‘Did you miss me, girls?’ she asked, as they fussed around her feet, Attila already pecking at her toes as if to say, get a move on. Hannah scattered a few scraps to save her feet. ‘How are you today? Have you had a good weekend?’ She gave herself a little shiver, thinking about just how good her weekend had been. This morning her whole body felt soft and pliable. She’d never look at another jigsaw in quite the same way again, that was for sure.

‘Good morning, Hannah.’ Adrienne appeared, as if from nowhere in that spooky habit she had.

‘Hi.’ Hannah’s voice squeaked with a touch of guilt, blushing as she thought of waking up with Conor in her bed this morning and the long, slow, lovely kiss he’d greeted her with as she was worrying about her breath. He’d made her coffee and they’d sat at the little patio table, even though it was a little chilly, looking out at the sea, pearl-grey today under a flat sky. It was possibly the best start to any day she’d ever had.

‘You look refreshed. Obviously a good weekend,’ observed Adrienne, interrupting her wayward thoughts.

‘Yes. Yes, it was. Erm… Conor took me to Dingle. To see the dolphin. Kayaking. I had no idea there was a dolphin. We went to the fish place. The family one. It was good. And… yes, Dingle. It’s lovely.’ The words tumbled out in guilty haste, providing quick bullets of more information than was required while avoiding spitting out the other facts. We had sex. Several times. Who knew a jigsaw could be sexy? And did you know, that shower is big enough for two?

‘Flannery’s Fish Box. That’s a grand place. What did you eat?’

Hannah was relieved and amused. Of course Adrienne was only interested in the food.

‘I had the prawn stir fry. I love seafood and it was really good.’

‘There’s nothing quite like really fresh fish. It’ll spoil you for anything else. You’ll never want to leave.’ Her eyes met Hannah’s, guileless and open, but her words held a certain weight about them, as if she were declaring a truth. They pricked at Hannah, reminding her of the careless thought of Saturday night – what if she stayed?

‘We’ll be cooking with fish one week. It’s one of my favourite weeks. If the weather’s fine, we’ll go out on John Malley’s fishing boat to see a catch. A day trip.’ Hannah could have predicted her next words.

‘As you know I like my students to see where food comes from. We’re plenty blessed here with an abundance of seafood. Now, I must leave you; we’ve another busy week.’