‘You must be angry with me,’ he said finally.

This was even more unexpected. The lump grew and her eyes filled, and in desperation she looked down into her lap. It took her a moment to be able to say in a strangled voice, ‘Yes. I s’pose I am.’

There was another interruption while the coffee cups were arranged on the table and Katie managed to gain control of herself. When they were alone again, she said, in a stronger tone, ‘You’d better explain. Start from the beginning and tell me what happened.’

He nodded. ‘I will. Here, let’s have some coffee.’ He leaned forward and poured for them both. Katie grasped the handle of the cup, grateful for its warm contents and for having something to cling to.

Michael O’Neill looked up at her as he sat back. ‘You’re mine all right. I can still see the little one you were once.’

Oh God, Katie thought as the tears rose in her eyes again. She gripped the cup until she thought she might smash it and swallowed hard.

Perhaps he could see her distress, but he didn’t invade it. He took a sip of coffee, followed by a deep breath, and let out a long sigh of preparation.

‘The long and short of it was, I couldn’t go on living with the woman. Three years, and she’d almost squeezed the life out of me. Do you have any idea?’ he asked hopefully.

Katie nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, I do. But . . . why did you marry her?’

He dragged a hand over his eyes for a second. ‘She was a looker. You’ll know that. A real lady – full of charm and good manners. Genteel family, but my God what a snakepit they turned out to be. And she was besotted with me – I was exotic, I suppose. Irish boy over here, trying to make good. We were in love, to be sure, but I think in some way she wanted to spite her family. That’s a powerful combination, Katie. At the time I’d never met anyone quite like her. I was not long over here, and she seemed to represent part of the whole promise of this country. We made a handsome pair – everyone said so. And she seemed eager to do anything for me: even being received into the Church and ready to bring you up as a Catholic. Of course, that did it with her family – they cut her off. Not one of them even came to the wedding, d’you know that?’

Katie shook her head. But she could have guessed it.

‘Well, there was trouble from the start, as you see, but what I hadn’t reckoned with was her – just her. What she was like! I think the rift with her family turned her head a bit. Then having you. She was . . . How can I say it? She became fixed on things – I suppose you’d say obsessed. She wanted to manage every single aspect of my life. She was jealous – of nothing! Before she had you, she took to following me to work, although she must soon have seen that there was nothing to look at when she got there – well, except life in an engineering works! At the same time, though, she had me on a pedestal. She’d call me her angel, her saviour . . . all sorts. That time I was sick – the time I think you’d be remembering – my chest was bad, I was in a state. And she was sweet as pie to me, nursed me with every care.’ He shook his head, fumbling in his breast pocket and offered her cigarettes. ‘Smoke?’