Anne Korkeakivi - An Unexpected Guest

Time rained down on Clare. 8:30 a.m. on the clock hanging above the breakfast alcove. Twenty-five years of pretending Ireland never existed.

She would have to step again into that air terminal. Stare into the dark waters of the River Liffey. Look over her shoulder at every instant.

Remember.

The ambassador has just been diagnosed with viral pneumonia, Edward had whispered last evening, sliding his BlackBerry into his inner jacket pocket, as they entered a cocktail reception for the Franco-British Entente Cordial program. And the permanent under-secretarys flight touched down at Charles de Gaulle forty-five minutes ago. Hes requested the dinner in his honor tomorrow night be shifted to our place.

How many people?

Twelve. With us included.

The permanent under-secretary could have easily asked Edward who, as British minister in Paris, was deputy head of the embassy to take over as host in the Salon Bleu. If the P.U.S. wanted dinner moved from the ambassadors residence to their place, he was seizing the opportunity to size Edward up in his own territory. The P.U.S. was in charge of ambassadorial appointments.

Shed touched Edwards solid wrist. Ive got it. Shed given him a thumbs-up and begun mentally planning. Shed been happy.

She hadnt yet known what country the P.U.S. had in mind.

Now she was drinking her morning coffee in the Residences spacious white kitchen, calmly making a list for this evening. She did not glance at Edward, reading through a pile of briefs beside his tea and toast and marmalade. She continued drinking her coffee and eating her own toast quietly, as she did every morning. She did nothing that might betray her anguish.

If tonights dinner went well, Edward would be named the new ambassador to Ireland.

Word is, Edward had said after theyd gotten home last night, unwinding his tie from his neck, Michael Leroy is being named to Israel.

Michael Leroy? The ambassador in Dublin?

Not after August. Apparently hes wanted Tel Aviv for ages. Not enough chaos for him in Ireland currently.

Shed allowed her nightgown to fall over her head, obscuring her expression just long enough to erase it, and slipped in between their beds cool sheets, pulling them up close to her chin. Edward didnt know with what care, during the two decades they had been married, shed avoided stepping foot on Irish soil. He didnt realize shed ever even been to Dublin. Edward knew when she woke she would brush her teeth both before and after breakfast. He knew that even in the flurry of preparations she would not tell Amlie, their well-meaning housekeeper, what a pain it was to communicate in Amlies broken English. But Edward knew nothing about her really, because he knew nothing about her life before him. He knew only the part shed chosen to show him.

Thanks to her serene efficiency all these years not just in entertaining but also in deception Edward had probably thought he was handing her a present.

So, shed said, Dublin will soon be vacant.

Edward had kissed her forehead. Yes, Dublin will soon be vacant. Hed turned off their bedrooms overhead light, and shed heard his measured tread move down the hall towards the study. Hed have meetings to prepare for now that he would be replacing the ambassador throughout the following day.

Ireland.

Portobello Road, number eighty-three, she told the cabdriver after she climbed into the cab at the Dublin airport, taking care to cradle her tummy in a protective fashion. When they pulled up in front of the unmarked brown building, the River Liffey seething below, she hoisted her long frame back out of the cab in an awkward motion, almost forgetting her suitcase, and hastened over the heaving paving stones to ring the entrance bell. I need a room, she announced to the jug-eared red-faced boy who appeared at the door and stared at her without saying a word, looking her up and down until his eyes landed on her stomach. I need a room, she repeated, insisting, a sudden desperation to get the whole thing over with as swiftly as possible rising up inside her. She heard the tires of the taxi bumping away along the cobbled road but didnt look backwards.

Edward was ready for his own ambassadorship. Hed devoted his entire adult life to the British Foreign Office and had served as the British minister in Paris, second only to the ambassador, faithfully and effectively for the past three years. He had done the prerequisite tours in hot spots Lebanon, Kuwait, and Cairo earlier in his career, and had spent a tour each in London and Washington, with Irish Affairs as part of his workload. Hed married her, an American woman whose maiden name was Fennelly. All that was left standing between him and the top slot in Dublin was the dinner she was now charged with hosting.

Everything all right, then? Edward said, taking off his reading glasses and standing up tall from the breakfast table. Are we on course for this evening?

I have it all under control.

Of course you do.

He kissed her, and she smiled as he closed his briefcase, and smiled as he drew on his suit jacket. She smiled until she heard the front door of the Residence click shut behind him. Then she stopped smiling and placed both hands on the breakfast table.

Here were her choices. She could put on a perfect dinner and end up moving to Dublin, where, if someone didnt actually recognize her and call her to account, she at least ran the risk of going crazy. Already in the past couple of months, shed begun imagining she saw Nialls face in every crowd again.

Or she could purposefully make a mess of this evenings event and destroy the chances of her loyal, deserving husband.

Clare checked the clock again. 8:37 a.m.

Last night at the reception, after shed learned she had twenty-four hours to put on the dinner that could make all the difference for her husbands professional future but before shed understood Ireland was the country at stake shed shaken hands and kissed cheeks exactly as much as necessary, then withdrawn to a powder room. Balancing against a marble sink, cupping her phone in one hand, shed reeled off instructions with the precision of an airline hostess intoning safety measures. First to their cook, Mathilde. Then to Amlie remembering to ask whether Amlies cousin might be available to offer an extra set of hands in the kitchen. Third to Yann, an embassy waiter she particularly trusted. Donc, vous annulez, shed told him when hed protested he already was slotted for another assignment. The butler, Grard, was away in the south of France unlucky timing, but theyd had nothing planned for these nights and it was his nieces wedding. She couldnt call him back to Paris. She would cover his organizational work, and Yann would do the greeting and managing of the guests. Amlies cousin would help serve. And Amlie would supervise the wine and tableware deliveries. Mathilde she stayed in the kitchen.

Her dinner staff lined up, Clare had tapped out an e-mail to the embassy, requesting that the official plate embossed with the queens emblem be sent over in the morning, not too late, and then another to Edwards secretary, requesting the guest list, with annotations about recent personal events and food preferences. Shed extracted the notepad she always carried and begun a to-do list butcher, wine, flowers, etc. careful to think as well of anything the butler normally would handle. Last, shed sent an e-mail to the publication office at the Rodin Museum to say shed likely have to delay dropping off the translation shed just completed. This was her other job, the one she got paid for she translated art books and catalogs.