Ann led the way around the side of the house to the scullery door. ‘It’s not that you shouldn’t use the front door,’ she explained, ‘I don’t want you to think that matters at all. It’s just that the storm door is a bit stuck at the moment. I need to take some sandpaper or something to the side of it. The wood seems to swell whenever there is heavy rain and then the door jams.’ She turned the doorknob and went inside, digging in her pocket for her key before unlocking the kitchen door.

‘Still leaving it open, then?’ Isobel nodded at the scullery door.

‘You know how it is,’ Ann replied.

‘It’s the same all over. Doors left unsecured, just in case.’

‘I know it’s probably unnecessary after all this time, but I can’t help it. There was a man a few weeks ago who came to the front door. He was looking for work.’ She sighed. ‘And I could have sworn, I could really have sworn that it was Finlay. But of course it wasn’t him, and I felt rather foolish.’ She pushed the kitchen door open with her foot and the warmth from the cast-iron range rushed into the cold scullery, diluting the heat as it spread between the two rooms.

Isobel followed Ann into the kitchen. ‘You left the fire lit?’

‘In your honour. I didn’t bank it up this morning so it’s really only what’s left from last night. I’m trying to train myself to be less obsessive about it, but it isn’t easy. I even bought a new fireguard, see? I’ll put some more coal on now, and then you can get settled.’ Ann moved the heavy metal mesh, lifted the coal scuttle and shook some lumps onto the pale orange embers. ‘I thought you could have my old room upstairs for now, and you can work out which one you want in a day or two.’

Isobel pointed to the narrow, carpetless staircase that led out of the kitchen and up to the room above the scullery. ‘I was planning to go back to my old room.’

‘I won’t hear of it. Absolutely not.’

‘Where are you sleeping, if you aren’t upstairs? I’ll not be moving you out of your own space.’

Ann smiled. ‘Things have changed a little here. It took me some time to get used to being in the place by myself, and I swithered about it for quite a while. Couldn’t make my mind up at all. In the end I commandeered the dining room as my bedroom because the doors open out to the garden. I got some help to move the furniture.’ She opened the biscuit tin that was sitting on the big table. ‘I made these for you.’