Page 67 of The Secret Bookshop in Ireland

‘No, not right now,’ Ronan said. ‘I don’t want to get down on one knee in front of everyone. That’s so cheesy. Maybe when we’re alone.’

Ciara pushed at him. ‘You don’t have to, you fool. You know what I’ll say anyway.’

‘Is that a yes?’ Oisín asked, holding up his glass of champagne. ‘In that case, cheers to the happy couple.’

‘Cheers!’ everyone shouted so loudly Brian, who had been asleep under the oak, rushed to his feet and started to bark.

Ciara looked around at her mother, Paul Murray, old Nuala, Oisín, Liz and Ronan, her heart nearly bursting with joy. This remote village that had felt so cold and unfriendly now seemed more like the home she had been looking for all her life. She knew she had fulfilled Martha’s wishes and that felt so good.

‘Yes,’ she whispered in Ronan’s ear. ‘I’ll marry you tomorrow if you want.’

He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her tight. ‘As soon as we can arrange it anyway.’

She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed happily, looking at the pink and orange clouds, feeling that both her father and Martha were smiling at them from above. The revivalof Cherrywood had started. Making it what it had been once would be impossible. But it would live again in some new way that was more in tune with the times.

EPILOGUE

A YEAR LATER

‘And then they were married and lived happily ever after,’ Ciara said and closed the book. She looked at the children sitting in the reading corner, who had listened intently while she read the story of Cinderella. This was the Saturday story time for children that she had started as soon as the bookshop was opened. Nancy Lincoln, the little girl she had met when they had just arrived, had been there every week with her friends from Enniskerry, all four-year-olds who loved to listen to stories from the old storybooks Ciara had found in a cupboard. They were lovely books with beautiful illustrations, one of which she now showed to the children sitting on small chairs she had ordered from IKEA.

‘Here is the happy couple coming out of the church,’ she said, holding the book up for the children to see. ‘Isn’t Cinderella pretty in her dress and veil?’

‘But what if Cinderella didn’t really want to marry the prince?’ Nancy asked. ‘She might have wanted to work in an office instead.’

‘She could do both,’ the girl sitting beside Nancy argued. ‘My mammy works and she’s married.’

‘Princesses don’t work,’ Nancy said. ‘So she couldn’t, even if she wanted to.’

‘That’s very unfair,’ a third little girl said. ‘I wouldn’t like that at all.’

‘I’d like the clothes, but I wouldn’t want to sit in a palace doing nothing,’ Nancy stated. ‘But it was a good story, Ciara. Cinderella won over those nasty stepsisters. Why is your tummy getting bigger and bigger?’ she asked in nearly the same breath.

‘Because I’m having a baby,’ Ciara replied, putting a hand on her stomach. ‘It will be born next month.’

‘Is it a girl or a boy?’ Nancy’s friend asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Ciara replied. ‘I wanted it to be a surprise.’

‘Why?’ the girl asked. ‘My mammy knew I was getting a brotherwaybefore he was born.’

‘Sometimes you don’t want to know,’ Ciara said and closed the book. ‘Your mammies will be coming in to collect you in a minute, but you can go out and play in the garden while you wait.’

‘Is Brian coming too?’ Nancy asked, pointing at the dog, who was lying by Ciara’s feet.

Ciara slowly got up from her chair. ‘He will if I come with you.’ She clapped her hands. ‘Come on, kids, let’s go outside.’

The children and Brian followed her out into the sunlit garden that had been transformed during the past year. When the garden firm had finished, Maureen had taken over, turning the space into an enchanting garden with plants that thrived in the acid soil and now, in the July sunshine, camellias and rhododendrons in full bloom competed with the cherry blossom further away. Ciara sat down on the bench under the big oak and watched as the children played on the swings and in the little Wendy house they had put up for the new little boy or girl that would soon arrive.

Ciara sat there and thought back on the past year. What a rollercoaster experience it had been to first discover that she had inherited the bookshop, to find out about her father’s origins, meeting Ronan and falling in love, then working so hard on the bookshop until the grand opening exactly a year ago. And then their wedding that had been the big event of her life. Maureen and Elaine had both wept in each other’s arms as Ciara walked down the aisle of the old Catholic church, alone because she felt nobody could take her father’s place. Not even Paul Murray, who had offered as he was now ‘Maureen’s special friend’.

He had been such a great help to create a buzz around the Brian Boru Bookshop. Paul had appeared on both national radio and TV, talking about his memoirs. Many of the guests who had attended the launch were now regular customers. Paul was now planning another launch for his cosy murder mystery that would be published in the autumn. The reading corner was very popular with book clubs all the way from Wicklow town and parts of Dublin, who loved the cosy space with the little stove spreading warmth, and the lamps and Oisín’s paintings hanging between the bookshelves, the colours glowing like jewels. It was a quirky, welcoming place where friends met for coffee, helping themselves at the coffee machine they had installed, and then discussing the books they had read.

‘Martha would be so proud of you,’ Maureen said when the first group had departed.

‘I can feel her cheering us on from somewhere above,’ Ciara said.

She smiled as she sat there, thinking that the success of the shop had been so much more than they had hoped, and she felt proud of having created a place for people to meet and make new friends. Their new home would soon be ready and she looked forward to moving into the old vicarage, where Ronan had already set up the office for his firm that he had just started up,working with several solicitors who needed help with probate and finding heirs to estates that were difficult to find.