Right. The session would end at nine and people would probably try and keep Laurel talking. By the time they got to The Three Fishes it would be eat-and-run. Then a happy thought struck him. ‘It’s Tonya’s birthday so we’re going out for a family meal that night. Another night?’ He kept his tone casual, striding from tussock to tussock along the track edge.

The hesitation was longer this time. Then she said. ‘Thursday? I’ll meet you there.’

Easily, he answered, ‘Great.’ If she wanted to set the pace, if she didn’t want him to call at her house and escort her across Main Road to the pub, fine. Whatever made her comfortable.

She shivered and pulled out her black elf hat again. ‘Snow’s lovely when you’re dressed for it but I’m going home for a hot bath so I’m not stiff tomorrow after such a long time out of the saddle.’

‘A hot bath sounds pretty good to me, too. Get rid of the last of the headache. See you later.’ He waved goodbye and crossed Main Road, heart considerably lighter than when he’d woken up in hangover hell this morning, assailed by the memory of Pippa’s stunt last night. Laurel had agreed to go out with him. He’d kept the invitation casual and it had paid off.

He turned the corner into Ladies Lane and spotted his sister-in-law coming towards him, pink and blonde hair mostly tucked under a hood. ‘Hey,’ he called. He had a lot of time for Mac’s feisty wife.

‘Hey,’ she replied, beaming. ‘I’m going to the shop. Got no wine in the house.’ She glanced down at his wet footwear. ‘You, too? Niall’s just turned up soaked and frozen.’ Her hood blew back and she yanked it on again. She paused, gazing thoughtfully at the cottages on the other side of the street. Thin veils of snow were beginning to cling to the rooftops. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any point asking you if there was more to that night when Mac was pantsed than I was told?’

Grady laughed ruefully, remembering her astonished confusion. ‘Are you still worried about it? It was only a prank … though it wasn’t hysterically funny at the time.’ He remembered the miserable discomfort of huddling into his hoodie at the side of the road in the snow.

‘I wouldn’t say worried,’ she replied. ‘But … Mac was odd about it. Niall seems to think you and Mac already knew Daisy’s aunt but Mac acted as if she were some stranger.’

Grady grew uncomfortable, both at Tonya’s question and at his damp, frozen feet. If Mac had chosen to pretend not to recognise Laurel because he didn’t want his wife to know his teenage girlfriend bullied her and Mac didn’t stop it, he sure as hell wasn’t going to enlighten her.