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‘Nothing. I just thought I’d come have a look. The door was open and I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be or if someone had left it open by mistake.’ She sounded a little defensive.
‘Well, thank you for checking it out,’ Georgie said, suddenly feeling as if she didn’t want Nola intruding here, but she had to remind herself that Nola had as much right to be here as she had. She should just be grateful that she wasn’t part of a masked gang breaking in to do untold damage to the place.
‘You’re welcome,’ she said stiffly, looking about her and taking it all in. ‘This place has changed.’
‘It has.’ Georgie smiled with an absurd pride she knew she had absolutely no right to feel, as the changes Nola was talking about had been made by their father. ‘Is it your first time in here since we came back?’
‘Yes.’ Nola looked a little embarrassed. ‘I just never felt as if… Well, this place… It always felt off limits, didn’t it?’
‘Did it?’ Maybe Nola was right. Certainly, it felt very often as if their father spent as much time as he could here to escape the emptiness left at home when their mother died. Of course, Georgie had pushed her way through that when they were kids, but then, she didn’t have Myles or Moira to fill the gap.
She looked at Nola now in the half-light, standing there wet and windblown, and she could see that fragile little girl she remembered from years earlier. It made her catch her breath for a moment, as if she’d been thrown back to some earlier time, before they’d all fallen out so badly. ‘You know, he’d have wanted you here as much as he wanted me. I think a lot of the times, I only got in the way, but unlike you, there was no point sending me to dancing or singing classes.’ They both laughed at that because it was true. Georgie had two left feet and a voice to put the crows out of business. ‘Fancy the grand tour?’
‘Yes, all right,’ Nola said. Georgie brought her through the distilling process from beginning to end, explaining as much as she could from what Robert and her own research had taught her.
‘Goodness, you seem to know so much about it all,’ Nola said.
Georgie peered at her sister suspiciously. ‘Is that your way of telling me to shut up?’
‘Not at all!’ Nola held her hands up in the air. ‘Why do you always have to assume the worst?’
Georgie sighed. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I suppose I do go on a bit, but I find it all fascinating.’ That was the truth. She spent more time down here learning about the process than she had on the marketing plan. If she put her mind to it, she could put together a top-notch plan for the whole factory in two weeks flat.
Nola seemed to accept her apology with grace, and they came to a silent truce. ‘What about the marketing work you’re doing here? Do you have any drawings, or is it secret until it’s all done?’
‘No. It’s not secret at all; in fact I was going to bring up three different ideas I’ve been working on one of the evenings this week, for you both to take a look,’ Georgie said, feeling unexpectedly nervous.
‘Oh, well, that’s exciting,’ Nola said softly. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’ As her eyes met Georgie’s, Georgie could see that she really meant it. But then she looked away, the hint of a smile drawing up across her pretty features, revealing just one dimple in her left cheek. Georgie remembered that look from when they were kids. Back then, it usually meant that Nola had a secret she was bursting to tell them.
‘What is it?’ Georgie asked.
‘Nothing, it’s nothing.’ Nola bit her lip. But it clearly wasn’t, because she got up now, rubbed her hands together and laughed. ‘I never was any good at keeping secrets from either of you, was I?’
‘Come on, whatever it is—’
‘I wasn’t going to say anything, but I just can’t stop thinking about it.’ She turned to face Georgie now and took a deep breath. ‘Iris is pregnant.’
Georgie felt as though she’d been slapped, hard, across her face. ‘What? She can’t be pregnant. Can she?’ But all she was thinking was, she’d left it late; she was forty now. ‘Of course, what am I saying? Sure, she was always going to be a mammy, the only mystery is what took them so long to get around to it, isn’t it?’
‘I know, I thought that too, but—’
‘I wonder why she didn’t say anything to me?’
‘Maybe it’s early days—’
‘When did she tell you?’ Georgie couldn’t help but feel a bit put out that Iris had confided in Nola and not mentioned a word to her. Nola had just as prickly a relationship with Iris as she had, didn’t she?
‘No, of course she didn’t tell me.’ Nola nudged Georgie with her shoulder and rolled her eyes. ‘As if she’d tell me anything… No, she has an app on her phone. It seems she’s in the first trimester. I looked it up and the only thing she might be feeling now is morning sickness, but—’
Georgie gasped. ‘She’s been working like a bloody horse down at that cottage.’
‘Well, you were all for it and then she almost bit my head off when I tried to talk her out of it.’
‘I was all for it because I didn’t know she was pregnant.’ She stopped for a minute, tried to get her bearings. ‘You knew then? How long have you known?’
‘Since the day she collected me at the airport.’
‘But she’s been drinking wine and—’
