Dear Reader, I’m so delighted to welcome you to my latest novel. I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. To all of you who have loyally supported me and bought my books over the years, a massive ‘Thank You’. I can’t believe it’s twenty-five years since City Girl was published, and so many of you have been with me on that journey! To new readers, thank you too for buying A Time for Friends. I hope it gives you great enjoyment. To all of my lovely Facebook followers at https://www.facebook.com/patriciascanlanauthor, your kind and supportive comments are wonderful and it is so good to be able to engage with my readers and get their views. Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy! Love and Blessings, Patricia Also by Patricia Scanlan Apartment 3B Finishing Touches Foreign Affairs Promises, Promises Mirror Mirror Francesca’s Party Two for Joy Double Wedding Divided Loyalties Coming Home Trilogies City Girl City Lives City Woman Forgive and Forget Happy Ever After Love and Marriage With All My Love First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015 A CBS COMPANY Copyright © Patricia Scanlan 2015 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved. The right of Patricia Scanlan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. Simon & Schuster UK Ltd 1st Floor 222 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8HB www.simonandschuster.co.uk Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN: 978-1-47111-080-1 Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-47111-081-8 eBook ISBN: 978-1-47111-083-2 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Typeset by M Rules Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY I dedicate this book with much love to the dearest of friends: My sister Mary, who is also the perfect friend, and who kept the show on the road while I took some time out to finish this book. Aidan Storey and Murtagh Corrigan – my stalwarts, who gave me their guest room, fed and watered me, and made me laugh when I needed it most. Pam and Simon Young and Mary Helen Hensley, who are with me every step of the way and beyond. And to the memory of Anita Notaro: a true, loyal and steadfast friend. Our great loss is heaven’s gain. Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket! Anon C ONTENTS PROLOGUE PART ONE CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN PART TWO CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE PART THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE CHAPTER FORTY CHAPTER FORTY-ONE CHAPTER FORTY-TWO CHAPTER FORTY-THREE CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR EPILOGUE P ROLOGUE The sun is shining through the window on the landing. Rays of diffused light streaming onto the red-gold-patterned carpet that covers the stairs. This will be one of the many things to remember on this life-changing day that will be buried deep in the recesses of the mind in the years that follow. The sounds will never be forgotten either. The groaning and grunting getting louder at the top of the stairs. The absolute terror of feeling something is wrong. That a loved one is ill. The bedroom door is open. The sickening tableau is revealed. A gasp of shock escapes as innocence is lost, and life alters its course forever in that instant. The man and woman turn at the sound. Horror crosses the man’s face as the woman untangles her legs from him. Both of them are naked. The woman’s hair is mussed, cascading like a blonde waterfall over her rounded creamy breasts. The man grabs his trousers to hide his pale-skinned, hairy nudity. ‘Wait!’ he calls frantically. ‘Wait!’ But it’s too late. A burden is added to the hurt and sadness already borne. July 1965 ‘Do I have to ask her to my party, Mammy? She just is so mean to my friends. She says horrible things and she tells Aileen that she’s fat!’ Hilary Kinsella gives a sigh of exasperation as she studies her mother’s face to try and gauge what Sally’s response will be. Surreptitiously she crosses the fingers of both hands behind her back as she gazes expectantly at her mother who is rubbing the collar of her elderly father’s white shirt with Sunlight soap, before putting it in the washing machine. ‘Colette shouldn’t say things like that, but I think she’s a little bit jealous of you and Aileen being friends. She doesn’t really mean it,’ Sally says kindly. ‘And it would be a bit cruel not to invite her to your birthday party. Wouldn’t it now?’ Hilary’s heart sinks. She has been hoping against hope that just this once she can have fun with her friends and not have to listen to Colette O’Mahony boasting and bragging about her huge birthday party which will be two weeks after Hilary’s own. ‘But, Mammy, she says that we can’t afford to go on holidays to Paris on a plane like she does, an’ she says her mammy and daddy have more money than we do,’ Hilary exclaims indignantly, seeing that she is getting nowhere. ‘Well we can’t afford to go abroad and the O’Mahonys do have more money than we do,’ Sally says equably, twisting another shirt to get rid of the excess water before dropping it into the twin tub. ‘But do you not think
