Patrick tickled his daughter’s tummy and she squealed with laughter. “Can we make Dan a multimillionaire too?” she asked her father.

Patrick pushed Sooty gently off his knee. He looked up at Dan, a smiling glint in his eye. “Of course not! We don’t know him nearly well enough.”

“Oh, please, Wibbly!”

“Okay, well, let me interrogate him first and see if he’s a trustworthy sort of a bloke.” He pointed to the other side of the curved window bench. “Have a seat, Dan. I don’t like people standing in front of me. It makes me feel inferior.”

“Come on, Sooty,” Katie said as Dan slid onto the bench. “Let’s put the kettle on.”

Patrick shifted awkwardly around on his bottom and rested his elbows on the table. “So, I hear that your trip up here has been a bit abortive.”

“You could say that. It was my fault entirely, though.”

“Well, from what Kate says, it doesn’t sound like it. I think it’s high time that she had her ears syringed.” Katie turned from filling the kettle at the sink and stuck out her tongue at her husband, to which he reciprocated in similar fashion. “So, you worked in the City, then?”

“Yes, for about twenty years.”

“So you were there through the Big Bang.”

“I certainly was. That’s when everything took off.”

“And were you one of the infamous Dagenham boys that took the trading floor by storm?”

Dan grinned. He liked the directness of this man. “No. I was from Tottenham Hale, but I suppose my background was pretty similar to theirs.”

Patrick seemed impressed. “Good for you. Nothing like taking the bull by the horns.”

“We were lucky to be given the opportunity. I could quite easily have ended up working with my father in a north London metal works.”

“But you didn’t, did you.”

“No.”

Patrick used both hands to shift a leg to a more comfortable position. “I’ve always thought that it must have been a pretty hairy business, trading on the floor. I mean, you must have been fairly young at the time, weren’t you?”

“Early twenties.” Dan paused. “I suppose the best way I could describe it is like having one huge but permanent adrenaline rush. We worked hard and played hard. Well, most of the other guys did. I was more concerned with making as much money as I could and keeping hold of it so that I’d never have to return to Tottenham Hale again.”

“If you enjoyed it that much, why give it up, then?”

“Well, I never really gave it up. It gave me up. I was made redundant about fourteen months ago.”

“But surely, with your experience, you could have got another job?”

“Yes, you’re right.”

Patrick cocked his head to the side, waiting for Dan to continue. “So? Why not?”