Bridget and Adrienne both began to laugh and Bridget said with a naughty grin, ‘Well that’ll bring the boy down a peg or two.’

‘Conor’s my son. The second of my four children.’

‘Y-your son.’ Hannah could barely get the words out. She’d slept with Adrienne’s son. Could this get any worse?

‘Yes. Conor Byrne?’ Adrienne raised her eyebrows.

The way she said his full name made it obvious that Hannah should have heard of him. Was he famous? Given the reaction of the others, they knew something she didn’t.

‘Can I get you a drink, Hannah?’ Adrienne continued. ‘Wine? Sherry? Gin? Beer?’

‘I’d love a glass of white wine if you have one.’

‘We certainly do.’

As Adrienne disappeared to the sideboard which was stocked with a fine selection of spirits and bottles, Meredith came to her side.

‘Conor Byrne is a celebrity chef here in Ireland. He’s huge. He’s had his own TV shows, run his own restaurants all over the place and written lots of cookery books. He’s the Irish equivalent of Jamie Oliver.’

‘Oh.’ Hannah swallowed. Now she felt a complete fool. No wonder they’d all been fawning over him at the restaurant and the hotel in Dublin.

‘But now he works here managing the estate for his mother.’

Now it came back to her, she remembered him telling her exactly that. He’d just omitted the celebrity chef bit.

‘He does the design and renovation work on the cottages. Handy with his hands, I hear. I wouldn’t mind finding out how handy he is.’ Meredith lifted her eyebrows in comic lasciviousness. ‘Although I’m almost old enough to be his mother. He’s what we called in my day hot stuff.’

‘He is very good-looking,’ said Izzy. ‘No wonder he did so well on the telly.’

‘Is he still on the telly?’ Now the waitress’ reaction to him, and Gerard’s, made sense. They all knew who he was – that girl looking for him in the bar too.

‘No, he’s given it all up,’ replied Izzy.

‘And no one knows why,’ said Meredith in a sepulchral whisper, her eyes wide with mock-dramatic effect.

‘Is he really that famous?’ Hannah asked just to make sure, even though it all made sense now.

‘Yup,’ said Izzy. ‘The whole family are cookery royalty. Adrienne used to have her own show, her daughter and son-in-law write cookery books, and the other daughter is married to some top chef in the US.’