When Lily did not move, he gestured to her to leave. 'It really would be better if we had some privacy in here,' he said.

'Could I talk to you outside?' she asked.

Helen followed them both to the kitchen.

'Could we talk afterwards?' Paul asked.

'Don't you dare speak to me in that tone!' Lily shouted.

'We'll talk afterwards,' Paul said calmly. 'I have a job to do.'

He went back to Declan's room, where Larry was waiting for him with a basin of water. Mrs Devereux had already brought the fresh sheets. Larry went upstairs to run the shower. Helen stood in the kitchen looking out of the window.

'I don't know who he thinks he is,' her mother said.

Helen sighed.

Her grandmother came into the room and sat down. 'We put all the sheets into a bucket outside. Paul said he'll wash them once they've soaked for a while. Isn't he very good?'

Helen felt that her grandmother was deliberately provoking her mother.

'We could easily put them in the boot of my car and I'll stick them in the washing machine when I go home,' Lily said.

'Well, it's a pity you're saying that now rather than doing it at the time,' Mrs Devereux said.

Helen watched her mother bristle quietly at the table as Paul came into the room.

'His headache is getting worse,' Paul said. 'Also, he needs to drink a lot if he doesn't want to become dehydrated. I should have got him 7-Up when I was in the village.'

'How dare you speak to me the way you spoke to me in there!' Lily stood up and faced him. 'I don't know what you think your place is here.'

'Look,' Paul said, 'I knew as soon as I came in that Declan felt humiliated and I decided that he needed privacy and I didn't notice him saying that he wanted you all back in when you left.'

'As far as we are concerned you have no business here,' Lily said.

Helen sought to interrupt her, but Lily continued. 'Maybe it's time you and your friend thought of taking yourselves out of here.'

'Like now, immediately?' Paul asked patiently. 'Just because you want us to?'

'As soon as you can, yes,' Lily said.

'And just because you want us to?' Paul asked again.

'Well, I do live here,' Lily said.

'No you don't,' Helen interrupted.

'It is my mother's house,' Lily said.

'Declan asked Larry and myself to come down here,' Paul said. 'We have, Larry more than me, the two of us have been looking after him during very difficult times when I didn't notice his family around.'

'We weren't around because we were told nothing,' Lily said.

'I wonder why you were told nothing. Maybe you could ponder that, instead of getting in the way and making pointless arguments,' Paul said.

Helen felt that he had gone too far, but he remained placid and in control, weighing each word he said.

'I wasn't in the way,' Lily said.

'Well, it looked like that to me,' Paul replied.

'I'm his mother!' Lily shouted.

Paul shrugged. 'He's an adult and he has got a bad headache and he needs a drink and there's no room for this sort of hysteria.'

'So are you going to leave?' Lily asked.

'Listen, Mrs Breen,' Paul said, 'I'm here as long as Declan is here and you can take that as written in stone, and I'm here because he asked me to be here, and when he asked me to be here he used words and phrases and sentences about you which were not edifying and which I "will not repeat. He is also concerned about you and loves you and wants your approval. He is also very sick. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, Mrs Breen. Declan stays here, I stay here, Larry stays here. One of us goes, we all go, and if you don't believe me, ask Declan.'

'What do you mean, "not edifying"?' Lily asked.

'He's nearly thirty years old and he's afraid to tell you things, for God's sake,' Paul said. 'I haven't time for this. Larry, could the mobile phone be got working, could the battery be recharged?'

Lily began to cry and "went upstairs. Helen left the room and went and sat on Declan's bed.

'What happened?' Declan asked.

'Mammy had a row with Paul,' Helen said.

'She shouldn't have done that. He always wins rows, he always knows what you're going to say next,' Declan said. He put his hands over his eyes and winced. 'The pain comes in waves,' he said and got out of bed again to go to the toilet. 'I'm feeling really sick again.'

Helen met her grandmother at the foot of the stairs.

'That was a bit rough,' Helen said.

'Oh, she's all right,' her grandmother said. 'She'll cry it but of herself. She can put people out of her nice house in Wexford if she likes, but she can't put people out of here. They'll go in their own good time.'

They went back to the kitchen, where Larry was trying to recharge the mobile phone.

'Sorry, everybody, if I sounded offensive,' Paul said.

'You'd feel sorry for poor Lily,' Mrs Devereux said, 'putting her big foot in it without a leg to stand on, as the fellow in Ballyvalden used to say.'

'Does anyone have a screwdriver or a pen-knife?' Larry asked. 'I need to check this plug.'

'I have a knife here.' Mrs Devereux reached into her apron pocket.

'Granny, that's a flick-knife!' Helen said.

Mrs Devereux pressed the switch and the blade flicked open. It looked dangerous. She handed it to Larry.

'Granny, why do you have a flick-knife?' Helen asked her.

'Helen, I don't know if you saw all the programmes about old people being attacked, old people living alone. Oh, it was all they talked about around here; the Kehoes nearly built a moat around their house and the guards in Blackwater were nearly driven out of their minds by the strange sightings. People kept asking me how I was managing. I had no peace and, as you can imagine, Lily was out here day and night with brochures about alarm systems. It was madness. But I'd seen this thing' \a151 she pointed to the flick-knife – 'on the television and it seemed even better than a gun. So I went into Wexford and I asked Mr Parle in Parle's Hardware and he said he didn't stock them, they were too dangerous, and no one in Wexford would stock them. So I explained what I wanted it for. I think he thought I wanted it as a present for a grandson or a nephew. But when I told him he brightened up no end and said he would order one for me, and we talked about shapes and sizes. He said I was quite right to take the law into my own hands. He seemed to know all about flick-knives. And a few weeks later I went into Parle's and there it was, new and shiny.'

'But, Granny,' Helen asked, 'can you use it?'

'Use it, Helen? You just press the switch.'

'And what would you do if an intruder came into the house?' Helen asked.

'I'd stab them, Helen. I'd disfigure them,' her grandmother said.

'God, you sound as though you mean business,' Larry said.

'You're a lesson to us all, Mrs Devereux,' Paul said. 'I'm glad I didn't try and break in here.'

'Does Declan know about the flick-knife?' Larry asked.

'No,' Mrs Devereux said.

'I must go and tell him. This battery should be recharged in about half an hour,' Larry said.

Larry bumped into Lily at the door. She addressed Paul across the room.

'Declan says you're his best friend and I mustn't be rude to you, so I agreed to do what he says.'

'Actually, I'm his best friend,' Larry said.

'Actually, you're just a young pup,' Mrs Devereux said, smiling at him.

'It's OK, I understand. I'm sorry too,' Paul said to Lily.

'Declan's getting sick into the basin all the time,' Lily said. 'He says the headache is getting worse, and he's back in the bathroom again now.'

'What time is it?' Paul asked.

'It's nine o'clock,' Helen said.

'We'll try Louise on the mobile at ten,' Paul said.