Guests

Tom, Sybil and their three children had arrived in Ballybunion and made themselves at home in Rory's cottage. Tom had taken two weeks off work and Sybil had arrived with two suitcases full of clothing for Colleen to decide on plus she had talked one of her sisters into loaning Colleen her wedding dress.

"Really Edith. What good is the dress doing hanging in a cedar lined closet until the day you die," Sybil had cajoled. Mrs. Branson had sent along Colleen's measurements when she asked Sybil to look into some clothing for her and from what Sybil could tell it sounded as if she would fit Edith's cloths perfectly.

The ladies in the town had been most anxious to get a first look at the new outfits Colleen would be wearing and were dying to see the wedding dress. Colleen wanted to keep it for a surprise for her wedding day and quickly made the few alterations needed.

"Rory, you're as messy as ever," Sybil had declared when she saw his office.

"And you're just as bossy," he had teased her.

"I wouldn't be so bossy if you didn't need it," Sybil had shot back with a laugh.

Sybil had enlisted Colleen's help to organize the files and place them back into the filing cabinets. Sybil never being one to leave well enough alone had shown Colleen the ropes of acting as a receptionist for the days when the office was busy.

"It's simple enough to put people's names on a list when they show up and find the files," Sybil had informed Rory. "It will make things run smoother. Colleen can send out reminders for the past due accounts. She needs something to do besides cooking and cleaning. It doesn't take any medical training."

"I have to admit it was easier in the city when all I had to do was see the patients and note their files. If Colleen doesn't mind doing it, I will be glad of the assistance," Rory told her.

Tom was kept busy through the days taking the two eldest boys to the beach and on fishing excursions. The youngest, a little girl was still too small for her brother's outdoor adventures and was happy patting dough in the kitchen with her Gran or being led around the village on Realta's back.

The children had each been given a few coins to spend in the shops in the village. Riordan, Tom and Sybil's eldest came out of one of the shops with an inexpensive straw hat, poked two holes in the top and put it on Realta's head.

"Riordan, why did you do that?" Colleen asked.

"I know why Realta is always stealing hats," he replied. "He wants to wear one too."

Colleen looked at the horse. Realta was standing patiently for once and not trying to steal every hat that passed by.

"Did you want a hat Realta?" Colleen asked the horse.

Realta nodded his head in assent. Colleen just rolled her eyes.

"It's most peculiar isn't it, the way those children have English accents but speak perfect Irish," Mrs. Shay told Mrs. Donnelly after Tom and Sybil had been down to the village one afternoon.

"And they all call the doctor "Bird". It's an odd family nickname don't you think?" Mrs. Donnelly replied.

"It's no stranger than the younger Mrs. Branson's fancy accent and manners when she speaks Irish."

Tom and Rory had managed to sneak out to the local pub one evening a few nights after the Bransons had arrived.

"I need to escape that hothouse of feminine emotion," Tom declared. "Sybil and my mother are planning to clean your house top to bottom before the wedding. They don't want Colleen having anything to do after the big day."

"I didn't think this wedding would get quite this out of control," Rory said. "Mr. Donnelly informed me the other day there would be "tousands" of guests. Although I think the real number is more like a couple hundred."

"It'll be fine," Tom reassured him. "The folk around here seem to be having the time of their lives with it."

"That they are," Rory agreed.

When they arrived at the pub, Mr. Lonogan questioned Tom as to his marital status, occupation, relationship to Rory and his preference of Ale or Guinness.

"Too bad you're not single. We have lots of girls of marrying age around these parts."

"You'll have to wait until next week for the single men to arrive," Tom replied. "From what I understand there are at least six eligible doctors arriving next week for the wedding."

Rory promptly kicked Tom under the bar. The men in the bar ears all pricked up.

"You don't say," Mr. Lonogan replied. "Maybe we could convince one of them to stick around these parts. We're a might short on doctors."

"I think they all have practices they are engaged in," Rory commented although he knew at least two of them were considering changing locations.

"Well, it can't hurt to introduce them to a few of the local girls," Mr. Shay chimed in.

"Oh good lord, here we go," Rory murmured to Tom. He was relieved when the men became distracted with a vocal game of darts between two rivals.

Colleen was nervous and fretting a few days before the wedding.

"Pre-wedding jitters, dear?" Mrs. Branson inquired.

