‘There was much more than this,’ said Seamus. ‘Finn, your daddy has your share, to match Mary Kate’s. The rest of it we have invested in a business for both of you. A big business.’

Mary Kate glanced up from examining the green dollar bills. ‘A business? What business?’ She looked from one to the other, genuinely confused.

‘You tell her, Joe,’ said Michael, grinning.

Joe put down the mug of tea that Nola had just refilled. ‘Mary Kate, as of this morning, you, Finn and I are partners. We are all one-third owners of the hotel.’

Nola thought Mary Kate was going to faint. ‘Quick, get the whiskey, Seamus,’ she said.

‘How?’ Mary Kate said, alarmed. ‘I want to go back to Liverpool and be a nurse. Daddy, you can’t do this. It’s not for you to decide what it is I should do, or Finn, for that matter. Life is changing, times are changing – you just can’t do that.’

Nola leant over her shoulder and slopped some whiskey into her tea.

‘Aye, and you will, you will,’ said Michael. ‘Don’t you see, being a partner in a business gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. You’re a sleeping partner for now, and one day you may want to come back and see if there’s a role you can play. But if you don’t, it doesn’t matter, you’ll just keep taking the dividend from the profits as a sleeping partner and you will never want for money. When my day comes, I will die a happy man for knowing that.’

The penny dropped and Mary Kate grinned. ‘Difficult and stubborn, am I?’ she said, turning to Joe as Nola worked her way around the table tipping whiskey into tea mugs.

They all laughed so loud, Pete Shevlin came running back in to see what he had missed.

*

Elsie had missed Matron. She had polished Matron’s sitting room and office to within an inch of their lives. What she hadn’t liked quite so much was being in sole charge of Blackie, and they were both eagerly anticipating Matron’s return later that day. Elsie wiped the condensation from the windows with vigour and looked down at the life of St Angelus as it played out before her. ‘Ah, there’s Nurse Brogan, Blackie, back from her holidays,’ she said as she wrung out the cloth into the bowl perched on the windowsill.

Blackie growled.

‘Oh, I do wish you would stop that,’ she said. ‘You make me nervous.’ As she turned back to the window, she almost dropped the cloth. Dr Gaskell’s car was coming in through the main entrance, with Matron in the front. ‘Bloody hell,’ she exclaimed. ‘I’d better get the fire going. No walk for you, Blackie.’

The Scottie dog sat on his rear in disgust and continued to growl.

Despite the unexpected rush to get the room warm and ready, Elsie breathed a sigh of relief. With Matron back, life would now return to normal. ‘Well thank the Lord for that, eh, Blackie,’ she said as she bent down to put a match to the kindling. ‘Oi, get away from my ankles, you little bugger.’