She picked up her dressing gown from the end of the bed – black, quilted, and patterned with bouquets of pink roses; a purchase from Liverpool that had been examined and exclaimed over by every village woman who had visited her in the cottage – and slipped her arms in, then fastened the belt across her middle against the cold, damp ocean air.

‘It wasn’t as hard as you might think,’ he said. ‘Cat phoned Mrs Doyle’s and I was there when the call came through. The rest was easy.’

‘Trust you to keep a good secret, and thank God you did. If they hadn’t arrived and the highlight of the night had been a villain stealing from Paddy, scaring the life out of the boys, or Joe announcing that he’d bought the estate, we would all have been bored to death, with nothing to talk about.’ Bee began to laugh. ‘Holy Mother, it’s only all just sinking in – all that in one night! A year of news all in an hour. Nothing will ever be the same again. Imagine, the next time we’re all at Michael and Rosie’s, we’ll be expecting the Pope himself to pop in, or the Queen of England to knock on the door, otherwise it will be a very dull party.’

Captain Bob straightened up and frowned. ‘That news of Joe’s about the hotel was news that Mary Kate didn’t seem to like one little bit. If I hadn’t brought in my surprise visitors, it would have been a terrible night for her altogether.’

‘Yes, but as it was, you, my lovely man, saved the day with your ingenious plan. Was it you that arranged with Seamus for them to stay at the farm?’

‘It was.’ Captain Bob was by now looking very smug indeed; nothing brought him more pleasure than pleasing his wife.

‘Mary Kate top-and-bottomed with Peggy last night so she can get up to the farm this morning, and do you know, when I went up to say goodbye to her before we left, she was already sleeping and there was a smile on her face. She was beside herself with the pleasure of seeing them.’ Bee reached her arms around his waist and he hugged her into him, resting his chin on top of her head and rocking her from side to side as if she were a fractious child.

‘That break-in was a funny thing altogether,’ he said. ‘Look…’ He held her slightly away from him and looked down into her face. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you, I didn’t see the point, but a few days ago, as I got back home, you were at Mass, I saw a boat I didn’t recognise coming into shore down below the cliff. When I went down to check who it was, the boat was gone. It wasn’t tied up against any of the rocks – it had disappeared altogether. I’ve never seen such a thing.’

‘Who could it have been?’