He lay still, for fear of waking Anna, who was sleeping peacefully beside him. In the distance the clock of St. Barnabas’ Church beat out four muffled strokes. A few hours’ sleep had cleared his mind of the last dregs of shock and emotion. He had started thinking again. Most of his thoughts were on Anna and on Kevin. He had long since ceased to believe that they were at the Doone Valley Hotel by chance. Anna had said a lot of things to him, many of them loving and most of them probably lies. But on one occasion, provoked by him, she had spoken the truth. He was sure of that. It was when she said to him, “Your life belongs to everyone in your world.” And more specifically, “You’re given it so that you can do something for your people.” Who were her own people? Surely not the wild Irish of the north, among whom she claimed to have spent her youth. And to what cause was she wedded so passionately that she would give her life for it? He looked down at the face on the pillow beside him.
