OUT OF THE BLUE a gripping novel of love lost and found Read Online Free PDF Page A

O’Donovan claps her hands together. The motion sets the loose flesh on her arms wobbling. ‘Well, I should have known. You’re very like your father, you have the green eyes and all. Are you just arrived?’
    ‘Yes, on the morning boat.’
    ‘Well, isn’t that something! I haven’t seen you in ages.’ She looks Liv up and down appraisingly.
    ‘No; last time I visited you were away, in Lourdes, I think.’
    ‘Oh for sure, I was, so. Didn’t I have a touch of women’s troubles and I went to see would Our Lady take pity on me.’ Mrs O’Donovan drops her voice. ‘I’m sorry about your grandmother. It was sudden, her poor old heart just gave way. But wasn’t she a great age, she used to say she’d had a good innings.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘And you’ll have come about the cottage, and her after leaving it to you.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Well, isn’t that something. I heard that from your da when he was over. It’s so long now since we saw you, you were always her pet. She mentioned you whenever she came in. And isn’t it a shame you couldn’t come for the funeral.’
    Liv feels guilty heat flush the back of her neck. ‘Yes, I’m afraid I couldn’t make it.’
    ‘A liver infection,’ Douglas had said, writhing and sweating on the sofa. ‘Got to check into hospital for a couple of days, nothing a blast of antibiotics won’t sort out.’
    Mrs O’Donovan nods. ‘Ah for sure, she was so proud of you, with the university education and all. And you’re beyond in London all this time?’
    ‘Oh yes, that’s where I live.’
    ‘That’s lovely, lovely. Ah, she often mentioned the times you used to come down with her and Susannah. She said she’d have to ask you to walk slower, she couldn’t keep up with your young limbs.’
    ‘Hold on there, child, you have me winded and poor old Susannah will be ready for the bacon factory if you carry on at that lick,’ Nanna would say.
    Liv wonders if Mrs 0’Donovan is thinking that this granddaughter who’s come to claim the house hasn’t bothered to visit for years but the woman is smiling.
    ‘Who’s Susannah?’ the little girl asks.
    ‘She was Mrs Callaghan’s pig, her pride and joy,’ Mrs O’Donovan explains. ‘This is my granddaughter, Carmel,’ she tells Liv. ‘She helps me mind the shop sometimes.’
    ‘You say it Carm el , Gran,’ the child says reprovingly. ‘You say it the Spanish way.’ Her grey eyes are huge, rounded and solemn, heavy lashed.
    ‘She takes notions,’ Mrs O’Donovan explains, making a helpless gesture with her hands. ‘Carmel was always good enough round here before but sure I suppose times change.’
    Liv smiles. ‘Hallo,’ she says to the girl, gesturing at the comic. ‘I used to read Bunty when I was little.’
    ‘It’s not my absolute favourite,’ Carmel informs her. ‘I prefer Look Lively but I have to wait until Daddy comes from Castlegray with it.’ She has a precise way of speaking, weighing the words in an adult manner.
    ‘Do you remember Maeve, my daughter — Carmel’s mother?’
    ‘I don’t think so. .. .’
    ‘Ah, for sure, you probably wouldn’t. She was just a baby the last time I saw you in the shop. I expect she was asleep; she was an angel of a baby, she never gave me a moment’s trouble and she slept through the night. Not like Madam here!’
    She looks adoringly at her granddaughter who wrinkles her nose back. Jim Reeves is droning another melancholy verse about lost love. Suddenly, Liv’s skin is prickling and she needs to run from the plunking guitars and saccharine lyrics.
    ‘Well,’ she says, ‘I’d better make a move and get sorted out.’
    Mrs O’Donovan pats her hair and rearranges her shirt collar. ‘Anything at all you need, just come in. It might be a bit chilly up there, but I see you have the makings of a fire. Your father checked that everything was shipshape when he was here after the funeral. And he’s still at the plumbing.’
    ‘That’s right, but retiring