I gave Sinclair a shy smile and lowered my eyelids. Ah, but who could blame me for looking at him? He was gorgeous, so he was. His hair was the color of straw and his eyes as blue as cornflowers. When he smiled, two deep dimples creased his cheeks. I forced myself to look away from him and concentrate on Ben instead. He was a nice lad, with an easygoing manner. He was easy to talk to and, for a while, I almost forgot Sinclair was there. But then I felt his eyes on me, and while I tried to ignore him, I lost the thread of what Ben was saying altogether. He must have thought I was an eejit because he turned away from me and started talking to Mrs. Shaw.

When lunch was over, we all stood up. I wasn’t certain what to do next, but suddenly, Sinclair was beside me, towering over me.

“Would you care to accompany me on a walk through the garden, Miss, er . . .”

My cheeks reddened. Fortunately, Mrs. Shaw came to my rescue. “I told you, Sinclair, that the dear girl still can’t remember her name,” she said. “The trauma of what she’s been through has taken her memory. But we hope that it will all come back to her soon. Don’t we, my dear?”

She looked down at me, and I nodded.

“Oh dear, I forgot you told me that, Aunt. Well, we must call you something,” Sinclair said, laughing. “I shall invent a name for you. Let’s see, now. You’re Irish and you came out of the sea onto land, just like seals were said to do in Irish mythology. They shed their skins to sun themselves, but men often fell in love with them and hid their skins so they couldn’t go back into the sea. What about Selkie? It means ‘seal’ in Irish.”

Something in the word “selkie” struck a distant chord. Where had I heard it before? Or had I?

“But you cannot name her after a seal, Sinclair!” said Mrs. Shaw. She seemed very put out. “If you insist on being clever, at least call her Grace—after Grace O’Malley, the sea pirate.”

Sinclair shook his head. “No, Aunt Felicity. I still think Selkie is much more apt.”

At that moment I didn’t care if he named me after the divil himself. He was paying attention to me, and that was all that mattered. He reached out his arm to me.

“Shall we take that walk, Selkie?”

I slipped my arm into his and began to walk as if my feet were not even touching the ground.