As he pulled her through the crowd, the hens started calling out ‘Bye Conor,’ and then taking up the chant, ‘Good enough to eat. Good enough to ride,’ and punching their arms in the air.

Hannah giggled once they burst out of the doors into the cool evening air. ‘Good enough to ride, eh?’ God, she loved this man.

‘Don’t you start.’ He rolled his eyes with feeling. ‘God save us from hen nights. They were fluthered. I thought I was a goner in there.’ He put his arm around her and kissed her. ‘You were supposed to come to my rescue.’

She nudged his arm, delighting in his easy affection. ‘You seemed to be handling things perfectly. They all loved you – even the guy who said your programme was rubbish.’

‘Tell me about it. He still wanted a picture though.’ He huffed out a long sigh. ‘At least in restaurants people are a little more circumspect and if I sit with my back to the room, most don’t know its me.’

‘You didn’t seem to mind too much.’ He dropped his arm to take her hand and gave it a squeeze as they walked side by side along the pavement.

‘You can’t. That’s the problem. One bad word, one attempt to disengage yourself, and all of a sudden it’s all over social media and the press what an arse you are and how it’s all gone to your head. Besides, these are the people that have made me. I earned a lot of money, thanks to them watching the shows, thanks to people turning up to my restaurants. Being polite and playing along is a small price to pay, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Some people do, though. Polly loves it. Loves being centre stage. Wherever we went the press were sure to turn up. We couldn’t even go for a walk in the Phoenix Park on a Sunday morning without some photographer turning up. It took ages for me to figure it out. Turned out Polly was the one tipping them off. Even though she knew how much I hated the lack of privacy. That…’ Hannah saw him swallow. ‘That was a real kick in the teeth. A betrayal.’

‘That’s…’ Hannah paused, not wanting to be bitchy, but there was something about that level of disloyalty that made her want to comfort him. She was furious on his behalf. Polly should have looked after him better. ‘That’s terrible.’

He pursed his lips before saying with a resigned shrug, ‘She wanted the exposure. I was so pissed off, but she insisted things would be better if we moved back to Killorgally. I should’a realised she wanted to establish the next generation of the Byrne family.’ A grim smile twisted his mouth as he slowed his pace and they stepped out into the road to avoid a large group of young men.