‘Are you all right here?’ he said as he stepped towards the pine table and pulled out a chair. ‘They say it was where your grandmother was… well, where she passed away.’

‘You mean where she was murdered?’ Mary Kate sighed. ‘I am. You know, I never knew her. I don’t feel scared at all. If I had known her, I suppose it might have been different.’

‘You’ve made a grand job turning the place around, so you have. It looks like it’s always been lived in.’ Declan cast his eyes around the cottage and admired the scrubbed and polished press and dresser, and the freshly beaten rug in front of the fire. But the wind howled through a gap in the roof and whistled around the room and the place didn’t feel good to him. It was not somewhere he could live with any ease.

‘To what do I owe the honour?’ asked Mary Kate as she placed the mug down in front of him. ‘I’ve no milk, sorry. Not until Daddy comes up tomorrow with a pail. If he does come, that is. I might not be in his good books once Rosie has spoken to him tonight.’

Declan, always a man of few words, nodded. ‘You seem to have half of Liverpool following you to Tarabeg,’ he said. ‘I met the two ladies and they are grand people.’

Mary Kate blew the steam away from the top of her cup. ‘They are, and they’re staying until after the dance. They love the place. It’s funny, Declan, you see, I’m the one who missed Tarabeg and wanted to come back, but… I’m not so sure any more.’

Declan didn’t appear surprised to hear this.

Mary Kate peered into her cup of dark tea and lost herself in her thoughts.

‘Your one, Cat, she’s a nice lady,’ said Declan. ‘I saw her talking to Josie in the butcher’s. She was telling me she has never been away from her children before, and I told her, “There’s a classful across the road I can let you sit with if you’re missing them that much.”’

Mary Kate laughed out loud. ‘I can tell you, your classful would be a lot easier for Cat to handle – all except for Debbie, that is, she’s just a dote. Deidra and Joan will have aged ten years by the time she and Mrs O’Keefe get back, but it’s nice they’re staying for the dance anyway. Are you going to the dance, Declan?’

‘I am now. I wasn’t going to…’

He looked up at Mary Kate and, thinking she knew what he meant, her words rushed out.

‘Declan, I’m not free. I love someone else, even though… he’s no longer here…’

Declan nodded. ‘I know, ’tis all over the village. Has been for days. There’s not a one who’s not convinced you were married and lost your husband, although no one knows why you kept it such a secret. When Dana Brogan came into the post office, she just confirmed it. It’s nothing to me, Mary Kate. I’m sorry for your loss, but you’re my friend and I hope I can count on you to help me.’