She and Maya ordered their drinks and took a table near the front door, but the pub was too small not to be part of whatever conversation was going on at the bar.

‘No Eddie tonight?’ one of the regulars called to Liv.

‘Ah no, he’ll be back soon. He’s just gone to Dublin with…’

‘Oh, we know right enough who he’s gone with.’ Nick sneered.

‘What’s all that about?’ Maya whispered.

‘I’m not sure,’ Liv said but her heart felt as if it had plummeted to the depths of her stomach, because, even though she didn’t want to, she could make a pretty accurate guess. So much for interrogating them, she could hardly look at them after seeing the mocking look in Nick’s eyes. They stayed just long enough to finish off their drinks and then they left their glasses back on the bar counter and said goodnight to the drinkers stationed there.

The night had grown biting cold, as if someone had dropped a blanket of arctic air about the village, and Liv pulled her jacket closer around her as they made their way to the jeep.

She felt Maya’s hand reach out to her, just as she was about to turn over the engine.

‘Look,’ her sister breathed, although no-one could hear them. Liv squinted to see out the windshield as a light tracing of snow was beginning to fall, but she didn’t have to squint for long before she saw Eddie’s familiar figure swagger along the footpath. He looked as if he might be a little drunk, but that wasn’t what Maya was pointing at. ‘Isn’t that Anya?’ she said, hardly loud enough to be heard on the still air in the jeep. And it was, Anya and Eddie walking down the main street, arms wrapped about each other, like love’s young dream. There was no mistaking the relationship between them. This had nothing to do with keeping balance on a slippery path and everything to do with brazenly telling anyone who cared to see them that they were together – a couple. Such a pity that he hadn’t told Liv first.

Panic.

Sickening, breath-plundering, vomit-inducing panic. Liv felt as if she was shivering and turned to stone all in one go. It was not sorrow or heartbreak or even betrayal, which she knew she had every right to feel. She heard a groan come from somewhere that had little to do with actually trying to speak and everything to do with some feral emotion that she wouldn’t trust in a kitten, never mind a full-grown woman who should know better.

‘I’ll kill him…’ She started to get out of the jeep, but even then, in her blind panic, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to murder Eddie or Anya most.