Fred was fine. ‘Sorry! I just knocked my glass of water off the table. Sorry to frighten you, love,’ he added, smiling at Helena.

‘If you can stop him causing chaos while I’m away for a couple of hours, I’ll go shopping,’ said Jago, when everything was cleared up.

‘How are you going to do that with the road closed?’

Jago grinned. ‘I’ll do what I did on my way up here: move the barriers, drive round the hole and then put the barriers back again. Simples!’

Seeing him smiling again was like the sun coming out. And then he was gone, with a shopping list and a promise to text Gilly to tell her Helena was safe.

‘So it’s just you and me then, Fred,’ said Helena, hoping Jago wouldn’t be too long but knowing the nearest town was miles away and he wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours.

‘That’s right. How are we going to pass the time?’

‘Well,’ said Helena, ‘I was hoping—’

‘Tell you what,’ said Fred, who didn’t seem to have heard her, ‘what I’d really like is for you to read to me.’

‘Oh, what? The newspaper?’ Helena hid her disappointment that she couldn’t spend the time grilling him.

‘Dick Francis!’ said Fred gleefully. ‘They’re all there on the shelf. Haven’t been able to read them for years! You’ve got a nice voice.’ He smiled. ‘See if you can find the first one. Dead Cert, I think it was.’

Helena consoled herself with the fact that she quite liked Dick Francis too.

‘I’ll get myself a glass of water before I begin.’

Chapter Thirty-one

In the end it was three hours before Jago got back. By this time Helena and Fred were close friends. She’d read quite a lot of Dead Cert, made him a sandwich and a cup of tea, watched while he had a nap and, frighteningly, helped him to the loo. Fortunately once he was in there he could manage. But the unevenness of the floors and how hard he found it to manage them demonstrated that he urgently needed to live somewhere else.

Fred was asleep again by the time Helena heard Jago’s pickup arrive. She ran out to meet him.

‘Hi! Did you manage to get everything? Did you text Mum?’

‘I did and she rang me immediately so I was able to convince her you were fine but wouldn’t be back for a while.’ He studied her carefully. ‘I didn’t specify any time so you don’t need to worry about her worrying about you – but of course you can go now if you want to.’

She studied him back, trying to interpret his wishes from his calm, serious expression. She failed. ‘What would you like me to do?’