Saving Christmas in the Little Irish Village (The Little Irish Village #5)

Chapter 18

18

Freya gratefully accepted the mug of tea Hannah had made her. She was sitting at her workbench, and in front of her was an array of silver paraphernalia needed to twist hunks of precious metal into something beautiful and traditional. How Freya ever located which tool was for what amid that chaos was a mystery, Hannah thought, clutching her own brew. She flapped her hand as the joss stick smouldering away on the bench – presumably to mask the slightly metallic odour – sent smoke spiralling in her direction. She’d probably smell like patchouli for the rest of the day now, she mused, putting the mug to her lips and taking a warming sip.

Princess Leia, who’d enjoyed a bowl of water, was now snuggled onto Freya’s lap like she belonged there. Hannah had heard it said that animals always knew who needed them the most, and she shot the little dog a fond glance. Her poor mam laid up in hospital would be missing her, no doubt, but hopefully she was resting assured Princess Leia was being well looked after.

‘I thought you were away for the weekend,’ Hannah probed. ‘Did you decide to come back early?’

‘Yeah.’ Freya took a few glugs of sweet tea. ‘I broke things off with Oisin last night.’

‘Were you drunk or sober at the time?’ It was essential to ascertain whether it had been a clear-headed, well-thought-through decision or a heat-of-the-moment drunken argument.

‘Somewhere in between, I guess.’

That was workable, Hannah thought, hoping all the tears weren’t a sign she regretted ending things. She slid the tissue box toward her.

‘Thanks.’ Plucking a tissue from the box, Freya added, ‘The blinkers fell off, and I realised I’d had enough of pretending I was OK with Oisin free-ranging about the country, sponging off anyone who’d have him, including me.’

‘You didn’t loan him any money or anything, did you?’ Hannah asked, envisaging nightmare scenarios of Freya having remortgaged her meagre cottage or taking out additional business loans to further fund Oisin and his art.

‘I’ve been an eejit, but not that much of an eejit, thank God.’

That was something at least. ‘How did he take it?’

‘I think he thought I was joking initially, but he finally got it. Honestly, I think he was more upset when I told him that, yes, it meant I wouldn’t be going ahead with his exhibition.’

‘What a complete arse.’

The tentative beginnings of Freya’s smile spread a little. ‘Do you know something else? And I’ve never told anyone this.’

Feeling privileged, Hannah leaned toward Freya to hear better what she was about to say.

‘I never really thought Oisin was very talented. His work’s kind of shite if I’m being truthful.’

Hannah laughed.

‘And his ego’s bigger than his pecker.’

‘Go, girl.’

She didn’t need any encouragement. Freya was on a roll. ‘The man says things like “Was that good for you, baby?” after the riding.’

‘No!’

Freya was laughing now, too. ‘He does! He says it in this smooth, velvety voice.’

‘Ah no! Not the melting-chocolate voice.’ Hannah was crying with laughter now, somehow managing to gasp out, ‘And that hair of his. I mean, what does he think he looks like? Jesus?’ She was off again, bent double. It took her a few giggles to realise Freya was no longer laughing, and straightening, she wiped her eyes.

‘He has the softest hair. I loved running my fingers through it.’

Whoops, she’d put her Doc Martens boot in there.

Hannah held a hand up. ‘Don’t go there, Freya. Go back to egos and peckers. Think gombeen, eejit and arse.’

Freya sniffed and gave a watery-eyed nod, repeating, ‘Oisin is a gombeen with a small pecker. Oisin is an eejit who can’t paint. Oisin is an arse who thinks the world revolves around him.’ She took a slow, deep inhale as she visibly pulled herself together.

‘That’s it.’

‘Thanks for letting me offload.’

‘You’re welcome. And for the record, I think you’re much better off without him.’

‘You think?’

‘I know.’ Hannah reached out and gave Freya’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Then, remembering her satchel, she climbed off the stool to fetch it, placing the clipboard and a bundle of envelopes in front of Freya. ‘This is what brought me here,’ she said.

