“I asked them to stop, that they were disturbing the other guests. But it didn’t make any difference. They just ignored me.” She looked down at her hands and I was surprised to see the nails were bitten right down. She covered them quickly and looked up. “The man’s brother is staying with me too, so I called him. He told me he’d sort it out and I left. It was quiet in a few minutes.”

A couple traveling with the man’s brother. Could this be the cyclist I’d met the day before? I wondered. “Did you see them this morning?” I asked.

Mary nodded. “The brother apologized this morning, but the other two just behaved as if nothing had happened. All sweetness and light to each other like that couple from the shop in Father Ted.” She gave me a wry look.

I knew what she was referring to, a couple in a comedy series who were loved up in public but foul-mouthed and vicious when they were on their own. I suspected the situation wouldn’t be quite so funny in real life.

Although I was a little stumped. I couldn’t see any legal problem unless there had been damage to the room, but Mary hadn’t mentioned any. “That all sounds very unpleasant, but at least it was resolved.”

Mary took a deep breath as if finally coming to the crux of the matter. “The problem is, they were supposed to be leaving this morning but now they want to stay tonight too.”

I put the pen down. “I thought the cycle was happening this afternoon?”

She began to play with a silver chain around her neck. “It’s not safe, there’s too much water on the road. They’re hoping it will have cleared tomorrow and they’ll be able to set off.” She glanced doubtfully at the streaming window.

“I see.”

“So, what should I do?” she asked anxiously. “Can I ask them to leave? I don’t want them staying with me tonight but they’ve nowhere else to go. With the cycle, the town is booked up.”

I rested my chin on my hands. “They only booked for one night, so you don’t have to keep them for any longer than that if you don’t want to. And even if they had booked for two nights, it’s probably reasonable for you to ask them to leave, if they were disturbing other guests.” But Mary would have known all of that, I thought. “Haven’t you encountered this kind of thing before? I mean, you’ve been running the guesthouse for what?”

Her eyes drifted towards the wall as if trying to work it out. “Twenty years this June?”

“What would you usually do if something like this happened?”