Boysie and Daniel looked at the little woman in front of them.

‘We ain’t scared of the Rileys, or the McNees, or the Moneys. We know what we’re doing, Mum, so just calm yourself down. Gordon Bennet, anyone would think we’d done something really wrong!’

Daniel’s voice was jocular and suddenly Briony saw them both as plain as day. They’d always been the same, even as children. If they wanted something, they asked, then they asked again more pointedly, and finally they demanded it. She had always seen that they got what they wanted. She’d wanted to make up to them for not having Eileen, not having a father. She’d wanted her boys to have everything. Now the upshot of all this was standing in front of her. They wanted what the Rileys and the McNees and the Moneys had, and they would get it, she had no doubts about that at all. They’d get it.

They walked towards her and kissed her, as they always did, one on each cheek, and Briony was undone. Nothing she could say now would do any good. She had to retreat or she had to fight with them, and she wouldn’t fight with them. She couldn’t because then she knew they’d leave her, and if they left her she’d have nothing. Nothing at all. She had to go along with them, had to accept it. Deep inside herself, though she wasn’t aware of it, she was secretly proud of them. They wanted a life of villainy and, being her boys, had started at the top. At the pinnacle. If they took the Rileys out of the game they were set up for life.

‘Oh, boys. You do worry me. What can I do to help you with the Rileys? Do you want me to smooth it over?’

Boysie laughed.

‘The Rileys don’t trash you, do they?’

Briony shook her head. ‘No. Not really.’

‘Well, they don’t trash us either. Me and Danny Boy know what we want from life.’ He walked to the window and pulled back the heavy velvet curtains.

‘There’s a big old world out there, Mum, and me and him, we’re gonna be the kings of it. Ain’t that right, Danny?’

He nodded.

‘We want to make our mark in our own way. Without you, Mum. We’re men now, and we’re men who know what we want. And nothing and no one’s gonna stop us.’

Briony knew it was a threat and finally saw what Mariah meant. They were saying: ‘We’ll do it with you. Here in this house. Or we’ll leave and do it on our own.’

Briony went to them both and hugged them to her.

‘It’s also a dangerous world out there, full of people like the Rileys and the McNees and the Moneys. Don’t you ever forget that, boys.’