‘The plane could be late,’ she remarked. ‘Don’t get too worked up, darling.’ ‘No, it landed dead on time,’ Claire answered. ‘I rang the airport. Mummy, don’t you realize I haven’t seen Frank for two whole years?’ She was bobbing up and down, looking through the window, head on one side listening for the sound of the car. Philip had gone to meet his son. Tactfully, and without Claire realizing the true reason, Claudia had dissuaded her from going to the airport with him. ‘Daddy wants to be the first to congratulate him,’ she explained. ‘It’s good for them to have some time alone together.’ Claire was so easy to manipulate, she thought sadly. All anyone needed was to appeal to her kind heart. Finishing school in London and a year in Switzerland had turned the pretty teenage girl into a beautiful and sophisticated young woman of twenty, on the surface. Underneath the excited child held sway, bubbling over because her brother was coming home to Ireland for good.
