‘Funeral baked meats, they’re called, aren’t they?’ asked Georgie. She was a bit tipsy.

‘Eh?’ said Adam.

‘The food after a funeral. That’s what you call it,’ said Georgie.

‘I’ve never heard that,’ said Cass.

‘I think it might be Shakespeare. It’s ringing a bell from my acting days.’

‘Nice of Hamish to’ve come,’ said Adam.

‘I hadn’t seen him for donkey’s years,’ said Georgie.

‘I saw him at his father’s funeral last year,’ said Cass. ‘You’d never know, now, how nice-looking he was.’

‘It’s typical of Mum to’ve died in the winter. We could’ve had a really nice wake out on the snowdrop field, if she’d gone in the summer. Wouldn’t have been left with all this mess to clear up,’ said Georgie.

‘People don’t choose when they die,’ said Cass.

‘Well, duh,’ said Georgie. ‘I just meant, she’d never make things easy for us if she could find a way to make them difficult. Same thing with this place.’

‘That’s a bit unfair! She left everything to us both, jointly,’ said Cass.

‘Exactly,’ said Georgie, as if this proved her point.

Cass sighed.

‘Let’s not talk about this stuff now,’ said Adam. ‘Everyone’s exhausted. Let’s discuss things in the morning, when we’re all feeling a bit more rested.’

Cass and Adam had already agreed that it made sense for them to buy out Georgie’s share. Their daughter Skye was currently living in the lower half of their house in Penzance, while the top half was rented out. They would have to wait until the tenant’s shorthold lease came up before putting the place on the market. They had no mortgage, having profited from selling their old London house.

If they also sold off the three fields at the bottom of the farm, alongside the river, they could just about afford to keep the rest. Skye could move into Nick’s old studio, at a pinch. Georgie was never going to move out of London now, was she? And she’d be well-off, with the money. She could even get herself a cottage somewhere. She could take more holidays, help Jake out if she wanted to. Not that he needed the cash, the way his business had taken off. And yet it wasn’t a conversation they looked forward to. It was never just about the money, with Georgie.

The following morning they put their proposal to her. They’d pay her in two instalments: one now, the second once their house had sold.

‘I was thinking it’d be a fresh start for all of us if we just put the whole place on the market,’ Georgie said.

‘But that doesn’t make any sense. It’d be silly to sell, when one of you wants to live here and the other really doesn’t,’ said Adam.