Nora Webster Read Online Free PDF Page A

the two points, looking out all the time for them. She thought of going on the lift herself, but realised that this would only add to the confusion. If she stayed here, she thought, she would be bound to see them.
    When they found her, they pretended it was nothing, that the lift had merely stopped at every floor. When she told them that she had thought they were lost, they gave each other a look as though something had happened to them in the lift which they did not want her to know about.
    By three o’clock, they had seen all the Dublin they wanted to see. They had been to Moore Street and bought a bag of peaches, they had had their dinner in the self-service in Woolworth’s and had been to Eason’s where they bought comics and books. The boys were tired now as they sat in Bewley’s waiting for Fiona. Nora believed that the only thing keeping Conor awake was the idea that you could take as many buns as you liked from the two-tiered plate.
    “You have to pay for them,” Nora said.
    “How do they know how many you’ve taken?”
    “Most people are honest,” she said.
    When Fiona arrived the boys became excited and bright again, both wanting to talk at the same time. To Nora, Fiona appeared thin and pale as she sat opposite her.
    “Do you want to hear a D-dublin accent?” Donal asked her.
    “We were in Moore Street,” Nora said.
    “Get the ripe peaches,” Donal said in a singsong voice without a stammer.
    “Look at my ‘buke,’” Conor added.
    “Very funny,” Fiona said. “I’m sorry I’m late, the buses all come in twos and threes and then you have to wait for ages for the next one.”
    “I want to go upstairs on a double-decker bus,” Conor said.
    “Conor, let Fiona talk for one second and then you can talk,” Nora said.
    “Are you having a nice day out?” Fiona asked.
    Fiona’s smile was shy, but her tone was adult and confident. She had changed in these few months.
    “Yes, but we’re all tired now and it’s nice to be sitting here.”
    Neither of them seemed to know what to say next. Nora realised that her answer to the question had been too formal, as though she were talking to a stranger. Fiona ordered coffee.
    “Did you buy anything?” she asked.
    “I didn’t really have time,” Nora said. “I got a paperback, that’s all.”
    Nora noticed how briskly and efficiently Fiona had ordered the coffee, and how she looked around the café, her eyes sharp, almost critical. As she began to talk to her brothers, however, she became almost girlish again.
    “Have you heard from Aine?” Nora asked her.
    “She wrote me a short letter. I think she was worried that the nuns read letters and she’s right, they do. So she didn’t say too much. Just that she likes the Irish teacher and got good marks in French for a composition.”
    “We can go and see her in a week.”
    “She mentioned that.”
    “We’re selling the house,” Conor said to Fiona suddenly in a loud voice.
    “And are you going to live on the side of the road?” she asked, laughing.
    “No, we’re going to rent a caravan in Curracloe,” he said.
    Fiona looked at Nora.
    “I’m thinking of selling the house in Cush,” Nora said.
    “I wondered about that,” Fiona replied.
    “I didn’t decide until recently.”
    “So you are going to sell it?”
    “Yes, I am.”
    Nora was surprised to see that while Fiona was trying to smile, there were tears in her eyes. She had not cried at Maurice’s funeral, just remained silent, staying close to her sister and her aunts, but Nora could sense what she felt all the more because she did nothing to show it. Nora did not know what she should say to her now.
    She sipped her coffee. The boys did not move or speak.
    “Does Aine know?” Fiona asked.
    “I didn’t have the heart to tell her in a letter. I’ll tell her when we see her.”
    “And you have definitely decided?”
    Nora did not reply.
    “I was hoping to go there in the summer,” Fiona said.
    “I thought you were going