‘Nice to meet you too.’ Grace smiled gently and rested her hand on top of Lady Bee’s before speaking each word more precisely. ‘I said, I have come here to today to look for a friend …’

‘A friend you say? What is your friend’s name?’

‘Con …’ Grace paused and then continued with, ‘Mrs Donato.’

‘Constance?

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘Oh dear.’ Lady Bee suddenly looked agitated as she patted Grace’s arm before withdrawing her hand. ‘That can’t be right …’ Her voice trailed off as she shook her head.

‘Why is that?’ Grace enunciated carefully to make it easier for Lady Bee to lip-read.

‘Mrs Donato didn’t have any friends, my dear, so that’s why. She kept herself to herself when she lived here. I never saw anyone visit her, and my apartment is right across the hallway. I did say hello on occasion if I saw her in the hall when she first moved in and we made polite conversation … you know, she told me once that she had lived in this very house as a child before having to leave when she was only seventeen. It wasn’t converted into flats in those days, though … she said it was a grand Georgian house with servants’ quarters in the attic rooms and a magnificent kitchen with an enormous Aga in the basement, so I imagine her family must have been very wealthy indeed.’ Lady Bee widened her eyes and tilted her head.

‘Did she say why she had to leave?’ Grace asked, wondering if it was because Connie was pregnant – the diary entry had mentioned her parents visiting her in a rural village called Tindledale to break the news of Jimmy’s death.

‘No, she didn’t, and I did ask as I thought it an opportunity to find out a bit more about her, but she clammed up. She was very distant. Quiet and reserved. “A recluse” is what they call people like her. And then she moved on.’

‘Moved on?’ Jamie intervened. ‘Do you by any chance have a new address for her?’ The woman looked at him and then back at Grace, who was trying not to feel disappointed that she definitely wasn’t Connie.