Hannah stared at him, a chill coming at the memory of how frightened she’d been that night. ‘It was you. You were the one in the garden. At the window. You came into the cottage.’

Flanagan gave her a sullen glare. ‘I wasn’t doing any harm. Just wanted to find who you were and what you were about.’

‘Why?’

‘You said you were a lawyer. I thought maybe the Byrnes had guessed what—’

‘That you were playing to steal their land from under them.’

‘They’ve got loads; they wouldn’t have missed this small bit. We’ve a right to make money too, you know. Bloody Byrnes are making a fortune. It’s not fair. And everything would have been all right if you hadn’t stuck your nose in.’ He sneered. ‘I should have tried a bit harder to frighten you off.’

Conor’s fists bunched and he took a menacing step towards him, before saying in a growl, ‘You stay off our land, Mr Flanagan. If I catch you trespassing again, I’ll be calling the guards. But if I find you within ten foot of the lawyer, I’ll beat the living daylights out of ye, so I will.’ Conor’s accent had thickened and the violence in his voice resonated in the dank air.

Hannah shivered. She had no doubt that Conor meant every word and from the expression on Flanagan’s face, he wouldn’t be troubling them ever again.

Drawing himself up straight, Conor added, ‘And I’ll be speaking to your uncle in the morning to remind him just where the boundaries of our land lie. You’d be most welcome to look at the map I’ll be sending over.’ He turned away, deliberately putting his back in Flanagan’s face to make it quite clear that the business was over. ‘Let’s finish up here, lads and lasses. Our work is done.’ He put his arm around Hannah and steered her away. She didn’t normally go in for all that He-Man stuff, believing that she could stand on her own two feet, but, just this once, it was rather nice to feel that her man would go into battle for her.

Flanagan retreated, watching balefully as the last post was removed and handed over the wall to him.

‘All done,’ said Conor, with a shark-like smile. Flanagan looked a little sick. ‘You’ll not be accessing the road this way. If I were you, I’d give up on your grand property developing plans and head back to Dublin.’

With a nod he turned and was flanked by Seamus and Peter.

‘Nicely done, boyo,’ said Seamus. ‘The aul sleeveen thought he was gettin’ one over on us. Murphy won’t be up to his tricks anytime soon.’

‘He will not,’ agreed Peter, chuckling to himself. ‘That was mighty.’