‘You’re lucky that’s all you lost,’ Dervla said. She took over again, telling Eliza that Emmet was nearly blind in one eye, that his hearing wasn’t great in his left ear. That it could have been so much worse, though. People had died in fights like that. No one had ever been charged in his case, but —

Emmet interrupted, saying that Eliza wasn’t here to hear any of that. ‘But I still remember Jeannie clearly, of course. From our time in London. The month she spent here. And I remember her talking about her two friends from school a lot. The Successful Ones, she called them. But I’m sorry, I don’t remember meeting them in Australia. I’ve only got a few fragments from my entire time there.’

Eliza felt hope slip away. There was one more possibility. She had to ask. ‘They thought of someone else. Mum told them you’d travelled to Australia with your cousin. I’m sorry to ask – you might not remember, but did anything happen between them? Could it have been him?’

He frowned. ‘The cousin I went to Australia with?’

She knew she was grasping at straws. ‘Could they have got together without you knowing? Maybe even when you were in hospital? The timing’s right, isn’t it?’

‘The timing, yes, but the rest, no. Eliza, I’m sorry. I went to Australia with my cousin Orla.’

Dervla clarified it. ‘His female cousin Orla.’

Eliza felt winded. She hadn’t realised she’d been holding out such hope. It hadn’t occurred to her that his cousin might be female. She tried to show as much interest as possible when Emmet reached for his phone and showed her photos of Orla, now in her fifties, living in America, working as a doctor. He offered to put them in touch. Perhaps Orla might remember someone else from that time that Jeannie may have known.

Eliza nodded, thanked him. She rubbed her eyes, suddenly overwhelmed.

‘Are you okay?’ Dervla asked.

‘I’m fine, thanks. Just tired. We had an early start.’

‘Of course.’ The bell at the bar sounded again. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I need to get back to work. Dervla does too. Can you come back later? Maybe I can tell you some tales about Jeannie that you haven’t heard before.’

‘Your mother might like to meet Eliza too, Emmet. She and Jeannie got on well that summer, didn’t they?’

He nodded. ‘She always said she’d never met anyone like Jeannie. The wild colonial girl, she called her.’ He smiled. ‘Ma will be in here tonight too. Pub quiz night. She’s on the winning team. Undisputed champions for the past year. It’s not a fix, either. Want to join us, Eliza? To be honest, there’s not much else going on in Trim on a weeknight.’