Free Stand by Me by Sheila O'Flanagan Page B

than this. But, she told herself, it was being proposed to by the right man that was the important thing. And so she smiled at him and told him that he was the only man in the world for her and that she loved him with all her heart. And then he kissed her in the drab front room, while two generations of Bradys stared unblinkingly at them from the frames of their black and white photos.
     

Chapter 4
     
    The wedding was arranged for the following month. Dominique rang Maeve and asked her to be her bridesmaid, and Maeve shrieked with an excitement that was a little more muted when Dominique told her about her pregnancy, although she didn’t tell her about the horrible, horrible night when her mother had found out and when she’d feared that Brendan had hung up on her for ever.
     
    ‘Of course it was a shock,’ she admitted to Maeve now. ‘And I know I should’ve been more careful. Even when we were . . . you know . . . there was something in the back of my mind telling me that I might regret it. But I don’t, Maeve. I really don’t.’
     
    ‘I realise you’re madly in love with him,’ said Maeve. ‘All the same, Dominique – a baby!’
     
    ‘It’s not ideal,’ agreed Dominique. ‘But the thing is, I love him and I want to get married to him and he loves me too. He really does. So what’s the point in waiting?’
     
    ‘He’s a bogger, though.’
     
    ‘He’s the sweetest, nicest person you ever met,’ Dominique told her. ‘I want to marry him, Maeve. I really do. It’s nothing to do with being pregnant.’
     
    ‘Fair enough, so,’ said Maeve. ‘I bet everyone in our class in school would be shocked if they heard you were getting married.’
     
    ‘I bet they would too.’
     
    ‘So where are you going to live?’
     
    ‘We’ve bought a house.’ Dominique couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice. ‘It’s in Firhouse, near Templeogue. Brendan knows the builder and we’re getting a really good deal on it. Although he says that when he makes lots of money from his own construction company, we’ll move somewhere bigger and even better.’
     
    ‘You have it all worked out.’
     
    ‘Yes,’ said Dominique. ‘We have.’
     
     
    Gabriel wrote to say that he would come back from Valladolid for the wedding. His letter to Dominique told her that all of God’s children were loved, even those who had slipped off the path. She gritted her teeth as she read it and then screwed it into a tight ball before throwing it in the bin. She didn’t want to hear Gabriel’s pious thoughts. At least she was living her life, not locking herself away in a monastery or whatever, doing nothing but praying. Anyway, she thought with a sudden flash of amusement, between the prayers of her parents and those of Gabriel, her immortal soul was probably just fine. If she believed in all that claptrap. Which she didn’t.
     
     
    Brendan brought Dominique to Cork to meet his family the day after he’d given her a simple gold engagement ring with a small solitaire diamond.
     
    Dominique, stressed by her mother’s disapproval and her father’s grim looks, was delighted to escape from Dublin for a weekend, although she was nervous about meeting the Delahaye family for the first time.
     
    ‘Your parents might hate me,’ she said.
     
    ‘They won’t hate you,’ Brendan assured her. ‘They’ll be delighted to meet you.’
     
    Dominique wasn’t so sure about that. No Irish mother liked to think that her son was marrying a woman because she was pregnant, even if he insisted that they were going to get married anyway. Dominique feared that Lily Delahaye would think that she’d trapped her son and that she’d despise her for it. It was bad enough that her own mother thought of her as some kind of immoral trollop, without her future mother-in-law harbouring the same notions. But she didn’t say this to Brendan.
     
    The day they travelled down to Cork was warm and sunny, and Dominique felt unexpectedly