Tara and Molly took Lloyd for a slow walk around the muddy fields behind the house, which Lloyd seemed to enjoy, despite the lack of anything much to chase or sniff. Even the rabbits had retreated in the face of the incessant downpour.

They were soaked through when they made it back to the house. However, a welcome smell of fresh filter coffee drifted down the hall from the kitchen as they towelled Lloyd off in the porch with one of Ruth’s Egyptian cotton bath sheets.

Toby was washing up at the big Belfast sink. His hair was flattened on one side, and he had a Moroccan dressing gown thrown over his T-shirt and boxer shorts. The extreme carefulness of his actions suggested it was a great effort not to drop anything, but he’d cleared the counter of the previous night’s debris and the kitchen was back to normal.

Now that’s an apology, thought Tara. She’d never seen Toby wash up before.

He turned when they walked in, and his face was as crumpled as the rest of him.

‘Morning,’ said Tara.

‘Morning,’ said Toby, and looked round to see where Molly was.

‘She’s gone upstairs for a bath,’ said Tara. ‘She might be some time. I said she could use any of the toiletries in the cupboard, and her little eyes went …’ She mimed pinging.

‘Good.’ Toby wiped a hand over his stubble. ‘God Almighty, Tara – what was in that gin?’

‘I did warn you.’

‘Are you sure it was gin, and not moonshine? Or poitín?’

Tara poured herself some coffee from the jug. ‘It certainly brought forth some revelations.’

He put down the porcelain teacup he was rinsing. ‘Look, I’m really sorry. I don’t know why I said what I said. About Branston.’

‘You were drunk.’ She added milk, two sugars, without turning round.

‘Well, I shouldn’t have.’ He crouched and angled his head so he could see her eyes. ‘Can you forgive me?’

Tara wanted to say yes, but she also wanted Toby to see how much he’d hurt her. It wasn’t just what he’d said, it was how he’d said it. As if he enjoyed pointing out to her that she wasn’t the perfect person she thought she was. ‘I’d genuinely blanked that … that incident, you know. It was a shock being forced to remember it. In front of Dad too.’

‘I can imagine. I genuinely am so sorry.’

She glanced towards the hall, where Lloyd was flopped on the welcome mat. ‘I loved Branston.’

‘I know that too.’

Tara let the silence extend, to punish him.

‘I should probably take a leaf out of Dad’s book,’ he said, with a forced laugh. ‘Stick to the herbal tinctures from now on.’