Penny nodded uncertainly. She felt that something was being left unsaid.

‘Did you meet Celeste?’ she probed.

‘Yes, I did.’ Elle smiled blandly. ‘She seems like a lovely girl.

She wasn’t going to make the same mistake as last time. The beige suit hung limply in the wardrobe. Elle felt like taking a pair of scissors to the thing. If only she had listened to Mona from the boutique. A blind man could have told her that it was exactly the wrong choice. She shook her head. She must have been mad.

This time, Elle wore something she could be completely herself in. A pair of purple skinny trousers and a jade green silk tank top. She slipped on a pair of golden braided sandals. There. Not exactly business-like, but she felt comfortable.

She didn’t feel like she was an impostor, or an actress on stage, wearing someone else’s borrowed clothes. As she set off towards Main Street you couldn’t tell to look at her, but she was even more nervous than last time. If they didn’t warm to her now, when she was being herself, it meant that the problem lay with her somehow. That there was something in her personality that just wasn’t right. Elle hoped, as she drove, that wouldn’t be the case.

From the roof, Rob watched her leave. You couldn’t miss her, her hair stood out like a bloom beneath the sun. He couldn’t help admiring her. She had left the town under such a cloud, and now here she was, striding out into the day in her vibrant, beautiful clothing, looking like she could do anything.

He wasn’t exactly sure what she was up to, but he thought that she had guts for trying. He felt in his heart that it was too late for the hotel, though it tore him up to admit it. All he could do now was finish this infernal roof.

Penny thought she was seeing things. She’d just finished getting dressed after breakfast and had come back into the kitchen to find none other than Colin sitting at the table with Ned.

He was wearing a loose cream linen suit and a panama hat and looked for all the world like he’d never left.

‘You’re back!’ she spluttered redundantly, her heart soaring.

‘Indeed.’

‘Already?’

Ned got up from the table. ‘I’m going for a walk,’ he said, shuffling out of the kitchen and leaving Penny and Colin alone.

‘So how did it go . . . with your publisher?’ she asked, willing her delight not to show all over her face.

‘Oh he loved the idea, but never mind that. I take it you haven’t yet told Ned about our adventure, since he didn’t mention anything . . .’

‘Not yet.’ She told him all about Galway and how she’d persuaded Elle to go with her.