‘It’s a long story. I’m not very sure where to begin.’ The visitor appeared to be struggling to gather her thoughts. ‘My husband Daniel was in the same regiment as Finlay, and before that they were at school together here in Edinburgh.’

‘I remember Daniel,’ said Isobel, before she could stop herself. ‘He often visited this house.’

Beatrice Sidcup continued as though she hadn’t heard Isobel speak. ‘I was so sorry to hear that Finlay was missing.’

Ann got straight to the point. ‘So, what is it that you need from me?’ She turned the brown teapot round and back and round again, in the usual way, before pouring the tea into three cups and handing them out.

‘This is rather embarrassing.’ Beatrice Sidcup was clearly uncomfortable.

Ann mellowed a little. Whatever this was, the woman was struggling. ‘Perhaps if you start at the beginning,’ she suggested, pushing the plate of warm cakes towards the visitor and taking a piece of parkin for herself.

‘Daniel was two years older than Finlay, but they lived in the same tenement stair in Bruntsfield when they were children, and they played in the same cricket team at university. That’s how we met. They were both studying engineering. He still talks fondly of Finlay, which can be a little,’ she paused, ‘well, it can be rather difficult, sometimes. Daniel and I became engaged to be married at the beginning of 1913. We were both twenty-one and our wedding was planned to happen in the early summer, after Daniel had finished his studies. All through the time they were students, I laid out the teas for the university cricket team, for the visiting side. It was a rule that the half-time cakes should be rather indigestible; the home team always made a pretence of eating them and the visitors didn’t know any better and were weighed down somewhat in the second half of the match.’

Isobel smiled to herself, but didn’t say anything about her part in this particular subterfuge.

Beatrice Sidcup twisted her wedding ring around on her finger. ‘Finlay was such an attractive young man. So vibrant and funny and full of life.’

‘He was,’ agreed Ann.

‘The week before Daniel and I were to be married in July, he was called away to an interview in Liverpool. I was beside myself with everything that was still to be done for the wedding and I went to see Finlay at his flat, on Daniel’s instruction. I was a bag of worries and nerves. And he wanted Finlay to make sure I was alright.’ Beatrice Sidcup looked at her teacup but decided against it and pushed on. ‘Finlay was wonderfully kind and caring, and I wondered, not for the first time, if I had chosen the wrong man.’

The room was silent apart from the ticking of the kitchen clock.

Quite suddenly, Ann knew what was coming next.