‘I think so too, Imelda. It’s a fresh start for us after all these years. And a new beginning for you and Keelin,’ Brigid agreed wiping tears from her eyes.

‘I think the four of us are going to have a lot of fun for the rest of this trip, despite everything,’ Marie-Claire put in her tuppence-worth, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. Never in a million years had she expected a revelation like this from her grandmother. ‘When we get to the hotel tonight we’re having a champagne celebration,’ she announced.

‘Maybe, sherry, not champagne,’ demurred Brigid. ‘That might be a step too far.’

‘I will if you will,’ Imelda declared. ‘I’ve never had champagne.’

‘Oh well we can’t have that, then,’ Brigid said with a twinkle in her eye.

‘Four Wild Women Go on a Bender,’ Keelin interjected, shakily wiping her tear-stained face.

‘Oh, look!’ exclaimed Marie-Claire, pointing to the window. ‘There’s a rainbow over Iona. The sky is clearing.’

‘Well, isn’t that gas? Snowflakes one minute, rainbows the next. I feel right at home. Just like the weather in Ireland – four seasons in one day,’ Brigid observed. She’d thought Imelda had had the ideal life. How wrong was she? The old Native American proverb came to mind: Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their moccasins. She’d judged her sister harshly, being too smug and superior to find out what lay behind Imelda’s behaviour. Some sister she was.

‘Imelda, I’m so sorry I didn’t know of your burdens. I failed you badly.’ Her lip trembled.

‘Ah look, we can’t change the past, but we can change our future, Brigid.’ Imelda stood up and held out her arms to her sister and they hugged tightly.

Keelin and Marie-Claire looked at each other, hardly able to believe what they were seeing. This truly was a life-changing moment for all of them. A day they would never forget.

‘Look, the wind’s dying down. We’ll be getting to Iona today, I’m sure of it.’ Keelin raised her cup to her companions. ‘And no better women to go exploring than us. I bet we were all nuns over in that nunnery in a past life.’

‘The more I’m reading and learning, Keelin, the more I’m beginning to think you might be right. Perhaps that’s why you and I entered. Because of a past life.’ Brigid mused.

‘Maybe that’s why we’ve all come back together in this life. All I know is that everything is happening as it’s meant to be.’ Keelin had no doubts about that.

‘I wonder which of us was the Reverend Mother then, if that’s the case?’ Imelda teased. She’d never been on a holiday like this in her life. She felt so delighted that she was free of her burdens she wanted to hug everyone.