Nola looked confused. ‘But you are on your holidays, and Michael’s on his way here for ye.’

‘Well, we will tell him when he gets here that he doesn’t have to be our chauffeur. Let us stay and then you can get your jobs done in half the time and if Michael wants to come back for us later when Paddy opens, he can take us all down the hill for a little tipple. That way, we can see Rosie when she finishes school, and if I know Mary Kate, she’ll be coming up here to join us.’

Nola sat back down in her seat and dabbed at her eyes with her apron. ‘It’s so nice having you here,’ she said. ‘I miss the company during the day. It can be lonely around here since Daedio died – not that he was any help, the useless eejit.’

Mrs O’Keefe laughed. ‘Good, that’s settled. I’m going to fetch myself one of your aprons out of the scullery.’ As she passed through the scullery door, she bumped into Cat, who was having a cigarette on the back step, taking in the view.

‘Fill your lungs with that,’ said Cat. ‘Isn’t it marvellous.’

‘You’ve changed your tune,’ said Mrs O’Keefe. ‘At the beginning of the week you were complaining about it hurting your nose and missing the smell of the gasworks. I’ve rearranged our plans for today – me and you, we don’t have to answer a hundred questions this morning, we can stay here and help Nola, and to be honest, I’m looking forward to it.’ She reached up onto the shelf in the scullery and pulled down two aprons. ‘Catch,’ she said as she threw one to Cat.

Cat grinned from ear to ear. ‘Oh thank God.’ She ground out the cigarette with the toe of her shoe. ‘That’s more like it. Let’s get stuck in.’

*

Bridget arrived at Bee’s on her bicycle, carrying her own basket of herbs on the handlebars. ‘Are you ready to start work?’ she shouted as she walked through the door.

Bee was sitting at the table looking solemn. ‘Have you seen Mary Kate?’ she asked. ‘Only she’s not in Angela’s cottage, no car has been up here yet and Michael said he would be collecting her, and the cottage door was wide open. Bridget, I have a very bad feeling. Something’s wrong. Is it him, is he back? It hasn’t felt like this around here since last time he was here.’

‘Feck, I haven’t even got my headscarf off yet,’ said Bridget as she untied the knot. ‘Bee, look into your own heart – are the spirits trying to speak to you? What are they saying?’

Bee’s eyes filled with tears.

Bridget knew the answer was there, but she had to coax Bee into acknowledging it. She took Bee’s cold hand in her own. ‘Yes, he’s been back in these parts for a few days. I saw Shona’s caravan coming into Tarabeg, with Jay driving, in my crystal ball. Of course, Father Jerry thought he was telling me great things when he heard the news from one of the tramps a few days later – I didn’t bother to enlighten him. There is only one reason why Jay would be back and that would be if McGuffey told him to be here.’