‘Poor man.’ Dana glanced down at his notes. ‘The CA strikes again.’

‘Yes, but one day soon, you know, there’ll be a drug that will stop that hideous disease in its tracks.’

Dana smiled. She couldn’t blame Dr Gaskell for wishful thinking, but she doubted he was right.

Chapter 10

Mary Kate sat at the table and watched as Bee placed the kettle on the old range. They were the only two people in the kitchen at the rear of the shop. ‘Where is everyone?’ she asked. ‘If I was hoping for a welcome committee, I would have been very disappointed, would I not?’ She managed a smile, and it occurred to her how easy it had been. Just days ago she’d thought she would never smile again.

‘They are all down at the wake,’ said Bee. ‘It’s Captain Carter,’ she added quickly, realising that Mary Kate would have no idea who the wake was for. ‘He died.’

‘Oh, that’s sad news. How old was he?’ She’d met him a number of times with her father when she’d been just a girl. He was a distant figure in more ways than one as he used to spend most of his year in England and she would only see him when the salmon were running.

‘You know, I’ve no idea. Just old, you know.’ The words, ‘And your man, he was young, was he not?’ hung in the air behind her, unsaid.

Bee busied about getting mugs from the press, grateful to have the niece she’d not seen in far too long all to herself.

‘Was it a surprise?’ said Mary Kate.

‘Aye, to everyone. You won’t remember, but his father and Daedio were sort of friends. It was a mutual respect they had for one another in as much as they shared the same enemies. It was his father Daedio bought this land from, and then much later your daddy built the shop and the house here.’

This was news to Mary Kate. It was not a subject that had ever been discussed in her presence and she had never thought to enquire how her father had come to own the shop and the house. ‘I never knew that,’ she said as she gripped the tea.

‘Aye, it was a bad business, so. The gypsy Shona Maughan and her family were driven off the land – she was a wicked scold, that one.’ Bee quickly blessed herself before she continued. ‘Anyway, the Carters never had any luck and they thought the Maughans were the ones to blame and that’s a fact. One day I will tell you all, but I’m thinking that now is not the right time. I haven’t seen you for so long and look at you, you’ve troubles of your own to be dealing with, Mary Kate, would I be right in saying?’

Mary Kate cast down her eyes, avoiding Bee’s, and took a sip of the scalding liquid. It burnt the lining of her stomach. It occurred to her that she’d not eaten since she’d had breakfast in Dublin. ‘Is Daddy at the wake? And Rosie? What about Finn?’