‘For bad neighbours?’ Dr Cole almost smiled at his mother’s old friend. He remembered the Deane farm where they got their eggs and milk, he could almost smell it if he closed his eyes. He and Liam had attended the village school together but while he had studied and studied, Liam had been just the opposite, had hated school with a passion, preferring milking and hay making to composition. ‘Well, Peggy, I can give you tablets for your nerves, but I would rather you tried to sort the problem out for yourself first.’

‘What would you give me?’ Peggy looked interested.

‘He means the Valium,’ Kathleen said to Peggy in a half-whisper. ‘You don’t want to be taking those, they made Alice sleep all day, when she was bad, you know, before…’

Dr Cole shot Kathleen a look which was clear in its meaning; she was to stop talking. Dr Cole knew all about Paddy and his bad back, his gastric stomach, his gout, his lungs, his terrible headaches. He was in the surgery almost every other week, looking for an excuse not to report for work. He decided that if Paddy’s behaviour was having such an impact on Peggy, it was time to be a bit firmer. He would threaten to really send him to the hospital.

Peggy’s lip began to tremble again at the thought of the state they were in. She had never felt so alone in her entire life. The fear of the mess she was in, the challenge ahead, made her feel as though she were detached, floating through each scene of her everyday life. Surely, this was a bad dream and soon, she would wake? A picture of herself and the kids out on the street, with their furniture piled around them, came into her mind…

‘Look, Peggy,’ Dr Cole said, ‘when you feel yourself losing control, try and take some deep breaths and put into perspective what is happening around you instead of panicking; you will feel much better for it. Tell your Paddy to come and see me.’

Peggy looked deflated. ‘I would be a lot better, doctor, if Maura were still here. I do miss her and it’s as if everything just keeps going wrong all the time.’