‘Well, perhaps I can thank this one for getting me in here.’

‘Liv.’ She supplied her name; it was the least she could do after all. ‘Anyway, I’d better get to work. I have Estelle’s phone number, if you’d like me to ring her and let her know that you’re awake,’ she said backing away from the bed.

‘Estelle?’ He said the name as if it amused him. ‘Ah no, it’s fine. There’s no rush.’ And then he looked at her and, for a moment, it seemed there was something more to say, but then he smiled and shook his head as if thinking better of it.

‘Well, I’m glad you’re awake, at least.’ She managed to break the standstill in the end. ‘I really am… Good luck, so, I suppose.’ His eyes were beginning to close now and she knew he would probably drift in and out of sleep for a little while yet.

‘Liv,’ he said as she was backing away from his bedside, a small amused smile drawing up his lips.

‘Yes?’ she said a little too eagerly, really not wanting to go, just yet.

‘I’ll see you later, so…’ He was drowsy again, drifting back to sleep, but that smile flickering about his face in a way that seemed almost like a flame dying on a candle made Liv think her heart would break if he didn’t make it out of here, even if it was to go back to the beautiful Estelle or the mysterious M.

7

E‌arly morning, snow drifting in across the hills, and Liv was standing in the barn with her dad, large mugs of tea in their hands with the unmistakable glow of happiness in her belly. Eight more lambs born overnight. They were here when her father checked on them at five o’clock in the morning.

‘I think it could be a bumper year.’ Her father smiled in that absent way she remembered from her childhood as if his thoughts were already running back to previous seasons and he was savouring every memory.

‘How have you been, Dad, really?’ she asked him while they leant over the gate admiring the newborns.

‘Ah, sure I’ve been grand, just grand. Who could complain when I’m blessed to be among all my favourite girls for Christmas.’ He nodded towards the sheep, but she knew he meant her mother and his two daughters.

‘Are you?’

‘Of course,’ he said sipping his tea. So, she decided two could play at that game and she looked across the pen, trying not to let her worry about him show across the furrows in her brow. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘No reason.’

‘Do I look as if I’m not well?’ he was watching her now. The world of medicine, beyond the birthing of lambs and calves had never held any great interest for her father.