“Come on in,” Mary said, beckoning with both hands, a smile glowing on her face. “Sit down. You’ll take a cup of tea before we go. The girls will bring you a cup of tea and some biscuits if I ask them. They’re awful good to me here.”

Mary’s smile dimmed as she saw the confusion on Sara’s face.

“Go where?” Sara asked as she sat.

Mary took Sara’s hand in hers. “To the seaside. To Portrush. Do you mind you said you’d take me?”

Sara considered telling the truth, that she had promised no such thing, but what was the point?

“Yes, I’ll take you,” she said. “But not today. I don’t have a car.”

“But some day you’ll take me,” Mary said, her smile brightening again.

“Of course I will. I just wanted to see how you were doing today, if you needed anything.”

“No, I don’t need anything, except maybe to get out of here once in a wee while. And maybe to see the children. See that they’re all right. Did they find you?”

Sara shook her head. “No. But I think someone might have found them.”

The smile fell from Mary’s lips. “How?”

“When the people were working on the house, they dug up the floor of the old stable block. I’m not sure, but I think they found something. And I think they buried it again and built over the top of it.”

Mary turned her gaze to the window. “They shouldn’t have disturbed them. It’ll do nobody any good at all.”

“Are there more?” Sara asked. She pictured the red stains on the kitchen floor. “Are there any more in the house?”

“Aye,” Mary said. “They’re everywhere. Don’t you worry, they’ll find you when they’re ready. When you’re ready.”

“I should call the police. They should know if there were human remains found, no matter how old. Shouldn’t they?”

“For why? Just so they can go tramping through the place digging up more floors? Sure, what good could that do?”

“I don’t know,” Sara said. “Some kind of justice, maybe.”

“Justice?” Mary looked back to her now, a thin smile on her lips. “Them men who planted them children in the ground, they got their justice. Believe you me, they got what was coming till them.”

Sara hesitated before asking her next question, unsure if she really wanted the answer.

“Can you tell me about them? I read some newspaper stories, but I wondered, what actually happened in the house?”

Mary became silent, eyes distant, and Sara felt sure she’d lost her again. Then she spoke, her voice firm, her words final.