They walked along, arm in arm, admiring the lush green landscape. ‘Look at that!’ Meredith said suddenly. ‘That pond over there on the other side of the field. There’s a little boy standing in the middle of it and the water is making perfect circles all around him. It’s like something from a Chinese vase!’

They continued their walk for about half a mile without meeting anyone until they came to a narrow bridge. It was no longer the rickety structure of her childhood but a sensible, solid-looking affair. They crossed the river and stopped to look back from the far side.

‘Oh my God,’ Meredith breathed. ‘There it is! Rapunzel’s château!’

Steph was about to point out that she didn’t think Rapunzel lived in a château, but decided to let her friend enjoy the precious memory.

They both stared at the fairy-tale castle built of grey-gold stone with its four russet-tiled towers, surrounded by its own moat. ‘It’s exactly how I remembered it,’ Meredith announced with a catch in her voice. ‘My dad and I used to stop at this very spot every day on our way to get the bread. It was the best moment of the day and Dad used to laugh and say one day he’d buy it for me.’ She shook her head at the touching absurdity of her dad, in his menial job, being able to buy a château.

‘We could probably look round it,’ Steph suggested. ‘It’s quite a well-known wedding venue now. The great selling point is that the old duke and duchess will come down and mingle if you want them to, and the duke will even give the bride away if there’s no father around. He’s an old sweetie, actually. People come from all over the world to get married here. They have a very grand lady called Héloise who organizes everything, but she must be about eighty now.’

Meredith was hardly listening, still wrapped in her memories. Steph let her have her moment.

After five minutes Meredith turned back to her friend. ‘I’m so glad I came,’ she announced with a kind of suppressed passion Steph hadn’t sensed in her before. ‘I’d lost him, you see. Missing his death, and then coming back for a funeral that could have been for anyone, not my amazing dad. But here I seem to be getting him back. I thought I was mad to race across the world all because of a photo in a flight mag, but I was right. It’s really going to be worth it.’

‘Meredith.’ Steph put her arms round her friend. ‘I’m so glad. Do you want to stay here a bit longer?’

‘No, let’s wander on. I can always come back. We have two whole weeks!’ She looked at her watch. ‘I wouldn’t mind a bite to eat.’