She watched as he stood up and walked from the dining room – his shoulders hunched, his frame diminished in some way – and she took a deep breath. This was disappointing; there was no doubt about that. But she had much to celebrate. And she absolutely intended to do just that after she’d eaten her fill of bacon and eggs and buttered toast. She’d call her mum first, then Erin, then Noah and Libby. She might even jot a quick message off to Lorcan.

No, maybe she needed to have that conversation with Lorcan face to face once they had cleared the air between them.

Hopefully, Ewan would feel better in a couple of hours and they could at least have a short chat before they left for Derry. It would all work out. It was already all working out. She grinned and walked to the buffet queue to get her breakfast.

28

Homeward Bound

Jo didn’t get the chance to wait a couple of hours though. Shortly after she returned to her room, she got a call from Ewan to say that he’d had to change his flight and would be leaving earlier than planned. He didn’t explain why, he just told her that he needed her to be ready to check out by eleven.

Nor did he offer any further explanation when she met him at the reception of the hotel for the journey home. Ewan didn’t look much better than he had done at breakfast. In fact, Jo was quite sure he looked worse than before. His pallor was grey, his eyes rimmed red and tension emanated from every pore.

‘Do you want me to drive?’ she asked as they walked to the car. ‘You don’t look so great.’

He shook his head. ‘No. Honestly. I’ll be fine when I’m behind the wheel.’

She nodded, but couldn’t help but feel increasingly nervous when she saw just how much effort hefting their bags into the boot of the car seemed to take out of him. He was moving as if he was stuck in treacle. Slow, laboured movements. Big sighs.

‘Ewan… I really think…’ she started.

‘I’m fine, Jo,’ he snapped. ‘I can drive. Besides, you’re not insured to drive this car anyway.’

That was true, she thought, but that didn’t make her feel any better about his fitness to drive safely. Maybe she should offer to pay for a taxi, or see if she could get Noah to come and pick them up. Surely they’d be able to make some arrangement with the car-hire company regarding the collection of the car.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to speak, Ewan climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the door with such force that the car shook. Jo climbed into the passenger seat, gingerly closed her door and turned towards him.