Seamus prised the brick away with very little effort and, placing his hand inside, removed the first roll of green dollars.

‘How many dollars are there in that one?’ asked Nola.

‘The same as in the next one. Five hundred. Teresa Gallagher counted them out with Daedio when they checked them.’

Nola took the roll between her finger and thumb and examined it. ‘Get the lot out,’ she said.

Seamus’s eyes popped wide open. ‘The lot? I’m not even sure how much that all comes to. It hasn’t been counted since long before Daedio died.’

‘I don’t care.’ She threw the roll onto the kitchen table. ‘It’s time they saw the light of day.’

Half an hour later, they were both sitting on chairs around the kitchen table and staring at the pyramid of dollar notes in front of them. Nola’s eyes met Seamus’s over the top.

‘What do you think it would buy, Seamus?’

Seamus scratched his head. ‘I wouldn’t be knowing. What do you need?’

‘Me, I don’t need nothing other than to get Mary Kate back and see McGuffey gone for good. And when that happens, which it will, we’ll bring her up here and tell her to take what she needs and get herself away to wherever she wants to be.’

Seamus practically felt his chin hitting the wooden table. ‘But she’s come home! For good.’

Nola pressed her hands onto the table and levered herself up. ‘No, she hasn’t. Any fool can see that. She’s here, but it’s not where she wants to be. I’ve been thinking, Seamus, there’s only one way to break Shona’s curse, and that’s for Mary Kate to get the hell out of here and make something of herself. She needs to take this money and put it to good use. We’re too old to be selfish. We’ve had our lives, but hers is before her and it’s about time this money was used. It does no good sat behind our fire. We must give it to Mary Kate now and give Finn’s half to Michael to be put in a bank in Galway.’

‘I’d drink to that,’ said Seamus.

‘You’re about to,’ said Nola as she placed two glasses on the table. ‘Things are going to change around here and the thing that is going to change the most is that we are going to stop being terrified of Shona and stop letting her have a hold over us. Come on, drink, and then down to the village. I only came back up for butter. We have to get this money into the village and into Michael’s and then find our Mary Kate.’ She lifted the large bowl she had fetched from the dairy and held it to her hip like a baby as she looked out of the window at the horse, still harnessed to the cart, waiting patiently.

‘We all have our day, Seamus,’ she said, almost under her breath, ‘and isn’t it just a thing, you don’t know it’s here until it’s gone.’