‘Thank you. Well, it’s a long story, but my father was a firefighter before he retired, and so was his father, and my great-grandfather as well. There are four generations of us now, because my sister is in the fire service in Aberdeen. Counting the stairs and planning your exit whenever you go into a new building is just something we do. I was brought up with it. When I was a kid, if we went on holiday, we had to read the fire evacuation maps on the back of the hotel door, and not just read them quickly, but count how many paces it was to the nearest exit, and then check out the alternative exit too. Our friends all thought we were odd because if we went on a school trip, or stayed in their houses, we counted. Quite quickly we learned not to tell anyone so we didn’t get talked about, but we always did it, regardless.’ He takes a sip of wine. ‘Fortunately, I’ve never needed to use the information in anger, so to speak.’

Georgia leans forward. ‘But you’ve never been a firefighter yourself?’

Ben shakes his head and digs in his pocket, pulling out a blue inhaler. ‘My asthma is bad enough that they wouldn’t take me.’

‘I see.’

His tongue loosened by the wine, Ben continues. ‘So it’s in the blood really. My sister lectures on it now, and she did her master’s degree on the two-and-a-half-minute rule and whether it’s still valid today.’

‘The what?’ Georgia is hungry for more information.

‘She could tell you about it in a lot more detail, but the short version is that my great-grandfather was a fireman here in Edinburgh, and in 1911 there was a fire in the Empire Palace Theatre – you know, where the Festival Theatre is today, on Nicolson Street? And when the fire broke out, the audience didn’t realise it was an emergency because of some pyrotechnics that were part of the act. The orchestra saw there was a serious problem and they started to play “God Save the King”. The audience stood up because people did, didn’t they, when the national anthem was played? There was a raging inferno behind the safety curtain, and the place was evacuated. It took two and a half minutes to play the national anthem, and to get everyone out. Three thousand people, and the orchestra as well. It must have been quite a sight, that many folk pouring out onto Nicolson Street in two and a half minutes.’

Georgia doesn’t take her eyes off him. ‘And the rule is still around today?’