There was a petite woman at the sink, in a white blouse under a nylon tabard like the ones Betty wore. She was washing wine glasses, foam flying, then rinsing them under the cold tap.

Penny introduced her as Mrs Coyle and said she could not live without her. On hearing Cushla’s name the woman visibly unfurled.

Cushla lifted a linen tea towel and began to dry.

You’ve done this before, said Mrs Coyle.

We’ve a bar.

Michael came into the kitchen, putting an arm around Penny’s waist, telling her she looked beautiful. Charmer, she said. I haven’t changed yet.

How’s the other woman in my life? he said, coming to the sink. Cushla thought he was speaking to her, but he was planting a kiss on Mrs Coyle’s cheek. He told Cushla she was responsible for the hospital corners and shiny brasses in the flat. Mrs Coyle’s eyes flicked up then down and she wrung a cloth until it was as tight as her mouth, using it to mop up the pool of water Cushla had left on the worktop. Mrs Coyle had cleaned around Cushla’s toothbrush and pot of Astral cream, wiped her lip gloss from the second whiskey tumbler. She had stripped a bed grubby with her mascara, seen the dried-glue stains from semen that had drooled from her.

Cushla tucked the tea towel over the rail of the Aga and moved towards the table. There was an assortment of cutlery – bone-handled, King’s pattern, angular designs from the fifties – that Penny was wrapping in napkins. Cushla took over, telling her to get ready before the others arrived.

Jim came in and poured Cushla a glass of wine, placing a bottle of Bushmills and a tumbler in front of Michael. A good Protestant whiskey, he said, and left the room with an armload of bottles.

Good Protestant whiskey. Good Ulster Prods. When something was clean and tidy, when it was as it should be, it was described as Protestant-looking. Even Catholics said it. Cushla looked at Mrs Coyle’s back, willing her to turn and give her a sign that said, yes, I heard it too, I know what they think of us. But she didn’t. The only other Taig likely to darken the door of the house that night already despised her.