What Once Was True (Robinswood #1)

by Jean Grainger

how much land Austin, Sam’s father, had given up,

sure you and your family are taken care of, I promise. ‘To be totally honest, she’d been

easy for him, but surely there was something less drastic

breathe a word or she’ll go mad. Old Lady Kenefick gave it

fellas are gone over to England—Sam Kenefick, Douglas

after the last one, but Hitler wasn’t going to be stopped, it would seem. Most of the local Protestants were gone, but

indulged Kate’s mad notions. ‘The British have sent more than enough young Irish men to their deaths that last time

character. Kate drew attention wherever she went with her unruly black curls. She looked like a painting Eve had seen one time of a gypsy girl, all dark hair and flashing eyes. She was tiny, barely five feet, with a handspan

bear to leave her, so he settled in County Galway and they raised a huge family, Isabella being the youngest. When people questioned her exotic name, their mother explained she was named after her father’s mother, who pined away in Granada for her only boy, who

more like her father’s side. Tall and well built, strong from all the manual labour, with copper-coloured hair that was neither curly like Kate’s nor shiny and straight like Aisling’s but just kind of wavy with a mind of its own. Her hazel eyes were set wide apart, and a sprinkling of freckles dusted her nose. She didn’t take the sun, unlike her sisters and mother, who in the summer were the colour of conkers. She felt so dowdy beside them and was sure that where looks were concerned, she’d really drawn the short straw. Aisling burst in the door. It was unusual for the three girls to be at home alone, but their mother had gone to settle Mrs Kenefick in for the night and Daddy was out looking for poachers. Someone was helping themselves to rabbits and pheasants off the estate, and he was determined to find out who it was. ‘Well, how was the big occasion?’ Kate delivered the last word in a high-pitched warble that had her sisters giggling. ‘Stop!’ Aisling took off her coat and hung it up behind the door. ‘She was grand. Not exactly welcome-to-the-family, but fine. Poor Sean was mortified, though, with her going on and on about how he was top of his class in school, and all the hurling medals he won, and how he was basically the best person for four counties. Poor fella nearly died. He kept trying to change the subject, but she’s determined, you’d have to give her that. I had to see his certificates and medals and everything. That house is like a shrine to him. He was disgrac...

called her ‘India face.’ Something about her memories of that time softened her, but the reality of dreary Ireland always brought her back to earth with a bang. Her father had been transferred from London

villa in Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas, to his parents’ draughty, crumbling old pile here in County

many of the neighbouring families who lived in houses like Robinswood even had to leave for a while. Everything

of monies owed seemed, well, unpatriotic. ‘Well, damn you, Austin,’ Violet muttered crossly. The aroma of baking bread wafted up from the kitchen. Isabella was preparing the meal for this evening, though it hardly seemed worth the effort just for one. Still, she laid the table in the dining room each evening, and there, Violet sat alone. Not for too much longer, at least. Charlie Warren, a neighbouring farmer, was going to lease the land, and Samuel had reluctantly agreed they should sell off what was left of the antiques, paintings, china and glass, and all the rest of it, and shut the house. Nobody would buy it even if Samuel could have borne

well you know it. I said you were not allowed because

blinking dance, I’ll murder you with my own bare hands, do

smiled. ‘My father has a kind of trolley cart over there. He kind of shunts it onto that, and then he can pull it out on the wheels. But it will take two.’

Something had told her he would be fine, and he would return and they would have a family. But the thought of Samuel up in the sky, only the thin metal of an aeroplane between her boy and Hitler’s bullets and bombs, filled her with a dark dread. Part of her wanted to stay away from the war, but a stronger part felt, irrationally, she knew, that if she was on English soil once more, gazing up at English skies, she could, in some way, protect Samuel. The Irish prime minister—though they didn’t call him that, they used some ridiculous Irish

Violet could not say what she needed to if he was all the way over at the door. ‘Very well.’ Dermot walked in and sat opposite her, as he’d presumably done so often with Austin over the years. Austin had been so much better at dealing with the staff. He was Irish, after all, she supposed, and he just seemed to be able to connect with them in a way that eluded her. And, of course, he

it.’ ‘I know, but I just don’t think he will. I’ll certainly

army paid for with the King’s shilling, ye turned ye’re guns on us. Oskar left for Germany, and poor old Mick was shot in the back, shot while he walked down the street in his own city, by your crowd. I have his young fella working here now, a lad that grew up without his father.’ Charlie shook his head. ‘The Free State army threw me in jail again after we lost touch, and do you know what? The Brits taught ye well, all you so-called men who turned their backs on their brothers in arms. Your lot tortured and terrorised us every bit as efficiently as the Black and Tans before them, the good

everyone off again, and Eve felt like she and Jack were

five people in one go? Nobody. And there is so much else

Hamilton-Brooks in her debt, but still. Honestly, the sooner she was out of this ridiculous country, the better.

