‘It was an accident,’ Niall said, and already she could see tears in his eyes.

‘What does Colette want?’ James asked.

‘Sure, I don’t know, I didn’t speak to her.’

‘She phoned the other night too, when you were at bridge.’

‘You never told me.’

‘Ah well, she said she’d phone back.’

‘And she has done, several times. She usually phones me up to ask something about the creative writing class and then keeps me on the phone for hours. But it’s only an excuse. It’s sad really. She’s lonely.’

Niall was looking at her and she tried not to catch his eye. He had scraped up every morsel on his plate but had not run off to watch television like he did every other evening.

‘You may be excused, Niall,’ she said.

He stood up and began to walk slowly towards the door.

‘Niall,’ James said. He took a £20 sterling note from his wallet and handed it to him. ‘That’s for Enniskillen tomorrow.’

‘Thanks, Daddy,’ Niall said, slipping the money into his pocket.

‘Now don’t lose it,’ Izzy said.

‘I won’t.’

‘Do you want to give it to me to look after?’ she asked, but he was already running out of the room.

She glanced at James, who still had one eye on the television. There was a story on the Russian soldiers moving into Chechnya. Men in winter camouflage, guns propped on shoulders, marched in perfect unison through driving snow. It was a beautiful sight really, or beautiful and terrifying at the same time, and she thought she might include this image in some way in her writing. Her poems so far had so much to do with her own life and she was getting bored of herself.

‘It’d break your heart, the whole thing,’ she said.

‘Oh sure, the world’s in a terrible state.’

‘I’m not on about the news,’ she said. ‘I’m on about Colette.’

James lifted another pile of creamed potato from the pot, the spoon giving a loud clack as he brought it down on his plate. ‘Oh, you’d want to be careful there,’ he said.

‘How do you mean?’

‘I’d just steer well clear of that whole situation.’

‘Well, what am I supposed to do if she’s ringing up the house every day pouring her heart out to me? I can hardly hang up on her.’

‘No, but you wouldn’t want to get too involved in another family’s business like that.’

She was silent for a time. ‘And all the things you get involved with that have nothing to do with you.’

‘That’s my job.’

‘And you don’t know the half of it. Shaun won’t let her see the kids.’

‘Sure, I know that. Everyone knows that.’

‘But no one says anything. Did you know that she hasn’t seen Carl in six months? And did you know that he’s cut her off?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What else would I mean? Financially. The woman hasn’t a penny – it’s a disgrace. Why else do you think she’s living up in that cottage – for the good of her health?’

‘I still think that you’re better off staying out of it – leave the pair of them to sort it out between them.’

She laid down her knife and fork. ‘You could help,’ she said.

‘How in the name of God could I help?’

‘You could have a word with Shaun. You could say something like . . . like you think the reason Carl and Niall were fighting was because Carl misses Colette, and wouldn’t it be better for Colette to see a little bit of Carl. It could be very casual – you could make it brief, just next time you bump into him. Do it man to man. He might listen to you.’

James held a forkful of food, suspended in midair, just a few inches from his gaping mouth. ‘Casual?’ he said. ‘Casual? What would be casual about me bumping into Shaun Crowley and telling him how to conduct his marriage? And where exactly do you imagine this meeting would take place – would I casually arrive at his office or would I casually corner him on the main street? Shaun and I aren’t friends. That man doesn’t have friends.’

‘I don’t see anyone queuing up to be friends with you either. Anyway, you know each other professionally, your children are friends.’

‘Casual?’ he repeated, shaking his head. ‘That’s a good one.’

‘Oh well, don’t bother, I’ll ask Father Brian. That’s more his area than yours. Isn’t that what he does for us anyway – marriage counselling?’

‘Sure, isn’t he already trying to rehabilitate her, letting her read at mass? Let him get on with it.’

‘You’re just worried about upsetting Shaun Crowley.’

‘I would be worried about interfering in any man’s business.’

‘Bullshit. If he didn’t own most of the town you wouldn’t be long telling him his business.’

‘Look,’ he said, ‘there’s a lot of gossip going around and I’d like if we didn’t become part of it.’

She gave a loud tut. ‘Oh, some hope of that. It doesn’t matter what you do, people’ll still be talking about you.’

‘Are you that bored? Have you so little to do that you need to go sticking your nose into their marriage?’

‘Oh, would you listen to you – this is coming from the man who couldn’t stomach the idea of me managing that property on the main street, and now you’re worried I have too much time on my hands?’

‘Well, next time you come up with a hobby can you think of one that won’t cost us twenty thousand pounds? I’d stick with the painting and the yoga.’

‘I bet Shaun Crowley doesn’t leave his money lying around in the bank doing nothing.’

James threw down his knife and fork and they clattered against the plate. ‘Is this what you want? Do you want a fight before Christmas? Do you want us to fall out over Shaun and Colette Crowley like we haven’t enough fucking problems of our own?’