‘Hello, Grace, I’m sorry for all your troubles.’

Grace suddenly felt a little overwhelmed. ‘Thank you.’

‘If you are half as strong-willed as your mammy, you’ll sail through.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’ She handed Bernard some money. ‘Go feed yourselves. Juliet, eat something.’

Juliet nodded. ‘I’m starving.’

‘That’s right. Good girl, you eat with the boys,’ Molly said. Everyone noticed the change in her, like the curtains had been drawn and finally daylight had streamed in.

‘Funny old world,’ Molly said, watching her grandchildren queue up at the counter, chatting together and laughing easily.

Grace turned to her dad. ‘All right, Da?’ she said, and he smiled her way.

‘Better than all right, Gracie.’

‘I hope she doesn’t take too long – they won’t keep this place open all night,’ Grace said, looking around.

‘Then we’ll wait in the hotel around the corner till it’s done,’ Molly said.

Vera was feeling uncomfortable around so many Hayeses. ‘I’ll stay for an hour, maybe. I’ll find my own way home.’

‘Not a chance,’ Jack said.

‘Excuse me?’

‘We’ll be going home together when the child is delivered,’ Molly said decisively.

‘That’s the Hayes way,’ Jack said. ‘We did it for all of Grace’s.’

‘I’m not a Hayes,’ Vera said.

‘Maybe not, but you’re family now,’ Molly said, and Grace watched poor Vera wilt a little as she absorbed that sobering information. Ryan and Bernard wrestled for the fifty-euro note, with Juliet on Ryan’s back and Jeff on Bernard’s, much to the annoyance of the adults in the queue. Grace grabbed a chair and sat down.

‘I’m betting a tenner it’s a girl – who’s in?’ she said, and took some bets.

Chapter Ninety-One: Davey

Chapter Ninety-One

Davey

THE MIDWIFE, ANNETTE, A woman in her mid-fifties, was yelling ‘Push!’ Marjorie was pushing and squeezing Davey’s hand so tight he thought his fingers might break. She was really scared, and she was trying so hard to be brave, he could tell. Annette, a tiny woman with big hands for catching babies – at least that was how she introduced herself – was at the business end.

‘Any minute now, Marjorie, just wait for that next contraction,’ she said, and Marjorie waited and panted and finally let go of his fingers and she looked at him, wild-eyed and fearful.

‘It’s going to be OK, isn’t it, Davey?’

‘It’s going to be great.’

‘You’re not going to leave us, are you?’

‘Of course not.’

‘I mean, you can leave me if you want, I’ll understand, but you won’t leave the baby, will you?’

He leaned down to her and placed his hand on her forehead.

‘I will never abandon my child and I would never abandon you.’

‘You can’t go back to America, Davey.’

‘I’m going nowhere. We’ve just bought a house, we’re getting married.’