It was Colin. He had a lead for another album owner. The man was in Kilkenny, not too far from where they were now, and if Penny and Ned could get there before teatime, the man was willing to talk to them.

Penny idly wondered what Colin was saying to those people to pave the way, but knew from experience that he could be quite charmingly persuasive. She also wondered how things were going at the hotel. It was obvious that her sister was making preparations for an event of some kind, but Elle was being maddeningly secretive. All she would say is that Penny getting Ned out of the house for a while would be an enormous help.

In truth, Penny didn’t mind being away from all the commotion or away from the hotel full-stop. She was enjoying this time with her father, enjoying getting to know Ned a little better, as a person, outside of the usual domestic setting.

She wasn’t too sure how to feel about Elle being around again. Might it be permanent this time? She wanted to fix her relationship with her sister, but it seemed easier said than done. She had seen her with Hazel over the past day or two and been jealous of their easy friendship and shared jokes. She knew that Elle had gone to Hazel for advice before she had turned up at home. Penny was a little hurt that she hadn’t gone to her first. She must’ve been more upset at the way they had parted than she’d let on. Or else she just didn’t trust Penny enough to ‘get’ what she was doing, thinking her too scatty and distracted.

‘We are really narrowing down this list now,’ she said to her father. In fact there were still about twelve records to go, and it would surely take much longer to track those down but Penny didn’t think it mattered somehow. Ned was obviously enjoying the distraction and touched by the sentiment.

And that was more than enough for her.

She did wish though that out of all of the others, she could track down the Anna single for him. This was the one with the most sentimental value, named as it was after her mother, and of course given to him by Anna herself on their wedding day.

Ned was still holding the Abbey Road album in his hands, looking at the famous cover intently, almost possessively, Penny thought, as if someone was about to swoop in and take it away from him. He ran a finger across the iconic image of the Fab Four walking across the zebra crossing.

‘Do you know about the controversy this album started?’ he asked her.