He smiled. ‘There is that. But when it’s fine there’s no place more beautiful.’

‘Spoken like a true Irishman.’

‘Whereabouts in England are you from?’

‘Manchester.’

‘Ah. I have cousins there.’

‘Don’t you have cousins everywhere?’

He laughed again. ‘Pretty much. That’s Catholic families for you. And we’re big on emigrating. So what do you do in Manchester?’

‘I’m a lawyer.’

He looked impressed.

‘What do you do?’

‘Me?’ He paused. ‘I… er manage an estate. Look after the repairs and maintenance, that sort of thing.’

She nodded, slightly surprised, which was wrong of her. Did his slight hesitation mean he was embarrassed? You shouldn’t judge by appearances but he was wearing a well-tailored suit which even to her untrained eye looked expensive. Certainly not clothes to be doing repairs in.

‘I’ve been to a business meeting,’ he said, quickly catching her quizzical gaze. ‘With my family’s lawyer. You’re much easier on the eye than him.’

Thankfully the barman appeared with her glass of wine so she didn’t have to respond to the compliment. He was so sure of himself, and she suspected comments like that came easily without much substance to them but for all that, he was charming and entertaining. It wasn’t as if she had any other plans for the rest of the day. The rain had put paid to those.

‘Thank you,’ she said to the barman as he handed her the red wine and gave a tumbler of amber liquid to Conor.

‘Sláinte,’ he said, lifting his glass.

‘I always wondered how you say it. I’ve read it a score of times in books but never heard it said. Sláinte,’ she said, trying to copy his pronunciation which sounded more like slancha.

‘Not bad. Do you know what I like about you?’

Hannah jerked her head in surprise at the rather direct comment. ‘No. As that wasn’t a rhetorical question, I assume you’re going to enlighten me.’ Her mouth quirked in amusement as she realised she was rather enjoying this light sparring.

‘You haven’t looked at your phone once. So many people can’t exist for five minutes without checking something. It’s like some kind of addiction these days. We have a strict family rule at home: no phones at meal times or when we’re all together. Mam won’t have it.’