She still couldn’t quite believe she’d been so brazen that night or where it had led. Now look at her. Ireland Hannah was very different from England Hannah and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to being England Hannah. With a frown, she realised she wasn’t even sure she wanted to go back to England, back to her old life. Which was ridiculous. She had a job, a flat, and a life there. But what sort of life is it? nagged an annoyingly perceptive little voice before rather shrewishly adding, And you don’t even like your flat that much. The cottage is so much nicer. Hannah sighed irritably. She couldn’t make life-changing decisions based on a flipping cottage.

‘Something wrong?’ asked Conor as they walked side by side down the corridor.

‘No,’ she said with a firm snap as if that would help shut down the wayward ‘what if’ thoughts in her head which seemed to have taken charge.

‘Sure?’ Conor shot her one of those quizzical, knowing looks that he and his mother seemed to have down to a fine art.

She definitely didn’t want to discuss her thoughts with him; they were a little too adventurous and shocking for her to take hold of, let alone explain.

He opened the door to the room and all thoughts were pushed aside by the charming décor.

‘Nice, isn’t it?’

‘Nice!’ She whirled to face him. ‘It’s gorgeous. I love the colours, although I’d never have chosen them in a million years.’ She reached out to touch the navy-blue wallpaper with its elegant hoops of copper foil. Then she realised he was teasing her. Of course he was; he was the one with the designer eye.

‘Perhaps I should use this wallpaper in my place? With that big window overlooking the sea, there’ll be plenty of light.’

‘You should. It’s lovely.’ With a quick pang she realised that she was unlikely to ever see it in situ. The knowledge brought a deadening in her chest, like a sense of loss, which was stupid because you couldn’t lose what you didn’t have in the first place. Honestly, being in Ireland was making her far too fanciful.

She walked through to the bathroom to escape the thought.