Lorna and Anne watched Barry drop the tree, knock open the gate at the back of the garden, then work it out into the alley behind the house.

‘They are making some operation of it, all right,’ Anne said.

‘There’s this idea, that men were more capable back in the day,’ Emma said. ‘Would you say that’s true, Anne?’

‘Are you saying my men are incapable?’ Lorna interjected.

‘No more than mine!’ Emma said.

‘It’s hard to know,’ Anne said. ‘You see all types, and then you see them come back around again.’

‘Daddy wasn’t like that,’ Lorna said.

‘Wasn’t like what?’ Anne asked.

‘Like, impetuous . . .’ Lorna said, reluctant now to talk Barry down even though he deserved it.

‘Oh, your daddy had his moments too,’ Anne said.

Barry and Luke had left the gate open behind them. It drifted on its hinges.

‘Here’s a question, Anne,’ Emma snapped brightly. ‘What’s your earliest memory?’

‘My earliest memory. Oh, now, nothing special.’

‘But as a kid,’ Emma insisted.

The Dohertys had moved into the estate two years back, which made Emma the newest member of Lorna’s circle. Quickly, Emma had positioned herself as the talker, the coaxer. No one was allowed to be quiet in her presence. She went after anyone reticent, anyone attempting to hold their counsel, as if continually cornering others might forestall her ever being cornered herself.

‘Summer, I’d say,’ Anne said, after thinking about it. ‘Out on the lake with my brothers and sisters.’

‘That’s what everyone remembers,’ Lorna said. ‘Summer.’

‘I remember looking at the little ­chewed-­up spot on my mam’s arm from her inoculation shot, and wondering what on earth that was. One time I asked her, and she said, “That’s from where you bit me as a babby. You tried to run away on me,” she told me, “and when I caught up with you, you bit me on the arm.” That’s what she said. That’s what I remember.’

‘And do you remember when Lorna was little?’ Emma asked.

‘Of course! Like yesterday.’

‘And what was she like?’

Anne looked at her daughter. ‘Oh, now. She was the same.’

‘Now that I don’t know how to take,’ Lorna said.

‘It’s the way time goes,’ Anne said. ‘It becomes all of a piece.’

‘I didn’t mean to do down your men,’ Emma said to Lorna, suddenly contrite.

‘You’re forgiven,’ Lorna said.