There were no tears; they had stopped falling long ago. Sometimes it felt as though all that had happened to her in the past year was just a dream, but then at night, in the dark, she would remember, and it was as if she could hear his voice, feel his kiss, smell him. He was her first thought at the beginning of each day and her last as she closed her eyes at night.

It was all thanks to a tip-off from Malachi that Deirdre had caught Jimmy kissing Mary outside their back gate and she had let out a scream as she ran at the couple and prised them apart.

‘Have you no shame?’ she hissed as she dragged Mary through the gate into their own backyard and into the kitchen. ‘What the hell are you doing? I cannot believe what I’ve just seen. Have you lost your mind, Mary? His reputation is notorious – if your father had caught you, he’d have had his guts for garters.’

They both knew this was patently not true, but Deirdre raged on. ‘You know he’s up before the magistrate every five minutes, don’t you? And now he’s tried to rob a betting shop, tied up a poor innocent man who was doing nothing but his job, almost killed him. He’s turned an awful corner, that boy has. No one respectable speaks to his mother because of it.’

Mary’s eyes had filled with tears as she stared down at her feet. She didn’t care that Jimmy was regularly up before the magistrates, he had promised her he would change his ways after this last time in court.

‘He said he won’t do any more robbing, Mam, he’s promised me. He said he would go straight now.’

Deirdre looked incredulous. ‘Promised you? Promised you? Did he say that to get you into his bed, did he?’ Deirdre’s expression had turned from one of anger to fear. ‘Mary, a man will say anything, anything at all if it gets his hand down your knickers, do you hear me? Robbing is as natural as breathing to the O’Prey boys and they cannot change; all they can do is rob and lie.’

Mary had lifted her head. ‘Callum has changed – Jimmy can too.’

Deirdre’s eyes were wild at this point. ‘Oh, ay, Callum’s not as bad as Jimmy – at least he’s down the docks, but I tell you, an old dog can’t learn new tricks. It’s in the O’Prey blood, for the father was as bad, not that Annie would ever admit it now.’

Mary had felt anger bubbling up inside her and blurted out, ‘Mam, I’m almost sixteen. You and Da were married when you were sixteen. I’m old enough to make my own mind up. I love him, Mammy, and you chose Da.’