‘I might have been. Sounds like we need a bit of a crew pulling together.’

Hannah nodded, thoughtfully. ‘But we don’t want to spoil Adrienne’s party.’

‘If a few of us sneaked out, she wouldn’t notice.’

‘Excuse me,’ interrupted Conor. ‘This is my family’s problem the two of you are talking about.’

‘Yes,’ said Hannah, ‘And they’re celebrating a birthday as well as it being Adrienne’s big night. No one will miss us, but they’d miss all of you.’

‘Not me.’

‘The great Conor Byrne.’

‘There’ll be nothing great if Murphy gets his way. I’d never forgive myself. Besides, the party will be over in an hour.’

‘Let them enjoy it. There’ll be enough of us. Jason, go and round everyone up. They’re going to need to change as it’s raining cats and dogs out there.’

‘We’d say, raining stair rods,’ said Conor with a sudden devilish grin. ‘It’s wet. And I like a woman who takes charge.’

Hannah glared at him, ignoring this, and peered out of the window. ‘Stair rods? That’s an understatement.’

‘I’d say pissing it down but I’d probably have to put a euro in the jar,’ said Jason.

‘Let’s meet at the cottage as soon as we can.’ Hannah was already planning. ‘We’re going to need some tools.’

‘I’ve got some in the truck,’ said Conor. ‘There are more in the workshop. I’ll round some up and meet you at the cottage.’

Going their separate ways, they parted outside the door of the office, leaving Hannah to pick her way down the track to the cottage, bitterly regretting the vanity that had forced her to wear the shoes. She’d wanted to show Conor that she was indifferent to him leaving the shoe for her.

Jason must have impressed the urgency upon everyone because five minutes after Hannah had changed and pulled on a pair of wellies, he and Fliss appeared, dripping, at the front door.

‘This is a bit of an adventure,’ said Fliss cheerfully. ‘Saving the day.’

‘It’s a bit grim out there,’ Hannah said apologetically. ‘Sorry to drag you away when it was so cosy in the greenhouse.’

‘No matter,’ Fliss shrugged. ‘Let’s face it, we’d all do anything for Adrienne, wouldn’t we? Oh, quick, come in.’ Fliss beckoned Alan, Meredith, and Izzy into the cottage from the porch, as well as Seamus and Peter who, it transpired, had insisted on getting on the act.

‘Moss Murphy and his crowd are a bad seed – gombeen men the pack of them,’ said Seamus, shaking the rain from his cloth cap, as he stepped into the cottage in dark overalls and heavy-duty boots.

‘Bad cess to them,’ said Peter.

The grumbling between the two of them stopped when the lights of Conor’s truck appeared outside.