I walked around the clothes shops in the High Street. Old familiars: Jigsaw, Whistles. Then across the road to the covered market. It was cold, and I didn’t have a coat. I picked things up, bracelets, jumpers, scarves, but I didn’t try anything on, or wrap anything around my neck. I wanted to be an anonymous person amongst many other anonymous people. And I hoped the exercise would do me good. With that in mind, I started to walk to the Ashmolean. But when I got there, it was enormous. Huge, honey-coloured columns, vast looming steps, with great flags advertising some exhibition, towered over me. Had everything here always been so big? And the antiquities were so old, on the ground floor, in the Roman section. How old? AD 26? How was that possible? The very idea made me tremble. How many millions of people had lived since then, since this tiny scrap of copper I was looking at? How small and insignificant was I? I felt very cold. I left the museum in a hurry. And when I eventually got back to the car, it was getting dark.

There was a car I didn’t recognize in my parents’ drive. I drew up alongside and switched the engine off. The lights were on behind the drawn curtains in the sitting room, and smoke was coming from the chimney. I got out and went inside. When I went into the hall, it was beautifully warm. Good smells were coming from the kitchen.

‘Ah! Darling! You made it.’ My father greeted me warmly, coming out from the sitting room. He rested his hands on my shoulders. ‘Good heavens, you look all in. Dan popped round to see you. He dropped Nance off at the Pattersons for supper and called in for a drink. We thought we’d all have supper!’

Dan appeared behind my father in the sitting room doorway, tall and smiling in that blue cashmere jumper that matched his eyes. Dan again. I felt a wave of irritation. He was always popping up unexpectedly, wasn’t he? He came across and kissed my cheeks warmly.

‘Blame your parents,’ he told me apologetically. ‘Apparently chicken pie is imminent, and I was press-ganged into it. I tried to ring you, but your phone is off.’

‘Yes. I turned it off.’