‘It’s only a hobby, promise you,’ Frank told her. ‘I’ve done it before for Bren, as it happens – a few years back she dropped her key in a squall and whoosh! Off it went over the sea wall, and you can forget about getting a locksmith around these parts, at least before kingdom come. So I let her in until Old Robbie could arrive with a spare.’

‘Robert MacKenzie,’ Anna said, seizing on a safer subject, ‘he’s who I bought the place from. I suppose he must have been a relative of Bren’s, if he inherited?’

‘Her nephew once removed, or some such,’ Pat said. ‘Relations around here are tangled and mysterious. Everyone’s related to everyone else in some way or other.’

‘I think I’d better wait until he can get here himself,’ Anna said. ‘I don’t want to offend anyone else.’

‘Douglas McKean,’ Pat said, in answer to the eyebrows that Frank raised at her across the table.

‘Ahh, that old gasbag,’ Frank said. ‘Ignore him. You’ve got nowt to worry about where Old Robbie’s concerned – he’s one of the good ones. Do anything for anyone, he will, hence him still being on the lifeboat despite the fact that it’s long past time he mustered out. He’ll not fret if I get that door open for you. And anyway, the Fishergirl’s Luck is yours now, in’t it? Do what you like with the place.’

‘Don’t let him niggle you into it, Anna love,’ said Pat, getting up to flick the kettle on again. ‘Frank’s looking for an excuse to show off, that’s all. Fancies himself as a criminal in a past life, when he’s really softer than whipped cream.’

Frank grimaced and rolled his eyes at Anna before further taking advantage of his wife’s turned back by reaching for a handful of biscuits.

‘You needn’t be making that face, Frank Thorpe,’ Pat said. ‘And if you think you’re eating all of those before dinner, you’ve got another thing coming.’

Frank sighed extravagantly. ‘Once a teacher, always a teacher, eh? Eyes in the back of your head.’

‘No choice with you around, is there?’