Read Online The Ballroom Café by Ann O'Loughlin - Free Book Online

soapy steel pad, her trousers sodden with dirty water, her fingers red from the combination of the hot water and the frenetic scrubbing. When she finished polishing the oak floorboards, they looked as they had done when Ella’s great-grandaunt had had fine gatherings in the big room with a view. An invitation to such an evening was like gold dust; revellers were prepared to travel from as far away as Dublin to spend time at Roscarbury Hall.
    ‘We will have to ask Mulligan to put putty in the windows and give them a lick of paint,’ Ella said. As she finished polishing the ballroom’s bevelled glass, she spotted Muriel Hearty beetling up the avenue. ‘Well, I knew it would not take her long.’
    Roberta also saw Muriel come up the driveway and up the steps to the front door. She pushed her hip flask deep in her handbag and stayed out of sight in the side library. But Muriel Hearty knew her way around Roscarbury Hall and rapped on the window. She waved, forcing Roberta to fix a smile on her face and go to the front door.
    ‘Roberta, how are you?’ Muriel Hearty shot into the hall before she was even invited. ‘Well now, what has been happening here? I even thought the garden looked all spruced up. Are ye expecting important visitors or what?’
    ‘Haven’t you arrived, Muriel?’ Roberta said, making her visitor beam with pleasure. ‘How are things at the post office?’ she added.
    ‘Oh, you know, up and down. Gerry O’Hare keeps getting letters from the Revenue. Don’t know what all that is about.’
    ‘Aren’t we lucky we don’t get much post or you would be able to tell us what is happening in our lives as well.’
    Muriel giggled uncomfortably. ‘Ah sure, I mean no harm. Actually, I am here because there is a huge parcel delivery, several boxes, coming out of Gorey for Ella.’
    ‘Of course, I would know nothing about that.’
    The two women listened as they heard Ella clumping down the stairs.
    ‘I will leave you to it,’ Roberta said as her sister arrived in the hallway.
    ‘Ella there is a delivery coming in from Gorey for you. You are going to have to get Gerry O’Hare to collect it,’ Muriel said, already peering up the staircase.
    ‘Muriel, you could have phoned. There was no need to come out of your way like this.’
    ‘Ah sure, the fresh air is good for me. Now tell me, some in town say you are setting up a bed and breakfast and others say an even bigger restaurant. Which is it?’
    ‘A café, Muriel, in the old ballroom on the first floor, and in the garden in the summer. Come on up and I will show you.’
    Muriel made a straight line for the stairs, eager to see at first hand the goings-on at Roscarbury Hall.
    ‘Have you heard that Tom Mason’s wife has left him?’ She did not wait for an answer. ‘Just packed her bags last night and said she had found a new man, who could love her, and off she went. I believe he opened the butcher shop as normal, though when I went to get a bit of steak I saw he was putting a lot of oomph into the cleaver chopping.’
    Ella did not say anything, but led the way down the long corridor to the ballroom door. ‘It is still a bit of a mess, but we are getting there.’
    She opened the door. The floor dazzled and the windows sparkled, throwing light onto the two tables, set up in red and white.
    ‘Now let’s sit and have some tea,’ Ella said, directing Muriel to a seat by the window.
    ‘Well, haven’t ye done a fine job? I can see myself having a lot of cuppas here. What a great place for a chat.’
    ‘And a gossip,’ Ella added, though she tried to dilute the barbed tone of her voice.
    Debbie appeared with a pot of tea for two and ginger cake cut into neat squares, a dab of cream on the side.
    ‘I could get used to this,’ Muriel laughed.
    ‘Tell me more about Tom Mason. I always thought he and Tricia were happy.’
    ‘So did all of us, and I think so did the fool Tom Mason. She won’t get better than a butcher. Sure, people eat meat in good