It was his eyes, however, that struck Dan as fascinating. There was an incredible brightness about them, and he could read in them a spirit of adventure, a sparkle of wicked humour, and a wildness at the injustice of being struck down in his prime by such a disabling disease.

Katie moved between them. “Patrick, this is Dan Porter from London.”

“All right, just hang on a minute. Let me just get myself organized before I say hullo.” It came out as an irascible retort, making Dan turn instinctively to watch for Katie’s reaction. But she never broke her gaze away from her husband, and Dan could read only love and concern in her expression.

Patrick moved slowly over to the window seat and leaned heavily on the table while he hooked the sticks onto the back of a wooden chair. He edged himself round and sat down heavily. Blowing out with the effort, he ran his fingers through his hair and smiled up at Dan.

“Nice to meet you, Dan,” he said, offering a hand. “Sorry about the delay in introductions.”

Dan stepped forward and shook his hand, and immediately noticed that the zip on his faded yellow corduroy trousers was undone.

“Good to meet you too, Patrick.” He shook the hand as gently as he could without it seeming that he was making allowances for the man’s condition. “Maybe I should tell you confidentially that your shop’s open.”

Patrick glanced down into his lap and let out a disparaging guffaw. “Oh, bugger, I’m always doing that.” He began to struggle with the zip. “It’s a damned good thing that I don’t get out of the house much nowadays. No doubt living in this bloody politically correct country of ours, I’d have been arrested for public indecency about eight times by now.” He seemed to be making no headway with the zip. “Oh, bloody hell, Kate, can you do it?”

Katie stepped forward and slid up the zip. “Watch the language, Patrick,” she murmured quietly, her face inches away from his. “Sooty’s over there on the sofa.”

“Oops! Never saw her,” he said, smirking like a naughty schoolboy. “Hi, Soots, how’ve you been? Feeling any better?”

Sooty ended her afternoon’s television watching with a long stretch. “Yes, fanks.” She climbed off the sofa and came over to her father and began to climb onto his knee.

“Can you cope?” Katie asked her husband.

“Of course we can, can’t we, Soots? As long as you don’t start bouncing.”

Sooty leaned her curly black head against her father’s chest. “Have you been diving today, Wibbly?”

“I certainly have. All the way down to forty feet, my girl. We’re only a stone’s throw from that wreck now, so it won’t be long before I bring up all that treasure and we’ll all be multimillionaires.”