How nice it would be to stay in the Four Winds again. What a haven it had been, back when she needed it most, Keelin reflected. She loved the place so much that when she and Armand had inherited his grandfather’s farm in the shadow of the Pyrenees, she’d named the house they had built Les Quatre Vents. It was very apt too, because the winds there came from every direction, each with its own distinctive energy. The Mistral. The Sirocco. The Tramontane. The eerie continuous howling of the Tramontane that blew in from the north-west set most people’s teeth on edge, but it reminded Keelin of home.

She sighed as she expertly folded one of Armand’s jumpers and placed it in the suitcase. She’d been dismayed when Marie-Claire had told her that she wouldn’t make it home for the party. These days it seemed to be all work with her daughter. There had to be balance, Keelin counselled – as she did to her many clients who came to stay and renew themselves in the Healing, Spiritual and Relaxation Retreat Centre she and Armand ran in Les Quatre Vents.

But her advice fell on deaf ears with her daughter, to whom career was everything. Despite having been raised with a deep awareness of nature and the esoteric, both in Ireland and in France, Marie-Claire had turned her back on all that could nurture her spirit, preferring the bright city lights of Toronto, and soon, possibly, New York. Still, she had to get it out of her system, and far be it from Keelin to dissuade her from her chosen path.

She and her daughter were so alike, Keelin reflected, rolling a pair of PJs to make them fit better. She’d been a young woman once, with fire in her belly and a passion to make changes, to live life to the full – and look where it had got her. Far from where she’d imagined she’d ever be in this lifetime.

The catalysts for some of the great changes that had occurred in Keelin’s life had been her mother, Imelda, and her aunt Brigid – two strong, determined and stubborn women. Who would be the catalyst for her daughter? When upheavals came – and they would – Keelin couldn’t help but hope that Marie-Claire would be spared the torment and heartbreak that had once been visited on her, that she had kept so secret from her daughter. Keelin too had had to be strong, determined and stubborn when Marie-Claire was born; she hoped her daughter would be as resilient as the rest of the Dunne women, when she needed to be, although Brigid would be a more inspiring role model than Imelda, Keelin thought ruefully.

Yes, Brigid’s eightieth would be interesting, that was for sure. She wouldn’t miss it for the world.

CHAPTER THREE

REVEREND MOTHER BRIGID