Melissa laughed. ‘I should have known better than to think you’d forget,’ she said. ‘You always were so attentive to detail. I’m fine, thank you. Actually, I’m publishing director now. I would ask how you are, but I’m not sure I need to – I read Adrienne Gail’s review of your place. It sounds so amazing.’

‘Oh,’ Anna said, faintly embarrassed. This woman regularly worked on the cookbooks of hugely popular celebrity chefs. ‘Well, thank you, that’s kind of you to say.’

‘Actually, it’s why I’m calling,’ Melissa went on. ‘Look, I’m going to be honest. I’ve kept your number all this time because I always had a feeling you were one to watch. We both know you were the one who did the heavy lifting on Geoff’s first book. Even then I could see that you had an instinct for how a recipe should be presented. We’ve been on the lookout for new voices in the cookery genre here, and Anna – I think you’re exactly what we need on our list.’

Anna found herself staring out of the window at the quilted seascape beyond the Fishergirl’s Luck. ‘Sorry,’ she said, at a loss. ‘I don’t think I know what you mean.’

‘I’d like to produce a cookbook with you,’ the woman said. ‘ “Lunch at the Fishergirl’s Luck: recipes from the house beneath the cliffs.” It’s early days and that’s only a tentative title, of course, and open for discussion, but I can see the cover now. The press release would almost write itself.’

‘I—’ Anna tried to find something to say, but found she couldn’t.

‘Sorry,’ Melissa laughed again. ‘I know this is out of the blue. You were probably right in the middle of something. I can call back, if you like, at a more convenient time?’

‘No, it’s fine,’ Anna said. ‘You caught me a bit by surprise, that’s all. Thank you for being interested. I have actually always wanted to produce a cookbook. I’ve been writing up the recipes I’ve cooked here as I’ve gone along.’

‘See, I knew you’d be a dream to work with,’ Melissa said. ‘Maybe we can schedule a Zoom chat for sometime next week?’

Not all the publicity was as positive as that, however. Anna was upset to read a letter in the same local newspaper that had first told the area of the lunch club’s existence, written by someone who was clearly unimpressed by her little venture. It was by a woman called Jean Padgett, who lived in Macduff and described herself as ‘worried for the traditional and intrinsic fabric of these villages’, and accused Anna of eroding the very nature of what made Crovie so special for the ‘genuine residents’.