The thought of a fire encouraged Helena to go into the house.

Jago was in the kitchen, a lean-to attached to the back of the property: a cottage, one room deep, that smelt of damp and slightly rotting vegetables. There was a small piece of land outside the kitchen window and then there was the hill. ‘Go through into the front room. Fred is there.’

‘Is there a bathroom of any kind I could use? I need to get the mud off my hands.’ She was expecting to be shown to an outdoor privy. It was that sort of house.

‘Oh! Of course, sorry.’ He indicated a door just off the kitchen. ‘It’s in there. Not very salubrious, I’m afraid, but it has running water.’

There was an ancient lavatory with an overhead cistern and a cracked handbasin, both of which were fairly stained but, because of the broken window, the little room didn’t smell. She felt a lot better when she came out.

‘Right,’ said Jago, who had obviously been waiting for her. ‘I’ll introduce you to Fred.’

Although he was making all the right gestures, Jago’s manner was making Helena feel unwelcome and if she had had her car outside she would have got into it and driven away. But she didn’t have that choice.

Jago ushered her into the front room, which was small but had the most amazing view. An old man was sitting in an armchair there; next to him was a small table covered with invalid paraphernalia. Going on what she could see, Fred was in need of quite a lot of support. ‘Fred? This is Helena. Helena? This is Fred. Right, I’ll make tea.’

‘Don’t rush off, lad,’ said Fred, who looked frail but seemed to be in command of all his senses. ‘Is Helena your girlfriend?’

Jago looked at Helena and gave a tiny shrug, as if he didn’t know. Then he went to make the tea.

‘Yes,’ said Helena firmly. ‘Yes, I am his girlfriend.’ She went further into the room and sat on the chair next to Fred’s. ‘This view is wonderful! I could look at it all day.’ It was similar to the view that had inspired Helena so much from the kitchen doorway but at a different angle and there was no river at the bottom.

‘That is pretty much all I do these days: look at the view. And yes, I’ll miss it,’ said Fred.

‘You’re leaving here?’

‘Didn’t Jon tell you? I can’t manage here on my own and my daughter is going to have me with her. But she’s having the house made suitable and there are complications. Aren’t there always when there are builders involved?’ He said this with a twinkle but Helena realised he was a bit fed up.

‘I suppose when you start building work, problems you never knew were there are revealed,’ said Helena.