Secrets and Shadows Read Online Free

in a small cottage in Coolock, so there wasn’t really room there for two more people. And so Grace and Ma had come to Granddad’s house.
    Ma had said that there were two ways of looking at this. You could say they had been really unlucky to lose their home andeverything in it. Or you could say they had been blessed to walk out of it in one piece. Ma always looked on the bright side, so she felt that they were blessed, and when Grace thought of all the people who had been killed and injured, she had to agree.
    It was good, too, the way Ma always tried to find the fun in any situation. She said that because Granddad’s house was near the cattle market Grace would be able to enjoy the drovers herding cattle along Stoneybatter – where the animals sometimes ran amok – and because they were also near the Phoenix Park they could go to watch the polo there, or to see the dogs swimming in the dog pond.
    Ma wasn’t just a dreamer, though, she also got things done. Already she had enrolled Grace in the nearby Stanhope Street convent. It was too far to get to Grace’s old school at North Strand, but although there was less than a month to go until term ended, Ma had insisted that Grace couldn’t miss school. And Ma and Granddad had combined to get Grace a part-time job, with Granddad persuading a friend who ran a local cake shop to hire Grace, starting tomorrow.
    ‘Well, that hit the spot,’ said Granddad now, ending his argument with Uncle Freddie about the orchestras, and pushing away his plate.
    ‘Yeah, fair play to you, Nancy,’ said Freddie, looking approvingly at Ma. ‘Us aul’ bachelors aren’t used to having a good cook like yourself around the place.’
    Ma smiled at the compliment, and Grace felt uneasy. Ma hadalways said Freddie was a confirmed bachelor. He had a good job as an electrician with the Electricity Supply Board, but he had never married, never even left home, and now in his late forties he was set in his ways. So why was he flattering Ma, the way Grace had seen fellas do when they wanted to impress girls? Surely he couldn’t be thinking about Ma that way? It wasn’t that Ma wasn’t goodlooking – she had flashing brown eyes, and dark hair and sallow skin like Grace’s. And though she was fifty now her face looked young and she had no grey in her hair. And widows did sometimes marry again. But still.
Uncle Freddie.
No, she was probably imagining it.
    ‘I see the Army Band is playing in the Hollow next weekend,’ said Granddad.
    ‘Really?’ said Ma.
    The Hollow was a little valley with a bandstand, just inside the Phoenix Park. As a lover of brass bands, Granddad went there regularly.
    ‘Sure maybe we’d all wander up to see them,’ suggested Uncle Freddie, raising an eyebrow and looking at Ma.
    Grace looked at her mother, hoping she would politely decline.
    Ma hesitated, then she nodded casually. ‘Yeah, maybe we will.’
    No!
thought Grace, although she was careful to keep her feelings from showing. Even though she was grateful to Granddad for taking them in and making them welcome, she hated the idea of being away from her friends over the summer. And now, to make things worse, Uncle Freddie sounded like he might be taking ashine to her mother. It didn’t bear thinking about. And maybe she was reading it wrong. But she wasn’t looking forward to the next few weeks.

    ‘I couldn’t, Grandma!’ said Barry, putting aside his teacup and looking appealingly at his grandmother.
    ‘Of course you could, love,’ she answered, clearing away the crockery after their evening meal.
    ‘I can’t just go and knock on their door. I’ve never met them.’
    ‘Sure aren’t the Ryans one of my oldest neighbours? I was talking to Thomas. I said I’d send you down.’
    ‘But, Grandma…’
    ‘No making strange, Barry. They’re expecting you. The Ryans are lovely people; you’ll be welcome as the flowers in May.’
    Barry hesitated. It wasn’t that he was shy – he had always been good at