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

Chapter 20

20

‘Why didn’t you tell me what you had planned, Nan? If I’d known, I could have organised placards and jumped on social media to spread the word. Mam and I thought you were skulking about meeting your fancy man with your fibs about popping around to see Reenie.’

‘Fancy man indeed!’ Kitty snorted, reaching up to take Princess Leia from her granddaughter and settle her on her lap. ‘You’ll make a grand little hottie so you will. And I didn’t know what I would do until this morning when I overheard Tom saying he had a meeting here. You’d disappeared by the time I’d made my mind up to interrupt his pow-wow and tell whoever’s behind it I’m against selling this land by staging a sit-in. You know yourself time isn’t on our side with Christmas around the corner.’

Nan’s voice had a rawness to it which Hannah suspected was thanks to the cold and the singing.

‘Only the developer never showed up for the meeting, and you went ahead with your protest anyway,’ Freya said.

Hannah wasn’t letting her nan off the hook that easily. ‘You still could have called me.’

‘I didn’t want you to try and talk me out of it.’

‘To be honest, Nan, I don’t know what I’d have done, but I do know it’s too cold for you out here with your chest.’

Freya backed Hannah up. ‘She’s got a point, Kitty. You were laid up for weeks with the bronchitis not that long ago.’

Kitty flapped her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t you be telling me what’s what and all.’ She changed the subject, asking Hannah, ‘Where did you get to anyway?’

‘Princess Leia and I were canvassing the streets with a petition – well, street at any rate.’ She showed Kitty the signatures she’d gathered. ‘Mam called me while I was with Freya to say where you were, and we came straight here.’

‘So we’ve both been making our stand.’ Kitty looked pleased, and she and Hannah exchanged a smile of solidarity.

‘I don’t understand how all these people found out what you were up to in the first place, Kitty.’ Freya motioned toward the crowd, buzzing about like they were in a fairground. All that was missing was the candyfloss.

‘There was no sense in sitting here protesting if nobody knew about it, so I made a few calls.’

The penny dropped, and Hannah caught Freya’s eye, silently conveying it was Kitty who’d rung Jeremy Jones. She’d probably rung Eileen Carroll as well. As the village gossip, Eileen could spread the word faster than any text message.

‘Well, I’m proud of you, Nan.’

‘So am I, Kitty. And I love your beanie, by the way.’

Kitty patted her hat. ‘I saw it and I bought it.’ She grinned. ‘I fell in love with the little reindeer ears myself.’

‘They’re a lovely touch,’ Freya agreed.

‘Antlers not ears, Nan, and we’ll take over now. Mam and Dad will take you home.’ Hannah glanced over to where her parents were waiting expectantly.

‘You will not muscle in on my act. This is my protest!’

‘But it’s for your own good.’ Hannah regretted the words as soon as they slipped from her mouth. They’d only serve to make her nan dig her heels in more.

True to form, Kitty folded her arms over her chest and broke into another round of ‘We Shall Not Be Moved’.

‘Do you mind if we join you then?’ Freya stepped in to ease family tensions.

Kitty patted the hard ground next to her while her throaty voice drifted across the field.

Hannah could see her mam and dad watching the unfolding scene, and she shrugged over at them as if to say, If you can’t beat them, join them , because just like the song, Nan would not be moved.

The two younger women crowded on either side of Kitty to help keep her warm. Behind them, the door had long since broken free of its hinges and was propped against a wall inside the cottage, the interior of which Hannah imagined was like a cold store preserving memories not of the children who came to play and scare themselves but of the lives lived out within its walls. Mind, if the scuffling she could hear up in the rafters was a clue, she’d say that it was home to a family of mice these days.

Carmel Brady, making her way toward them with a thermos, was a welcome sight, and the takeaway cups she filled with fragrant mulled wine were gratefully received.

‘It’s very kind of you, Carmel.’ Kitty’s teeth were chattering despite her being huddled between Hannah and Freya with Princess Leia acting as a hot-water bottle.

Carmel beamed. ‘Sure, it’s not a bother. When I heard what you were up to, Kitty, I put a pot on the stove to simmer knowing it would be just the ticket. It’s that time of the year, after all.’ Her eyes flitted to the clipboard on Hannah’s lap, and Hannah explained what it was.

‘I’ll put my name to it, and I dare say you can count on the rest of Main Street’s business owners to sign it, too.’ She barely paused to draw breath as her attention switched to Freya. ‘I must say I was surprised to see you here. I thought you were away for the weekend.’

Not wanting her personal business to be the hot topic of conversation among Carmel, Isla and Eileen for the remainder of the afternoon, Freya mumbled something non-committal, and Hannah rescued her by passing the clipboard up to the older woman.

‘Thanks, Carmel.’

‘Good on you for being on the front line, like. You’ve my full support where this is concerned.’ She made a sweeping gesture, taking in the land around them and then tapped the clipboard. ‘I’ll pass it around for you, shall I?’

Carmel was eager to help, and given every signature counted, Hannah thanked her.

The cafe owner’s eyes moved over their heads to the cottage behind and she visibly shuddered. ‘You can feel them here. The ghosts, I mean.’

Hannah felt a prickling at the back of her neck and wondered if Nan and Freya felt it, too. Was Granddad Finbar here with them now? If so, then she hoped he knew they wouldn’t let him down.