Philippe answered on the fifth ring. She could hear the sounds of the kitchen behind him. ‘Philippe, it’s Meredith. I’m afraid it’s your father.’

‘Mon dieu! Where is he this time?’

‘In a fishing hut just below the château. He thinks he’s broken his leg.’

‘Thank you, Meredith. Can you stay with him?’

‘Of course.’

‘I will come at once. I should be no more than ten minutes.’

Meredith sat down next to the old man. ‘Philippe’s on his way.’

‘He will be angry with me. He will say stupid old man.’ He smiled at Meredith. ‘I am a stupid old man.’ He winced suddenly as he tried to turn his leg.

‘Sing “La Mer” again,’ Meredith suggested as a distraction. ‘It was my father’s favourite. He said nothing made him think of France like that song.’

‘He had good taste, your father.’

‘You would have liked him, I think. He used to bring me here every year as a child. We camped on the riverbank. He was happier here than anywhere else in the world.’

Antoine began to sing again about the sea under summer skies with clouds like white sheep in the sky. Quietly, Meredith joined in. As they finished their third rendition of the song, Philippe appeared.

‘A customer gave me a lift on his scooter,’ he explained. ‘I have already called an ambulance.’

Not long afterwards, they heard the siren approaching.

‘Merci, jeune femme,’ Antoine smiled at Meredith, ‘and thank you for the dog.’

‘Did I hear “La Mer”?’ Philippe tried to distract his father from the pain as they lifted him onto a stretcher.

Antoine nodded and closed his eyes.

‘He used to sing me to sleep with that when I was a kid,’ he smiled at Meredith. ‘And thank you also from me.’

Meredith hesitated about whether to confess that she had been on her way to see him, but the ambulance man called to ask if he was coming with them.

‘Goodbye.’ She pressed his hand, hoping to convey the message through touch and look.

‘Goodbye. Bye-bye, Nelly. Look after your mistress.’

And they were gone.

‘Janine,’ Jackie ordered – there was no other word for her tone – ‘go and see Suzi and get her to join us for lunch.’ They were enjoying a morning coffee at Jackie’s modern bungalow. Just like the French, she had no desire to acquire an old wreck even if she was married to a builder.

Jackie, in fact, was celebrating with a Mimosa because Steve had finished up at the château and they would soon be in the money. Meredith, she was sure, was a prompt payer – unlike their friend Steph. This line of thought took her back to Steph and David. If David had left Suzi, that was a start. But had he gone back to Steph? And if not, why not, and how could she make him?