‘Of course, I wouldn’t,’ she said, making a marginally better attempt at it. ‘It would have been a relief. There’s nothing I want more than to be able to get back to normal again.’

I was about to ask her to expand on that thought but didn’t get the chance.

‘What are you two whispering about?’ Sam unexpectedly hissed.

His voice was unnervingly close to my ear and my hand flew up to my chest.

‘Jesus!’ I snapped. ‘Where the hell did you spring from? You scared the life out of me!’

He looked somewhat taken aback by my reaction but not as surprised as I’d been by his silent approach and badly timed interruption.

‘The pair of you look positively furtive hidden here in the dark,’ he said accusingly, stepping around to look at us, his green eyes darting from me to Hope and back again. ‘What are you up to?’ he suspiciously demanded.

Fortunately, Hope was more on the ball than I was and ready with a quick answer.

‘We were just working on our strategy and tactics for thrashing you at Scrabble,’ she said without missing a beat.

Sam shook his head.

‘If the lad who’s supposed to be covering for me behind the bar doesn’t turn up,’ he grumbled, ‘that won’t be an issue because I won’t get the chance to play. Not that either of you could thrash me of course.’

‘Oh, is that right?’ I tutted, recovering enough to join in.

Hope looked at me and winked and I knew we had got away with it, but only just.

*

Before long, the pub had filled up nicely and I found myself teamed at the Scrabble board with George.

‘I usually play with my sister,’ he told me as we picked out our first seven letters and I tried not to show my disappointment with what I had selected, ‘but she’s gone to the prize bingo in the next village with a friend from the WI.’

He didn’t sound particularly impressed to be left high and dry by his regular gaming partner, but then given the way Sam had shouted at Skipper, I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d opted not to come to the pub at all.

‘There’s a big cash pot tonight apparently,’ he expanded, ‘and Gladys is usually pretty lucky so it’ll probably be worth the trip.’

‘You didn’t fancy it yourself then, George?’ I asked.

‘I did think about it,’ he said, leaning down to stroke Skipper’s head, ‘but Sam called round this afternoon to apologize for shouting about the water bowl incident so I thought I’d head here as usual instead.’