‘I’d like to hear it,’ Dervla said. ‘Emmet would too, I’m sure. And I know it’s him you’d like to speak to the most. He knew your mother much better than I did. Are you staying in Trim tonight?’

Yes, she said. In the hotel by the castle. She was here with a friend from Edinburgh.

‘You Aussies are amazing, the way you travel. That’s grand you’re sorted in the hotel. We’ve got an Airbnb apartment above the pub here. I was going to offer you that. We used to live here, but when the girls came, I put my foot down. It’s hard enough being a publican’s wife sometimes without living on the premises too. My mother-in-law said she wished she’d been as firm. Emmet and his brothers were all raised here. Sheila’s in a lovely apartment at the other end of town now. She’d love to meet you too, I’m sure. It would do her good to see a new face. She’s had a tough time of it since Hugh died three years ago. My father-in-law. Sheila met Jeannie too, of course, the summer she was here.’

Eliza was doing her best to keep up with everything Dervla was saying. She spoke very quickly.

‘They talked on the phone a lot too, I know,’ Dervla said. ‘After Emmet had that accident. It was such a terrible time. I was travelling myself by then. South America. Out of contact for a month. No social media in those days. I didn’t even know about his accident until I got to my hotel in Santiago to find dozens of messages waiting. Thank God he and his father were already on their way back home by then, or I’d have flown out to Australia myself. Ah, here’s Emmet back now.’

He was smiling. ‘Sorry to be so long. That castle brings in the tourist buses. Not that I’m complaining. Eliza, I’m sorry again – you’ve come all this way, hoping I was who you were looking for. I’m trying to think if she was seeing anyone else around that time. But I’m the wrong person to ask. You know about my accident? When we were working in that pub in Australia together?’

She nodded. ‘My godmothers met you. Mum’s two best friends from school. They’d gone to Melbourne to visit her. You dropped off a key. You all lived in a share house, apparently. Do you remember them?’

‘I’m sorry, but no. I lost about a month of memories from around that time.’