Maud sat down and arranged her skirt around her knees. ‘I don’t like it there.’

‘Why not?’

‘It feels sad.’

‘The house?’

She shrugged. ‘You’ll see. Anyway, don’t tell me you still have a crush on Freddie?’

I pulled the best outraged face I could muster. ‘How could you suggest such a thing? Am I not the pinnacle of manhood myself, now?’

She laughed.

‘What about Edie then? Do you see much of her?’

I knew that Edie had started an affair with Boy Long, a cattle rancher employed by Lord Delamere, soon after her divorce from Freddie, but now she was married to an American, making this her fourth marriage. I hoped this one would last.

‘No, not really.’

I fixed the oars in their holders and dipped them into the lake. The sun was out, glinting off the water, but it was small and white, and the sky was perfectly clear, not shimmering with the heat as it did in summer.

‘It’s going to be a bad winter,’ I said.

‘I hope not.’

‘You should move to Nairobi, Spanish.’

‘We don’t have a house in Nairobi,’ she said, trailing her fingers in the water.

‘Where does Mother stay when she’s there?’

‘She has a room at The Norfolk. Didn’t you know that?’

‘We haven’t spoken much recently. Don’t you mind her leaving you alone out here?’

‘I’m not alone. And the League is good for her – she’s always needed something to do.’

‘You mean she always hated being a mother.’

Maud shook her head. ‘I don’t mean that at all. She was always thinking about us. It was being a housewife she hated.’ She smiled. ‘It is a bit boring.’

‘What are you going to do for fun, then?’

‘I’ve been thinking about buying some land. For cattle.’

‘Are you being serious?’

‘Why not? You’ve got the railway to look after.’

‘I wish I didn’t – I’m going to spend most of my days drawing up timetables and looking at freight documentation. Anyway, you don’t know anything about farming.’

‘I’d hire a foreman. Just think of all the jobs we’d be providing.’

‘You shouldn’t worry about everyone else so much.’

‘I do though.’ She pulled her hand out of the water and wiped her fingers dry on her skirt. ‘And what are you going to do then if you don’t like working with Father?’

I grinned, and flicked water at her with an oar. ‘Scotty’s getting fat.’

‘I know. You’re not here to take him for a run.’

‘I’ll come back more often, I promise.’

She lay back, resting on her elbows and looking happy. ‘Do you remember rowing out here for your birthday?’ she asked. ‘Mother looked green the whole way. I don’t think we got her in the boat again.’