Page 45 of Broken Country

One time, watching them together, I asked him if he’d wanted a boy instead of two girls.

“Absolutely not,” he said, not missing a beat. “I’m strictly a ladies’ man. Can’t you tell? But this boy, you would have to admit, is rather special.”

The men come in from the farm at five and take it in turns to wash and change, and by six, we are all assembled around the big oak table, Bobby at the head, wearing a white cowboy hat Eleanor brought down from London.

Nina is not like me at all. If I were walking into a house filled with someone else’s family, I might feel some trepidation. I remember the first time I met David—he barely looked up from his copy ofFarmers Weekly. Afterward, Frank told me he had been depressed ever since Sonia died and that was why. But it was a long time before I was able to relax around him, and it wasn’t until Bobby was born we finally became close.

Nina walks through the front door, not bothering to knock, and stands before a table of strangers, a parcel in her arms that is wrapped in gold paper and tied with a red ribbon. “I don’t suppose there are any Elvis fans here?” she says.

“Me!” Bobby shoots his hand up, as if he’s at school.

“Then you’ll be needing this.” She hands over the parcel.

Inside are a pair of blue suede boots she found in a charity shop, a couple of sizes too big for Bobby but fine with a thick pair of socks.

“I’m never taking them off,” he shrieks, parading around the kitchen, showing each of us in turn.

Jimmy scoops up his nephew, lifts him high up onto his shoulders, and runs around the kitchen with Bobby shrieking in delight. And then, of course, it’s imperative to play “Blue Suede Shoes” on the new record player and it transpires that, as well as giving perfect presents, Nina also knows how to dance. She teaches Bobby to shimmy his shoulders and rotate his hips, Elvis style, the two of them snaking across the kitchen floor in their socked feet, while the rest of us look on, laughing.

I will always say afterward that Jimmy fell in love when Bobby was seven years old—and Bobby did too. For the restof the evening, he watches Nina with eagle-eyed devotion. I can see the thoughts running through his mind:Who is this firecracker and how long can we keep her for?

Dinner with my loved ones follows a familiar pattern. The more wine we drink, the louder we become. There is constant laughter and the odd tense moment when the conversation veers toward politics. When Eleanor becomes heated, slating the Tories, whom David vehemently supports, my mother steps in with a neat subject change.

“Actually we’ve got some news. I’ve been offered a head teachership. But I can’t decide whether or not to take it.”

“Of course you should,” Eleanor says. “High time you had a promotion.”

My mother pauses and I notice how my father is fiddling with his wineglass, twirling it between his fingers.

“It’s in Cork,” she says.

“You mean Ireland?” I can’t keep the shock from my voice. They have a grandson now. How could they consider living anywhere other than Hemston?

“That’s fantastic,” Eleanor cries. “It’s always been Dad’s dream to live in Ireland.” She fixes me with her stern big-sister stare and I offer my reassurances.

“Of course you must go.”

“Really?” my father says, looking up at me.

He knows me so well.

“Absolutely,” I say, firmly. “Time you did something for yourselves.”

“It won’t be forever,” my mother says. “Just a few years. An adventure while we’re young enough to enjoy it.”

She glances at Bobby. “But we will miss this young man so much.”

As the evening wears on, I see how Jimmy and Nina touch one another constantly, her palm resting on his kneebeneath the table, his hand sneaking out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. I catch their secret smiles and handholds, read their longing to be on their own. Nina hasn’t stayed at the farmhouse yet and I doubt her parents would welcome an overnight visit from Jimmy—the affair has been a strictly outdoors, rural one, just like Frank’s and mine at the beginning.

We are all of us transfixed by the new lovers, especially Bobby.

“Are you in love?” Bobby asks Nina.

“Yes,” she says, confidently. “I am.”

Jimmy flushes and looks as if he might erupt with joy.

“Do you think you’ll get married?” Bobby says.

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