I waved again to my new friends and added in a little paw wave from Bod, a whimsical move that took me by surprise. I didn’t do whimsy. I was down-to-earth, sensible Madeleine, fully grounded in reality. But their smiles at my action made me wonder if I’d been missing out on something by being so set in those ways. Oh, Maddie, come on. Of course not. The sooner I got back to my cottage, the better. There was something about Ireland that was determined to try and work some sort of magic on me and I just didn’t have room, or time, in my life for magic.

‘Ready?’ Lorcan asked.

I nodded and his smile stayed in place as he moved towards the door, motioning for me to go first as he opened it.

‘Oh!’ The woman on the other side jumped, placing a hand on her chest. ‘Lord, you gave me a fright.’

‘Sorry.’ I laughed, turning to Lorcan. My laughter died in my throat as I saw his face drain of colour and the smile he’d worn just seconds ago disappear, his features hardening like stone. The woman followed my gaze.

‘Lorcan.’ Her eyes shifted between me and him. ‘I… didn’t know you were back.’

‘Just for the weekend.’ The words were clipped and his eyes shifted to me. ‘We should get going if we’re not going to miss the plane,’ he stated, taking hold of the suitcase handles again.

We had hours, not to mention his meetings, before the flight, but he clearly wanted to be out of there.

‘I love your dog,’ the woman said, shifting her attention back to me. Bod looked up as if realising he was being admired, making sure his best side was on show. Not that he had a best side, of course. He was plain adorable all round.

‘Oh. He’s… umm… not mine,’ I said, returning her smile and feeling inexplicably as if I were betraying Lorcan in doing so.

‘A fan of dogs now, are you?’ Lorcan flicked a glance at her that would cause a penguin to shiver.

‘People can change, Lorcan.’

‘Is that right?’

She shook her head. ‘Can’t we just put this behind us? It’s been ten years.’

Lorcan dropped his head and, for a moment, it seemed that he might be considering that whatever the problem was between them had perhaps indeed run its course.

‘Mammy?’

Lorcan’s head snapped up as a young boy walked up towards the woman. He watched as she wrapped her arm around him. ‘Sorry, sweetheart. I won’t be a moment and then we’ll get you home. I just need to pick up some eggs from Brighid so I can make your favourite sandwiches.’ A wan smile lifted the corner of his mouth but his face was pale.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Lorcan asked, nodding at the boy.