As he returned from fetching the house brochure from the car, he caught a glimpse of Felix, going slowly, softly up the stairs.

‘Do you know this house?’

Cat looked carefully at the photograph. ‘Harrows. Yes – or rather no, I don’t know it, but I’d no idea there was a house down that lane until I was lost on the way to a new patient and I took the wrong turning. It looked very empty.

‘It is empty but OK, not derelict or anything. It needs TLC but not reconstruction.’

She read through in silence.

‘So . . . I didn’t realise you’d started looking.’

‘Neither did I . . . it was just a vague thought until this popped up.’

‘You’ve been to see it?’

‘Earlier but I want to go again. Will you come with me? I need your eye.’

‘Have I got one?’

‘You’d definitely have one for the garden. But you know me.’

‘True – I think. The thing is, never mind what this house is like and whether you like it, or I like it, that doesn’t matter at this stage, does it? It’s whether you have sat down and thought carefully about what moving from your place would actually mean. Is it what you want, for the foreseeable future? ‘You have to be dead sure – sure of leaving the close and your nice eyrie before you even think about where you might go. This looks quite big. Do you need all that space? It’s pretty isolated.’

‘Not really . . . a mile to the village.’

‘Where there is what, exactly? No pub till the Plough at Foxley.’

Cat took off her shoes, and hitched her legs onto the sofa. Wookie grumbled in his sleep.

‘The thing is, I suppose, you like your own space – maybe too much but you do – and that works fine in the close but look at this place – you’d rattle around. Echoing footsteps. Owls at night.’

‘I’m never spooked.’

‘No but you could easily be lonely. Of course, for all I know you could be planning to move in with someone – which would be quite another story.’

‘Nice try, sis.’

On the landing above, Felix waited until things had gone quiet again, the sitting room door closed, sounds of the TV coming loudly from the den, before he crept his way along to the end and knocked softly on Sam’s door.

No reply.

‘Sam?’

‘Go to bed.’

‘Can I come in?’

‘No.’

Felix stood for a moment unsure whether to try again or leave Sam alone and go to bed with his Alex Rider book, but then his brother’s door opened slightly.

‘What do you want?’

‘Thought you might like something . . . a Coke or a cup of tea or . . . anything really.’

‘Why?’

‘Just thought.’

‘You’ve been earwigging.’

‘No!’

‘Whatever . . . Thanks but I don’t want anything. OK?’

‘OK.’

‘Night.’

‘Sam . . .’