After the Wedding (Book 2 of the Roone series)

• Dramatic Rights: Available
• Setting: The island of Roone, as before. Nell is preparing to marry James, the brother of her ex-fiancé Tim. Her mother Moira died the previous December, forcing Nell and James to cancel their first wedding plans. Imelda, one of her tenants from two summers ago, is now married to Nell’s uncle Hugh, and they’ve applied to be foster parents. Nell’s father Denis now lives in a rented property on the mainland, in a relationship with a woman who is still married, unwilling to disrupt life for her special needs son. Laura and Gavin, two more of Nell’s tenants, met on Laura’s return to Dublin when she called to Gavin’s house to return a book he’d left behind at Nell’s. They’re now in a relationship and living fulltime on Roone with Laura’s twin boys by her late husband. They’ve just opened a B&B in the house owned by Walter, a beloved islander who died two summers ago, and Laura is heavily pregnant with more twins. Gavin has repeatedly proposed but Laura has put him off, memories of her first husband’s suicide making her afraid to go there again. Laura senses Walter’s benign presence in his old house, and has taken to confiding in him.
• Vibe: A return to the island of Roone, two summers after the last story. Life on the island continues, locals accepting as ever of Roone’s everyday quirks: close-knit community life tinged with a little magic, and the sea as ever featuring largely.
• Period: 2014, May to August.

On the morning of Nell and James’ wedding a little girl holidaying on the island with her family goes missing, and a comb of the island ensues, turning into a nationwide search when no trace of her is found. Meanwhile, Imelda and Hugh are asked to provide respite fostering for a few weeks for troubled teen Eve, and find her behaviour challenging. Imelda’s sister Marian and husband Vernon come to visit (both having rented Nell’s house with Imelda) and book into Laura’s B&B for a week. During this time, Gavin is struck with acute appendicitis and is rushed to the mainland, and a day afterwards, when Laura goes into labour, Eve, who has begun helping out at the B&B, and Marian become clueless midwives as they await the arrival of the island doctor. Afterwards, Eve reveals to Marian that she’s been sexually abused for years by the son of her fulltime foster parents. Hugh and Imelda immediately report this, and eventually obtain Eve on a permanent basis.

Nell’s father Denis, out walking alone, encounters a little girl in the garden of a house who turns out to be the missing child, snatched impulsively by a pair of reclusive siblings on a day trip to Roone.

In the final scene, Laura proposes to Gavin at the twins’ christening and he says yes, while something seems to be starting up beween James’ son Andy and a happier Eve…

 

 

UK Publisher: Hachette