Bridget looked into her cup. ‘Did you say you’ve never travelled, Cat?’

Cat shook her head vehemently. ‘Not unless you call walking to the offie for a packet of cigs travelling. Or going into town. I take the kids to the Pier Head every now and then, and once a year we have a big day out in the park – that’s all the travelling I do.’

Bridget looked serious. ‘All that is about to change,’ she said. The air between them suddenly felt heavy. ‘I see you making a journey over deep water. Very deep water, very often, and then it stops. I see you moving house and settling. The chance to move is unexpected, sudden, and you are in a quandary, you don’t know what to do.’

‘That could be us going home next week, the deep water,’ said Mrs O’Keefe.

Bridget rested the cup on the table. ‘Well, it could be, but it isn’t being made once, it’s a number of journeys.’

There was a gasp in the room.

‘Well I never. I wonder what that could be about?’ said Mrs O’Keefe.

‘Can I have a look?’ asked Bee.

‘Yes, go on, let’s see how much you can see already,’ said Bridget.

Bee picked up the cup and rolled it around in her hands, examining one side and then the other, and then doing the same thing over again. ‘I see a very tall man,’ she said. ‘He has dark hair and he is looking for you now. He’s a man with a nature for children; he won’t be bothered by yours one little bit. He’s been thinking about you and he knows you are here in Ireland. I think all will be revealed to you very soon, in a moment of joint acknowledgement.’

‘Oh my giddy aunt,’ said Cat, ‘I can’t believe it. Is there a hairdresser’s in Tarabeg? I better get me hair done quick.’

‘How are you getting back?’ asked Bridget. She liked both of these ladies, and they liked her.

Mrs O’Keefe answered. ‘Seamus is collecting us with the horse and cart any minute now.’

Bridget laughed. ‘Well now, I think I’ve just answered your question about a hairdresser’s, Cat.’

At the door, while Bee and Mrs O’Keefe discussed the latest news in Liverpool, Bridget handed Cat her scarf. ‘That was a good decision you made,’ she said.

Cat flicked the headscarf into the air and, holding the corners, waited for it to land like a parachute on her head before she tied it under her chin. ‘What decision?’ she said, confused.

‘I think you know what I mean. I don’t reveal everything I see. Rosie hasn’t had the easiest life. After the worst of times, she held that family together and brought them out the other side. Her and Michael, it’s not a match made in heaven, I’ll give you that, but it works.’

Cat was speechless. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish, and her eyes blinked rapidly.

‘You don’t have to say anything. Men are fickle creatures, and no one knows that more than Rosie. Your future is a good one, it was a pleasure to see it. You have much to look forward to, Cat, just make sure Rosie has too.’