McAvoy holds the smaller man’s gaze. He’s getting better at looking people in the eye. People at work have noticed the change in him. There’s something in his gaze: a sense of resolution. Papa Teague sees it too. Smiles, and looks away.

‘Not much of a turnout from your side,’ he says, conversationally.

‘Dad’s got problems on the croft. My mother, well …’

‘Don’t feel obliged to explain yourself, boy. You’re family now.’

They stand in silence for a moment, letting the words sink in.

‘That wee boy of yours is going to be something special,’ says Teague, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

‘As long as he’s healthy and happy,’ says McAvoy.

‘Aim as high as you like, lad,’ says Teague, leaning closer. ‘You’re married to a sorceress, lad. Touched by the spirits, so she is. Got the sight. Always had a mind like a rocket. I don’t know if she can read the cards and the leaves but she knows right from wrong and can tell what you need before you even tell her there’s a problem. Whatever spell she cast to get you, it’s worked, eh?’

McAvoy laughs, politely. Watches as Roisin scores a goal then turns a celebratory handstand in the grass. He’d like to tell her to be careful; that the baby is more precious to him than he could have ever dreamed, but she has a habit of laughing at him and telling him to not be so fecking soft, and he’d rather avoid that in front of her family.

‘Spell?’

‘All those letters she wrote you, for all those years. Weren’t the half of it. She’d be down the glen first dew of each new moon, washing her face in flowers, whispering to the spirits to bring her what she wanted – the man she wanted, her true love. Bringing you, lad. And it worked, didn’t it? Turned up at the right moment. Christ, if you didn’t, I’d never have forgiven myself.’

McAvoy looks away, unsure if he wants to think about it all right now. ‘Just luck, I suppose …’

‘Luck can be all sorts of things to all sorts of people, lad. Me, I knew what my little girl wanted. And nice as it is to have faith in things working out as you want them, sometimes the spirits need a nudge. Her mother thought I was a mad man, sending her to stay with Eva-Jayne. Said there were many people better suited to looking after her. But not all of them were so close to where a big fecker of a policeman was working. Did me good, to know she was near you.’

McAvoy steps back, heat rising up from his gut, sweat breaking out at his temples. ‘You sent her to be near me? Why? How could you have known it would work out as it did? She could have been killed!’

‘I didn’t know they’d send Cromwell,’ says Teague with a shrug, chewing his cigar. ‘That were all a bit much. But I did have my hopes you’d gravitate together. All her spells, and wishes, and you – this big bumbling giant with a punch like a fucking wrecking ball and no idea what you’re for …’