Freya’s head tilted to one side, and she stroked Princess Leia, listening as Hannah brought her up to speed. She told her about Tom staying at the Shamrock and why he was in Emerald Bay. By the time she’d finished, Freya had agreed to take a wad of cards to sit alongside the till and put her name on the petition to stop the Greenhouse.

As she scrawled her signature beneath the growing list of other names, she said, ‘You can count me in on whatever you decide to do to stop this thing. A good cause to throw myself behind is exactly what I need right now.’

‘Thanks a million, Freya. I haven’t got further than this’ – she pointed to the petition – ‘but I’m thinking some sort of protest.’

That made her think of Dylan.

‘You OK?’ Freya asked. ‘You went a little pale then.’

‘Sure, I’m grand.’ Hannah didn’t want to talk about Dylan’s offer of help because then she’d have to mention him having been arrested, so she tossed Freya a reassuring smile.

Her eyes strayed to Freya’s nod to Christmas in the gallery. Emerald Bay’s Main Street shops were a testament to tinsel along with their trusty fairy lights and baubles strung around their front windows year after year. Their ethos seemed to be the more bling and sparkle, the better. Freya, however, had kept it simple with an assortment of handcrafted pine-cone reindeer on display with a bead for a head and their legs, head and antlers fashioned from pipe cleaners. For someone who didn’t have an arty bone in her body, she could appreciate the creativity that had gone into making them. However, each time she thought of how close Christmas was, she’d almost have palpitations because she only had days to get this Greenhouse project squashed. Ten business days to be exact.

A mobile’s urgent ring cut her thoughts off.

‘That’s yours, Hannah,’ Freya supplied.

Hannah reached for her phone, glancing at the screen. ‘It’s Mam again . She’s been giving out to me for being rude to Tom, the yuletide saboteur I just told you about.’

‘You’d better get it. You never know: it might be important.’

Hannah fleetingly thought of her dad when he’d had his heart attack and Shannon being pregnant and decided Freya was right. You did never know.

‘Mam?’

‘You’d better get down to the abandoned farm as quick as you can, Hannah.’

‘Why?’

‘Your nan’s after staging a sit-in at the famine cottage, and she’ll wind up with hypothermia if she’s not careful. I’m hoping you might be able to talk sense into her.’

Hannah’s mouth fell open.

‘Hannah, are you OK? What did your mam want?’ Freya had twisted on her stool to face Hannah, concern replacing her earlier tears.

‘It’s Nan.’

‘Oh God, is she OK?’

‘Sorry. Yeah. She’s fine, but she’s only gone and taken herself down to the abandoned farm to protest the proposed land sale. Kitty Kelly’s after staging a one-woman sit-in, and Mam’s worried she’ll catch her death.’

Freya’s jaw dropped this time, but she swiftly recovered. ‘Well, good for her, I say. What are we waiting for?’ She plopped a disgruntled Princess Leia down on the ground and swung into action, donning her coat and grabbing her car keys in record time. ‘I’ll drive us there. Sure, it will be quicker than messing about dropping you back at the Shamrock to get your car.’

Hannah was glad to be told what to do. On automatic pilot, she gathered her things, scooped up Princess Leia and was hot on Freya’s heels as she headed out the gallery’s back door.

‘It’s open.’ Freya inclined her head toward the car that looked like it had bounced off the factory line right behind Doris and then been left to rust in a field for the past twenty years. The only difference was the lack of stickers.

Hannah slid into the passenger seat while Freya locked the back door and pulled the seat belt across herself and Princess Leia. She hoped that, unlike Doris, this car wasn’t prone to being temperamental, but it rattled into life as soon as Freya twisted the key in the ignition. She flattened her back into the seat, feeling like she was taking off for the moon in a space shuttle as Freya floored it. At least they didn’t have far to go, with the site being a short walk up behind Emerald Bay’s park.