really talked to anyone else. She and he had been friends since they could walk, even though he was the same age as Eve. Once Eve was old enough, she was doing jobs for Mammy in the kitchen when she wasn’t at school, so Kate was left to play with Lillian and Sam. Kate had always known that someday their lives would part—she was an Irish Catholic girl from a working family, and he was gentry. They would

herself. ‘No, I don’t mean that. I miss you the way a chap might miss his girl. I know you’re not my girl or anything like it, and maybe it’s just that I don’t know any

maybe your father would hate me more for encouraging you to come to England with everything that’s happening, but I know you’re adventurous, and I think you’d love it.’ They sat on a big flat rock, the icy-cold but clear

together, I could explain that I would take care of you, and that—’ ‘Ah, Sam, did you come down in the last shower?’ Kate interrupted. ‘How will you look after me? My father would have an absolute canary if he thought I was going to Dungarvan with you, let alone over to England. I appreciate that you’re trying to do the right thing and everything, but honestly, that won’t work. Not with them. If I’m going to do this, then it has to be secretly. They can’t know anything about

now,’ he said. ‘Just have a think about it. I’m here for a few more days. I’m helping Mother get everything packed away or sold, so you don’t need to do anything for a while. I... I hate the rift it would cause, but the idea that we could be together, over there, well, it would be

suppose. But I was just so upset to hear you all wouldn’t be kept on here.’ They stood up and Sam put out his hand to help her, something he would never have done

sign. Then, seeing the tape measure on the dresser, she remembered Aisling and Eve were in Dungarvan. Mammy

an embrace, and Aisling joined them. Together, they stood, saying nothing, each girl feeling the same. They broke apart as Jack entered the kitchen. He and Eve were going to the pictures.

right?

her. Eve punched him playfully. ‘I saw that Sean Lacey the other day,’ Jack

did too, but whenever things got to that stage with the kissing, they stopped. She assumed he was as scared

panicked. ‘Eve, I’m trying—well, I’ve been trying

laughs they always had seemed to have become a thing of the past. Dermot had spoken to Lady Kenefick about the job offer in Dublin, and she was making contact with her friends. Isabella knew how hard it had been for him to go back on his earlier word, but he’d done it for her. They’d decided not to say anything to the girls

This was his fault as well. If Aisling had not been so let down by him… Dermot fought the urge to go in there and wring his scrawny neck. Still, Aisling would never have gone without Kate egging her on. Kate got her determination from him, and though she looked like her mother, with her dark curls and vivid eyes, she lacked Isabella’s pragmatism and ability to weigh things up. When Dermot was younger, he was just as impetuous, just as rash, but he was a man. He could take care of himself. The idea of his two lovely girls, so innocent and unworldly, no matter what they might think, over there in England, with people ready to exploit them

over to the ladies outside the grocer. ‘Good morning, ladies, sorry to disturb you now, but you haven’t seen my girls, Kate and Aisling, have you?’ All three stopped immediately and gave him their full attention. Dermot Murphy knew he was a bit of an enigma and any interaction with him would be seen as something out of the ordinary. He’d lived a double life for so long during The Troubles, keeping himself separate from others, and he knew he and his family were a source of interest because of it. Joanie Boyle was the first to speak. For some bizarre reason, she wore bright red rouge on her cheeks and lips and drew her eyebrows on with a pencil, two perfect black semicircles.

wondering if there was any way to check if they had made contact with Lord Kenefick? He...em... He would be someone they would know in England and...em...maybe they might have...’ Eve swallowed. As far as she was aware, Lady Violet knew nothing of Sam

place people could sign up for either the army, the navy, or the air force, and Kate was determined to get into the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Samuel had explained all about the WAAF to Kate. Who they were, where you went to sign up, everything—and Kate was absolutely smitten with the idea. She could not get into a uniform fast enough. Aisling wondered how much of her enthusiasm was down to the fact that Sam was in the RAF and how much of it was because she thought she’d

uniform of the WAAF and urging women to ‘Serve in the WAAF with the men who fly,’ or ‘Take the road to Victory,

anything.’ Kate saw the doubt on her sister’s face. ‘Think of it, Ais, being brought

up with a solution like it’s your problem as much as mine… The list goes on.’ Eve lay her head on his

and though nobody could see in, Eve pulled the thin curtains. Suddenly, she was nervous. She was not married, and here she was in a bedroom with a man.

electric shocks through her body. He led her to the small single

sister into the bargain. ‘Oh, we’ve joined up. We are

But by then, Eve had been born and Aisling was on the way, and they’d stayed at the estate for the security

evenings were beginning to lengthen, and it was usually a time of life and regrowth. Yesterday, she’d looked

estate. Violet was gone, and Isabella felt mostly relief, but also frustration. She knew full well the reason for Violet’s venom yesterday.