"I imagine it might. And she's only a little girl." He wasn't sure how good Saoirse's notice of time was at this age. "We could walk the shore, see if we can spot her and call her in?" he suggested. He didn't want Greta to worry, but he also didn't want to interrupt Saoirse having her fun.

He wondered if this would be a sort of regular thing now, trips to the beach so Saoirse could be a seal, or if that wasn't how her sort of fairy tale worked. Thomas knew of selkies, but it'd been ages since he'd read a story about one.

He got to his feet carefully and offered his hands to Greta.