Ruby Flynn

e will walk up the cliff to my parents’ house and picnic on the rock, facing Blacksod Bay, then we will walk down to visit Con and Susan and their boys and Sister Francis will join us for the day. I will have told Charles the news by then as we look out over the deep water my father and brother fished on. I shall do it when we are sitting on the rock where I myself spent hours as a girl. I will tell Charles. I think our daughter is on her way and we shall name her Iona

Mary, she is still in the kitchen, but she is special to us and we treat her as one of the family and she loves to do nothing more than accompany me to Galway when I get the chance to visit the shops

Lottie took over as housekeeper, once we had persuaded Mrs McKinnon that it was time for her to enjoy her retirement.

Lottie and I tracked down Maria who became the new cook

Lottie is with them, carrying her and Danny’s new baby daughter in her arms.

What do we tell them? What will Mrs McKinnon say?’ Ruby asked.

‘We cannot tell them anything, or we will scandalize the entire Atlantic coast. We will have to wait a whole year Ruby and until then, it will have to remain our secret. Can you wait that long. Will you trust me, Ruby Flynn?

She had never been kissed before and as his mouth closed over her own, she knew at once that she never wanted anyone but Charles to kiss her again

You have bewitched me, Ruby. I must seem like a very old man to you, but right now there is only one person in my life I could be persuaded to live for,

‘Your mother, Iona, had a wonderful nature. The tenants still whisper about the famine girl, Eilinora. She was a witch, if you believe in that sort of thing. It was all a long time ago. Anyway, the direct line to Ballyford was broken by a train crash in England, so there is no one who really knows. Ballyford started all over again, if you like, after that. We were just distant cousins.’

‘In the linen room, I found a box with the clothes of a baby in it. Were they my mother’s?’ asked Ruby.

‘Ah, you found the box.’ Charles looked hurt. ‘I wondered what Mrs McKinnon had done with it. I never had the nerve to ask her.

Ruby came into his mind. He felt so far away from he