Maybe the priest will be able to make her see sense? He is the shepherd and we are the flock, even an ornery auld sheep like Sadie Rattigan has to be dipped once in a while! Oh, and I’m not to worry about Ireland, people who fight over a strip of bog are apt to fight about anything. She doesn’t say whether Daddy talks or not. She says what everyone says about him: Frank Rattigan is a modest man. She whispers that there’ll be other cats.

She would have loved to have a little girl like me, she says, just like me to the tips of my toes. She could eat me up and she wouldn’t even need sugar! I love her saying stuff like that when she tucks me between her knees to fix my mad, bad hair into bows. I lean in to the homely smell of her as she gets the sections just right for plaits on either side.

I wonder, as I reach for another biscuit, would anyone even notice if I just stayed here safe and warm?

Mammy wasn’t in the kitchen when I got back. The priest had been, the best china was still on the tray in the back scullery. My brothers had come back in and were sitting about like snared rabbits. We had no chicken dinner when Daddy finished his work and no Kathleen. He told us all to get to our beds after we had a bit of scone bread and tea. I must have slept because Mick had to wake me up to change his sheet.

Mammy was back in the kitchen in the morning making the porridge. She filled the six bowls for my father and brothers and looked right through me as if I wasn’t there. Daddy pulled on his cap and stuck his pipe in his back teeth when he was full. He said nothing about my empty bowl. Auntie Eileen says he’s easily led. It makes me think of the big auld bulls who have to walk after you when you pull the ring in their nose, they’re not so big then.

Mammy hands out the packed lunches to the boys. I don’t get any sandwiches either so I buckle my satchel and try not to run out the back door. The boys look scared. I thought Kathleen being sent away was the end of it but she’s going to take another swipe at me. The priest must have really made her mad.

Mick’s eyes fly wide open and even our Liam looks worried but he tells all the boys not to look when she pulls me back at the last minute. They walk on with their heads down. She gets a good handful of my hair to march me into the hall.