The two of them were taking it slowly. Getting to know one another through emails, messages, calls and photographs. She’d asked him if she could enlarge and frame several of his photos. He’d be honoured, he said. They were displayed in her living room. One of the castle in Trim, the stonework glowing against a stormy sky. Another from San Sebastián, a row of palm trees and an azure bay. The third taken on his recent Australian trip, when they went walking in the fern-filled forests of the Grampians. She’d hung his photos beside the one from the school concert, of herself, her mother and her godmothers. Each time she looked at it, she wished it was possible to tell her mother all that was happening. She wished Jeannie could have met Lawrence. She hoped that she would have liked him.

Emmet was looking forward to meeting Lawrence, she knew. Only Dervla had spoken to him at the pub quiz. That morning, Eliza had received an email from Ireland, with the latest version of Emmet’s proposed itinerary. He, Dervla and their girls were coming to Australia in three months’ time. To visit her, under the guise of a last big family holiday before the girls went to college. They didn’t know yet that Eliza was their half-aunt. Emmet was honouring Sheila’s wishes, not just with his daughters, but with his brothers too. They would all be told eventually, though. One day. Eliza knew that.

She and Emmet had discussed it again during a recent phone call. Sheila hadn’t reacted well to the news of the Australian trip, Eliza learned. ‘Ma’s still a bit upset,’ was how he put it. Eliza hadn’t enquired further. She’d moved from hurt to a kind of acceptance. Emmet knew the workings of his family much better than she ever would. There was still much to be grateful for. A big brother she’d never expected to have, most of all.

She did one more check through her apartment. There wasn’t much to tidy up. She still had very few belongings. Her linen, her clothes, the bowls, the vase. Her painting materials on the table by the window. The two postcards of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose on the fridge.

A ping on her phone alerted her that her taxi to the airport was waiting outside.

His flight was on time. As she waited in Arrivals for him to appear, her phone pinged twice. Her godmothers, of course. She read Olivia’s first. Happy reunion, darling xx. Then Maxie’s: Welcome Lawrence from us too! xx