“I don’t know.” Maybe it’s time to go. I shut the lid of the pizza box. I can feel her looking at me. Splinter rests his head in my lap and I give his ears a scratch.

“You want a hot drink?” The sharp voice is gone. I flick a glance at her face. She raises an eyebrow at me. “Well? I can make you a hot chocolate if you like. It’s getting a bit cold out here.”

The thought of drinking milk from her house worries me. I turn my head to look through the front window. It’s dark in there. Not like a house at night, but like it’s filled with solid dark: a giant wooden kid’s block decorated to look like a house with the windows painted on in black. Except it doesn’t smell like wood in there.

“Relax. I’m not going to make you go inside.” She leans over and slides the pizza boxes off the table between us, but it’s not a table, it’s a chest. She lifts out a kettle and a plastic jar of instant hot chocolate powder.

“Here.” She shoves the kettle at me. “Go fill that up from the tap round the side.”

I look in the chest as I stand up. It’s shop-neat. A green and white tea towel folded into a sharp square, four clean cups stacked in pairs, a tall glass with some shiny teaspoons standing in it, three glass jars filled with tea bags, and a small bowl with those little tiny milk things you peel the lid off, like the ones in that doctor’s waiting room with the tea and coffee you used to slap my fingers away from. I wonder how often Lettie has visitors over for hot chocolate. I’ve never seen anyone else here. When I bring the kettle back she leans down and plugs it into one of those outdoor power points that’s hidden behind her chair. I watch as she spoons the hot chocolate powder into the mugs.

“It says two heaped spoons. But I always think it tastes better with three.”

We wait for the kettle to boil.

IT’S GOOD HOT chocolate. The mug’s just a little too hot to wrap my fingers around. I hold on to the handle with the fingers of one hand and rest the fingers of the other around the rim, warming the tips. I lean my face into the chocolaty steam.

Lettie takes a loud sip of her drink and sits back with a sigh.

I wonder if she spends every night out here.