As they whizzed past the open green space flanked by trees and the prickly holly bush where the teenagers liked to lurk, Hannah counted only one hardy dad in the small playground area. He was pushing two rugged-up little ones in tandem on the swings. It made her think of the twins when they were small, but she didn’t smile. Instead, she chewed her bottom lip as the hurt that Nan hadn’t confided her plans set in. Then, turning to stare out the window at the muddy shades of green they were flying past, the American woman who’d unnerved her mam sprang to mind, and she asked Freya if she knew anything about her.

Freya didn’t take her eyes off the twisting lane ahead, although she slowed down. ‘There was a woman. I’d forgotten all about her, to be honest. I mean, I get a lot of Americans calling in, and it was super busy that day, but she was kind of intense, asking after your parents. Your mam in particular. I probably broke all the privacy laws by chatting with her. Sorry.’ She pulled a face.

‘You weren’t to know.’

‘We take people at face value in Emerald Bay. I suppose I assumed she knew Nora and Liam. You don’t think it’s anything sinister, do you?’

‘I don’t know.’ Hannah ran her hand through her hair, mussing it further. ‘I hope not.’ The worry about who this woman was was like a little worm burrowing in. Still, there was no time for further debate because the abandoned farm was around the last bend, and as they rounded it, her mouth formed an ‘O’.

It was a very different sight from the quiet lane where the only traffic you would likely see was Lorcan McGrath bouncing along on his tractor. Ramblers and adventurous children whose mammy thought they were playing in the park, not ghost hunting at the famine cottage, aside, the place was usually deserted. This afternoon, however, a slew of cars, including Liam Kelly’s unmistakable yellow wagon and Sergeant Badger’s Gardai vehicle, had pulled over on the verge, rendering the lane virtually impassable, and a quick glimpse past the stone walls surrounding the farm saw Hannah gasp. A small crowd was gathered outside the tumbledown cottage. Word of Kitty’s sit-in had spread like measles by the looks of things.

As Freya stilled the engine, the car they’d slotted in behind caught Hannah’s attention. It was familiar, and who it belonged to teased the periphery of her mind like a pub quiz question she should know the answer to. She leaned forward, straining against the seat belt to better see the sticker in the back window, and the Rubik’s cube slotted into place. The Galway Gazette . Hannah clapped a hand to her mouth, causing Princess Leia to quiver. ‘Oh no!’

‘What?’

‘That’s Jeremy Jones’s car.’

‘The reporter who covered Shane’s story when he was missing?’

‘The eejit reporter who covered Shane’s story and the same reporter that made sure I got carted off by the guards for trespassing when I was trying to save an oak tree in Galway.’ Hannah’s eyes glittered. ‘I couldn’t prove it, but the developer who wanted the tree felled crossed his palm with silver to write a skewed one-eyed piece for the paper. Jeremy Jones is as crooked as they come, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone with a vested interest in this land sale going ahead didn’t have him in their back pocket. I bet they gave him a tip-off in the first place.’

‘Do you think so?’ Freya’s eyebrow had raised sceptically.

Hannah, however, was adamant. She’d had experience with this sort of thing and knew how it worked. Money talked. Loudly.

‘I guarantee it,’ she said, seeing the headline in her mind’s eye. ‘His angle will be “mad old woman protests progress” or something like that.’ She unbuckled her seat belt and flung the car door open. ‘We can’t let whoever’s behind this win.’ Tom’s face floated to mind. Was it him? Had he called the newspaper? Her eyes narrowed as she climbed out of the car and tucked Princess Leia firmly under her arm before clambering over the low pile of haphazardly stacked stones forming the wall, uncaring as she grazed her ankle.

Freya, not bothering to lock her car, threw a leg over after her and squelched into the field. Shading her eyes with her hand, she didn’t move for a second. ‘Hannah. Can you see what I see?’

‘I can, and whoever’s behind this might want to put a Christmas tree farm in alongside their stupid garden centre, but still and all, dragging Father Christmas along for the show is taking things a step too far.’