‘I have no idea, but it wasn’t right at all. Whoever it was wasn’t from around here, and why would they be dragging a boat up across the beach onto the head? It doesn’t make any sense. Where is there to go from here if you’ve no business here, other than up the cliff? It’s not the easiest way to get into the village.’

They both thought over what he’d said.

‘He could have gone to Paddy’s, I suppose, but he’d be the first person to take his curragh down there on his back, and there are hardly any fishermen left here as it is, let alone ones who drink in there.’ Captain Bob had his suspicions, but he wouldn’t voice them. There was only one man who would have been mad enough to sail in from that angle, across the rocks. A man who’d disappeared a very long time ago and hadn’t been seen since.

‘I have news of me own,’ said Bee with a sigh as she detached herself from his arms and pulled out one of the chairs. ‘Bridget wants me to call at her house today. She wants to teach me about the herbs and the things she uses to make people well.’

Bob poured the boiling water over the tea leaves in the pot. ‘That’s not a bad thing, is it? Are you happy to do that?’

‘I am.’ She rubbed away at an imaginary pattern on the table with her finger. ‘There’s more to it than that though.’

He placed her enamel mug of tea before her and his own in front of the chair next to her and sat down. ‘What could that be – she wants you to start telling the fortunes and communing with the dead?’ He tilted his head back and roared with laughter.

Bee looked up at him through her fringe, which had flopped over her brow. Her beauty in the glow of the firelight took him by surprise, as it sometimes did. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Exactly that.’

His laughter stopped abruptly and he leant forward in the chair. ‘How do you feel about that then?’ he said, knowing better than to call into question Bridget’s powers.

‘Last night I was dubious, scared even, but this morning not so much. I’ve heard voices, Bob. Out there.’ She pointed towards the window. ‘At first I thought it was the wind, but then I knew it wasn’t – it was Angela, and Rory. And I’ve heard other things. I think Bridget’s right. They’re calling me, and it seems it doesn’t matter what I think because I don’t have any choice – it’s happening.’

He picked up his mug. ‘What will Bridget do then?’

A sadness came into Bee’s eyes. ‘That’s the worst of it. Bridget knows her time is coming. She says that when you have the sight and the spirit world works through you, you just know. She was very insistent we start today. I think I’m going to have to learn to drive that car of yours. It’ll take me half the morning to walk there and if I have to go every day, I’m going to need it.’