‘Hello, Deidra, is that you?’ she whispered down the line.

Deidra wondered who else it would be she was expecting to answer the phone in her own house and had to force herself to stop grinning. ‘It is, and who would that be?’ she asked.

‘Why, it’s me of course, who else would it be?’ said Mrs O’Keefe, pulling the phone from her ear and looking askance at the mouthpiece. ‘Deidra, get yourself over here. The place is falling apart. No one seems to understand what’s happening. I’m going to go back to the hospital tonight with Mary Kate and see if I can talk to someone. They need family here and there is none, so it’ll have to be us.’

‘Aye, ’tis a sad state of affairs,’ said Deidra. ‘Does she know that Lavinia Marcus has been at the hospital between visiting times?’

‘No,’ whispered Mrs O’Keefe.

‘What can I do?’ Deidra asked.

‘I think I need you to move in here to the Marcuses’ house with Joan for a few days. Mary Kate hasn’t a clue, she thinks Dr Marcus is coming home, and Joan has cried so many tears, she’ll be nothing but a puddle by the time the day is out.’

‘God love her,’ said Deidra. ‘I’m on me way. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Will I get a message to Cat? She’ll help.’

‘You do that, Deidra, there’s a good girl. Joan is wailing like a banshee, as if there isn’t enough to be worrying about.’

Ten minutes later, Mary Kate was wolfing down the shepherd’s pie like she had never eaten before, and it was a fact that she hadn’t had anything since breakfast, a good eight hours ago. Nurse Brogan brought her endless cups of tea, offered to make her toast and placed biscuits on the saucer, but in the hospital she just couldn’t eat. ‘That was so delicious,’ she said as she wiped her mouth and looked up in appreciation.

Joan had composed herself, helped considerably by the news that support was arriving in the form of Deidra and Cat.

Mrs O’Keefe reached out and removed the plate. ‘Go on, you go and put a bit of powder and lippy on. The taxi will be here in a few minutes, and no arguments, I’ve already ordered it.’

The back door nudged open and in came Deidra, greeted by Jet wagging his tail and jumping up at her on his arthritic back legs. Her laughter cut through the atmosphere in the kitchen. ‘Down!’ she said, glancing from one to the other and immediately taking in the worry etched on Mrs O’Keefe’s face, the denial on Mary Kate’s and the tear stains of Joan, who was washing pots in the sink.

Mary Kate scraped her chair back. She needed no encouragement to get ready to leave the house and return to her beloved Nicholas. ‘I’ll be down in a minute,’ she said, smiling at Deidra and heading for the stairs.

She felt riddled with guilt whenever she was away from the hospital, anxious to the bone. The shepherd’s pie sat in her stomach as heavy as a brick of regret for having left him alone. Standing at the sink in their bathroom, she applied some face powder and stared at her reflection in the oval gilt mirror. In the past six weeks she’d lost at least a stone in weight. Her eyes looked sunken and hollow and they were filled with fear. She was frightened, but she had no idea why.