Eileen sniffed loudly and allowed Briony to help her up. As she slipped her dress off, Briony saw the bruises and scratches on her body and clenched her teeth. She made the bed and helped Eileen into it, smoothing the covers over her with kind hands. Eileen’s face, so white, so pinched, broke her heart. Briony felt responsible for all that had happened. Kissing her sister on the forehead, she left the room.

In the kitchen Molly and Elizabeth O’Malley were sitting at the scrubbed table, tea cups in hand, mouths clamped shut. Briony walked in and shut the kitchen door behind her.

‘What’s been happening here?’

Elizabeth O‘Malley shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I came today to see her like and then your ma arrived. We had a row and Eileen just went mad. Attacked me. And her language!’

‘She must have learnt that off your son, our Eileen never said a bad word to my knowledge all her life.’

‘My Joshua is a decent man, I’ll have you know ...’ Pride in her son overrode any fear of Briony Cavanagh.

Briony poked her face into the older woman’s.

‘Your son is an animal, and that’s what’s turned our Eileen’s head. Now get up off your fat arse and go and get the doctor. Then go home, go anywhere, but get as far away from me as possible. Oh, and another thing. Your son won’t be living here after today, so expect him home at some point.’

Molly grinned in anticipation of all that was to happen in the next few hours. Her Briony would sort it all out, she knew that without a doubt. When Elizabeth O’Malley had left, she smirked and said:

‘That told her. If you’d have heard the carry on here today!’

‘Shut up, Mum! You’re as bloody bad, coming round here tormenting the life out of her. Eileen’s ill. She’s ill in the mind, Mum, and if you hadn’t got me round that ponce’s house to marry her, none of this would have happened. She should never have married anyone, not after what happened to her. Dad taking her to Dumas broke her; the day the old man died finished her. Remember when she used to wander off? How she couldn’t cope with anything? Well, I think now she’s gone over the edge and you can thank yourself for that, not the O’Malleys, mother or son. Yourself.

‘Now listen to me and listen good. In future you leave everything be, and keep that big galloping trap and hooked nose out of other people’s business, right? Because I blame you for all this today. You and myself. I should never have listened to you.’

Molly’s mouth dropped open. That Briony could talk to her like this spoke volumes. Molly felt the first twinge of shame envelop her.