‘Stop you? We’re not trying to stop you, are we, Nicola?’
‘No. Lord, no. People do what they want to do.’
‘So what are you doing then?’ His eyes were huge and filled with terror and his thin body was shaking.
‘We wanted to ask you about the greylag goose. We saw one today. I gather it flew in from Iceland.’
‘There’s nothing odd about seeing a greylag goose. Sure, the place is coming down with them. Now if you’d seen a snow goose, that would be something to talk about,’ said Shay.
‘A snow goose? Do they come from Iceland too?’ Nicola was moving round behind him but almost nonchalantly, and looking vaguely out to sea as if hoping to catch a snow goose in the light of the moon.
‘No, they’re from Arctic Canada, Greenland. You’d see them over in Wexford on the east coast. They don’t come here much.’
‘Have you seen them yourself?’ Henry wondered.
‘Oh yes, often, but as I say, not round here. I saw a bean goose last year. That’s fairly rare.’
‘A bean goose!’ Henry tried to put awe and admiration into his voice.
The boy smiled.
‘Could you come in and show us the bean goose in the bird book?’ Nicola asked, as if the thought had just come to her.
‘Ah, no. I’d only have Chicky going on and on about my going to the doctor. I hate doctors.’
‘Oh, I know.’ Nicola rolled her eyes to heaven as if sharing his view.
‘Anyway, you could look it up yourself. She has all the books in there.’
‘It’s not the same. You could explain . . .’
‘No, I wouldn’t feel easy about it.’ He was about to back away. Nicola was right behind him.
She put her hand gently on his arm. ‘Please come in with us. Henry can’t sleep, you see, and it would be such a help to us.’
‘All right, so. Just for a bit,’ he said, and came with them into the kitchen of Stone House.
They found him a big tartan jacket while his thin sweater was drying on the radiator. Nicola made them tea and they had some bread and cheese. He was still there explaining how you would tell a barnacle goose from a brent goose when the O’Haras arrived, calling out his name.
They had read the note he had left on their table; the note saying he was sorry but this was the only way out. They had been praying as they ran across the cliffs that they would be in time.
Shay’s father sat down at Chicky’s table and cried like a baby.
They phoned Shay’s mother, who had been so deeply in shock that she couldn’t come with them in the search. Chicky had come downstairs and was coping with everything as if this was to be expected in a day’s work.
‘We need a doctor,’ Shay’s sister said.
Shay looked up, annoyed at the idea.
Chicky was about to explain that there were already two doctors in the kitchen. Henry shook his head.
‘I’m sure Dr Dai would come,’ he said.
‘He’ll know what to do,’ Nicola agreed.
Chicky understood.
Next morning at breakfast they didn’t talk about it. Orla already knew. The whole of Stoneybridge had heard how the two English visitors had talked the boy out of the death he had planned. She looked at them gratefully as she served the food.
Some of the guests had thought they heard shouting in the night. A thing of nothing, Chicky explained, and they moved on to talk about plans for the day.
They called on Dai Morgan later in the morning.
‘There’s a human being alive today because of you,’ he said.
‘But for how long?’ Henry asked. ‘He’ll do it again, won’t he?’
‘Maybe not. He has agreed to go into hospital for observation. He says he will take his medication and he might talk to a counsellor. That’s a long way further down the road than before.’
Henry and Nicola looked at each other.
Dai went on talking. ‘I’m anxious to get my own move started as soon as possible. I’ll start telling people today. I was wondering . . . it’s a bit far out, but I was wondering . . .’
They knew what he was going to say.
‘I’ll need a locum for a couple of months. Would you think of it?’
‘They wouldn’t trust us. We’re outsiders.’
‘I was an outsider.’
‘But that’s different. They don’t know anything at all about us.’
‘They know you saved Shay O’Hara’s life. That’s as good a calling card as any,’ said Dai Morgan.
And then there was a lot to talk about, as plans were made.
‘It doesn’t have to be for thirty years, like me,’ Dai told them.
He watched them as they stood together in the winter sunshine, relaxed now as they had never been before.
‘Or then again, of course, you might even stay longer,’ he added.