"Pre-guest jitters," Colleen replied. "I never expected the Earl and Countess to attend my wedding and some of Rory's other friends are rather uppity as well. What will they think of me? I wouldn't know what to do or say."

"Practice," Mrs. Branson replied. "My son can fool the best of them. He says all it takes is practice."

Mrs. Branson called Tom down from the upstairs sitting room.

"Colleen wants to learn how to use a fancy table setting. Can you teach her this afternoon?"

"Of course we can," Tom replied. He got out almost every piece of cutlery in the house and set the kitchen table, then enlisted his sons to pretend to be footmen. "Just like at Grandpa's", he instructed them.

The boys got into the fun of playacting the parts of the butler and footmen and did imitations of the different servants at their grandparents. Colleen laughed so much at their antics she forgot to be nervous when Tom corrected her on a particular spoon or how to hold one of the utensils.

"Can you pretend to be Grandpa's butler, Da?" they both begged. Everyone was laughing so much Sybil wanted to know what was going on when she returned from town. She was the most practiced of all and became a perfect imitation of her now deceased grandmother.

Rory came through once he was done for the day and looked questioningly at the pile of cutlery on the table.

"How did you learn all your fancy table manners?" Colleen asked him.

"It wasn't too difficult. I watched Sybil's father and imitated every movement and mannerism. Most people have no idea I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm play acting the Earl the entire time."

Everyone burst out laughing.

"All these years we thought you were getting on to it all just fine," Sybil said. "You still are a little charlatan at heart."

"Maybe a bird that can change its feathers," Rory supplied with one quirked eyebrow.

Colleen's parents arrived the day before the wedding. Lord and Lady Grantham and Sybil's sisters and their husbands with a bevy of servants in tow arrived on the same train, as did Evelyn Napier and a large group of Rory's friends. The village was a hive of activity and the men were expected at Lonogan's that evening for Rory's bachelor party.

The doors to the hotel pub were standing wide open that evening when Tom and Rory arrived. The pub was already a hive of activity with the sound of singing spilling out onto the street. The pub was so full they had to squeeze their way through. Neither of them had made it more than a few steps into the room before a pint was stuffed into their hands. When Lord Grantham followed by his two other sons-in-law and Evelyn entered the pub the entire room stopped.

"This is the man who taught me how to fish," Rory called out. "Matthew here got a hook stuck in his arse last time we went fishing. Anthony is a farmer and Evelyn knows how to golf, by the way he's single."

The entire room erupted into sounds with the men having pints shoved into their hands and every local man wanting to be the first to tell them some yarn about a fish they'd caught or a difficult shot they'd made on the golf course.

"So the daughter of an Earl has been to tea in my wife's parlor," Mr. Shay said to Tom a while later.

"I'm afraid so," Tom said waiting for the negative reaction he had gotten so many times when he and Sybil had been living in Dublin.

"My wife will be overjoyed she finally has one up on Geoff Lonogan's Mrs. She's always bragging about having some French Viscount stay at the hotel a couple years back. It will make a grand tale to tell the tourists next year. Our young doctor doesn't have any other aristocratic relatives hiding under the door matt now does he?"

"No, my wife's the only one."

A while later Evelyn made his way over to Rory.

"I've been getting some of the oddest questions," he said. "Why did you tell them I was single?"

"You don't seem to be having much luck finding one on your own. I thought you could use a little help," Rory replied with a laugh, the local men around him starting laughing as well.

"How can announcing my marital status in a public establishment have any bearing on it?" Evelyn asked with a puzzled look.

"Tom is forever telling you to look in a different fish bowl. Ask me again tomorrow by the end of the day. There are toff girls in these parts, as well you know. Ireland does have them. The delivery is just a little different from what you're used to."

John Drake wasn't having any problems with the locals. He fit right in and was busy bragging about Rory and his many accomplishments. He had been overjoyed when he found out his eldest was marrying Rory and in his words, "moving up in the world."

"I can't believe there's not a car in the place," Tom complained to Matthew by the bar. "I don't know how he stands it."

"It seems like a nice place," Matthew replied. "It certainly has beautiful scenery."

"Scenery that would be improved with a car in it."

"What is it with you and cars?"

Tom now had two sitting in the garage behind the London house.

"They don't suddenly decide they want to wear a hat!"