Maeve and Danny decided to visit the barracks on Monday. The plan failed however, when a crisis erupted that morning in Reilly’s.
Eileen MacLaverty was unpacking a tea chest filled with delicate Japanese coffee sets when, from her office, Maeve heard the tinkle of shattering porcelain. By the time she reached the unpacking area Eileen was in hysterics, and Robert and Thomas stood by almost wringing their hands. Their state of shock told her that something serious had happened.
‘Let me see it, Eileen.’
The girl bent and lifted shards of palest blue porcelain from the stone floor. The pattern was just visible in fine broken lines: it was the coffee pot. Something Maeve herself had only come to recognise in the Aladdin’s cave that was Reilly’s china department.
Through her sobs, Eileen sa
