"Go on then, pat her down," she said good-naturedly.
"Send them a bottle of house red, with a note saying: "To help the crisis"," she told Mon.
"I thought we were meant to be dislodging the Early Birds," Mon grumbled.
"Yes, you're right, Mon, but we have to be flexible too in this trade," Brenda said.
"A whole bottle, Mrs. Brennan?" Mon was still confused.
"Yes, a very poor wine, one of Patrick's few mistakes, sooner it's drunk the better," Brenda said.
They were overjoyed at the table.
"As soon as we get some money, we'll eat here properly," Ella promised.
And they settled down to the plan of war. Should they just murder Frank now, or go to his house and threaten him? Should Nuala find another lover in the next two hours and taunt Frank about it? Should she write him a hurt, sad letter that would break his heart and unsteady his hand for the rest of his working life? None of these things proved to be necessary, because Frank came into the restaurant looking for Nuala. He was greeted with a great deal of hostility by the three girls. He seemed very bewildered. Yet they were ranged against him and there was no way of talking to Nuala alone.
"All right, then," he said, with his face red and almost tearful. "All right, it wasn't what I had planned, but here we go." He knelt down and produced a diamond ring.
I love you, Nuala, and I was waiting for you to give me an indication of whether you would mind coming to England with me. When you were so silent, I thought you wouldn't come with me. Please, do please, marry me."
Nuala stared at him with delight. I thought you didn't love me, that you were leaving me," she began.
"Will you marry me?" he said, almost purple now.
"Frank, you see, I thought you wanted a career more than ..."
A vein was moving dangerously in Frank's forehead.
I was so upset I had even been looking up jobs in London . .."
Ella could bear it no longer. "NUALA, WILL YOU MARRY HIM ... YES OR NO?" she shouted, and the whole restaurant
watched as Nuala said that of course she would, then everyone cheered.
Deirdre and Ella were to be the bridesmaids three months later. "Maybe I might meet my own true love at Nuala's wedding," Ella said to her mother. I'll certainly be hard to miss in this awful tangerine-coloured outfit she has insisted we wear!"
"You look well in anything," Barbara said.
"Come on, Mam, please. We look like two things dressed up to sell petrol in a garage or to give away sweets for a charity."
"Nonsense, you're much too hard on yourself . .."
"Deirdre was saying that again only the other day, she says you both give me everything I want and praise as well, that I'm a spoiled princess."
"Nothing could be further from the truth."
"But Mam, you don't even nag me about not going to Mass."
"Well, I will if you like, but what good would it do? Anyway Father Kenny says we should look after our own souls and not everyone else's."
"It's late that Father Kenny and the Church have decided that, what about the Crusades and the Missions?"
"I don't suppose you're going to tell me that you think poor Father Kenny was personally involved in the Crusades and the Missions," Barbara said with a smile.
"No, of course not, and I will be polite and respectful all during the wedding ceremony, though I think Nuala's crazy to go for the whole church thing."
"So when the time comes for you, we won't have to alert Father Kenny?"
"No, Mam, but by the time the time comes for me, it could be the planet Mars that might be the in place to get married."
Ella didn't meet her true love at Nuala's wedding, but Deirdre did meet and greatly fancied one of Frank's married brothers, who had come over from London for the wedding.
"Oh, Deirdre, please don't. I beg you, put him down," Ella had said.
"What on earth do you mean?" Deirdre's eyes were wide open with innocence.
"I'm worn out covering for you and that fool of the first order, delaying photographs and everything until the bridesmaid comes back dishevelled with one of the ushers, what are you thinking of?"
"It's okay, it's a bit of a laugh. Nuala would laugh too - will laugh, in fact."
"No, Deirdre, you've got it so wrong, that's her brother-in-law now. Someone she'll be seeing with his wife twice a week in London. Nuala won't laugh, and what's more, she won't know."
"Oh, God, you're so disapproving! That's what people do at weddings, that's what weddings are for."
"Adjust your dress, Deirdre, more piccies to be taken." Ella had a voice like steel.
"What do you mean, adjust my dress?"
"Well, pull it down at the back, it's all caught up in your knickers." Ella had the satisfaction of watching Deirdre's worried face as she beat around hopelessly at the back of her dress, which was, as it happened, not caught up at all.
At the wedding, Ella met Nuala's cousin, a woman she had not met for years. She was just about to leave her job as a science teacher; did Ella know anyone looking for a job?
Ella said she'd love the job herself.
"I didn't know you were going to teach," the woman said, surprised.
"Neither did I, until this minute," said Ella.
Her parents were very surprised at the news also. "You know you can go on at university and take more degrees, the money is there for you," her father said, nodding towards the downstairs flat, where the three women bankers were happy to pay for the privilege of living in a good address like Tara Road.
"No, Dad, really, I've been to the school, they're nice. They don't mind I've no experience. They seem to think I'll be able to manage the kids; well, I'm tall physically . .. that's a help, if it comes to arm wrestling," Ella said with a smile.
"You got a good degree as well," her mother reminded her.
"Yeah, well, that helped, I suppose - anyway I just have to do this teaching diploma, which means lectures in the evenings . .. and since the school is over that way near the university, I was thinking . . ." She wondered how to put this to them. That it was time to leave home. They took it very calmly.
"We had wondered if you'd like to live in the basement flat eventually?" Her father was tentative.
"You'd be free to come and go like the bank girls there are," her mother said. "Nobody to bother you or anything."
"It's just the distance, Mam, it's not about people bothering me. You never have."
"You know, days could go by without your having to see us, just like the tenants. And there are big, strong walls .. ."
She knew this was their last plea, then they would give in. "No, I'm not worried about your hearing my wild parties, Dad. Honestly, it's only to make it all quicker and easier. And I'll be at home often, even staying for whole weekends if you want me."
The deal was done.
"I don't believe you, your own place and a room at home, that's pure greed. Why should you get it all, Ella Brady?" Deirdre said.
"Because I'm reliable, that's why," Ella replied. "I'm no trouble. I never have been. That's why I have such an easy life."
And it all did go easily. Ella liked the school, the other young teachers warned her of the pitfalls, the staffroom bores, the danger of getting sucked into campaigns, how to cope with parent-teacher meetings, how to lobby for better equipment for the lab. She liked the children and their enthusiasm. It seemed only the other day that she was in a classroom on the other side of the desk. The lectures were easy too, and she found herself a flat in a leafy road only five minutes from the school.
"I feel free here somehow, independent," Ella explained to Deirdre.
I don't know why you bothered, you got your meals served to you back in your parents" place, and it's not as if you ever brought a bloke in here, by the looks of things."