by Gillian Callanan
from Sheila Connolly's Many a Twist (County Cork Mystery #6)
Things haven’t been the same in Leap since Maura Donovan
arrived last year.
I mean that in a good way. She all but sneaked into the
village, unsure of her welcome. She’d never been to Ireland before, she’d just
lost her grandmother, and she shows up and is told she has inherited a pub and
a house, which was a complete surprise.
I’m a bit older than she is, but I don’t have many friends
around here, even though I grew up and went to school here. Why so few friends?
For one, I’m an artist, and I’ve spent much of the last ten or twenty years in
Dublin making paintings and earning barely enough to survive. I loved it, but
my mother would have been happier if I’d stayed in West Cork and given her
grandbabies.
For another, I’ve been in love with Harry Townsend for as
long as I can remember. We’ve been together on and off for years, but things
kind of changed when I got pregnant last year. He was going through a rough
patch then, because his nearest relative, his great-aunt Eveline, passed away.
Since we were living with her in her home, the manor house on the harbor,
things got a bit sticky, though Eveline had always been fond of me and hoped
Harry would settle down.
My mother and family were not exactly happy about the
situation, and they stopped speaking to me altogether.
That’s when Maura and I became fast friends. She let me hang
out at her pub, Sullivan’s, and even helped me sell some of my paintings to
passing tourists (and she still keeps a few pictures hanging in the pub).
But it was when she helped me deliver the baby (in hospital,
thanks goodness), and kept Harry from falling apart at the same time, that she
sealed the deal.
Because there were now three of us to think about, Harry
scraped together what money he could and bought the old Creamery on
Ballinlough, down the hill from Maura’s cottage. And then Maura rounded up her
regulars at the pub and persuaded them (with the help of some Guinness) to help
clear out the old building so Harry and I—plus little Henry—could start making
it a home.
You can see the place needs a bit of work, but it's a wonderful site for an artist's studio--or will be when we finish improving it! |
Maura may be a quiet one, but she has a good heart and she
gets the job done. Maybe I should set her to work to win over my mother next.
[Author's postscript, the Creamery is a real place (and my great-grandparents and their sons would have trundled their milk down the hill to here. But imagine my surprise when I drove by it last year and discovered that it had new owners, and they've already done a wonderful job of cleaning it up and modernizing it. Sorry, didn't manage to get any pictures this last trip, but it looks great. And the view of Ballinlough from the back is lovely.]
www.sheilaconnolly.com
How fun that must have been to have see the Creamery fixed up and lived in.
ReplyDelete"Many a Twist" sounds very much like a book I'd love to read.
I'm waiting for the Brooklyn AND Queens County library systems to both get off the proverbial stick and order the book. So until they get it in or I win a copy in a giveaway I will just enjoy hearing how other people think you are the greatest Irish Story author in the US.
ReplyDeleteI'm honored!
DeleteLooking forward to reading this!
ReplyDeleteAh, to watch the evolution! What fun.
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly on my TBR list.
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ReplyDeleteAny chance the new owners will let you see the changes they've made on the inside?
ReplyDeleteWhat an honor to read about real places...thank you for writing about county cork. I need to catch up with Maura and the gang...
ReplyDeleteThat sounds so creative of a place to live. This series sounds quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy book came later than the rest of my Amazon order, but finally got here. I was so excited to read it and it did not let me down. Loved the story and the friendships and relationships and the plot. Such a colorful place to set a story, I want to climb into the book. Thank you Shelia for writing this outstanding series. judy
ReplyDelete