‘You’re right, of course you’re right,’ Liv said. She’d call him later – before she met up with Eddie in Flannelly’s; maybe she’d talk him into coming out to the pub with them too.

The beach was lovely. Here the fresh morning snow iced along the edge of the village but didn’t manage to slip onto the sand. The two sisters walked at a smart pace, and it felt good to breathe in the fresh sea air, cold and biting against her face, but reviving too after the day before when Liv felt as if she’d eaten too much and spent her day waiting for it to start, which it eventually did only after she watched Barbara Quirke’s car drive out the farm gates.

‘Is it just me or does the notion of having to go into Flannelly’s pub on such a lovely day just seem all wrong?’ Liv said as they turned back after walking to the end of the beach.

‘No, I wouldn’t fancy it either,’ Maya said, and of course, Liv knew that her sister would spend the rest of the evening reading one of the hardback books she’d stockpiled for the Christmas break next to her favourite chair in the cosy sitting room at home.

‘I sort of envy you being able to just suit yourself today,’ Liv said a little regretfully.

‘You could do the same. I mean, you hardly ever get home these days and who do you want to meet up with in Flannelly’s anyway? It’s just going to be Eddie’s cronies and, let’s face it, not much ever changes with any of them.’

‘Hmm.’ The problem was, if she left it too late, Eddie would be settled in with his buddies and there’d be no leaving until closing time. At least, if she got down before dinner, she’d be able to talk him into some food and there was a very slim chance she might get him to go for a walk around the village with her too. In her mind’s eye, she imagined him down on bended knee in the village square when all was silent, beneath the huge Christmas tree – by the looks of the sky at the moment, they might even have fresh snowfall.

‘Liv.’ Maya was biting her lower lip in that way she always had when they were younger and she was trying hard to keep a secret from her older sister. And it dawned on Liv that there had been a reason Maya was so adamant on them fitting in this time alone together today. She had something she needed to tell her.

‘What?’ Liv had a feeling that whatever Maya was going to say, she wouldn’t like it. ‘Is it Eddie?’ She could do without Maya trying to prod and poke at the news that he was finally going to propose to her.