Peggy flushed and flopped down at the table with a huge sigh. ‘I’ll move out of your room, Mary Kate,’ she said absently. ‘I’m sure Mrs Doyle will let me sleep in her house at the post office. She’s offered before, she doesn’t like being alone much.’

Mary Kate stood next to her and placed her hand over Peggy’s. ‘Not at all. You stay. I’m going to my Granny Angela’s cottage.’

No one spoke – no one ever did when Angela’s name was mentioned. Murder was an evil and not to be talked about. No one ever spoke of the night of Angela’s murder, for fear of beckoning back to Tarabeg the evil spirits that had caused the tragedy. It was as if the worst night any of them had known had never happened. As if Mary Kate’s grandfather had never lived. ‘It will take only one careless whisper to summon evil,’ Bridget had warned them, and they had heeded her ever since.

Peggy was relieved at the news that she didn’t have to leave and she found it hard to hide the fact. She loved living with the Malones. Having to move in with old Mrs Doyle was not an enticing prospect. ‘Oh, thank God for that. Something is going my way.’ She threw her folded arms onto the table in a dramatic gesture and rested her head upon them.

‘Is anyone there?’ a voice called out from the front of the shop.

Peggy groaned and, laying both hands flat on the table, pushed herself back up. ‘Aye, I’m coming, Philomena,’ she shouted and pulled a face at Rosie and Mary Kate.

Philomena O’Donnell, despite having a son in the priesthood, was the biggest gossip in the village and they all knew why she was there.

Rosie placed her finger on her lips. ‘Shh,’ she whispered. ‘Come on, Finn, Mary Kate, let’s go out the back door.’

Peggy, who knew nothing, looked confused. ‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Mary Kate is still tired from the journey and she isn’t up to answering fifty questions from the likes of Philomena,’ said Rosie. Finn had run on ahead out of the back and had climbed onto the wall of the cow byre. ‘Get a stew on, Peggy. There’ll be a few of us here tonight – the usual crowd. A welcome home for Mary Kate – they’ll be expecting it. I’ll ask them down from the farm, and Pete too. Make it a big one. You know what they say, the way to a man’s heart is through his trousers.’

Peggy let out a squeal and Mary Kate blushed. Not everything was the same – this was a very different Rosie. ‘Rosie Malone, no they do not.’

‘Aye, well, maybe try his stomach first then.’ Rosie laughed. The sound of a car engine filled the kitchen. ‘Here’s your daddy with the car – run before the priest comes looking for you, Mary Kate. And, Finn,’ she shouted, ‘get down off that wall before you fall in.’