‘Are you staying here tonight?’ Dr Cole asked Peggy, but Maura answered for her. ‘She’s a bit overwhelmed, doctor. There are women now, down at her house, giving it a good clean and getting it ready for the baby. She was a bit of a surprise, that baby, so we’re having to beg, borrow and steal around the streets for a crib and clothes and nappies, but another hour and Peggy will be tucked up in her own bed, won’t you, Peg?’

There was no reply. Peggy was laid back on a pillow Alice had tucked in behind her on the day bed, her eyes closed. She was wearing Kathleen’s clean clothes and Maura and Alice had given her a bed bath, during which Peggy had not spoken a word. Dr Cole fastened the clasps on his bag. ‘I’ll be off, then,’ he said. ‘I saw some… er, activity, as I came up the street so I left the car at the bottom and walked up the entry. I didn’t want to disturb anything.’ He winked at Maura as he spoke.

‘Well, don’t be surprised to find a nice bottle of rum at the surgery tomorrow,’ said Maura and she winked back.

‘What I don’t understand,’ he said as he placed his hat on his head, ‘is why a good Irishman who sails the seven seas like Conor, can’t bring in a nice haul of Irish whiskey, in the name of God, why does it have to be rum?’ They both laughed as he walked through the door and back out into the entry. ‘Goodnight, Mrs Doherty, I’m relieved you are back on the four streets, it’s a better place for you being here.’

Maura watched him retreat until he was swallowed by the darkness. She looked up to the sky before she closed the door. So much had happened since she had arrived home, it was already beginning to feel as though she had never left.

*

It was Conor who saw the torchlight, who let out the short burst whistle, followed by the long, low return and everyone stopped dead. Blinks crept up the gangway to the hold door.

‘What is it?’ he whispered.

Conor was standing in the dark shadow at the side of the deck. ‘There’s torchlight in the administration building, I just saw it sweep across the back. Something’s up. It could be an ambush, it’s not safe, so it’s not.’