‘Thank you, Mr Cooper, I look forward to …’ My voice petered out as I realized I was talking to myself. I stared at Evie. ‘He’s cut me off. Roger is savage. I hope it’s Godfrey who does the interviewing.’

‘Well done! Day one of your job hunt and you’ve got an interview set up already.’

I gave her a withering look. ‘You mean you’ve set me up.’

She waved a hand. ‘Don’t get all touchy. Now, what are you going to wear?’

‘Easy,’ I replied, getting to my feet. ‘My gardener, house-keeper, companion, driver outfit, of course.’

Evie was right, I acknowledged later that morning: you’d never know there was a vineyard here at all. There was a tall sandstone wall edging the property which hid everything from view. I turned off the country lane through large open gates and slowed down to take in the view.

A valley had opened up before me: softly sloping land, lush and green as far as my eye could see. Immediately to my left and right, the fields were alive with ripening barley, rippling in the breeze, like a giant Mexican wave. I’d never seen a vineyard in real life before, but further ahead, the row upon row of neat parallel lines running downhill were unmistakable.

I wound down the window and inhaled the sweet summer air; it was good to be out of London. And on a day like today, when the sky was blue and the sunlight made the leaves on the trees shimmer and the grass sparkle, there was nowhere I’d rather be in the world. Even the nightmare of yesterday was beginning to fade.

I inched forward, taking note of my surroundings. The driveway was rather rough and pitted, but edged with a rustic drystone wall along which wild red poppies grew, their cheerful scarlet petals seeming to wave me on.

The path narrowed ahead and became even rougher but to my right there was a tall beech hedge forming a perimeter around what I guessed must be the house and winery. A few metres further on, I came to a gap in the hedge and turned through it.

Ahead of me was a square concrete yard and to the left a large house, homely rather than grand, built from creamy yellow stone which lent it an air of faded elegance. With a deep sloping roof, pretty little windows set into the eaves and a beautiful climbing wisteria like frilly lavender bunting, the house had a fairy-tale quality to it. You couldn’t fail to be happy living here, I mused.