Penny raised her eyes from the computer screen and shrugged. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked. ‘I’m just . . . checking my email.’

‘No,’ Colin said, shaking his head. ‘I’m talking about this advertisement, on a site called Done Deal. I just found it. And I know it’s yours.’

Plastering an innocent expression on her face, Penny decided to play it cool. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

But Colin didn’t budge. ‘Are you looking to get abducted? Do you have a death wish? No one puts an ad on a public trading site that not only includes an email address, but also a phone number, proclaiming they are “willing to meet in order to negotiate”. Honestly Penny, I thought you were cleverer than that.’

She narrowed her eyes and shot daggers at him. There was no sense in denying that it was her ad on the Irish trading site and that she had posted it – just that morning, in fact. But she was curious to know how Colin had come to know about it so quickly.

‘How did you find it so fast?’

He shrugged. ‘No mystery. I’ve set up an alert – any time the phrase ‘first edition Beatles album’ gets mentioned or posted about online, Google lets me know. There was an alert waiting for me when I got out of the shower just now – your ad. Now, don’t argue with me, Penny. Take it down. Please. You could be putting yourself in all kinds of harm.’

Penny was already shaking her head. ‘I’m not going to take it down. I’ve sold plenty of bits and bobs from the hotel on Done Deal over the years. And I don’t have to respond if someone replies. I am a pretty good judge of character you know – and it’s not as if I included my address. I’m not stupid, just desperate.’

Colin sat down, and put his head in his hands. ‘Goodness Penny, you are way too trusting. Please promise me that you won’t go and meet anyone on your own.’

She smiled. ‘That’s no problem – you can go with me. In fact, I already had someone get in touch. A guy in Galway says he has a first edition Beatles for Sale album, so I’m going to drive down there on Saturday. I think it’s sort of fitting. Beatles for Sale – funny, isn’t it?’

Colin groaned. ‘Well, that was fast, worryingly so. But Penny, I can’t go with you, I’ll be homeward bound by then.’

Her face fell. He was going home – already? Yes, his two-week stay was nearly over, and of course with the hotel closing it wasn’t as though he would stick around forever, but they’d been becoming so close and were really starting to make progress . . .