She stared at him. She remembered that night only too well – she’d hated every minute of it. She loved Adam and he was, thankfully, as different as chalk to cheese from his father and three older brothers who looked upon any and every occasion as an excuse for a drinking bout, as did most of Adam’s relatives, it appeared. She hadn’t wanted to accept the invitation from his parents, which had extended to her own parents and Olive, but her mother had insisted it would look rude if they refused and that with the wedding coming up it was better to keep everything nice and friendly. By ten o’clock most of the family and friends who were squeezed into the Gilberts’ kitchen and front room had been the worse for the whisky and beer they’d poured down their throats, and even her own da had sat in an armchair smiling blearily at everyone and quite unable to form his words. She’d later found out that Adam’s older brothers had made it their mission to get him drunk, partly, Ruby suspected, because Adam made no secret of the fact that he didn’t want or need to drink the way they did, which had always riled them.

Carefully now, because she didn’t want to make him feel worse than he already did about that night, she said, ‘Isn’t that all forgotten now?’ By the time the New Year had been welcomed in Adam had been three sheets to the wind and wobbly on his legs, and his brothers had carried him upstairs to his bed and dumped him on it, rejoining the party and telling all and sundry they wouldn’t let their little brother live it down. She had endured another hour at the Gilberts’ before she had been able to persuade her parents and Olive to leave, and then she and her mother and Olive had had to practically carry her father home. The next day Adam had had a terrible row with his brothers and refused to accept their apologies, which he’d maintained – rightly as it happened – had been prompted by his mother. It was only the fact that his oldest brother was best man and Fred and Peter ushers that had brought them speaking again in the last few days. Whilst Ruby could see Adam’s point of view, his tangible bitterness about the affair was a little extreme in her private opinion but she hadn’t dared voice this, so angry was he.

‘Forgotten?’