Roisin made a non-committal sound. The last thing she wanted was a thunderstorm.
    ‘Will they be back from the match soon?’ asked Jenny. ‘It would be nice for your dad and me to get to Wexford earlier rather than later.’
    ‘Any minute,’ lied Roisin, knowing that they were almost certainly in McDonald’s right now.
    ‘Ah well, we’ll be back in plenty of time for our dinner,’ said Jenny.
    Roisin knew that her parents had made a reservation at Cody’s, an upmarket restaurant in the village near Aranbeg, which she assumed was their attempt at celebrating forty years together. She’d already cancelled it.
    ‘You’ll be back in plenty of time, don’t worry,’ she told her mother.
    ‘I’ve got fidgety in my old age,’ confessed Jenny. ‘I usen’t to worry about time or punctuality at all, but now I’m obsessive.’
    ‘Not a bit of it,’ Roisin told her. ‘What are you planning to wear tonight?’
    ‘Just a little black dress,’ replied Jenny.
    ‘Ah, the little black dress.’ Roisin smiled. ‘So useful. How many do you have?’
    ‘Only the one,’ Jenny said. ‘But it’s super-comfortable and I can accessorise it up or down.’
    ‘Up tonight, I guess.’
    ‘My diamonds,’ Jenny confided. ‘I don’t get much opportunity to wear them.’
    Roisin made a mental note to ring Steffie as soon as Pascal and Jenny were on the road. She’d get her sister to have the dress and the diamonds ready for Jenny to change into, so that her mother would feel properly glam at her party. As for Pascal, well, he wasn’t someone who ever dressed up. Not even for classy restaurants. But perhaps he’d find something more suitable to wear when he got home.
    While Jenny glanced through the newspaper again, Roisin checked her phone to see if Davey’s flight had landed. According to the app, it had just touched down. She sent him a text saying that she was looking forward to seeing him and reminding him to park in the grounds of the GAA club, in case he’d forgotten.
    Organising everyone, she thought again. Whether they appreciated it or not.

Chapter 4
    The flight from Copenhagen had arrived ten minutes early but the cabin crew made an announcement about a problem with the air bridge that would delay them for a short while. The majority of the passengers, already standing in the narrow aisles with their cabin baggage, grumbled impatiently, but Camilla, who was still sitting in her seat, simply shrugged.
    ‘We’re always so bloody inefficient,’ complained Davey as he switched on his mobile phone. ‘It’s embarrassing.’
    ‘These things can happen anywhere,’ Camilla pointed out.
    ‘Always here.’
    ‘Don’t be silly. I’m not judging your entire country on a broken air bridge. Same as I didn’t judge it on you.’ She grinned and he couldn’t help smiling in return.
    ‘I judge yours entirely on you,’ he told her. ‘Cool, chic and competent.’
    ‘True,’ said Camilla.
    Davey’s phone beeped with Roisin’s incoming message and he grunted. Didn’t she think he read his emails? She’d sent him a detailed missive the day before in which the instruction to park at the GAA club had been highlighted in bold. He was about to send a terse reply when there was a sudden flurry at the front of the plane and the door finally opened.
    ‘See,’ Camilla said. ‘A delay of five minutes. Which means