Quentins by Maeve Binchy Page B

were open and she was watching. Otherwise, Brenda would have torn it into a dozen pieces.
    Ella gave Blouse directions to her parents’ house. When they arrived, Ella’s mother ran to the car. “I suppose you’re one of his friends,” she said when Blouse helped Ella from the car.
    â€œI’m not really anyone’s friend, Madam. I’m Brenda’s brother-in-law. She asked me to drive this lady home.”
    â€œFrom where, exactly?”
    â€œFrom Quentins restaurant,” he said proudly.
    â€œLeave him, Mam. He’s got nothing to do with anything.”
    â€œWhat do we know what has to do with anything?” Her mother looked as if somebody had given her a beating.
    â€œWhere’s Dad?”
    â€œIn the sitting room. He won’t go to bed. He won’t take any sedation. He says he has to be alert if the office rings him.”
    â€œAnd have they rung him?”
    â€œNot since lunchtime. Not since we learned that Donhas left the country. There’s no point in anyone ringing anyone now, Ella. It’s all gone. All gone.”
    â€œI can’t tell you how sorry I am,” she said.
    â€œWell, I’ll be off now, then,” Blouse Brennan said.
    â€œThank you very much, and will you thank your sister?”
    â€œSister-in-law,” he corrected.
    â€œYes, well, say I’m very grateful.”
    â€œIt’s nothing,” he said.
    â€œHow will you get back?” Ella’s mother realized that he had left the car keys on the table.
    â€œWhich end of Tara Road is shorter to the bus?” he asked cheerfully. He was so unconcerned, he lived in a world where you drove people home in their own cars and took a bus back to a kitchen or scullery or wherever he worked. A world where people weren’t greedy and didn’t win and lose huge sums of money over business deals. He would never know anyone who lied and lied and lied like Don Richardson had lied. Even to people who loved him. Particularly to people who loved him. But Ella was too tired to care anymore. All she wanted was to reassure her father that the world hadn’t come to an end. She wanted to look him in the face and tell him that it would be all right. It was just that with every passing second, it seemed so unlikely that this was true.
    He looked like an old man, a paper-thin old man whose skeleton was covered with a very fine parchment. When he smiled it was like a death head. “I didn’t know, Dad. I didn’t have any idea,” she said.
    â€œIt’s not your fault, Ella.”
    â€œIt is. I introduced him to you. I made you think he was my friend. I thought he loved me, Dad. He told me last night that he loved me. You see, I was sure he did.”
    She knelt beside him. Her mother watched from the door with tears on her face.
    â€œDad, I’m young and I’m strong, and if I have to work day and night to make sure that you and Mother are allright, I will never take a day’s holiday until I know I’ve done all that can be done.”
    â€œChild, don’t upset yourself.” His voice was very hesitant, as if he were having trouble breathing.
    â€œI’m not a child, Dad, and I will be upset, very upset till the day I die that this should happen because I made such a stupid, stupid error of judgment. But you know, Dad, even at this late stage, there could be an explanation. Perhaps it was all his father-in-law’s doing.”
    â€œPlease, Ella. Everyone trusts people when they love them,” her mother said.
    Her mother? Instead of bawling her out, she actually seemed to understand.
    â€œNo, I couldn’t be like ordinary people, normal people like you and Dad, who found someone decent to love. I had to find a criminal, someone who ruins people and steals their livelihood and their savings.”
    â€œI don’t mind losing the savings, Ella, that was just greed. I wanted to make a profit so that we could buy you a